ALLAN: In 2019, we participated in a tradeshow called ECRM, which pre-covid was basically speed dating with retail buyers in hotel rooms converted to meeting rooms. Although we had a good size online business at the time, we hadn’t sold a single unit in retail yet were pitching to companies like CVS, Costco and Kroger. In hindsight, I can’t imagine how lacking our presentation was but you have to start somewhere. A month before we had exhibited at Expo West and part of our booth was a 10x10 foot dual sided backlit sign. We found out it would fit in the hotel room so had it shipped out and set it up. At the end of the first day, we forgot to unplug the sign and upon walking down to the street, found a giant illuminated KOS logo that was highly visible from the main entrance of the hotel. Whole Foods, who we didn’t have a scheduled meeting with, saw this and thought we had done this on purpose as a guerilla marketing tactic. They scheduled an impromptu meeting the next morning and were excited to meet the brand that had come up with this attention getting strategy. The meeting went well and two weeks later we were invited to come to Austin to present in person. We did a taste test with all the top selling plant proteins and smoked everyone. Shortly after they let us know they were going to give us a ‘global launch’ in almost 400 stores with 2 SKUs. This was a turning point for KOS in retail and ultimately happened because we accidentally left the sign plugged in.