As we continue our hallmark tenth season of the Eccles Business Buzz podcast, host Frances Johnson sits down with Cameron Smith, Founder & CEO of Kindling Snacks, and Co-Founder of Kodiak Cakes. Cameron is also a graduate of the David Eccles School of Business with a BS in Business Administration.
Cameron talks to Frances about his time at Kodiak Cakes, where he served as president (2019–2023) and helped expand the product line into multiple protein-forward and frozen categories. Cameron shares how it was college’s structure that later helped him research, learn, and become well-rounded across business functions, and how he joined early-stage Kodiak without a clear long-term plan, but drawn by the people and the chance to work broadly.
Cameron explains the balance between intuition and data, highlighting the successful launch of the protein “Power Cakes” at Target, and discusses building brand affinity beyond functional benefits. He also describes founding Kindling Snacks in May 2024, a better-for-you pretzel brand, and how they meet challenges like tariffs, finding space in stores and on shelves, and the importance of hunger, execution, and real effort.
Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School of Business and is produced by University.fm.
Eccles Business Buzz is proud to be selected by FeedSpot as one of the Top 70 Business School podcasts on the web. Learn more at https://podcast.feedspot.com/us_business_school_podcasts.
Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School of Business and is produced by University FM.
Episode Quotes:
Taking actions creates your own opportunity
[27:05] What was so interesting is the organization that I was a part of at Kodiak with Joel allowed me to do that, allowed me to express those entrepreneurial feelings and mindsets in an already established business that I didn't have to start it, but I was able to disrupt it and innovate. And I think so many times people wait for... They wait for things to happen for them, and they wait for opportunities. And the reality is opportunities do happen for some people, but you have to make it happen.
How curiosity fuels disruption
[29:40] If you want to be disruptive, you've got to think like someone who is disruptive. The other night, we were driving home, this was so funny, we were driving home as a family, and it was raining, and my 9-year-old daughter, she just starts saying, "You know, Dad," because the windshield wipers were going, "Dad, I know this would cost a lot of money, but they should put, like, a roof over the road so that you don't have to, you know, essentially, like, use your windshield wipers." And is it practical? No. Could you do that across all of America? You couldn’t do that, but what's happening is she's seeing the world in possibilities. I read something that our curiosity peaks at age, like, six, like three to five, three to six, which is so unfortunate that as we get older, we stop being curious. We stop having these ideas of, "What if you could put a ceiling above the road?" And, like, she's just thinking these ideas. And then so, like, we need to encourage that, encourage that in people on our teams, encourage that with people that we're around and our families, that curiosity, that observation. And I mean, imagine if you go with your family and you're just, you sit in a Starbucks, and you say, "Okay, what's inefficient about what they're doing? What could they do better? What would you do differently?" And you start to create these mindsets of, "How could we think differently? How could we disrupt?" And it just, like, that's how other things start to happen.
Deliberate strategy vs Emergent strategy
[21:04] Our deliberate strategy was whole grain pancake mixes, add water only. The emergent strategy was protein pancake mixes, and it started to grow. And so the data told us, "Hey, there was a market for this." So we started to launch new flavors, and it continued to grow to the point that today, as you look at Kodiak as a brand, most places that Kodiak goes into, there's protein in because that's what the brand has become known for. But that was an emergent strategy. That was not our deliberate strategy. And so I think part of that learning is you need to have a deliberate strategy, and you need to pay attention to the emergent strategies. And sometimes your emergent strategy can become your deliberate strategy, but you also don't want to just chase after emergent strategies because that's what some businesses do, and they never see. A strategy that's working because they're looking for the next thing that's going to emerge for a lot of different reasons.
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