Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Coco Gauff wins the U.S. Open, Instacart’s IPO takes shape, and Gal Gadot’s mac-and-cheese brand Goodles brings on new investors. Have a productive Monday.
– Not just for kids. When actor Gal Gadot was considering various opportunities to partner with startups as a cofounder or brand representative, she found that many didn’t resonate. Until she heard from Jen Zeszut, who had the idea to launch a new mac-and-cheese brand.
The pair first spoke in a meeting a few years ago that didn’t lead to a partnership—but did end with Zeszut, the former CEO of early childhood nutrition company Cerebelly, asking what Gadot actually liked. One of her answers was “mac and cheese.” She grew up eating the food in her native Israel, relying on American family members to deliver the boxed product during their visits. So when Zeszut proposed the idea to go all-in on mac and cheese, it felt authentic.
“I just didn’t want to do the obvious. I wanted to do something that was super truthful to me,” Gadot says. “I even want to go more for that because it’s so different and no one’s gonna see me coming.”
In late 2021, they launched Goodles, a more nutritious boxed mac-and-cheese brand that incorporates protein and fiber into its noodles. Today, Fortune is the first to report, Goodles has raised a $13 million Series A round led by the consumer private equity firm L Catterton. Other investors include Gingerbread Capital, Springdale, Third Craft Partners, and Willow Growth.
Gal Gadot, founding partner of mac-and-cheese brand Goodles. Courtesy of Goodles Goodles’ mac and cheese costs around $4 a box with flavors ranging from classic cheddar to hatch green chile and truffle. The products are sold at 35,000 retail locations, including Target, Whole Foods, and Safeway stores.
The brand is bringing on this funding to help it scale as it competes against major incumbents in the mac-and-cheese category: Kraft and Annie’s. Much of Goodles’ strategy has been a response to the reality of just how difficult it is to make inroads against those consumer-packaged-goods giants.
Truffle and hatch green chile, for example, are not flavors likely to much appeal to kids—the usual mac-and-cheese market. So Gadot and Zeszut decided to lean into mac-and-cheese for everyone, kids and adults, knowing that they and their friends ate the food alongside their children.
“Our incumbents have a $40 billion-plus marketing cap—so we can’t play that game,” says Zeszuk. “We can’t do better kids’ commercials…They conceived of the market as ‘mac and cheese is for kids—you open the bunny’s tail to open the box.’ We just said, ‘We’ve got to do something different.'”
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe
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- The Coco era. Coco Gauff won her first U.S. Open on Saturday, beating Belarus's Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. The 19-year-old American is one of several rising stars shepherding the game beyond the era of Serena Williams, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal. New York Times
- Goodbye kiss. Luis Rubiales, head of the Spanish soccer federation, finally resigned Sunday after weeks of pressure over an unwanted kiss he planted on player Jennifer Hermoso following Spain's World Cup win. Rubiales had resisted calls to step down, claiming the kiss was mutual. Even in his exit, Rubiales remained unrepentant, blaming his decision on "the effects of persecution" and "many falsehoods." CNN
- Diminished appetite. Instacart, led by CEO Fidji Simo, is targeting a valuation of between $8.6 billion and $9.3 billion in its IPO this month, far below the $39 billion valuation it garnered during a fundraising round in 2021. The listing, along with that of Arm and Klaviyo, is expected to test investors' appetite after an IPO slump. Wall Street Journal
- Banker to the stars. Top Bank of America private banker Jane Heller reportedly counts Martha Stewart, Carl Icahn, and the Steinbrenners as clients. Heller, 77, got into private banking when lending to the über-wealthy was still a niche business; now it's a reliable revenue stream for banks. What hasn't changed is Heller's bluntness: “I don’t waste your time and you’re not gonna waste mine." Wall Street Journal
- House hunter. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) will return to the campaign trail to seek reelection for her 20th term as a congresswoman. If reelected, the 83-year-old would serve as a rank-and-file representative without the leadership positions in the House and Democratic caucus she previously held. Washington Post
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Stability AI hired Ozden Onder as chief people officer and Jordan Valdes as vice president of communications and community.
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The force behind Film Forum The New Yorker
Kristi Noem is suddenly front-and-center in the veepstakes Politico
Shannon Nash, the CFO of Alphabet’s drone unit Wing, took a highly unusual path to the C-suite—while raising a child with autism Fortune
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"Those who thought you were putting water in my fire, you were actually adding gas to it. And now I’m really burning so bright right now."
— Coco Gauff, after winning the U.S. Open, her first Grand Slam title
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