From Family Recipe to Target: How Sunshine Buns Built Retail Velocity

Word of Mouth, Creators & Real People in the Age of AI

Charise: You've built a huge community online. How does the story land differently when people are telling it instead of the brand?

Sunshine Buns: We partner with really great people like Hummingbirds, where we're able to come up with a clever campaign and work closely on developing what it looks like. Early on, you throw a lot of paint at the wall and see what sticks. Now that we've refined who our community is and gotten close with them, we're able to fit organically into their lives. That's what's so great about a cinnamon roll. It isn't only for a woman, a man, or a child. It truly knows no generational bounds, so we can speak to young people, older people, and everyone in between. We've been really intentional about building campaigns while also letting our community show up organically and share what Sunshine Buns means to them, how it helps them, and how it fits into their kids' lives.

Sunshine Buns: That can be a neighbor, a family member, or a person on Instagram, but part of it is showing up authentically and showing all the different ways the product is relevant, convenient, and delicious. We try to show up that way ourselves, and it has a trickle effect of authenticity. We're not stuffy. We're very relatable, and people can find themselves in us, in our brand, and in our founder story. It might look, taste, and feel a little different, but it's a very relatable story for the entrepreneur, the mom, or anyone in 2026.

Charise: I love that you pointed out authenticity and the power of the everyday voice. So many decisions are based on what our friends are doing, serving, bringing to a picnic, or sending with their kids for breakfast. We walk a fine line with brands on how unscripted to make their creator campaigns, and brands are often blown away by the unexpected, because it's truly unique to each person and their why, which can be very different from a scripted why. We also know the power of reusable, on-brand content, so we're constantly thinking about what each campaign is trying to accomplish and making room for both. The authentic voice is really, really important in building trust.

Charise: Think about all the AI garbage on the internet right now. I know I can trust Chrisi, versus some personality that I'm not sure even has taste buds. It's the realness.

Sunshine Buns: I fall for AI all the time! Is this person real, or is this person AI? I love what you said, because there's a lot of freedom for authenticity in how you create the campaigns for your birds, and that resonates very well with our brand.

Packaging for the Shopper and the Buyer, Plus Which Feedback to Take

Charise: Let's dive into packaging, which is not always easy.

Chrisi: We just did our photo shoot, so I have the boxes right here. Even as I show you, our first packaging didn't have a vertical version. It was only horizontal, so we've gone through a lot of iterations.

Charise: Walk us through it. What did you want shoppers to feel standing in the freezer section, several feet away, scanning a lot of different products?

Chrisi: First and foremost, we approach this brand by always questioning the status quo, and that applies to big-box packaging, large brands, and conglomerates. We intentionally chose not to follow the rules, and there was a lot of pushback on our packaging, even from our designer. We purposely chose not to work with an experienced CPG package designer because we wanted it to feel so different. I have a design background, which is a curse and a wonderful thing. I care deeply about details most people don't care about, but I also know that even if you don't care about a detail, you notice it. You just can't articulate it.

Chrisi: Here's a specific example. Our traditional yellow box has a yellow check around it. Our designer, who is amazing, wanted every box to have the yellow check so the whole line fit neatly on a one-pager. I pushed back a lot. I wanted each box to have its own check, its own personality, and its own colorway, not a standard box you'd see anywhere else. That was a case where we said it would be a lot more work and more color, but we choose to stand out. When you approach the frozen section, you're in a sea of standard yellow boxes like Eggo, wonderful brands we love, but I think they've lost a lot of opportunity to have personality. We want shoppers to feel excited and nostalgic every single time they look at our box, and to be drawn to it.

Chrisi: We also intentionally married generations. Our gingham is a throwback to the 1950s, but we purposely made it less traditional so it leans more Gen Z. Our scalloped edges lean more millennial, and we gave a callout to Mema on the back. We wanted it to feel multigenerational, familiar, and so dang cute that you just want it in your house.

Chrisi: We've gone through so many iterations of packaging. We started with brown boxes we bought on Amazon and tied with a yellow bow. We were so excited about our first bags, and then at our first show, the very first person who came to our table offered to tell us everything that was wrong with the bag. We'd put so much heart and soul into that packaging, but he was right. It was too wide and too tall.

Chrisi: You have to think about the consumer, with individually wrapped buns and individual frosting packets that make it easy and convenient, and you also have to think about the buyer, who has very limited shelf space in the freezer. Our old boxes were only horizontal, so we realized we needed a vertical version. If a retailer stacks them vertically, the packaging still needs to be fun and have a great image on it, not the nutrition label or the back of the box. We've learned so much from people suggesting something would work better in a waffle-style box. One thing we're great at is pivoting, staying true to who we are while giving credit to what works for others. We'll say, you may have a point, let me take it back to the table and figure out how to make it relevant for Sunshine Buns.

Two Buckets of Feedback, Handled Two Different Ways

Charise: There are so many thoughts and opinions, and I'm sure every retailer has what works for them. How do you take feedback and decide what to move forward with?

Chrisi: You have to be careful and cautious about what feedback you take. There are two buckets: feedback in general, and feedback from buyers. With feedback in general, I think new brands really struggle, because they take everyone's feedback and apply it. That may work when you're first starting, but as you figure out who you are and what your brand pillars are, people outside your closest inner circle really shouldn't be weighing in. What I suggest is to find one or two people who can serve as true mentors, people who understand what you've done and what you're trying to accomplish in the big picture, rather than asking everybody what they think.

Chrisi: Then there's the retailer bucket, which is critical to your success. If the Target buyer says this isn't going to work in their set, you need to ask how you can make it work in their set. Then you combine that advice with the pillars of your business and what makes you special, and figure out how Sunshine Buns fits that parameter without looking like every other brand. It's very nuanced, and I think emerging brands could serve themselves better by sticking to those two ideologies: mentorship from a few trusted people, and fitting retailer feedback into your brand.

Earning the Retail Yes and Knowing When to Say No

Charise: Let's transition to Target. What did the buyer actually need to see before making room for a new item in a crowded category? How did you get them to say yes?

Sunshine Buns: Some products are just hard to say no to. A cinnamon roll is so classic, so nostalgic, and so delicious that there isn't as much education needed. We're not claiming a hundred added things to make it better for you. We're indulgent, we're sweet, and we're convenient, made for the sweet tooth. Our no's have mostly come from channels like all-natural, where we're not the right product, and we're developing different SKUs to help bridge the two.

Sunshine Buns: We've had great success with a great sales team, a great product, and a willingness to go talk to buyers and share our product with fearless conviction. The first customer you need is yourself. Because we believe in our product so much, we can handle negative feedback more graciously, and buyers can see the passion behind it. They can see it's a truly remarkable product that isn't trying to be something it's not.

Charise: It's that theme of authenticity again, really believing in your own product. We can all relate to products where you think, I don't know if this is ready for retail yet.

Sunshine Buns: When we were first starting, someone who had sold their company for over a billion dollars came to us and asked, “I know you think your product is good, but do other people really think it's good?” We had a brick-and-mortar store, plus friends and family telling us it was delicious, but we ran a taste test at a local university with a full taste-testing department in its food science program. We lined our buns up against well-reviewed local buns and very familiar names that have been on shelf for decades, and we ranked highest in all the most important categories: taste, aftertaste, the amount of cinnamon, the frosting, the dough, how it feels, and how it smells. That study was such a gift early on, because it proved it wasn't just us. This is freaking amazing.

Saying No to Capital and Retailers That Don't Fit

Charise: Product feedback beyond friends and family is so important, because those closest to you might not always give you the real feedback. Let's talk about the power of saying no. Strategy is about what you're going to say no to, not all the things you're going to do. What have you said no to?

Kass: Most recently, we completed a fundraise, and it's been a journey figuring out who will be the long-term financial partner for Sunshine Buns. It was a wildly difficult process, with so many conversations and introductions. Ultimately, we said no to what may have been a dream fund for some, because it didn't align with our values or how we see the vision of the company. We said no to what others might say yes to, because it didn't feel right to us, which takes us back to authenticity.

Kass: As you grow into a more seasoned brand, you get opportunities that just don't make financial sense. When you're first starting, you say yes, yes, yes. As you grow, the P&L is an important paper you always have to track, and in manufacturing you have to ask whether you can handle it logistically. I love to say yes, but there's also a time for no, and we've reached that season. We recently said no to two large retailers because it didn't make sense for us financially. It would have been great top-line revenue, but it didn't make sense for the business.

Charise: It's so important to share these stories. I've heard founders say they don't feel like they have a choice because they need the money. I think of it like a marriage. You would never marry someone you didn't have a good long-term connection with, and investors are no different. They can be super active and super helpful, but without value alignment, they can be super distracting, and you end up managing investors instead of building your business. Kudos for recognizing you have a choice. On the retailer side, we've seen brands say yes too early. When do you say yes, when do you say no, and is it a model or more of a feeling?

Chrisi: At this stage in our business, it's definitely not a feeling. We have very concrete modeling that lets us plug in a scenario and see whether it works. We onboarded with Critical Mass Group, a sales organization we believe is the best in the business, and they've been crucial in guiding those decisions, our pricing architecture, and our route to market. We built a strategy and stuck with it. We were also finally able to hire a VP of Sales who has more experience than all four of us founders, and she can say, this doesn't make sense right now, but let's come back to it in late 2027.

Chrisi: You also have to be intentional about the cadence of who comes on and when. There's one national retailer we're ready for, and another really big national retailer we're not ready for, because they can cannibalize the rest of the country. You have to make sure you're going to market in the correct order, so you don't cannibalize the Central Markets and Lunds & Byerlys of the world. Those are incredibly important retail partners, and the large players can wait while you build relationships with strong regional retailers. That's how we've approached it.

Regional Momentum, Live Q&A & What's Next

Charise: Let's start gathering questions in the chat while I ask one last question. You talked about building out regional retailers. How do you build awareness in a region or a new retailer where people don't know who you are yet?

Sunshine Buns: It all goes back to strategy, working with our marketing team and with CMG's rollout strategy. When we approach every buyer, we love to highlight the people who are making our dreams come true. We help with our social media presence, and we have Hummingbirds. Those things are always helping build social awareness, not only of our product but of who we are, and we're gaining traction with that. We're always open to new ideas for building awareness, because it's such an important piece of the puzzle, but CMG, our marketing team, and Hummingbirds together have been our greatest strategies so far.

Charise: People need to see your brand in multiple places, in multiple ways. We call that the halo effect, or the omnichannel effect. Shoppers need to feel like they're seeing Sunshine Buns everywhere, with as many friends as possible talking about it, in one, two, three, four places.

Sunshine Buns: We're back to authenticity and questioning everything, and we truly question everything. When we say we're going to throw an influencer party with media and put up a billboard in Times Square, people ask when, and we say in 21 days. They say it can't be done, and we say it can be done and we will do it. We've given ourselves the freedom to act on moments that are critical for building our community.

Sunshine Buns: We're doing bun tours, and wherever we go, we take on the personality of that region. We just went to Dallas, did demos, and went all in on Dallas. When we go to New York, we do New York, and when we go to LA, we do LA. We're speaking to our people where they are, connecting with influencers where they are and hosting events where they are. It's not about us. It's about how we can fit in with you in LA or New York, so you think, they get New York. It's really a celebration of the regions that make this country so great and build great communities.

Sunshine Buns: We were just at a show in Texas, and while today's jackets say bun baddies, there we were bun slingers. Someone came up and said she'd been wondering about us, because we're the only ones who do things like that, and she's always excited to see what we're wearing and doing. If you're building a brand with your best friend and your husbands, let's make it fun, bright, and bold. Let's have music, be a little irreverent, and bring people together. Someone once told us they love what we're doing because we don't necessarily know the rules, so we don't know that we're breaking them. We love that, because we can show up at a show truer to who we are instead of trying to fit into cookie-cutter parameters, and that has served us so well in building our brand.

Charise: The key takeaways are authenticity, fun, and a regional approach. You have to be where your feet are and know who you're talking to and what's authentic to them. I always love seeing what you're wearing, your booths are always alive, and fun attracts fun.

What Founders and Brand Leaders Asked

Charise: A shout out from the chat: moms get it done! Rebecca asks: I have a family recipe I want to explore and a list of manufacturers to consider. What qualities are important?

Sunshine Buns: This is a big question. More than success, we've had a lot of failure with bad manufacturing, so due diligence can't be slept on. You need to visit, you need to have active conversations, and you can't let them push you around. Be very firm about what you won't yield on because it's true to who you are. If that partner says no, you're going to find someone who will say yes.

Chrisi: I've been to each manufacturing plant many times, and my mom has gone to every plant too. Mema is right there saying what's acceptable, what's unacceptable, and what needs to change. Make sure you have good standard operating procedures and contracts in hand, signed, sealed, and delivered, because you can get into a really sticky situation. We've likely burned $200,000 on bad manufacturing practices, not from us but from them, and with no contract, we just had to walk away.

Chrisi: Do serious due diligence, stand firm, and don't be frustrated by a no. It takes work and some weeding. We also live in the age of AI, so use it to scour the country for manufacturers that fit your parameters. Keep two or three manufacturers on the line, because you may grow very fast, like we are, and you need backup plans so you can bring on plants at the drop of a hat. Think about what 2028 and 2030 look like, and build those relationships well in advance, even if you're not spending money on them yet.

Charise: How do you dig into the culture of each city? What's the Texas feel versus the New York flavor?

Sunshine Buns: So far, the places we've gone for shows have been pretty easy. We run with the iconic look and feel of each city and bring our own Sunshine Buns twist to it. As it gets more ingrained, it'll probably look a little different. Our mascot is a bun, so when we're launching our Southern California stores, we want him to be very SoCal, and for our Northern California stores, we want him to feel more NorCal. That brings a fun, fresh vibe to our marketing.

Charise: Karuna asks: at what point did you bring on Hummingbirds to make sure it was most effective? We talk about this with brands too, because sometimes it might be too early. We're thoughtful about the right timing, so I'd love to hear how you thought about it.

Chrisi: For us, while I talk about pillars and how important they are, the strongest pillar is units per store per week. If you don't know that metric, you'd better learn it, because selling units per store per week is the entirety of your business. If you're not moving off the shelf, you're dead. Early on, we had great opportunities like a national WinCo launch, but we didn't have the digital acumen to understand how we'd reach those shoppers in Texas and Oregon. We were a Utah-based brand, and it was our first national launch, so we asked how we could move those units, because it was imperative that we move them.

Chrisi: Early on, I did a tremendous amount of research. I lived in “what is CPG”: phone calls, conversations, texts, emails, deep dives, YouTube, and Pinterest. So when I met Kelly at Fancy Food in January 2026 and she said she was with Hummingbirds, I had already researched what Hummingbirds did, and I said, let's get them. Let's build this relationship now, so that when we're ready to launch with our first national retailer, we can onboard them.

Charise: The relationship piece is huge, because we're so involved with our customers, and it has to be a great fit on both sides. At the end of the day, people do business with people. That applies to your manufacturer, your broker, and every partner you work with. Do you enjoy working with them? Will they go through the hard things with you? Will they be a strategic partner? In this business, it's more important than ever to build relationships around testing, trial, and iterating with the folks who will do that alongside you.

Charise: A rapid-fire question: what are your thoughts on slotting, and does it factor into decisions about retailers?

Sunshine Buns: Slotting definitely factors in, and we go back to our strategy and what we're trying to accomplish overall. Some retailers are pay-to-play, but a national rollout can deliver enough brand awareness that the slotting cost makes sense once you look at your actual all-in cost. Others, like we were talking about, have slotting that's too high for the timing, because it doesn't give enough lift on our brand to make it worth it.

Charise: Last question. How did you start the business? Did you start from home or go straight to mass production, and how did you fund the company's growth?

Sunshine Buns: We really just started with us in a parking lot. We bought a GoDaddy site for $33 and said that in six days we'd be baking and selling from our homes. Place your order by 2 PM, and we'll deliver it to your house that night. It was really challenging, and it cost both families a lot of money, because we had no financial backing. We leveraged every resource we could and showed up in every possible place with our cinnamon rolls, asking for a chance.

Sunshine Buns: There's no quick answer. You have to give so much of yourself for so many years before you get to this point. People congratulate us on the overnight success, and we've been working on this for four years. When we were selling from Amazon boxes, nobody knew who we were. It takes a long time, so don't be hard on yourself, but be prepared and willing to give every dollar, every resource, and every physical calorie you can spare to truly building a brand if you want a national presence. Give what you can emotionally, too. Holding on to hope is an emotional burden, so it helps to have the decision already made every day, because a lot of people have great ideas and then they just stop. The hurdles you'll face are never-ending, but your conviction is what will bring you through to the finish line.