When you’re a 20-year-old college student and your food startup has taken off, garnering attention and funding from food conglomerates like Kraft Heinz, the only logical thing to do is drop out.
At least that’s what University of Chicago students Nick Hamburger and Zack Schreier, the co-founders of Chicago startup Quevos, have done.
“Honestly, I don’t think the workload is going to get any smaller, so Zack and I are planning on taking many years off,” said Hamburger, who was also named one of Chicago Inno’s 25 Under 25 in September.
Their startup, which they founded this year, makes the first snack chip made from egg whites. They claim that their product can pack the nutrition of an omelette into a bag of chips. Each 1.4-ounce-bag has 15 grams of protein, 9 grams of fiber, 3 grams of net carbs and 180 calories.
The chip has the consistency of a Popchip, and comes in flavors like rancheros and cracked black pepper.
“There is yet to be a delicious chip that is really good for you,” Hamburger said. “In the way that people eat Halo Top, we want to basically do that for chips. In a nutshell, Quevos are the healthiest chips ever.”
In March, Quevos won UChicago’s College New Venture Challenge and took home $15,000. Shortly after, the startup was one of five accepted into Kraft Heinz’s Springboard, a program that looks to help food entrepreneurs turn their young businesses into thriving CPG brands. In its incubator program, Kraft Heinz provides each startup with $50,000, business training, workspace, access to mentors and other resources.
“[Springboard] was great,” Hamburger said. “We got great advice on our brand, and how we want to message and target our ideal customers."
The founders came up with the idea for Quevos because Zack, who is a type-1 diabetic, had a hard time finding snacks that were both low-carb and high in protein.
Now, Quevos, which manufactures its chips in Chicago, can be bought around the city in 10 locations, ranging from Freshii to Hyde Park Produce to UChicago’s campus stores. They retail individually for $3.99, but can be bought in packs of four for $13.99 on their website. And Hamburger said Quevos is slated to be available on Amazon in the first half of 2019.
Until then, the company will focus on ramping up online sales, beginning wholesale partnerships with gyms, and getting their product on shelves at major grocery chains and health food stores, where much of its target consumers are likely to shop.
To help them get there, Quevos is currently raising a $1 million seed round, Hamburger said.
The startup is popping up in Chicago at a time when other food and CPG startups are on the rise. RXBAR, which gave new meaning to healthy energy bars, and Skinny Pop, which created the first healthy alternative to popcorn, are both Chicago grown. Newer and smaller food startups in Chicago include Poppilu, an antioxidant lemonade with less sugar than other top lemonade brands, and Prommus, a clean label, gluten-free and high-protein hummus.
“We’ve seen a lot of categories—ice cream, popcorn, energy bars—transformed by healthier alternatives recently,” Hamburger said. “So, the time is right for that to happen to chips, and luckily for us, egg white is the perfect thing to pin a health brand on.”
