After spending more than two decades as a private equity investor, Tyler Mayoras got the startup bug after going vegan in 2017.
Once he understood the health and environmental impacts of ditching meat from his diet, Mayoras quickly realized that the grab-and-go vegan options at the grocery store weren't always that good for you.
"Most of what I found at the grocery story was vegan junk food," he said. "That was very frustrating to me."
So in 2018 Mayoras founded Chicago-based Cool Beans, a better-for-you frozen wrap that's plant-based, minimally processed and offers whole food ingredients. It has flavors like Moroccan Gold, which includes ingredients like red kidney beans, sweet potato and Moroccan seasoning, and Spicy Chipotle, which is made with black-eyed peas, corn, peppers, brown rice and chipotle seasoning.
After first hitting shelves in early 2020, Cool Beans is now in more than 900 stores across the country, including Sprouts Farmers Market, Wegmans, Hy-Vee and other independent grocers.
Cool Beans doesn't include things like fake meat, fake cheese or thick sauces that you'll find in other frozen burrito meals, Mayoras said, offering instead a lighter frozen wrap that doesn't skimp on flavor.
"Our flavor comes from spices," he said. "We don’t have sauce or mush in the middle like most burritos. If you cut us open you actually see the beans and the veggies and the whole grains spill out."
Mayoras began working on Cool Beans full-time last October, leaving behind a career in private equity that focused on food and ag investing. He was most recently a principal at Advantage Capital Partners' Food and Agriculture Fund, leading deals for brands like Shenandoah Growers, Navitas Organics, and Farmhouse Culture. Early in his career he invested in Boca Burger, a veggie burger brand that sold to Kraft Foods.
Mayoras is also an active angel investor in food startup like Chicago's Simple Mills, Spero Foods and Atomo Coffee.
With a career spent investing in food brands and examining consumer diet trends, Mayoras believes now is the perfect time to bring a healthier burrito to the freezer aisle.
"There are people that are getting focused about health and plant-based eating all over the country," he said.
Mayoras expects Cool Beans to be in over 1,000 stores by the end of August, with launches coming soon in Whole Foods in the north east and Albertsons in northern California. The startup, which is currently raising a round of funding, also expects to launch new plant-based products next year, including bowls and breakfast items.
Cool Beans' growth comes as Chicago has seen a rise of new consumer food and beverage upstarts in recent years, including RXBAR, which was acquired by Kellogg for $600 million, collagen supplement maker Vital Proteins, which sold a majority stake to Nestlé Health Science, and clean-label baking mix brand Simple Mills, which has grown quickly since it's launch in 2012. Newer brands like frozen waffle startup Evergreen and dairy-free ice cream Frönen are carving out space in shoppers' refrigerators.
"If you would have looked at Chicago 10-12 years ago, it was pretty barren in the food (startup) sector," Mayoras said. "You’re seeing a real growth of new companies in this space across all sectors."
