Making History One Bite at a Time with GoOats

In this brand story, we’re shining a spotlight on GoOats, an Instacart partner and participant in the Instacart Ads Initiative. 

The Instacart Ads Initiative is our commitment to support historically underrepresented, emerging consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands on Instacart by leveraging our robust advertising products. When we announced the initiative last year, we committed up to $1 million to amplify Black-owned consumer CPG brands; we recently announced an additional $1 million to amplify women-owned CPG brands.

One of our CPG brand partners, GoOats, has driven brand growth as a participating member of the Instacart Ads Initiative. During one month in the program, the brand saw their weekly sales and basket penetration more than double while running an Initiative campaign. 

GoOats is pioneering a new way to enjoy nutritious oatmeal in a convenient easy-to-eat format. The company’s bite-sized oatmeal balls, made with all-natural ingredients, have quickly become a favorite for families and people on the go. Since the brand’s appearance on Shark Tank put them in the national spotlight, GoOats has been growing steadily, continuing to focus on quality while launching new flavors of their product. 

GoOats founder and CEO, Nahum Jeannot, says eating and learning to cook Caribbean food from a young age eventually inspired him to attend culinary school. 

“My parents are Haitian, and my grandparents had a farm, so I grew up in a family that leaned on quality ingredients and cooking. My mom and grandmom always made sure my siblings and I ate well, even when we didn’t want to,” Nahum says, “I remember coming down to a bowl of oatmeal in the mornings, made from scratch.”

Later, working as a head chef and developing recipes, Nahum came up with the idea for a bite-sized serving of oatmeal, inspired by the oatmeal he remembered with a twist that made it a hit with almost everyone who tried it. The next step was sharing it with the rest of the world. 

Early on, Nahum identified that educating consumers about his products would be a key challenge to solve. After all, oatmeal in its traditional form has been around for hundreds of years. Consumers have an established perception of oatmeal, including where to find it in the grocery store and how to eat it. 

“GoOats is coming onto the scene and changing the way consumers are going to eat this product,” says Nahum. “We’re taking steel cut oats, adding the flavorings for you, doing the cooking, and preparing it so you can eat it on the go.”

And while Shark Tank was instrumental in helping to introduce GoOats to a wider audience, the company is continuing to activate new channels to get the word out. GoOats sees advertising on Instacart as a lever to drive growth. 

His advice for success as an emerging brand includes relentlessness in building connections, a willingness to learn from others in the industry that have been at this for years, and cultivating resilience when you hear no from a retailer or investor: “Whatever you’re building, you’re building for a reason,” Nahum says. “There are always going to be noes, but I’m inspired by my peers and by people of color in the industry who keep going after being told no 10, 50 or 100 times.” 

Learn more about GoOats here, and follow the brand on Facebook and Instagram. If your brand is eligible for the Instacart Ads Initiative, visit ads.instacart.com to sign up and learn more. You can read more about the Initiative and its recent expansion here!

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Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.