It was early 2020, the world had shut down because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and people were on their phones more than ever.
Eva Chen, children's book author and director of fashion partnerships at Instagram, started filming her husband, Tom Bannister, 42, as he shared his very candid thoughts about ... granola.
"For as long as I can remember his breakfast of choice was granola. He really delighted in trying every local granola and it became this inside joke between us," Chen tells CNBC Make It.
"Anytime I would travel somewhere, I would bring him back a bag of granola, and if he was somewhere, he would text me a picture of granola with his thoughts and comments."
Bannister, a former advertising executive, had made a career of working behind the camera, so his transition to being filmed felt natural. Chen posted the videos online to her more than 2 million followers and they resonated with viewers.
"It really touched a nerve with a lot of people who found it slightly funny that I was talking about granola almost like you would talk about wine," Bannister says. "At the same time, a bunch of like-minded people felt the same way about granola, too."
The series "Tom Talks" was born.
People started stopping Bannister in the streets of New York City, at the playground and even at the supermarket to ask for his opinion on various granola brands.
"Granola starting filtering into all parts of my life," Bannister says.
While in lockdown, Bannister found himself spending a lot of time in the kitchen with the couple's two young children, Ren and Tao. He would try his hand at original granola recipes with the kids and film it. As he shared the videos online, Bannister received feedback, tips and advice from experts in the food industry.
There was also interest from followers who wanted to try the granola for themselves.
Bannister started a waitlist and it climbed to almost 20,000 names in one month, which meant it was time for him to come up with a name for the product he had just promised to thousands of people.
"I wanted the name to trace my journey trying to make the perfect granola, but at the same time, I was stepping into something where I had zero experience," Bannister says. "I wanted to honor the feedback I had received from the community."
Bannister planned to sell his granola in small batches of six different flavors. Each order would ship with scorecards that customers could return to Bannister with their feedback. If a flavor received a perfect score it would remain in the lineup, while any other flavors were rotated out.
In December 2021, Bannister officially launched with the new name Tom's Perfect 10.
Tom's Perfect 10 started as a side hustle
Many industries in NYC shut down during the pandemic, but food wasn't one of them. Bannister joined an incubator in June 2020 and started working on the small batches for the waitlist. He put up between $10,000 and $15,000 of his own money to get the brand off the ground.
Bannister continued to juggle making granola by hand on nights and weekends, working his full-time job and being a dad and husband. He admits that it was a lot at the time, but something he was willing to do to build the brand.
Bannister eventually left his corporate job in June 2022 to pursue Tom's Perfect 10 full time.
"There's a lot of great things about corporate life, especially when you have young children, but you can also make a change and try something new even if it goes wrong," Bannister says.
Since the first drop in October 2020, Bannister has created over 30 flavors of granola and garnered more than 5,000 reviews.
Tom's Perfect 10 offers a monthly subscription and each month's flavor is available for purchase by nonsubscribers on a limited basis. When that month's flavor sells out it's gone forever — unless it achieves that "perfect 10" status.
Some of Bannister's original recipes include Lavender Crush, Yuzu Matcha and Crème brûlée. The latter was an Uber One app exclusive, which sold one bag per minute over the first three days.
When Chen was pregnant with the couple's third child, River, Bannister created a horchata and fig flavor which were two of the foods Chen craved the most at the time. When River was born, Bannister released a limited-edition flavor called "Baby Blue" that had marshmallows and dried blueberries.
"I draw inspiration from everywhere while also having a seasonality to it," Bannister says. "It could be anything, anywhere. I think delicious flavors are just out there."
Bannister continues the limited-edition flavor drops and says the granola has gotten better and the feedback more positive.
He partnered with Cook Collective, a shared kitchen in Brooklyn, New York, to help with the production of the granola, so it's not just him and his family making and packing the product anymore. Tom's Perfect 10 now works with a fulfillment company to help with bagging and shipping.
"Everything was in place and I was able to scale," Bannister says. "People were buying more and more month to month."
Tom's Perfect 10 is on batch number 37 and has collaborated with brands and restaurants like Umamicart, Rubirosa and L'Ami Pierre bakery where Bannister will sometimes hand deliver his granola.
But he is set on growing the core lineup.
As of right now, there are two permanent flavors, "Classic," — which includes ingredients like chocolate, Illinois cherries, California pistachio and walnuts — and "Ginger Zing," which was the first flavor to achieve perfect 10 status. That flavor is made with ginger-infused maple syrup, candied ginger, almonds, pecans and a light touch of black pepper.
"I just had a sense that [Ginger Zing] would be a really great granola, especially because it got such great feedback," Bannister says about the now bestselling flavor.
Bannister hopes to launch a third, maybe even a fourth core flavor by the end of 2024.
"I don't want to move too quickly. It's been a lot of trial and error," Bannister says. "The two flavors we have now are more traditional. I think, the next two flavors I want to introduce will feel uniquely different."
What a Whole Foods partnership means for the brand
Chapter one of Tom's Perfect 10 was about growing the brand with unusual flavors and limited drops, but Bannister says this next chapter will also involve expanding the company from a retail perspective, which includes making his product more widely available.
This month Tom's Perfect 10 will launch in 45 Whole Food stores across the Northeast — it will be available on Tuesday. It's a partnership that started with a direct message from the popular supermarket chain on Instagram.
"I think we will find the right customers at Whole Foods and it feels like a natural next step," Bannister says. He's gearing up to travel the country doing demos and talking to customers.
Though Bannister did not share a revenue number, he tells CNBC Make It the company is making money and essentially paying for itself with monthly profits — he can pay himself and three employees.
For now, Bannister wants to see how far Tom's Perfect 10 can get without VC money.
"We have had offers but we haven't taken anybody up on it yet," Bannister says. "I think there's a lot of advantages to that but it oddly didn't feel appropriate when my children and my wife have been such a big part of it and it feels much more like a family operation."
With so many exciting opportunities on the horizon for Tom's Perfect 10, Bannister says the key thing he's learned on this journey is to focus.
"I love to jump into unknown things," he says. "I'm trying to be quite strict with myself and stay focused on doing a few things very well."
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