Margaret Wishingrad Joins Startup Savants to Discuss Her Breakfast Cereal Startup

Scores of cereal options take up an entire aisle – or more – of a typical supermarket. However, the vast majority of these have almost no nutritional value and amount to little more than dessert for breakfast. Margaret Wishingrad, CEO and co-founder of Three Wishes Cereal, joins Startup Savants to discuss how her company is elevating this humble breakfast food with high-protein, low-sugar, gluten- and grain-free cereals.

• Startup Savants is a business podcast that tells the stories behind up-and-coming startups.
• Margaret Wishingrad, CEO and co-founder of Three Wishes Cereal, joins Startup Savants to discuss her startup.
• Three Wishes Cereal offers great-tasting, nutritious cereal that’s great for both kids and adults.

In Search of Healthier Cereal

Like all mothers, Margaret wants to feed her child healthy food. But when it comes to cereal, healthy options are few and far between. “There were no healthy cereals” before she started her company, she said during her interview with Startup Savants. “Cereal was really just dessert: a lot of sugar, no real nutrition.” 

Margaret thought she could change that by starting her own cereal company. However, she had no experience developing commercial recipes or producing food on a commercial scale. On the plus side, she’s creative in the kitchen and likes to experiment. “I’ve always played around with ingredients that weren’t super conventional,” she said during her interview. “But the actual creation and commercialization of cereal … couldn’t be further from that.”

This meant that to start a cereal company, she and her husband needed expert help. “Creating cereal is not a commercial kitchen process where you have a recipe, you bring it, and you put it in a KitchenAid,” she said. “It’s extremely, extremely technical.” Moreover, because cereal is produced at scale, you can’t just stick with testing small batches. 

Three Wishes recruited a food scientist to help them meet these and other challenges. Then they got to work creating, testing, and piloting different formulas at various production facilities. This was a long, expensive process, costing almost $200,000 over two years. However, Three Wishes eventually wound up with a viable product. “There were so many ups and downs … to get to the final product,” Margaret said. “But that’s entrepreneurship. You have to be prepared for those roller coasters.”

A Household Brand

Margaret has her sights set on eventually becoming a household brand. “I have my name on this, so I would hope that it has some wonderful sticking power and stays around for a very long time,” she said. This will require setting realistic goals for growth, fundraising, and other aspects of the business. “I just want to continue making really great decisions and steering this brand [so] it continues to grow in a really smart way,” she said during her interview. “And for me, that’s channel strategy and just all these other experiences and flavors and innovation.”

Despite the ups and downs, Three Wishes is set up for future success, and Margaret loves every minute of it. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world,” she said. “Even on the days that I wake up at 2:00 in the morning for no reason but to remind myself to do something. It’s my whole life.”

Startup Savants Podcast 

The Startup Savants podcast is a business podcast created by The Really Useful Information Company (TRUiC). Listeners can hear the stories behind startups, as told by founders that are growing their companies.

Ethan, an entrepreneur, and Annaka, a branding expert, host the Startup Savants podcast. They bring disparate skills and life experiences to their interviews, providing listeners with important business insights and a holistic perspective on the startup ecosystem. 

Hear from a variety of real startup founders from around the globe and with varying backgrounds, making their startup idea a reality. Learn from experts sharing their industry knowledge on venture capital, securing funding, and more on the Startup Savants podcast. 

Final Thoughts

In her interview with Startup Savants, Margaret Wishingrad shares the insights she has gleaned from founding and running her startup, Three Wishes Cereal. Learn how she started a company in a very technical area with no prior expertise and hopes to turn it into a household brand. 

You can find the Startup Savants podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.