Meet Kaitlin Cushman

I am a nutrition expert, driven by an unwavering passion for the art of food product development.

I was born and raised in sunny San Diego, CA. Growing up I was always an avid baker after school, making so many tasty treats that I gave away most of my inventory to classmates and teachers. My love for science and a drive to help people led me to earning my Bachelors in Food & Nutritional Science and Master’s in Nutritional Science at San Diego State University. 

I am driven by understanding how things work and why we do what we do - I need to know the ‘how’ and ‘why.’ My adventure into nutrition began with a desire to help individuals struggling with obesity. However, the complexity of trying to change people’s habits inspired me in a different way. I decided to make a positive impact on people's lives by helping companies create healthier, cleaner-label products.

But how did I get here? 

I spent many years leading product development and consumer education for a global company that specialized in creating highly technical nutritional products and better-for-you snacks designed for children. I can attest to this: nothing is harder than designing products for children. As a group, they’re a little picky, and not always the best at sharing constructive feedback. 

As one of the first employees to join the company, my team and I built the brand from the ground up, developed 8+ product lines, and set up production in the United States, Europe, and Asian-Pacific Region. We discovered how to leverage our product’s unique strengths to achieve success both online and through retail, and equally importantly learned how to set up our internal processes’ to help build that success at every stage of the product life cycle.  

Coming from a startup environment, I’ve learned to thrive while consistently under the most challenging and high pressure conditions in the industry - but it’s also given me the experience necessary to spot corporate inefficiencies from a mile away. This serves me well as a consultant, where I excel at streamlining processes, finding creative solutions for unique issues, and optimizing product and brand cohesion to accelerate your brand’s growth. My work as a consultant has also brought opportunities to collaborate on a diverse number of consumer packaged goods, ranging from food to skincare.

Product development is an expensive and laborious maze, and the only guides you should trust are the ones with experience and expertise. I have both, and I’d like to put them to work making your development process as free from headaches as we can.