Catalina Crunch: Krishna Kaliannan. From Homemade Keto Cocoa Puffs to Breakfast Aisle Breakthrough

July 6, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Krishna Kaliannan was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 17, then epilepsy shortly after. The ketogenic diet, originally developed in the early 1900s to treat epilepsy, became his lifeline. But it also meant giving up almost everything in the American breakfast aisle. A decade later, after a string of failed tech startups and hundreds of late-night experiments in his New York apartment, he created a high-protein, low-carb cereal that tasted like the Cocoa Puffs he remembered. That homemade experiment became Catalina Crunch, now a brand doing roughly $200 million in annual sales.

From Kitchen Experiments to a Product-Market Signal

Kaliannan had been eating the same keto-friendly foods—eggs, nuts, chicken breast—for years. Living in New York, surrounded by the city's food culture but unable to participate, he started baking as a creative outlet. He began by replacing wheat flour with protein powder and sugar with monk fruit, trying to recreate the cookies and cereals he missed. The breakthrough came when he made a chocolate cereal in his apartment, mixing pea protein, cocoa powder, monk fruit, and baking powder into a dough, rolling it thin, scoring it into squares, and baking it. The first batches were "hard as a rock" and "tasted like soil," but he iterated. The real signal came when he gave a bag to a friend in Central Park. The friend, who was not diabetic, Venmoed him $

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What you'll learn

1 (02:47) **The Central Park Venmo Moment** - A friend pays Krishna for a bag of his homemade keto cereal, sparking the realization that he could sell food instead of building another app.
2 (03:26) **Diagnosis & Diet: The Origin Story** - Krishna describes being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 17 and epilepsy shortly after, which led him to the ketogenic diet.
3 (06:41) **From Tech Founder to Kitchen Tinkerer** - After graduating Penn and working at a hedge fund, Krishna tried launching multiple tech startups, including a Chrome extension called "Escape My Bubble."
4 (09:54) **The Cereal Experiment Begins** - Craving variety from his monotonous keto diet, Krishna starts trying to recreate Cocoa Puffs using pea protein, cocoa powder, and monk fruit.
5 (14:24) **From Hobby to Business: The Venmo Validation** - A friend pays him a grocery-store price for a bag of cereal, making Krishna realize he could sell food instead of building another app.
6 (17:52) **The First Year: Kitchen, Commercial Kitchen, and the Texas A&M Course** - Krishna describes the brutal reality of making cereal by hand in a commercial kitchen and the critical decision to learn industrial manufacturing.
7 (23:28) **Scaling the Supply Chain & The Move to Indiana** - After raising $900k, Krishna partners with a co-manufacturer but hits a crisis when his packaging partner drops him.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Krishna Kaliannan wanted to start a tech company but failed at every attempt.

On the side, he was teaching himself how to cook with high-protein, low-sugar ingredients. Not just out of interest, but out of necessity. As a teenager, Krishna had been diagnosed with diabetes and epilepsy, meaning he adopted a keto diet long before it was trendy.

Krishna’s home experiments with pea powder and monk fruit eventually became Catalina Crunch, one of the country’s most popular high-protein, low-carb breakfast cereals and snacks.

In this episode, Krishna shares how a life-changing health condition sparked an obsession with healthy baking— and a brand that reimagined snacking.

What You’ll Learn

How to turn a health challenge into a business opportunity
The art and science of baking with esoteric ingredients
When to trust partners and when it’s best to take charge yourself
Why the DTC model is great for some industries and disastrous for others

Timestamps:

00:06:16 - Dealing with diabetes and epilepsy as a college student

00:12:38 - What Krishna learns from his early failures in tech

00:22:43 - The first, low-sugar cocoa puffs: “Rocks that tasted like soil.”

00:27:36 - His homemade cereal gets good enough to sell

00:32:42 - Naming the brand: classy alliteration and a nod to a Will Ferrell movie

00:44:51 - Learning to make cereal like the pros at Texas A&M

00:54:43 - Krishna moves from NYC to Indiana to make sure the cereal is made right

01:01:04 - Whole Foods, Costco, and becoming a household brand

This episode was researched and produced by Chris Maccini with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant. Our engineer was Kwesi Lee.

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