All about CASTORS

Our next guest combined food and technology to create the ultimate culinary experience. Now they're bringing it to D.C. just in time for Howard University's homecoming. H.U., you know, the Howard Red here, creators of the Caster's Brand. We have Shauna and Troy, married couple as well, joining us today. Well, congrats on all the things. Thank you. And it's also a homecoming for you as well, coming back to D.C. That is correct. Where did you go to school? I went to H.U. D.C. All right. You got them both covered. capital cover for sure so tell us about your company and how it works so we are a food tech company we have an all-purpose seasoning and we have an app and so our seasoning you can use it on any type of like fruits or i'm sorry any types of meats or you can use it on vegetables and then our app provides some of our signature recipes that we have that we make at home so this all came about because the question is always what's for dinner and it can be stressful so we tried to find a way to alleviate that stress with our seasoning and our mobile application. And then in our mobile application, we also have an AI assistant that can tell you what you can make based on the ingredients that you have. That you have. I love that. You're already taking the stress out of it. Because I think we all ask that question. I'm at work now wondering what's for dinner. What are we cooking tonight once I get home? So how did you all kind of come up with the idea and the technology as well for it so the technology part of it i will let her just go explain it but uh this is i mean this is a beautiful product i mean so the beauty of it is i mean if you like to cook you're gonna enjoy it if you don't like to cook you're gonna enjoy it so um this will save you a lot of time so you do not have to worry about using any dry spices you have at home so everything is in one bottle so it's very good very flavorful i mean again i mean this is one of the best products out here so he did the seasoning and i did the app so he would make the seasoning at home and then whenever we like wanted to cook dinner if we didn't have it it was problem so he said make the seasoning and then cook the dinner you're exhausted by that time so i'm like maybe we should think about bottling it up and so once we bottled it up is then like how do we help people understand how they can use it to reduce that anxiety of what's for dinner what's for dinner so when you have the ai assistant are you basically telling it or prompting it with here are the ingredients I have what can I make with this is that how it works that's correct yep so you can place the ingredients and say this is what I have this is what I want to you know this is what I have this is the seasoning every recipe it will recommend how you can use the seasoning that's one part but there's also a chat feature so you can say these are the ingredients that I have I only have 45 minutes and I want to have you know a big dish or maybe you have high blood pressure so that it can adjust to whatever your dietary needs are as well you can also feed a one person family of four one in the last one day three days yes and it'll adjust the amount exactly on it what are some of the early feedback you've gotten so this everybody loves the seasoning we packed a lot of flavor that was all troy a lot of flavor in a small jar and i think the versatility people like that you can use it on soups you can use it on chilies and also chicken and spinach and broccolini i'm already thinking yes Stir fry veggies and throw the seasoning on there as well. Yes, yes. I mean, actually, we're from Northern California as well. So we've been going to a lot of places, try to introduce the product. So we've been getting a lot of good feedback from people that actually use it. It's not too spicy. Anybody has a kick to it. I mean, again, so far, so good. We're savory. Yes, savory, yes. And we love it when they say mom approved. So some people will use it and then they'll text it on their mom. They say, mom, I'm like, okay, that's good. Yeah, that's how you know you're doing it. Mom likes it. And people can try this for themselves. There's an event that you all have coming up. Yes, we have an event tomorrow at Ace Lounge from 6 to 8. And you can taste some of our signature recipes. You can taste the seasoning. And then you can come talk to us if you have any questions. You can also find us on our website at castersllc.com and on our social media handles, The Caster Experience. Shawna, briefly here, how does it feel to be back, I guess, for Howard's Homecoming and to have this amazing business with your husband and come full circle almost in this way. It's honestly unbelievable. I'm kidding. I wrote the story. Honestly, it's unbelievable. And it's just, we're so excited. It's so much fun. It just feels so good to be here and see all our family members that are helping us with the event. We really appreciate them. And it just feels great to be back. And we just love being at Howard Homecoming. It's home. I'm sure your alma mater is very, very proud of you. For sure. Congrats to you both. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right, Julie.