Good Talks: Pairdd

I wouldn’t normally post two interviews in a row, but this one has a very timely nature to it. A few days ago, I sat down with Casey Lanto, co-founder of the gluten-free startup Pairdd, to talk about the company and what’s next for them.

Pairdd was started a few months ago as a service for gluten-free people in the Milwaukee area. The company delivers meal boxes consisting of pre-measured ingredients and a step-by-step recipe. The boxes come with exactly what you need to make the number of servings specified on the order and mostly whole unprepared ingredients, with a few exceptions. “We wanted people to still get the experience of making this meal,” said Lanto. “It’s not something that’s premade for you, and you’re just throwing it in the oven. What we like to say is that we take away some of the prep work that is something you don’t enjoy. The garlic is peeled. Nobody likes to do that!” To which I replied, “That’s like the worst thing!” We all know it is.

To create these boxes, Pairdd has partnered up with local gluten-free shops, bloggers, and businesses to source recipes and foods. Recent partnerships have included Celiac in the City, Cocina de Leon, and Molly’s Gluten-Free Bakery. They’ve also worked with the blogs Fit and Healthy Chique and Burp! for recipes. Says Lanto, “We’re really excited both to get into the blogging community, and also [have] different gluten-free businesses to highlight. It’s a pretty cool connection. We see that these bloggers have recipes and their followers come to get those recipes, but now we’re bringing more of the tangible recipe to peoples’ homes and allowing bloggers to connect with their audiences.”

The birth of Pairdd is an interesting one. It came out of a startup incubator where Casey works called Blue Bananas. Says Lanto, “The mission of our team is to make healthcare more affordable for people managing ongoing medical conditions.” They ended up talking to about 50 people in the Milwaukee and Madison areas that were gluten-free about their diet and what they wish they had in the area. The biggest concerns were about the cost of products, the lack of options available to those living gluten-free, and not having a guarantee that the food or ingredients would taste good. For the cost, many weren’t willing to take the chance.

What Pairdd brings to the table is a set of tested recipes that have already been determined to be delicious with only the amount of ingredients that you need. So, say for instance you needed to buy a bag of Williams Sonoma gluten-free flour for $20 (Casey talked about some biscuits via Celiac in the City). Your Pairdd box has only the flour you need, and if you decide you like it, you can go ahead and invest in more of the ingredient at a higher price point.

If you’d like to find out more about Pairdd, here’s where the timely part comes in. They’re having an official launch party on Tuesday, October 1st, at timothy j kitchen & bath in Walker’s Point. It runs from 6-9 pm, it’s free, Sarah from Celiac in the City will be doing a cooking demonstration, Cocina de Leon will have appetizers, Molly’s Gluten-Free Bakery will have cookies, there will be beverages, and tuneage will be provided by DJ Romke. You can RSVP here: https://pairdd.eventbrite.com/

Also, if you’d like to try Pairdd at a discounted price, you can do so for the next 30 days. Use this code and get 50% off ALL OF THE ORDERS: DFREESTATE

Any recipe you’d like to see Pairdd offer? Share it here!