Baller move: With hometown Costco deal taking shape, Mitzi Dulan is getting her own protein-fueled boost — a first paycheck 

Mitzi Dulan’s dream of shopping for her SimplyFUEL protein balls at her local Costco has finally come true, she shared: a goal seven years in the rolling.

As of Dec. 1, the Midwest region of the wholesale giant — which includes 114 locations in Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, South Dakota, and North Dakota — is carrying a limited supply of the protein balls made famous by the Kansas City Royals during the team’s 2015 World Series run.

Mitzi Dulan, SimplyFUEL

“I’m super excited to see my products locally in Overland Park — the Costco store where I shop — and to be able to tell people they can go buy them there,” said the founder and CEO of SimplyFUEL, who also is a registered dietician and the former team nutritionist for the Royals. 

From the archives: Dietician brings protein-packed treats from her kitchen to the big leagues (and she has the World Series ring to prove it)

SimplyFUEL’s momentum in Costco started much earlier in the year, acknowledged Dulan, who noted she has discontinued her line of keto granola. In January, the protein balls launched for the first time in Costco in the Texas region. In the summer, they debuted in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Southeast regions.

“It’s given that relief of not as much weight on my shoulders and being able to pay off that loan,” Dulan explained, noting the loan she took out to buy her first ball-making machine that leveraged her house as collateral. “It feels great. Finally, I have — in the past month — been able to pay myself. I’ve literally been a one-woman show for all of these years. It’s been more ups and downs than I’ve ever had as an entrepreneur.”

Sales of the protein balls — which includes four flavors: chocolate coconut peanut butter, brownie batter, peanut butter honey almond, and chocolate almond coconut —  have gone so well in the Texas region that they are now an everyday item and she set to send another rotation to the Bay Area and Los Angeles regions in January.

“From what I have seen, read, and been told, about 1 percent of products that go into Costco become an everyday item,” she added. “I’m hopeful it’ll stay an everyday product. It’s still selling really well.”

Click here to shop SimplyFUEL.

Working west to east

Dulan’s journey with Costco started in 2017 and has been a long time coming, she noted. At the Natural Products Expo West, a buyer from the LA region told her that her protein balls were her favorite product at the expo.

SimplyFUEL protein balls, which are sold in four flavors: chocolate coconut peanut butter, brownie batter, peanut butter honey almond, and chocolate almond coconut

“At this show, there’s like 3,000 to 4000 exhibitors,” she said. “So for her to say that, it meant a lot to me.”

After the show, she had a meeting with Costco LA, but quickly realized she wasn’t yet ready for that level of production. Then, once she had everything set up with a co-packer, that buyer was on medical leave and then retired. In late March 2020, she then had a meeting set up with a Midwest buyer, which — thanks to the pandemic — got canceled. 

“It was kind of bad timing,” she added.

It would be two years later — at the same expo — that Dulan finally gained traction with an executive from the Texas region, she shared.

“He came by my booth and talked about how he played football and volleyball — my daughter plays volleyball and my husband had played football at K-State — and so we hit it off,” she explained. “He loved my protein balls and he said when he went back to Texas that he would share it with the snacks buyer.”

So in the summer 2022, she continued, the Texas buyer put in a purchase order for December.

“Then in December, my ball machine broke, so I woke up about every morning with major anxiety,” she added. “Thankfully, this buyer was very nice. And he was like, ‘As long as we get it at the beginning of the year, we’re good.’ So I delivered in early January of this year.”

Mitzi Dulan outside an LA Costco store with SimplyFUEL

Once a Bay Area Costco buyer saw her protein balls were “killing it” in Texas, he gave Dulan a call, she shared.

“I started crying (after the call) because it has been a journey,” she noted. “As a food startup, it’s so expensive. I basically have bootstrapped — I did raise $350,000 in convertible notes — but otherwise bootstrapped. I haven’t paid myself. And so it’s been really a challenge.”

Orders from the LA, Southeast, and Midwest regions quickly followed. There are three regions left that she has yet to infiltrate — San Diego, Northeast, and Northwest — but Dulan said it’s one of her goals for 2024.

She also plans to launch a new protein powder next year to go along with her one-ingredient chickpea protein powder, which is available on the SimplyFUEL website and on Amazon.

“It’s going to have something unique to it for the amount of protein and the number of calories,” she added.

Click here to follow SimplyFUEL’s journey on instagram.

Mitzi Dulan, SimplyFUEL, with her NIL partners, three volleyball players — University of Texas players Madi Skinner and Molly Phillips, plus her daughter Jasmine Dulan, who plays for Drake University

NIL action

On top of all of the excitement with Costco over the past year, Dulan also waded into NIL deals with three volleyball players — University of Texas players Madi Skinner and Molly Phillips, plus her daughter Jasmine Dulan, who plays for Drake University.

“The volleyball community has really helped support me from the beginning,” she explained. “I have a passion for girls sports. I played sports growing up; and both of my girls played club volleyball — and other sports too — and we traveled throughout the country.”

Signing her daughter to an NIL deal brought her protein ball journey full circle, she noted. When she was taking the first pictures of her protein balls to post on her blog, Jasmine made sure she had a cameo.

“I had [the shoot] on my back porch for lighting,” Dulan recalled. “And she lays down next to the balls so that I have to get her in the photo. Who would know that years later …”