How Junea Rocha took Brazi Bites from Shark Tank to Supermarket Success

“What we're trying to do as entrepreneurs is move from that band of the starving entrepreneur that's knocking on doors and stumbling, to be like, ‘I know my business, I'm gonna get shelf space, this is how I'm gonna drive, this is how I'm gonna compete, and let's hold hands and grow.’”

Five years into building Brazi Bites, Junea Rocha had a product people loved, but no financial stability.

The company had traction, but she wasn’t paying herself, and the path forward wasn’t clear.

For Junea Rocha, that realization came after moving from Brazil to the United States. Brazilian cheese bread was a staple in her life growing up, something tied to culture, family, and everyday moments. But when she looked for it in the U.S., it didn’t exist in a way that reflected its quality or experience. That gap became the foundation for Brazi Bites.

Building the business required starting from zero in an entirely new industry. With a background in civil engineering, Junea had to learn everything from product development to retail distribution in real time. The early years were defined by rejection, experimentation, and a constant cycle of learning what worked, and what didn’t.

Five years in, the business had traction but still hadn’t reached sustainability. Then came Shark Tank. What followed was rapid growth, operational strain, and a new set of challenges that forced the company to evolve quickly.

In this episode of Entreprenista, we sat down with Junea Raucha, co-founder of Brazi Bites, a company that transformed the U.S. snack market with Brazilian cheese bread. Growing up in Brazil, Junea was inspired by the popular snack and saw an opportunity to introduce it to American consumers. With a background in civil engineering, she co-founded Brazi Bites with her husband, focusing on high-quality, gluten-free products.

You can listen to the podcast here on Spotify and Apple Podcast.

Here are a few moments from the podcast:

The idea came from recognizing something missing, not inventing something new:
“I grew up eating this product. It was everywhere in my life, in my culture. Brazilian cheese bread is ingrained in the culture of Brazil and South America.

When I moved to the U.S., I did not see that product here in the way that I thought was the right way. I was not the first one to have the idea to bring it here, but I was the first one to do it well.

I looked at how it had been done before and thought, this wasn’t done right. There’s a better way, better taste, higher quality, and branded in a way that was approachable so Americans could enjoy and understand the product.”

The early years weren’t about scaling, they were about learning everything from scratch:
“We had to educate ourselves into the food industry. Learning how do you really bring a recipe to market? How do you sell in grocery stores?

I took a class at a community college called ‘Getting a Recipe to Market.’ That was just the ABCs. After that, it was networking, knocking on doors, joining peer groups, and learning from anyone in the industry.

The first two years were a lot of rejection and a lot of learning until we started to find our groove.”

Their early marketing strategy wasn’t scalable, but it was essential:
“We would get placement in one or two retail stores, and then we would spend all of our weekends demoing.

We would set up a table with our oven, sample the product, tell the story, and explain it to every single person.

That was unbelievably important because we weren’t just selling, we were learning directly from consumers in real time, and it helped us shape what was yet to come in the future.”

Breaking into retail came down to persistence, and a lot of rejection:
“I would put my frozen bags in a cooler, drive store to store, and try to find the decision maker. I was pitching on the floor, sometimes to whoever I could find.

I would just get rejection after rejection and started building a really thick skin. I might have knocked on a hundred doors and got rejected 99 times.

Then one retailer said yes. It was a small international store, and we became obsessed with making that one super successful and demoing every weekend.”

Shark Tank worked because it hit at exactly the right moment in the business:
“We had been in business for five years. We had traction, but we weren’t sustainable yet. We hadn’t paid ourselves…When we went on Shark Tank, it gave us massive exposure at exactly the right time. Nine million people watched that interaction.

We went from under a million dollars in revenue to $8.5 million in less than 10 months. It was completely transformative.”

That growth created a new kind of challenge, keeping up with demand:
“When you grow that fast in the food industry, it’s really painful because food takes time to make.

We couldn’t meet demand for about four months. We were trying to scale production, source ingredients, and maintain quality at the same time.

We had the foundation of a $1 million company, but suddenly we were operating like a $10 million business. Everything had to change.”

You might also like:

• Kristen Dunning Transformed a Personal Struggle into Shark Tank Success With Gently Soap
• From her Kitchen to a $1.95 Billion Acquisition: Allison Ellsworth’s Incredible Poppi Journey‍
• Building A Business That's Made to Last with Jessica Majno

Connect with Junea Rocha:

• Instagram: Junea Rocha (@junearocha) 
• LinkedIn: Junea Rocha - Food Entrepreneur I Founder of Brazi Bites | President of Bennett Bakery | Advisor | LinkedIn 

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Updated on: May 1, 2026