Founded & Grounded

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Sunny & Luna: From Modelling on 800 Calories a Day to Building a Pasta Brand That Celebrates Food.

S6 E11 • Jul 27, 2026 • 99 mins

The ex-model who turned an exploding kitchen of cauliflower into the pasta brand now on Sainsbury's shelves. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. "My husband was just like, 'What's happening?' The kitchen was just an explosion of cauliflower." That's how Sunny & Luna started, and this episode opens with it. Giulia Berretti spent her teens modelling in New York on as little as 800 calories a day, inside an industry that treated food as the enemy. The daughter of a winemaker and a restaurateur, taught to make pasta by her nonna, she walked away. When COVID hit, she rebuilt her relationship with food into a business: vegetable-packed fresh pasta, born in her own kitchen. She sold her first batches to neighbours on Nextdoor, pitched at the Bread & Jam festival with four gnocchi in a plastic bag, and Whole Foods and Planet Organic loved it.

Key Points

Never compromise on your non-negotiables. When the Ukraine war sent costs spiralling, Giulia held her quality line and raised prices instead of cutting corners, and customers rewarded her for it. Know what you won't trade, and price accordingly.
Passion plus authenticity beats playbooks. She built a standout brand in a category nobody had disrupted (fresh pasta) by staying close to what she genuinely knows and loves. Innovation came from her story, not from copying someone else's.
Persistence needs patience. "When the train is coming, you don't have to jump straight away." Ups and downs are the job. The founders who make it are the ones who keep going without rushing decisions that compromise the long-term vision.

Speakers

Giulia Berretti

Guest • 47%

Becky Sage

Host • 30%

Ollie Collard

Host • 23%

Chapters

0:00	Giulia Berretti's kitchen experiment and episode introduction
0:40	Meet the guest: Julia Berretti
1:00	Excitement about Julia’s food journey
2:03	Julia’s background: from modeling to entrepreneurship
3:01	Life and challenges in the modeling industry
6:30	Changing perspectives and transition to business
9:35	Julia’s passion for food and Italian roots
12:26	Launching Sunny and Luna during COVID
14:10	Experimenting with cauliflower pasta
15:22	Early sales and product validation on Nextdoor
16:07	Finding and pitching to Italian manufacturers
19:07	Pitching at Bread and Jam festival
20:36	Validation from Whole Foods and initial clients
21:14	Success factors for Sunny and Luna in the fresh pasta market
24:17	Sustainability and the role of Gigi Green
27:04	Future manufacturing and sourcing local ingredients
27:53	Current and upcoming product ranges
31:08	Sales distribution and growth strategies
33:09	Sponsor: Ethos
34:27	Entrepreneurial focus and respecting your dream
38:05	Founder mindset and vision clarity
43:23	Building confidence through market feedback
44:50	Bootstrapping, market validation, and overcoming comfort zones
50:06	Navigating the cost of living crisis and quality standards
54:21	Lessons from business mistakes
57:20	Funding journey and closing a raise
58:40	Deepest fears and overcoming them
1:01:03	Work-life balance and mental health
1:02:05	Sacrifices made for the business
1:05:45	Support systems and personal motivations
1:06:58	Naming Sunny and Luna after her cats
1:07:12	Pricing challenges for premium products
1:14:53	Consumer behavior and value in premium pricing
1:17:03	Timing and opportunity evaluation for founders

Transcript

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