Kendall Toole and Alexander Brzozowski Launch Protein-Forward Dressing Brand DRESSi

DRESSi, a protein-fortified salad dressing brand co-founded by Kendall Toole and Alexander Brzozowski, has launched with four flavors available direct-to-consumer online. The brand says retail expansion is planned, with a store-locator section already live on its website.

The line positions itself against conventional dressing makers by formulating with 100% olive oil, no seed oils, no gums, no artificial preservatives and no added sugar. Each serving contains 4g of protein from whey protein isolate, per the company, and the full range carries Non-GMO Project Verified status, certified by the independent third-party certifier NSF. The four launch flavors are Green Goddess, Lemon Caesar, Bang Bang and Chipotle Lime.

The brand's origin traces to Toole sharing protein-forward recipes with her social media audience, with several dressing recipes going viral in 2024 and 2025, per the company. That audience response prompted the co-founders to explore whether the concept could be scaled into a bottled product. The company describes itself as a small family business run day-to-day by the two founders, with no agency or larger team behind operations.

Why it matters

DRESSi's launch reflects a widening pattern of creator-led CPG ventures that begin with proven content rather than conventional market research. By the time a social media creator brings a product to market, demand has already been stress-tested with a real audience, reducing meaningful go-to-market risk before a single unit ships. For the condiment category specifically, the brand is targeting a gap that larger incumbents have largely ignored: dressings formulated to carry meaningful protein content without seed-oil bases or artificial additives. As better-for-you positioning becomes table stakes across center-store categories, the dressing aisle remains underdeveloped relative to snacks and beverages, making it a plausible growth space for independent entrants with existing audiences.

The brand's clean-label architecture, combining multiple ingredient exclusions with third-party certification, also responds to growing retailer and consumer scrutiny of food additive labels, a trend accelerating across grocery channels.

What to watch

The critical near-term question is retail placement. DRESSi is currently direct-to-consumer only, with retail expansion described as planned but without named partners or a timeline disclosed. Securing meaningful shelf space in grocery will test whether the brand's online following converts to in-store trial and repeat purchase, the metrics that ultimately determine whether a creator-founded CPG startup reaches category scale. The speed and caliber of any retail partners it announces will signal how seriously the trade is treating the functional condiment segment.

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Sources

• DRESSi dressing & drizzle | Packed with Protein, Made with Olive Oil