TASTIK: Reimagining our everyday source of protein

After years of working as a project manager in the public sector, Greta Budreikė spent the 2020 pandemic lockdown exploring new ideas at home.

Somewhere in that search, she came across the idea of farming insects for food. It wasn’t an obvious path for someone with no background in food or agriculture, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

She found out that cricket protein was highly nutritious, environmentally sustainable, and still largely untapped in the consumer market, which looked like a real business opportunity. 

Her husband, Vaidas Budreika, was with her in the journey, seeing the same opportunity and deciding to figure everything out together. 

That was the initial idea that made them build TASTIK – a Lithuanian brand that sells insect-based food products, such as dried crickets, cricket flour, protein pasta, and snack bars, designed to fit naturally into everyday meals. 

The name itself reflects the company’s vision: to connect diverse flavors, products, and experiences into a single concept. She wants to introduce the idea that insect protein isn’t something to fear, but it’s an ingredient that can create enjoyable, familiar flavors.

Convincing people to see it that way, however, has been the company’s biggest challenge.

Building not only a new brand, but also a new market

When Greta first came across the idea of eating crickets, she had the same reaction many people still do today. “At first, it felt unusual, even a bit scary,” she recalls.

That personal journey became one of TASTIK’s biggest business lessons. Even her own family was skeptical when she first shared the idea.

But her curiosity won. The more she researched, the more convinced she became that insect protein wasn’t just a novelty – it was nutritious, sustainable, and a genuine opportunity to rethink how we consume protein.

So she took the leap, with Vaidas alongside her – setting up the insect farm together and working through trial and error to get the products right.

At the same time, they’ve been well aware that building TASTIK meant doing two things at once: creating products people would enjoy and helping them overcome their hesitation.

“I want them to understand that this is real food,” Greta says. “That insect protein is nutritious, safe, and something that can become part of everyday meals.”

Greta and Vaidas try to shift people’s perception of insect protein through in-person experience: tastings, events, and one-on-one conversations where hesitation turns into curiosity.

Their online presence comes into play as that trust starts to take hold, giving people an easy way to keep buying once they’ve made up their mind – and for many, it’s a natural next step after the in-person conversation, or a way to keep making the case at their own pace.

That insight now shapes every part of TASTIK’s online presence.

Starting small, growing steadily

TASTIK’s first orders came through Facebook. Greta launched the product on the social media channel while the website was still in progress.

Behind the scenes, she was working with a developer she trusted to bring the site to life – while she and her husband handled much of the website content. 

Around six months later, she launched the website, even though the photos weren’t high quality, the optimization wasn’t where it needed to be, and the copy still needed work.

“I often felt not fully satisfied with the result. It felt like something was always missing,” she recalls. “But even with that feeling, I knew it was important to start and improve step by step.”

As the business grew, the website became a major communication channel through which Greta and Vaidas could tell the full story of edible insects. 

But after some time, Greta noticed that visitors spent more time browsing the online shop than reading blog posts or recipes. She learned that product pages were where she could address customers’ hesitation as they decided whether to try something unfamiliar.

With that insight, she focused on making that first interaction approachable, simple, and intriguing enough to earn a first purchase. Scientific facts and sustainability claims are kept out of the picture to avoid overwhelming customers.

“The most rewarding part is seeing people change,” she says. “At first, they’re unsure or even afraid. But after trying it, they become curious. That moment when their opinion shifts is the most powerful for me.”

When growth exposed the cracks

After the launch, around 30-40% of TASTIK customers came through the website, while the rest discovered the brand through social media and in-person events. 

Unfortunately, the website couldn’t handle the traffic. Pages loaded slowly. The user experience wasn’t great.

And that website performance instability was expensive. “If the website loads slowly or something gets stuck, the customer may simply leave without buying,” Greta says. 

To address these issues, Greta and Vaidas agreed to migrate TASTIK’s website to Hostinger’s managed hosting for WordPress.

The plan includes built-in performance optimization, like server-side caching and a content delivery network (CDN), designed to keep pages loading fast and reliably, even as traffic grows.

Since then, the technical issues that had previously demanded constant attention have become rare. Pages loaded faster, and checkout became reliable. The website developer now spends less time on maintenance than when the website was hosted with the previous provider.

A website that became a growth engine for TASTIK

The improved website performance translated into measurable business growth. Today, around 70% of TASTIK’s customers come through the website, up from 30-40% in the early days.

Average order value increased by an estimated 30-50% as customers could browse and complete purchases more easily, while the share of returning customers grew from around 10-20% to 20-30%.

TASTIK has also expanded internationally, shipping to Latvia, Estonia, Germany, the UK, and Ireland, with most overseas customers currently being Lithuanians living abroad. In their long-term plan, they aim to grow that audience further.

To support that expansion, Greta shared that TASTIK’s website developer relies on tools within the Hostinger ecosystem. 

One example is a professional business email, which helps the brand present itself consistently and build credibility when sending newsletters or promotional campaigns.

The website has evolved beyond an online shop into the central hub for TASTIK’s products, marketing, and brand. “Without the website, growth would be much slower and more limited,” she says.

The road ahead for TASTIK

Greta launched her business while everything wasn’t perfect. She’s glad she didn’t wait.

Asked for advice she’d give other small business owners, Greta shared something that could just as easily apply to her own younger self: “Start simple, but start early. Don’t wait until everything is perfect. Your first website will probably not be perfect, and that is normal.”

For Greta, TASTIK’s website is never really finished. It grows with the business – shaped by how customers behave, what they need to know, and where the brand is headed next. 

The next chapter for Greta and Vaidas with TASTIK is international growth, a wider product range, and continuing the slow, steady work of making insect protein feel like a normal, everyday choice.

“My mission is to make alternative protein simple and normal for everyday use. I want people to see it not as something strange, but as a real food option,” she says. 

One order, one curious customer at a time.