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It Started With an Allergy: Partake Foods · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:01
Speaker 1: For Denise Woodard, her journey into entrepreneurship started with every
0:05
Speaker 1: parent's worst nightmare.
0:07
Speaker 2: It was a Wednesday afternoon. I was on a conference call.
0:11
Speaker 2: Our nanny, Martha, gave Vivi the snack with just two ingredients.
0:15
Speaker 2: As soon as she started to eat it, her lips
0:17
Speaker 2: started to swell up, her tongue started to swell up.
0:19
Speaker 3: She started to.
0:19
Speaker 2: Turn blue in our living room. I hear Martha scream
0:23
Speaker 2: from my home office and I immediately run out and
0:26
Speaker 2: I see she's like swelling up like a balloon right
0:29
Speaker 2: in front of my eyes and clearly couldn't breathe. I
0:31
Speaker 2: thought my daughter was going to die.
0:39
Speaker 1: This is the Unshakables and I'm Ben Walter, CEO of
0:42
Speaker 1: Chase for Business, and.
0:43
Speaker 3: I'm Tanya Nepo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
0:47
Speaker 1: On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
0:50
Speaker 1: business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
0:54
Speaker 1: of how they got through it. Hi, Tanya, Hey Ben Tanya.
0:59
Speaker 1: This episode is a one especially for anyone interested in
1:02
Speaker 1: raising some serious capital for the company. Today, we have
1:05
Speaker 1: the story of Denise Woodard, who, after receiving eighty six
1:09
Speaker 1: knows from investors has raised over twenty three million dollars in.
1:13
Speaker 3: Capital twenty three million. Huh. I can't wait to hear
1:16
Speaker 3: this one.
1:18
Speaker 1: On today's episode Partake Foods out of Los Angeles, California.
1:26
Speaker 1: So many small businesses are family businesses, and for Denise Woodard,
1:31
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of Partake Foods, her family, specifically her
1:35
Speaker 1: daughter Vivi, was the whole reason she started a company
1:38
Speaker 1: in the first place.
1:39
Speaker 2: When Vivi was around eight months old, her first Thanksgiving,
1:43
Speaker 2: she had a dish that had baked egg in it,
1:46
Speaker 2: and she ended up throwing up like fourteen times over
1:49
Speaker 2: five hours, and we ended up rushing her to the
1:51
Speaker 2: emergency room. We learned that she had several food allergies.
1:55
Speaker 2: One of the things that she wasn't allergic to was peanuts,
1:58
Speaker 2: and so the recommendation of our owne ellogist was introduced
2:01
Speaker 2: peanuts as soon as possible, and so shortly after her
2:04
Speaker 2: first birthday, she had a really simple snack with two ingredients,
2:08
Speaker 2: just peanuts and corn, and she had an anaphylactic response immediately.
2:12
Speaker 1: Wow, that must have been terrifying.
2:13
Speaker 2: It was the scariest five minutes of my life.
2:16
Speaker 1: Viv was given two EpiPens and rushed to the emergency room. Thankfully,
2:20
Speaker 1: she was fine, but they were clearly living in a
2:22
Speaker 1: new reality.
2:23
Speaker 2: I felt like inspector Gadget. I felt like a detective
2:27
Speaker 2: who had to dig and dig and dig. While the
2:29
Speaker 2: ingredients may have looked safe, then there could be the
2:32
Speaker 2: concern of it's made on the same equipment with tree nuts.
2:35
Speaker 2: And so I found myself calling food manufacturers and trying
2:38
Speaker 2: to join all these communities online with other food allergy
2:41
Speaker 2: parents to learn what was safe for their kids. And
2:44
Speaker 2: so I went into like overdrive in terms of trying
2:46
Speaker 2: to always be prepared to make sure that she was safe.
2:49
Speaker 1: Of course, Denise was worried about Viv's health, but she
2:52
Speaker 1: was also worried about the social stress the allergies would
2:55
Speaker 1: create for her daughter.
2:56
Speaker 2: I started to think about the emotional impact that having
2:59
Speaker 2: food allergies would have on her, how she wouldn't be
3:01
Speaker 2: able to safely or confidently participate in playdates and celebrations
3:05
Speaker 2: and birthday parties and all the things that involve food.
3:07
Speaker 2: And dreamed of like a brand that was cool enough
3:10
Speaker 2: that people without food allergies would also willingly choose to
3:13
Speaker 2: eat it, And I couldn't find it.
3:15
Speaker 1: With nowhere else to turn, she decided to take matters
3:18
Speaker 1: into her own hands.
3:19
Speaker 2: I was so frustrated with the lack of options that
3:22
Speaker 2: I could find. I immediately went to all the natural
3:24
Speaker 2: food stores in our neighborhood, trying to find safe things
3:27
Speaker 2: that she could eat. But all the fun stuff that
3:29
Speaker 2: kids want to eat and share became off limits, and
3:32
Speaker 2: I wanted to do something about that.
3:34
Speaker 1: Denise founded Partake Foods with a simple goal in mind,
3:38
Speaker 1: make food better so anyone could partake. Though she faced
3:42
Speaker 1: a dwindling list of acceptable ingredients, Denise had to find
3:45
Speaker 1: a way to make something that would work, so she
3:47
Speaker 1: started by experimenting in the kitchen with her nanny, Martha.
3:52
Speaker 2: I remember standing in my kitchen covered in flour with
3:56
Speaker 2: cookies that looked like dog food, and I quickly realized
3:59
Speaker 2: that I was not the person to commercialize this product.
4:02
Speaker 2: So it was very clear that we needed the help
4:04
Speaker 2: of a professional now.
4:06
Speaker 1: Fortunately, Denise did have experience in commercial food and beverage.
4:10
Speaker 1: In fact, she'd been at Coca Cola for a decade
4:12
Speaker 1: working in sales, but manufacturing food that wasn't her specialty,
4:17
Speaker 1: So she got in touch with a food scientist on
4:19
Speaker 1: LinkedIn who helped bring the first few products of Partake
4:22
Speaker 1: Foods to life.
4:25
Speaker 2: Our first product was three flavors of crunchy cookies. We
4:28
Speaker 2: had sprouted grain, chocolate chip, sweet potato, millet, and carrot oat.
4:34
Speaker 1: Denise finally quit her job and started demoing at natural
4:38
Speaker 1: food stores.
4:39
Speaker 2: I'd show up to the store and I'd have this
4:42
Speaker 2: little folding table and a five dollars tablecloth, and I'd
4:45
Speaker 2: show up in my Partake T shirt and I'd share
4:48
Speaker 2: about the story. I'd try to convince them to try
4:50
Speaker 2: the product and kind of rinse and repeat every day
4:53
Speaker 2: for several months.
4:55
Speaker 1: Now, Denise received unanimous feedback about her product names, as in,
4:59
Speaker 1: they didn't se so good. I mean, imagine seeing a
5:02
Speaker 1: package on the shelf, one for a chocolate chip cookie
5:05
Speaker 1: and then one for a sprouted grain cookie. Now which
5:08
Speaker 1: would you choose.
5:09
Speaker 2: I quickly got that feedback of these products taste great,
5:12
Speaker 2: but if I saw this on the shelf and it
5:14
Speaker 2: was called carrot oat, I would never want to eat it.
5:17
Speaker 2: So then those flavor names changed to be much more indulgent,
5:20
Speaker 2: like chocolate Deliciousness or whatever, chocolate chip and ginger snap
5:24
Speaker 2: and oat meal and like very like traditional indulgent cookie
5:28
Speaker 2: flavor names, and we also updated the packaging to match that.
5:31
Speaker 1: Now, she'd been working in sales for a long time,
5:34
Speaker 1: so she knew how to get products on the shelf,
5:36
Speaker 1: but getting those products sold and into people's homes that
5:40
Speaker 1: was a whole nother story.
5:41
Speaker 2: What I quickly saw was that there was a high
5:44
Speaker 2: barrier to entry with the food allergy consumer, and so
5:47
Speaker 2: while they liked the idea in theory, we hadn't really
5:49
Speaker 2: built any trust or brand equity with that consumer.
5:53
Speaker 3: Hey, Ben, can we pause for a second. This one
5:56
Speaker 3: really hits.
5:56
Speaker 1: Home for me. Why Tony, you tell me I have
5:59
Speaker 1: a younger.
5:59
Speaker 3: Brother who had severe, severe food allergies. I'm talking nuts, fish, dairy,
6:04
Speaker 3: all the stuff we like, right, And when he was
6:07
Speaker 3: a child, there were a few life or death situations
6:10
Speaker 3: that still to this day make me emotional when I
6:13
Speaker 3: think about them. And so with my brother, not only
6:15
Speaker 3: did we have to be very mindful of the ingredients
6:18
Speaker 3: listed on the back of any food packaging, but also
6:21
Speaker 3: we had to be very mindful of where the products
6:23
Speaker 3: were manufactured. Could there possibly have been some cross contamination
6:28
Speaker 3: with nuts or some other thing that he's allergic to.
6:31
Speaker 3: We were looking at all these things and constantly had
6:33
Speaker 3: to do so in order to feel confident about the
6:35
Speaker 3: food that we were giving him. I mean, when it's
6:37
Speaker 3: literally life or death, which it was, you have to
6:41
Speaker 3: pay very close attention to these things. So this really
6:44
Speaker 3: matters to me.
6:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can only imagine. You know, if you're scared
6:46
Speaker 1: for the safety of your child, good enough isn't good enough? Right,
6:49
Speaker 1: there's only implicit trust or nothing.
6:51
Speaker 3: That's so true. So then what happened next.
6:55
Speaker 1: Denise didn't have brand equity yet, and she knew it
6:57
Speaker 1: would take time to build, but there was a bright spot.
7:00
Speaker 1: The demand was much broader than she thought. Her food
7:03
Speaker 1: wasn't just for people like Vivi who were restricted by allergies.
7:07
Speaker 2: Our products appealed to much broader consumer groups. Folks who
7:10
Speaker 2: were looking for health conscious products because they were looking
7:13
Speaker 2: to eat gluten free or plant based out of personal preference,
7:16
Speaker 2: parents who needed school safe snacks even if their child
7:19
Speaker 2: didn't have food allergies, or people who wanted to support
7:22
Speaker 2: a woman or minority owned business, and then fell in
7:24
Speaker 2: love with the products.
7:25
Speaker 1: And by the end of her first year, Denise had
7:28
Speaker 1: her product on the shelf. In fifty stores.
7:31
Speaker 2: That gave me the confidence to take things to what
7:33
Speaker 2: I perceived to be the next level, which for me
7:36
Speaker 2: was trying to get into Whole Foods and getting into
7:39
Speaker 2: a regional grocery account.
7:41
Speaker 1: She went back to her tried and true method cold
7:44
Speaker 1: calling and perseverance. In fact, she reached out to every
7:49
Speaker 1: single category manager at Whole Foods.
7:52
Speaker 2: There was an employee in a Boulder, Colorado store who
7:55
Speaker 2: I think took pity on me or saw something interesting
7:58
Speaker 2: in my email and passed on to the appropriate contact.
8:02
Speaker 1: And finally, after months and months of outreach, Denise got
8:06
Speaker 1: a yes.
8:08
Speaker 2: I remember getting the email and my mom was visiting
8:12
Speaker 2: and my husband was home, and I just remember screaming
8:15
Speaker 2: and running through the apartment, like we got in, we
8:17
Speaker 2: got in, we got in, We're going into Whole Foods.
8:20
Speaker 2: This is it. Literally, Like the next week we got
8:22
Speaker 2: a yes from Wegman's as well, which was actually going
8:25
Speaker 2: to kind of triple the store account that we were in,
8:28
Speaker 2: and so I was just super super excited. Quickly that
8:32
Speaker 2: turned into Okay, now the work begins.
8:35
Speaker 1: The job to be done was to fill the demand
8:37
Speaker 1: for all these new orders. It was a lot of work.
8:40
Speaker 1: It also required more money.
8:43
Speaker 2: I never said, okay, let's empty the savings account and
8:45
Speaker 2: put everything into partake. It would be like, oh, I
8:48
Speaker 2: thought the distributor would pay me this week, and I
8:50
Speaker 2: have to buy one thousand dollars worth of sugar. Let
8:53
Speaker 2: me pull one thousand dollars out of the savings account.
8:56
Speaker 2: And it was that continuous drain. As I started to
8:59
Speaker 2: see dwindling down, I started to think, oh shit.
9:05
Speaker 1: But then she had an idea.
9:07
Speaker 2: I remember reading an article about the founder of Tascha
9:10
Speaker 2: Beauty and she talked about making the tough decision to
9:13
Speaker 2: sell her engagement ring. And I remember being like, WOI la.
9:17
Speaker 2: And I called my husband over and I was like,
9:19
Speaker 2: what do you think about this? And oddly, I guess
9:22
Speaker 2: he and I were both super supportive of it. And
9:24
Speaker 2: I sent him to the Diamond District in New York
9:27
Speaker 2: and he came home with several thousand dollars and that
9:30
Speaker 2: continued to keep the business afloat.
9:32
Speaker 3: Ben I got to jump in here. I know we
9:34
Speaker 3: give a lot of sound advice on this show, but
9:36
Speaker 3: I think tip number one, should we get a partner
9:39
Speaker 3: who doesn't bet an eye when you suggest you sell
9:42
Speaker 3: your engagement ring? To buy more sugar for cookies.
9:44
Speaker 1: Right, I'll call my wife right now and let her know.
9:46
Speaker 3: I gotta say, Denise has my favorite type of small
9:49
Speaker 3: business crisis.
9:50
Speaker 1: What crisis getting big too fast?
9:52
Speaker 3: Precisely the moment when you start to consider or in
9:55
Speaker 3: Denise's cases, have no other choice but to consider mentor capital.
9:59
Speaker 1: All right, and I think you're cheating. I think you
10:01
Speaker 1: know what happens next.
10:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's hear it.
10:03
Speaker 1: Denise knew it was time to get serious about fundraising.
10:07
Speaker 2: I think it was at the moment where I was like, Okay,
10:09
Speaker 2: if I'm selling my engagement ring, clearly we need to
10:12
Speaker 2: find some investors. I knew nothing about venture capital when
10:17
Speaker 2: I started to raise money for Partake, and I think
10:20
Speaker 2: that was the scariest part. It felt like people were
10:23
Speaker 2: speaking a completely different language. I'd watched Shark Tank religiously,
10:27
Speaker 2: but I still didn't fully understand it. So what I
10:30
Speaker 2: immediately did was started reaching out to other founders who'd
10:34
Speaker 2: raised capital to try to understand more about what they
10:37
Speaker 2: would recommend in terms of like what types of capital,
10:40
Speaker 2: what types of investors. And I realized quickly that it's
10:44
Speaker 2: very much, for lack of better words, an old boys Club.
10:47
Speaker 2: I feel like some of the language isn't that complicated.
10:50
Speaker 2: It's almost like it's constructed to keep people out.
10:53
Speaker 1: But that didn't stop Denise.
10:55
Speaker 2: I literally was just like cold emailing people on LinkedIn.
10:59
Speaker 2: A lot of those folks were allies. They were white
11:02
Speaker 2: men who had done it before, who were willing to
11:04
Speaker 2: explain the code to me and to give me confidence
11:07
Speaker 2: to go into a room with the same like swagger
11:10
Speaker 2: that they would and share why I deserved to get
11:13
Speaker 2: this funding.
11:14
Speaker 1: She worked with her attorney to decide how to structure
11:17
Speaker 1: her fundraise. Denise didn't know what her company was worth,
11:20
Speaker 1: so she didn't want to put a price on the
11:21
Speaker 1: shares just yet, so she decided to use a convertible
11:25
Speaker 1: note for her fundraising. Denise needed to raise six hundred
11:28
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and she needed to do it fast.
11:32
Speaker 2: At that point, we were personally all tapped out. When
11:35
Speaker 2: we started. We'd had a really nice savings cushion in
11:38
Speaker 2: four oh one k's and my husband had a fantastic job.
11:42
Speaker 2: In late twenty eighteen, he lost his job, and so
11:44
Speaker 2: I started to feel the financial pressure like crushing me.
11:48
Speaker 2: I was really worried. I was really anxious I was
11:51
Speaker 2: really scared, and for me to continue to keep the
11:54
Speaker 2: business going, I was going to need to raise more
11:57
Speaker 2: capital and I was going to need to be able
11:59
Speaker 2: to do it quickly.
12:01
Speaker 1: For a brief moment, Denise considered going back to her
12:03
Speaker 1: corporate job to make more money, but she really didn't
12:06
Speaker 1: want to do that. She knew if she could crack
12:08
Speaker 1: the investor code, well, then they could really go for it.
12:13
Speaker 2: The angel investor circuit was going horribly for us. I
12:16
Speaker 2: was not able to raise any additional capital, and it
12:20
Speaker 2: was really demoralizing. I was getting no for a lot
12:23
Speaker 2: of different reasons. Sometimes I would get a no because
12:26
Speaker 2: this is a too niche of a category, or some
12:29
Speaker 2: people would say, oh, this is too crowded, or there
12:32
Speaker 2: would be a well come back when you get to
12:34
Speaker 2: a million dollars in sales, and I would think, well,
12:36
Speaker 2: I can't get to a million dollars in sales if
12:38
Speaker 2: I don't have any more money. And so it was
12:41
Speaker 2: really really frustrating, felt like this horrible, exhausting cycle that
12:46
Speaker 2: wasn't going anywhere.
12:48
Speaker 1: She kept pitching, kept getting turned down. Then Denise remembered
12:52
Speaker 1: an article she read about jay z Yes that Jay
12:55
Speaker 1: z He was starting a venture fund.
12:58
Speaker 2: One of our dearest friends, who's also so an investor
13:01
Speaker 2: in our business, works in the music industry. And I
13:03
Speaker 2: remember saying, do you know jay Z? And he's like, no, no,
13:07
Speaker 2: I don't. But he happened to know one of his
13:09
Speaker 2: business partners and they were willing to take the call.
13:12
Speaker 2: And I was like, you know, I'm going to be
13:14
Speaker 2: in La soon. I'd love to get together, just hoping
13:16
Speaker 2: they would agree to take a meeting, and they did so.
13:20
Speaker 1: She met with jay Z's partner and right from the
13:22
Speaker 1: beginning this conversation it felt totally different.
13:27
Speaker 2: It was so different than the Angel pitches in that,
13:30
Speaker 2: like all of the Angel chats typically started with what's
13:34
Speaker 2: your gross margin, what's the tam And this conversation was like,
13:37
Speaker 2: tell me about where you're from, tell me about why
13:39
Speaker 2: you're building this business. And I walked away so excited
13:43
Speaker 2: and so hopeful. And then in March of twenty nineteen,
13:47
Speaker 2: we got a term sheet that Marcy Venture Partners was
13:51
Speaker 2: interested in leading a seed round of funding for us.
13:54
Speaker 1: That conversation it changed everything for Denise.
13:57
Speaker 2: A lot of the groups that had said no, the
14:00
Speaker 2: announcement that we'd closed the seed round came out. A
14:03
Speaker 2: lot of those folks came back and they were like,
14:05
Speaker 2: you know, it wasn't a good time when you pitched before,
14:07
Speaker 2: but if you have room now, we'd love to invest.
14:10
Speaker 2: And I realized, like, maybe there wasn't something wrong with
14:12
Speaker 2: me in the business, and they said no. For another reason,
14:16
Speaker 2: it gave me some confidence because of that, but practically
14:19
Speaker 2: it also gave me the capital we needed to begin
14:21
Speaker 2: to scale the business and to begin to hire people.
14:24
Speaker 2: And we raise one million dollars.
14:28
Speaker 1: And soon she received a massive order from a retailed
14:31
Speaker 1: giant Target.
14:33
Speaker 2: I read the email and I reread the email, and
14:36
Speaker 2: I just like, stand up and sit down, and stand
14:38
Speaker 2: up and sit down. I don't know what to do
14:39
Speaker 2: with myself. And we had one other full time employee
14:42
Speaker 2: in the business, so I immediately call her and I tell
14:45
Speaker 2: her what's happened, and like, can we afford this? Can
14:47
Speaker 2: we do this? Can we make this many cookies? And
14:50
Speaker 2: she's like, I think so. And we needed to make
14:52
Speaker 2: a decision that week, and we went for it.
14:55
Speaker 1: In May of twenty twenty, George Floyd was tragically murdered.
14:58
Speaker 1: Tell us how that impacted your family and the business.
15:01
Speaker 2: For my family, you know, I think my husband living
15:05
Speaker 2: as a black man in America and as a black family, like,
15:08
Speaker 2: we felt so angered and saddened and wanted to channel
15:14
Speaker 2: those feelings into something positive and into positive change. And
15:18
Speaker 2: so there was some developments in the business. We launched
15:21
Speaker 2: an HBCU fellowship program aimed at increasing diversity in the
15:25
Speaker 2: food industry, and a lot of that came through kind
15:28
Speaker 2: of our feelings about George Floyd's murder.
15:30
Speaker 3: And then on the.
15:31
Speaker 2: Business front, we received an amount of inbound from potential investors,
15:37
Speaker 2: potential retailers, influencers, press, unlike anything I could have ever imagined.
15:45
Speaker 1: Surprisingly, twenty twenty was Partake Food's biggest year yet. They
15:50
Speaker 1: started the year in three hundred and fifty stores and
15:52
Speaker 1: ended in five thousand and got serious interest from investors.
15:57
Speaker 2: It's like a total one eighty from when I was
15:59
Speaker 2: raising the seed round of funding, where I was like
16:02
Speaker 2: begging for scraps, and I feel like I get to
16:04
Speaker 2: be selective about who I want to partner with.
16:07
Speaker 1: Since then, Denise has raised over twenty three million dollars
16:10
Speaker 1: in capital for Partake Foods.
16:12
Speaker 2: When I think back about why I started the company,
16:14
Speaker 2: it wasn't nutritional. It wasn't taste, it was the emotions.
16:17
Speaker 2: Like so much of your childhood experience, so much of
16:20
Speaker 2: your life experience is built in this, like emotions and
16:24
Speaker 2: the camaraderie and the celebration that comes with enjoying food together.
16:27
Speaker 2: And when I hear notes from our customers about how
16:29
Speaker 2: they could have s'mores for the first time, or bacup
16:32
Speaker 2: pie crust, or enjoy cookies at a birthday party, that's
16:35
Speaker 2: the reason I started the business.
16:38
Speaker 1: Today, Partake Foods has over ten products in their line
16:41
Speaker 1: and is available in thirteen thousand stores across the country.
16:46
Speaker 1: You can find them on multiple airlines and even in
16:48
Speaker 1: Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
16:55
Speaker 2: Wow.
16:55
Speaker 3: Then she made some major strides, she really did. There's
16:59
Speaker 3: so many parents and caretakers going through that it has
17:03
Speaker 3: become a major concern for folks. So this is a
17:05
Speaker 3: very real solution that she's provided.
17:07
Speaker 1: I think when there are challenges with food, trust becomes everything.
17:11
Speaker 1: Because there are a lot of things you do once
17:14
Speaker 1: a week, once a month, maybe even once a year.
17:16
Speaker 1: Food's not like that. Foods multiple times a day. It's
17:19
Speaker 1: always in our minds. It's a big part of our
17:21
Speaker 1: lives physically, but it's also a big part of our
17:23
Speaker 1: lives socially, So if you can't trust in the food
17:26
Speaker 1: brands that you're buying and that you're consuming, it's a
17:28
Speaker 1: real issue for consumers. And so you know, she had
17:30
Speaker 1: a pretty big trust barrier she had to get up
17:32
Speaker 1: over because that's a community that always has trust front
17:34
Speaker 1: and center in their minds.
17:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, as I said earlier, my younger brother has severe
17:38
Speaker 3: food allergies and still does to this day. I mean
17:41
Speaker 3: even as an adult, he has to be very, very
17:43
Speaker 3: particular about what he eats. So I love that Denise
17:46
Speaker 3: brought these products to the market and that they're products
17:49
Speaker 3: that people can trust.
17:50
Speaker 1: I think there were some good lessons in there in
17:52
Speaker 1: terms of how she brought her product to the market,
17:54
Speaker 1: how she earned that trust over time, how she stepstoned
17:57
Speaker 1: into it. And I think with something like this, you
18:00
Speaker 1: can imagine a big food brand goes in and they
18:02
Speaker 1: launch a big marketing blitz and it says this is safety,
18:04
Speaker 1: and they have that brand equity already and they're able
18:06
Speaker 1: to build that. She didn't have any of that, so
18:08
Speaker 1: she had to earn that trust along the way, and
18:10
Speaker 1: that's not an easy thing to do, but she sort
18:12
Speaker 1: of scratched away at it until she got there. And
18:14
Speaker 1: I think the authenticity of her story and where she
18:17
Speaker 1: was coming from and how the product evolved gave her
18:19
Speaker 1: the credibility to do that over time.
18:21
Speaker 3: And I like the term scratched away because that's really
18:23
Speaker 3: how it felt like. She had to make little strides,
18:26
Speaker 3: be open, and of course pivot. I thought that was
18:29
Speaker 3: a really great part of her story, the fact that
18:31
Speaker 3: she was able to make adjustments and she learned about
18:34
Speaker 3: who her target market was and was open to her
18:38
Speaker 3: business becoming something other than what she initially thought it
18:41
Speaker 3: was going to be. I liked her openness and her flexibility.
18:44
Speaker 1: That's a really hard balance to get right, you know.
18:46
Speaker 1: On the one hand, I hear people say, stay true
18:48
Speaker 1: to what you originally set out to do, and be
18:52
Speaker 1: true to your original product and your original audience, and
18:54
Speaker 1: she kind of couldn't do that because it wasn't a
18:56
Speaker 1: big enough market. Right. What she realized of her time
18:59
Speaker 1: is she could be true to that while also catering
19:01
Speaker 1: to a larger market. So she managed to throw that
19:03
Speaker 1: needle really well because what she didn't do was compromise
19:05
Speaker 1: on her original audience. She stayed with it. She kept
19:07
Speaker 1: her products completely allagen free and stayed true to that,
19:11
Speaker 1: but in a way that appealed to a broader audience
19:13
Speaker 1: that grew her dressable market without compromising on the core
19:16
Speaker 1: value proposition.
19:17
Speaker 3: And I think that the openness and her willingness to
19:20
Speaker 3: learn and getting out there and listening to what people
19:23
Speaker 3: were saying about her product, her seeing who was finding
19:26
Speaker 3: the product to be interesting, I thought that was a
19:29
Speaker 3: really great entrepreneurial move on her part.
19:31
Speaker 1: I think it was. The other thing I give her
19:33
Speaker 1: a ton of credit for is capital pee patients. You know,
19:36
Speaker 1: you can imagine when you start a business. Rather than
19:39
Speaker 1: just quitting her job and running out there and having
19:42
Speaker 1: to make it all go in a short period of
19:43
Speaker 1: time and running to market, she took her time in
19:46
Speaker 1: a couple of ways. She took her time by keeping
19:48
Speaker 1: a job on the side for a while, which helped
19:50
Speaker 1: her earn some money and helped her build the business
19:53
Speaker 1: more methodically. She took her time getting her product right
19:56
Speaker 1: before she went big and launched it and tried to
19:58
Speaker 1: sell it beyond its capabilities, beyond her manufacturing capabilities. She
20:02
Speaker 1: took her time from an equity perspective, which helped her
20:04
Speaker 1: preserve her equity in the business. She didn't just go
20:06
Speaker 1: out and raise a bunch of money that deluted her
20:08
Speaker 1: down right away. So you know, as fast as she moved,
20:11
Speaker 1: and she did move pretty fast, I think she found
20:14
Speaker 1: a good balance between pace and patience, and I think
20:17
Speaker 1: her patience has really paid off.
20:18
Speaker 3: It just makes me think about myself as a business
20:21
Speaker 3: owner and other business owners and just how we learn
20:23
Speaker 3: to strike that balance, how we learn to make the
20:26
Speaker 3: appropriate adjustments, consider timing. There's so many things to think
20:30
Speaker 3: about when you are as you're trying to grow. How
20:33
Speaker 3: have you seen people strike that balance?
20:36
Speaker 1: I think the way that people are successful in that
20:38
Speaker 1: is they find ways to prove product market fit. So
20:41
Speaker 1: they find ways to prove that their product resonates with
20:44
Speaker 1: the right kinds of customers in the right way, number one,
20:47
Speaker 1: and to prove to themselves that they can meet the
20:49
Speaker 1: supply side of the equation. You know, you have to
20:51
Speaker 1: have both supply and demand to run a business, and
20:54
Speaker 1: you have to have confidence in both before you press
20:56
Speaker 1: the gas pedal. The people I've seen do it really well,
20:59
Speaker 1: generally don't have it perfectly right the first time. That's
21:01
Speaker 1: more luck than skill, and so they find ways to
21:04
Speaker 1: d risk as they go. And I think that's a
21:06
Speaker 1: guiding principle that small business owners can have, which is,
21:09
Speaker 1: what can I do to de risk what I'm trying
21:11
Speaker 1: to do while I learn? And the more you can
21:14
Speaker 1: do to take risk out of the business while you
21:16
Speaker 1: learn those lessons, the better off you're going to be
21:18
Speaker 1: ultimately from the perspective of how much equity you have,
21:20
Speaker 1: from the perspective of how much market credibility you have,
21:24
Speaker 1: from the perspective of how much goodwill you have with
21:26
Speaker 1: your partners. The more that you can de risk while
21:28
Speaker 1: you learn those lessons, the more runway you're going to
21:31
Speaker 1: have once you've learned them to go do things the
21:33
Speaker 1: way you've learned is right.
21:34
Speaker 3: That is one way that Denise did that right with
21:36
Speaker 3: having her job and holding on to her job. But
21:38
Speaker 3: what I like about how she did this because a
21:40
Speaker 3: lot of entrepreneurs do that. But what she did was
21:42
Speaker 3: she was very consistent about it. She was diligent. Though
21:45
Speaker 3: she had the security of her existing position, she still
21:50
Speaker 3: was running this company and growing it steadily and learning
21:52
Speaker 3: her market and taking major steps. So I like that, Yes,
21:56
Speaker 3: she had reduced the risk, but she didn't do what
21:58
Speaker 3: a lot of other people do and they're just starting out,
22:01
Speaker 3: which is not take it as seriously as they should
22:03
Speaker 3: as if they didn't have the security of the position,
22:06
Speaker 3: you know what I mean.
22:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, she took it seriously, there's no question. And look, ultimately,
22:09
Speaker 1: if it's not your passion, you shouldn't quit your job
22:12
Speaker 1: and do it because it's going to be all consuming
22:14
Speaker 1: and it's going to be your life. So I think
22:16
Speaker 1: the other place that her patient's paid off was in
22:18
Speaker 1: her fundraising. You know, we've talked to a lot of
22:19
Speaker 1: different companies about how they raise money, and some go
22:22
Speaker 1: sort of alternative routes, some friends and families, some use
22:25
Speaker 1: their own money, some use partners money. She went more
22:28
Speaker 1: of a sort of classic outside investor route, and like
22:31
Speaker 1: many people who go that route, it wasn't easy, right,
22:34
Speaker 1: So she describes pitching twenty thirty, forty fifty times and
22:37
Speaker 1: getting a whole bunch of no's before she gets to
22:40
Speaker 1: a yes. I always tell people, if you're fundraising and
22:42
Speaker 1: you're not walking out with feedback, you're not getting smarter
22:44
Speaker 1: and your next pitch is not going to be any
22:46
Speaker 1: better than your current pitch. And there's a few things
22:48
Speaker 1: she tipped us off for that, I think are good
22:50
Speaker 1: things to keep in mind always, you know, number one,
22:52
Speaker 1: always be able to articulate how you're going to use
22:54
Speaker 1: the money. You know, saying I need to raise money
22:56
Speaker 1: for this company without being able to specifically articulate how
23:00
Speaker 1: you're going to use that money and what kind of
23:02
Speaker 1: return you expect probably isn't gonna win very many fans.
23:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, she definitely was taking a long term approach, not
23:07
Speaker 3: just seeking money right from wherever she could get it.
23:10
Speaker 3: She was very intentional, and I liked that she was
23:13
Speaker 3: very committed to her education, and she recognized that she
23:17
Speaker 3: was entering an arena that was very unusual or different
23:20
Speaker 3: for her, and she stressed that she had to learn
23:23
Speaker 3: what to say, she had to learn the language, and
23:26
Speaker 3: in addition to being patient, she took that part very
23:28
Speaker 3: seriously as well.
23:29
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure about that. I think if you
23:31
Speaker 1: listened in the early days, she just wanted the money.
23:33
Speaker 1: And I can't really blame her for that, because she's
23:34
Speaker 1: trying to get going and she's looking for funds, and
23:36
Speaker 1: so if you listen to how she talks about it
23:38
Speaker 1: at the end, she clearly had a much more evolved
23:41
Speaker 1: way of thinking about partnering with someone from a fundraising
23:44
Speaker 1: capability than she did in the early days. I think
23:46
Speaker 1: she realized that the fundraising process was about finding the
23:49
Speaker 1: right long term partner.
23:50
Speaker 3: But it worked out well for Denise. I mean, listaid
23:52
Speaker 3: there are advantages to the nose. In addition to getting
23:55
Speaker 3: substantive feedback from investors on your pitch, there's also the
23:59
Speaker 3: men fit of time time to learn more about what
24:03
Speaker 3: to do differently and not just what to change in
24:05
Speaker 3: your pitch. So the nos were really a great opportunity
24:09
Speaker 3: for her to learn.
24:10
Speaker 1: Right. If you're not learning from your nose, then you're
24:13
Speaker 1: not growing, Tanya, I want to share one last piece
24:15
Speaker 1: of the interview with you. Denise had some advice for
24:18
Speaker 1: current and aspiring small business owners that I really think
24:21
Speaker 1: will resonate.
24:22
Speaker 3: Well, let's hear it. It's okay to start small.
24:25
Speaker 2: I remember being at those local demos and trade shows
24:28
Speaker 2: and I would have a five dollars tablecloth and a
24:30
Speaker 2: stand that I made at home myself, and I would
24:33
Speaker 2: be embarrassed. I would see other businesses that were much larger,
24:36
Speaker 2: with much flashier signs, and think something's wrong with my business.
24:40
Speaker 2: I felt the same when we weren't able to hire
24:42
Speaker 2: early on. But I think it was that financial scarcity
24:46
Speaker 2: that made me have to be much more scrappy. It
24:49
Speaker 2: made me a stronger and better business person. And at
24:52
Speaker 2: the time I kind of wished it away, but I
24:53
Speaker 2: think the starting small was really important for my business.
24:56
Speaker 1: Okay, and I have to ask, what is your daughter's
24:58
Speaker 1: favorite part take prop.
25:00
Speaker 2: She takes the crunchy chocolate chip snack packs for lunch
25:04
Speaker 2: every single day and I try to switch it up
25:06
Speaker 2: for her sometimes and she's like, no, I want the
25:08
Speaker 2: cookies every day.
25:11
Speaker 1: Ben.
25:11
Speaker 3: I think her daughter is onto something. These crunchy chocolate
25:14
Speaker 3: chip snack packs are delicious.
25:16
Speaker 1: I can go for some right now.
25:17
Speaker 3: And there's ice cream too. Where's ice cream? Where's ice cream?
25:21
Speaker 3: I want to try it.
25:22
Speaker 1: It sounds like Partake Foods has a really exciting road
25:24
Speaker 1: ahead of it, but a lot more to do.
25:26
Speaker 3: Yes, so much more to do, so many more snacks
25:29
Speaker 3: for Vivi to try and the rest of us too.
25:32
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to The Unshakables. If you
25:35
Speaker 1: like this episode, please rate and review it. It'll help
25:38
Speaker 1: our show find more listeners. On the next episode, after
25:42
Speaker 1: a near death experience left him with no one to trust.
25:46
Speaker 1: Real estate investor and developer Fukwan Bilal pivoted to reinvent
25:50
Speaker 1: his business and his mindset. I'm Ben Walter and this
25:54
Speaker 1: is the Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio
25:57
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia.
25:58
Speaker 2: The Unshakables is a pretty action of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
26:02
Speaker 3: And we'll have