Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Denise Woodard, Founder and CEO of Partake Foods, talks about launching her line of allergy-friendly snacks

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Denise Woodard, Founder and CEO of Partake Foods, talks about launching her line of allergy-friendly snacks · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's to show that she
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  Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
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  Speaker 1: interviews will include consumers, it will include celebrities, CEO those
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  Speaker 1: My next guest on Money Making Conversation is Denise Water.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: She is the founder and CEO of Partake, a line
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: of nationally distributed allergy friendly snacks inspired by her daughter's
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: experience with food allergies. Launched in seventeen, Partake products, which
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: includes cookies and baking mix, can be found in more
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: than six thousand retailers nationwide, including Targets, Sprouts, Whole food markets.
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  Speaker 1: We will be discussing her growing business and I also
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: ordered her Partake five and one baking mix by the way,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: you know, because I love her to cook. Y'all don't
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: know my history by cooking and desserts always on my Facebook.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: You can get fat watching my timeline. Please work with
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the money Making Conversation. I'm gonna calling my good friends.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: She's out of New Jersey. Denise Water, how you doing great?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Good morning? How are you awesome? Seventeen? I was just
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: gonna be real about this. You launched the twenty seventeen.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Here we are. We had a pandemic year twenty we're
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: in one and you and more than six and retailers
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: come on that. That's Uh, that's a crazy number in
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a good way. Talk to tell us about how how
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: can you launch in seventeen and then being six thouars
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: retailers but roughly lex in four years. Baby steps we
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: started in August of seen with three flavors of cookies.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Um Our business was self funded, so I was dipping
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: into my family's savings account and it was self distributed,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: which meant I was selling cookies out of my car
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to natural food stores in New York and New Jersey.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: And I did that for nearly a year, and it
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: was the most valuable time UM I spent in the company,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I think, because it allowed me to meet our customers,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: to understand who who are consumer was, who they weren't,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: what they liked about the product, what they didn't, so
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that we could listen and we could make changes. And
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: then in the summer of eighteen a year later, we
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: launched a region of Whole Foods and we launched Wegmans,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and that was our next baby step. You know, go
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: into these eight stores, prove ourselves, understand what's different about
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: this than in the independent New York market. And we
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: did that for nearly a year. And then in the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: summer of twenty nineteen, we raised a million dollars seed
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: round of funding that was led by Marcy Venture Partners,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: of which Jay z is a co founder. That really
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: gave us the capital we needed to begin to scale
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the business a bit more, to begin to hire UM
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and then we knew it was going to be a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: big year. UM but in all the ways that it
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: surprised us, it also surprised our business. And we started
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: the year and about three hundred and fifty stores and
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: now you can find us in about six thousand stores
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: who closed to five million dollars Series A at the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: end of have lots of new products coming out that
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: are not just cookies, and so really excited about what
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: we're building here. Wow, you you just said that's so smooth,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and you just smooth. You're just a smooth operator. You
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: just rad long that information. Not just hurt by the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: success is the rapid rate of success. When you say,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: because a lot of people, you know, they try to
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: get any store like Whole Foods and Targets and things
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: like that, there, it is met with some success. But
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: when you say you listened to the customer, was it
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to the packaging or some of your cookies, you thought
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: were your favorites. They didn't like them because you was
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: on the ground, Like you said, you were hands on,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: and talk to us about that process because you said
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: you had eight stores initially and then that was like
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: a test. They are either going to test you online
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: or they're gonna test you in the limited store distribution.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Tell us about that process and how nerve racking that was.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: So in talking to the customers on the ground, I thought,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: because I started the company as a food allergy mom,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: that that's who our primary consumer would be. And I
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: realized very quickly that was actually the customer who wouldn't
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: touch our product with a ten foot pole because they
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: didn't know us, they didn't trust us. We hadn't build
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: any credibility with them, and so they were like, oh,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: we love the idea. However, my allergist hasn't told me
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: about this. I haven't seen it in my Facebook mom
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: group for people with food allergies, so UM, not going
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: to try it. But they were thankfully much broader consumer groups.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: People who wanted to support our women or minority owned
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: business people who are exploring a plant based or gluten
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: rediet for other reasons, UM moms whose kids didn't have allergies,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: but needed a school safe snack to take to school
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: to share with other kids. And so that's how we
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: got that information, and that's the type of information that
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: we learned. Got lots of feedback on the packaging. UM.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: You know, as a mom, I thought the idea of
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: trying to sneak fruits and vegetables and would be really interesting.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: We realized people just want cookies. They don't they want
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: under ingredients they can understand, but they didn't like the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: idea of me trying to sneak carrots and beats into
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: their cookies. And so we took all of that data,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: updated our packaging, updated our formulas, and updated our marketing
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: strategy to reflect that. And then to go into Whole
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Foods and Wagmans, we specifically picked retailers that would allow
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: us to do demos because we had done that in
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the New York market and we knew that when people
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: tried the product, when they heard the story, they converted
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to customers and they told their friends about it. And
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to get into Whole Foods and Wagman's UM, it was
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of nose for our Whole Foods relationship. I
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: cold emailed our LinkedIn message. Every single person on LinkedIn
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I could find that had Whole Foods category manager and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: their job title. And thankfully, a gentleman out of Boulder,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Colorado took pity on me and pointed me in the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: direction of the right person. And that's how our relationship
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: with Whole Foods started. Oh that's so I always tell
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: people by LinkedIn LinkedIn, I always tell people if you
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: don't have a website, have a LinkedIn account. It is
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  Speaker 1: who who will friend you. I want you to follow
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  Speaker 1: them all the time. But you can go to a
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  Speaker 1: certain level you can buy and it gives you a
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  Speaker 1: limited premium requested you can direct message these individuals. So
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: with your success, you know you. I love when you
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: said you try to sneak veggies into these uh these
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: into these cookies. You try to be slick, and I
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: see these commercial whether they try to. Kids are smart
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and then parents also know that I have a daughter
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: she's grown now, but I can remember giving my daughter
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: that that the green the green baby food that they
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: always spit up. You know, I don't care. I don't
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: care if you put a little apple sauce on top
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: of it, they're gonna spit that right back out. So
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: what was your whole process? I know? And when can
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I ask? What was the allergy that your daughter was tattooed?
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: It really inspired this, uh, this this line of baking
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and a cookie cookie cookie cookie samples. Sure, So it
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: was actually the combination of allergies that she has. So
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: she's allergic to eggs, tree nuts, corn, and bananas, and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: so it made it really hard because often like if
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: you don't put egg in something, you mash up a
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: banana to be the substitute. Um, if you don't eat corn,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: if we don't eat a lot of gluten in our house,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and oftentimes they use corn flour as the substitute. And
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: so it was a combination of allergies that she had
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: that made it so hard for me to find things
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: that tasted good that I felt good about nutritionally. Wow.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: So with that being said, you you go through the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Union six thousand stores now and you said you have
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: more product coming out. We've talked about the funding rounds. Now,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: let's go back that little bit because a lot of
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: people who ask me that question, because what exactly does
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that presentation look like? Is it of the one seeter?
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Is it ten pages? Is it did you hire somebody
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: to help you put it together or usually sat down
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: with your power point and did it on your own.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: How did that work out? Well? I just sat down
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: with my power point and did it on my own.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: It was important to me that we put every dollar
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: back into the business, and so the deck we have,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I still sat down up a computer and did my
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: power point because I figure any investor that wants to
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: partner with us wants us to be investing in the business,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: not investing in pretty graphic designs to try to try
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to get money. Um. And so that's how we did
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the presentation. It was about ten pages, and it was
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: really just me and Google trying to figure out what
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: a traditional pitch deck looked like. You know, what's the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: problem you're addressing, what's the market opportunity? Who are your competitors?
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: What makes you better than the competitors? But I think
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the most important thing is trying to get either a
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: warm intro or get time with those investors, because it's
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: really when you sit down as the founder and share
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: why you're doing what you're doing, what inspires you, what
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: your mission is behind the company that I think really
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: gets investors to buy in at the earliest of state,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: at the earliest stages of the business, not you know,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: not information on a piece of paper, but you're in
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the money making business. So now you know the great
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: thing about is your daughter inspired this, But you're in
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the money making business. You're in a cookie making business,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: so these cookies. Talk to tell us about the cookies.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: And then we're going to talk about the five and
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: one mix that I ordered online, which by the way,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: was a really good experience. And just tell everybody went
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: online and then they give you an option of a discount.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: If you put in your your email and your telephone
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: no information, you can get discount on your purchase. I
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: opted not to do that, so I went on and
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: just bought one package. I think it was twenty three
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: dollars and something for I think you said three and
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I experienced that and it was and then the receipt
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: came to me afterwards, and then another email came said hey,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you forgot to buy cookies, and so it was really
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: so it really was a fun experience and also more importantly,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: a professional experience. And I think that's really important because
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: I was not you know, you could you go online.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it can be frustrating, especially for new businesses.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: They think they got the Shopify the shopping car set
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: up correctly and it's not. But your your shopping car
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: was fun. What what was the approach and what was
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the mindset behind that shopping car design? Because again, if
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I made my purchase, it came back and said, hey,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: you forgot to buy cookies, And I thought that was cute,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and I said, well, I wasn't thinking about buying cookies,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: but not that you think about it. I went back
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and looked at your cookies. So it did drive me
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: back to your website, even though all I wanted was
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the five and one baking mix. Talked to us about that. Sure.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: So when we first launched, we launched our website on
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Squarespace and it was a much simpler website. But similarly,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I think it's really important to get feedback from people
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: who are your potential customers, from other brands that have
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: had success from other brands that might not have had
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: success and wish they would have done things differently. So
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of kind of sharing where we
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: are and asking for feedback on what can make things better.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: We moved our website over to Shopify when we start
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to focus more heavily on e commerce in late twenty
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: nineteen UM and very similarly, feedback, feedback, feedback, But also
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: now we have the capital to be able to invest
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: in data to understand you know, what points up what
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: pages on our website, our customers spending more time on
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: what products are they often buying together? How can we
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: then tell them, you know, they forgot something or offer
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: or somebody who doesn't make a purchase, you know, offer
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: some incentive to come back and make a purchase. And
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: then how do we keep sharing content that's relevant, that's engaging,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: so that the customers that do sign up with their
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: email or phone number are interested and want to hear
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: from us, and that it's not just sales tactics that
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: were actually providing a value to our customers. Well, you
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I have fun with it, in fact, like I told
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: you are in my previous conversation. Though that we're discussing,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I went back and looked at the cookies, and I'm
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: a big girl Scout cookie so so I would like
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the box is cute, And like I said, I was
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: just not interested in buying because I went on for
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the five and one. Now the five and one I
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: found rather interesting. I've asked you are you are you?
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Are you? Are you a chelf or your pastry shaff
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: or your chelf with the school? Are you a how do?
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: What did your skill level come from to get into
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: this business? Well, I will say that thirty nine dollars
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a month for the LinkedIn premium subscription is the best
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: money I've spent because I failed horribly when I got
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: into the kitchen and tried to develop the cookies. But
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: thankfully I was able to find a product developer food
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: scientists who had experience in allergy friendly UM products who
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: was willing to take a leap and work with us,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and we still work with her to this day. UM.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: I think on my background is more in the consumer
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: package good space. So I spent nearly a decade at
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Coca Cola prior to starting Partake, and most recently in
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: my time there, I was able to lead sales for
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: a segment of their venture and venturing an emerging brands division,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: so brands that Coke had identified to invest in require
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I was leading sales and helping integrate those brands into
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the Coca Cola system. And so my background really leans
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: much more heavily on the sales and marketing side of
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: consumer package goods UM. And then I'm a food allergy mom.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: So like our five and one baking mix came to
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: life because of a problem my family was facing during
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: UM quarantine. Are my daughter's favorite baking mix that we
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: used to make all of our pancakes and waffles got discontinued,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and I called our product developer frantically, and I was like,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: what do I do? There's literally nothing she can safely eat.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: And she whipped up something that we thought was just
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: so wonderful that we needed to share it with our
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: customers too. And that's how our baking like baking mixed
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: line came to be. Okay again, you're so smooth. You
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: just say all these things so quickly and so articulately.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Articularly is so fantastic. So five and one mix, okay
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: is cake, is muffins, waffles, and it was two other things.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: What were the pancakes and banana back. Can't pancakes and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: banana bread um round out the five. Okay cool, now
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: you said you're daughter is allergic to bananas, right, yes,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: so she cannot do banana bread. So we've been experimenting
• 14:05
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• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the United States for Service and the ad Council. Okay, cool,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: So I when I get when I get the five
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and one Micks okay off air, you said, Roshan, you
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: gotta make this. What are your favorites to make out
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of the five and one mis muffins? I woke up
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: this morning at five thirty because my daughter let me
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: know that she would love to. She wanted to have
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: fresh faked muffins for breakfast this morning. So easy. The
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: pancakes and waffles we do a lot because those are
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: just add water, and even with the complicated recipes of muffins,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: it's just pantry staples or kitchen staples like butter um,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: sugar and water that you're adding to it. So they're
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: all you know. You can whip them up in five
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: minutes or less, which is really nice, and they all
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: have ingredients that you can feel really good about and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: they can be shared really easily no matter who's coming
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: over for breakfast or brunch, because they're free of the
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: top eight allergens, they're gluten free, they're vegan, their non gmo,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: there kosher, and so they meet most people's kind of
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: dietary restrictions. Now, I love I always see recipes just
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: say add ward. I always want to add my two
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: percent milk would that change the recipe if I added
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: two percent milk instead of water. We have one of
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: our investors at oat milk and he had very good results,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: So I think that you're safe. I will say I
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: haven't tried it. I'm gonna put that disclaimer out there.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I just add water, but I know that oat milk works.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that two trying. You know, we we're for
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: friends now, so I'll let you know how it goes,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: because I love adding that extra little flavor because water
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: is just water, you know, milk give you a little texture,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: a little flavor and stuffing that. And I'm not allergic
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to milk, so I enjoy milk on everything that I
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: cook with. So I'm gonna add a little milk to
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: mine and muffins. So so now that now, now you
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: just listen to me. So I'm not allergic to anything
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: right now, so that I know of. So I'm running
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: across something. This just sent me sent me south yet,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: but I will tell you so if I take your
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: muffins and I can add some the cons in it,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: right can id? I can add blueberries? We do. I
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: typically do blueberries, or add chocolate chips. You can add
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: whatever your heart desires. Oh my god, I'm tasting blue
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: beery muffins or the bomb. Okay, so so okay, So
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do is, I'm goa this this week.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna take some pictures. I'm gonna do your mix.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Whenever I get it. It should be if it comes
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: this week, because I ordered it yesterday, it should come
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: this week. Okay, So when it comes, I'm gonna immediately
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do some blueberries. I'm gonna do the milk things.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Just show you have fun with I'm not trying. I'm
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: not no, I'm not no food doctor. You know where
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I just disseminate things to go well, it just just
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: not work that. I'm just gonna do it. I like
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: to have fun. And so I have a TV show
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: that I'm launching, and uh, the Atlanta market isn't gonna
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: be in two million homes. I love to be able
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to introduce your product on that because I love doing
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: simple things that can. My whole thing is about I'm
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: not a guy who sits around. I'm like you, my
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: degrees in mathematics, I have not. I'm not a trained
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: pastry chef and mother train cook or chef I just
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: have natural gifts and so so what I do is
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I like to do things were fast. So I would
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: like instead of going to the apple pie, I gonna
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: get the cans on the shelf and put that in
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: my apple pie. You know, some people their mind over
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the dnies. Oh my god, they using kid apples. Hey hey, hey,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: calm down. People out there there own this shift obviously
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: for a reason because somebody out there by Okay, So
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: with your product, I feel that your products to say way,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: some people are looking at the go well five and one.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: You know it's not you know, it's not breaking it down.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: But there's a customer out there that wants to use
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: your product because they don't have time or they may
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: have never experienced that level of shop or baking ability.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And so that's why I'm really excited about your product.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Was that the thought process. I know you were saying, hey,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: your daughter, the battery they was using for your daughter
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was not available. What is really driving you as a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: business owner? Are you trying to other than the allergy free?
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: You know, because you're black Sea or your female, your entrepreneur,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: it's a certain degree of passion is driving you behind
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: all this this whole food industry that you're right now
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: doing very well because you're in six thousand stores nationwide.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I will say that when I started the company, the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: name Partake came from the idea of people with food
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: allergies like my daughter, being able to partake, but as
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: a woman, as a person of color, as a first
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: time founder of first time my parents didn't go to
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: graduate from high school like first time college generation first
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? First generation college graduate?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Excuse me? UM, I realized that there were a lot
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: more people who needed an opportunity to partake UM pun intended.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: And so what our business is really all about is
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: inclusivity and lifting as we climb. And the way that
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: we bring that to life is you know, as we've
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: grown the business, the thing that's made me the most
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: excited is the impact that we're able to have on
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: underfunded and underestimated and underrepresented groups of people. UM. And
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: so those partnerships have been We partner with a group
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: called the Food and Food Equality Initiative UM. It was
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: a it was it's a nonprofit that was started by
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: um Emily Brown, a black woman that's based in Kansas
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: City and her family was experiencing food and security, and
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: they had the double way. Amy of her children also
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: have food allergies, and they went to their local food
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: pantry and there was literally only two things her kids
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: can safely eat, tomatoes and potatoes. UM and food allergies
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: have a much higher incidents in the Black and Latino communities.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: And so how do we get foods like hours that
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: everyone deserves to eat. How do we get education and
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: advocacy for these communities? And so we've been able to
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: partner with Emily's group and feed thousands of family through
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: monetary donations, through product donations, UM and the other UH
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: cause that we're really really working. The champion is diversity
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: in the food space. I think that far, far too long,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: there have been folks who don't look like us who
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: are making decisions about what we put into our bodies.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: And so, how do we create a more diverse food industry? UM.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: You know companies that startups it seems like we all
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: started New York and San Francisco are Austin and giving
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: access to founders from all over, giving access to college
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: students to get the entry level positions, whether it be
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: at startups, are big CpG companies to help make the
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: decisions and grow into the leadership roles that are going
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to change and shape our food economy moving forward. And
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: so we launched a fellowship program called the Black Futures
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and Food and Beverage Fellowship. We partnered with five HBCUs,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: We selected eight fellows, and we provided an eight week
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: curriculum of the nuts and bolts of the CpG industry
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: and then it culminated with an opportunity to either get
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: a full time interns of summer internship or full time
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: entry level job. And I'm really excited for that program
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: to be even bigger this they we're partnering with several
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: most more schools hoping to be able to impact more fellows.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: And so, you know, how do we provide access? How
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: do we leave the door a little bit wider open
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: than it was when we started Partake? But Partake has
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: the Black Futures and Food and Beverage Fellowship Program for
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the active HBCU students. HBCUs became the forefront of a
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: lot of news. A lot of high profile corporated executives
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: and firms decided to hpc used or what is when
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: you say the Black Futures and Food and Beverage Fellowship program,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: what exactly is that? So we were fortunate enough to
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: be a part of a Tabanis incubator program back in
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and the founder of Tavani, Hamdi Ulakaya wanted to make
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: it easier for food startups to bring better food to
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: more people. And he had been on this journey you
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: know that took ten years to build a billion dollar brand,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and he was like, what can I do to make
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: y'all's journey a little bit shorter? And so similarly, I'm
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: coming from big CpG and now I'm out a food startup.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: And the thing that has remained true across both is,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: unfortunately there aren't that many black or brown folks in
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: leadership roles. So how can I provide access, whether it's
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: through education or through social capital, through introductions, through access
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: to executives in the CpG space to help these students
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: get the opportunities and the education that they need to
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: thrive in the food industry. And so for us, that
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: was we opened up an application process. We ran an
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: eight week curriculum where we taught, you know, all the
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: different facets of the food industry in a condensed period
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: of time. Supply chain food Safety, UM E Commerce because
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I know that when I was in college, I assumed
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: that if you worked for a big food company, you
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: could do marketing. I didn't think about all the other
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: aspects that it takes to run a food business. And
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: so we want to give those students that education and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: then it culminates with a virtual Career Day, which we
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: hope to be in person this year UM and we
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: had attendees from companies like Ubani, from Beyond Meat, from
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Once Upon a Farm that we're there to give the
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: students internships or job offers and to learn more about
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the students, and so it was really exciting to see
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: how that turned into something actionable. I think often women
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and people of color are over mentored and not there's
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: not enough action. Like I always go to the simple
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: phrase of send the wire or make the hire, and
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: so that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: be action oriented to health the students get jobs. Well,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: you're fantastic, and uh, I know I've talked up a
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: little bit about five five and one baking mix, but
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: we didn't talk about the cookies. So I want to
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: talk about the different cookies, and they also want to
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: talk about the future products that you have coming out.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the cookies that I have not ordered
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: yet that I will be ordered because I've been reminded
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: politely I forgot to buy the cookies. So tell us
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: about the cookie lat Well, you might get another email.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: You're gonna come back to me the way that our
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: system is. But the cookies, we have eight flavors UM,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: five crunchy flavors, three soft baked flavors. Everything's free of
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the top eight allergens. Everything's gluten free and vegan and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: made with less sugar than our competitors. And the gluten
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: free and vegan space made with really simple ingredients that
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: you can understand. And then we have two seasonal We're
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: actually going to come up with three seasonal varieties this year,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: so we have a pumpkin spice and then two seasonal
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: varieties that come closer to the Christmas holidays. UM And
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: that was our first flagship products, So we had three
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: flavors when we launched, so it's been exciting to see
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: that grow to ten flavors of cookies. Well, you know,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I am a dessert nut. You know everybody knows I
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: eat my dessert for eat my meal from in a restaurant,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: you sit down with the nies before when you order
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: your meal. Homost excuse me, I need to dessert me.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: That's how much of a dessert person. I am. So
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: so when I'm so, I'm excited about these cookies now
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: because you know, I like to crumble up my cookies
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and I'd like to put some nice ice cream on top.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: And I put a little whooped cream and put a
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: little I put a lot of extra that comes on
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: top of it. So, so what do you because are
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: you are you? Are you are a fan of your
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: cookies from the standpoint do you what do you do
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: with your cookies? You do it with? What do you
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: eat your cookies? You just eat them individually. I eat
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: them individually in the afternoon for like a pick me
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: up with like a coffee or tea. I do crumble
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: them on top of ice cream at some times. Sometimes
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I make ice cream sandwiches with them. Um. I used
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: them for a cookie for a pie crust before, like
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: our carrot cake arch and just st there. So I
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: do lots of stuff with So you say you you
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: crumbling them up for as a crust. That sounds which
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: which brand do you use? What brand of cookie do
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you use as your crust? So we have a ginger
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: snap and we have a carrot cake, and so they
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: make a really nice substitute for like a Graham cracker crust.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: So if you just, like um, crumble the cookies up
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: and mix it with like a melted butter melted and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: you kind of pack it in, you cann't create a
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: pot crust. Wow, you really? So you're really excited me
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: about because because I I do a cheesecake, I think
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: that'd be cool to use as my cheesecakes. I have
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of like I got about eighty different recipes
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: app in my recipe app and I think they're using
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: it is because I just put that in the mixing
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and just ground it up and it becomes very fine.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: And now can I put sugar with that? And do
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: you put sugar with the crust with the butter or
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: do you just loose just the butter and the crust
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: when you grind it up. I'm talking about the ginger snaps.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I use just the butter and the crust. I'll send
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you since we're friendly now, I'll send you a recipe.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: And we actually did one with the cheesecake. So I'll
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: send you the recipe that we use, but I don't
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: typically add extra sugar. Um, but you totally could. Yeah,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: send me that recipe and I do it on my show. Okay,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: because the sound the man is because are your person?
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Does your recipe include sour cream? Is no sour cream?
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have sour cream, just because we try to
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: avoid dairy where we can see me and you, Saint Paige,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I do not put sour cream in my cheese, in
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: my and my and my cheesecakes at all. I don't
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: know why you're gonna add all. You gotta add extra
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: sugar to offset the sour. So we're on the same
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: page right there. I'm gonna stuff here with some apples.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do you up right and make you proud
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: of me when I do my cheesecake your way. So
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: sending the recipe to me it would be great. And
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: in closing, what's what's the future? You have six thousand
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: stores and we're talking about worldwide. You're you're you're fantastic
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: post person. Uh, your incredible mom, incredible young business person.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I love the mentorship campaigns that you have out there,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: especially involved in HBCUs. What is the future Partake? My
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: goal is that will continue to grow across multiple product
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: lines that one day you'll see Partake in every aisle
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: of your grocery store, UM and in stores around the country.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: While six thousand is a big jump from where we were,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: I think is a ton of opportunity ahead of us UM.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: So we're excited to grow the business and along the way,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: continue to grow the impact that we're having on our community. Okay, cool,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: here's our relationship your Mia cheesecake recipe. Okay cool, I've
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: ordered my five and one mix, so I owe you
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: some some pictures at least of me making the product.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do bluebliry muffriends. I gotta do. I've yet
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: to do blueberry muffriends. So I'm I'm gonna take your
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: mix and do a blueberry mums. I've done the bandana nuts,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: I've done all the crumbles and all that, the apple crumbles.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Now blueberries. I'm excited about that, because are you warm?
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Bluebery and muffin for breakfast is like ostanding someonea do
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: that and so and from there we're gonna go first
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: and we just see where our relationship goes from there
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: is that cool that sounds like a plan. I appreciate
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: you having me. It was wonderful chatting with you. Okay,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: thank you, and thank you Dennis Warder for coming on
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations. If you want to hear any of
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: my interviews or see any of my interviews, please go
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversation dot com or subscribe to my
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: YouTube chapel. I ra Sean mcdown, I am your in
• 30:10
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