Growing up with her family in Liberia, “food was the focal point of all our happiest memories together,” recalls Perteet Spencer, Co-Founder of Ayo Foods. Perteet began her career as a self-described “career foodie,” working for over a decade at General Mills SPINS. Along the way, she noticed that West African food was not being represented in the grocery store, and realized that this was the contribution she wanted to make to the food and wellness space. She launched Ayo in July 2020 with three frozen items, including her family staple cassava leaf. Since then, Ayo Foods has expanded from 50 Whole Foods stores to 4500 in just two years, and added a line of pepper sauces to the repertoire. Part of the proceeds from Ayo go toward funding the Moonboi Project, which, in partnership with Girl Power Africa, is cultivating 15 acres of farmland in Liberia to be used as seed capital for women affected by war and disease to start their own businesses.

Launching a product in grocery stores right before a pandemic presented a lot of obstacles, but it also meant that more people were cooking and eating at home. When starting and growing a potential business, Perteet says you have to be all in, and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Be willing to change your mind about what you need, and build the community around you that will accelerate your vision.

Join Lindsay and Perteet as they discuss the importance of leaning into outside partners, and the many hats that we wear as entrepreneurs.

Quotes:

• “We knew that the design elements in addition to great food were going to be important because if you think about West African flavors as a platform, it’s relatively young, so we knew we needed to get people invested in the total idea of what to expect.” (11:40-11:59 | Perteet)

• “It’s scary to leave the security of a full-time job, but it reached a point where I was shortchanging the potential of the business. And quite frankly, I started to feel a little resentment toward my full-time job.” (29:10-29:29 | Perteet)

• “Particularly today, entrepreneurship can be very glamorized, you get to go on cool podcasts, but no one sees me doing my 6:00 am FedEx run.” (30:06-30:18 | Perteet)

• “I think sometimes when you start something, you assume you have to figure it out all by yourself, and the reality is your idea has the potential to be much, much bigger if you engage the right people.” (37:59-38:10 | Perteet)

Connect with Perteet Spencer:

Instagram | http://www.instagram.com/ayofoods

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