Small Food Business

We’re doing things a little differently today with a short podcast about something I noticed recently at my farmers’ market. It’s was a simple, yet effective, way to generate return customers.

TRANSCRIPT:

The dirty little secret about Seattle, where I live, is that while yes, it rains a tremendous amount of the time – the Summers here are truly glorious. At some point in June (or, in really bad years, in July), the rain tapers off and we don’t see another drop until late September or October. What’s more, every single day is, on average, sunny and 74-degrees with no humidity. I am convinced this is the only reason why the first settlers to Seattle actually stuck around. The Summers are glorious!

This means that our farmers’ markets in the Summers are also outstanding. There is a tremendous amount of produce that’s brought in from family-farms that operate less than an hour outside the city and we have a ton of artisans who are doing really unique, interesting thigns with new products. Seattleittes love their farmers’ markets (remember, our famous Pike’s Place Market was one of the first official farmers’ markets in the country!) and for many a trip to the market is a weekly tradition.

While our markets generate big crowds, the downside from the point of view of the vendor, is that there is also ample competition at the market for those consumers’ dollars. There’s not just one person selling radishes – there are 5 different local and organic farms at my neighborhood farmers market that sell, amongst other things, radishes of all different types and varieties. There is not just one or two people selling desserts – there’s an ice cream vendor, an ice pop vendor, a handpie vendor, a cookie vendor, a gluten-free bakery, and someone selling vegan baked goods. And, right now with berries at the height of their growing season, there are literally 8 different vendors selling raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. The completion is fierce.

So the other day I was looking for berries – and honestly was a bit overwhelmed about which farm vendor to choose from. Ultimately I chose one for no particular purpose and made my purchase – thinking that next time I would make a purchase from another one and spread my money around a bit. However, as I was checking out the person working that market stand told me to hold onto the berry boxes because if I brought them back next time I would get a $1 off per box my next purchase.

That caught my attention. From a consumer standpoint, organic berries aren’t cheap so I’ll take a dollar off where I can get it. This also reminded me though that this is a small operation I was purchasing from as the fact that their ability to recycle their boxes would help their bottom line and the reinforced for me personallyt hat this was the type of small farm I wanted to buying from. Lastly though, in order to get my $1 off I actually have to go back to that exact same market stall to purchase my berries – there’s a very real reason for me to return there and since the anme of the farm is printed on the berry boxes I currently have in my hosue, I know exactly where I need to go.

This is just one example of great marketing. So often when we talk about marketing we think about things like social media strategies or television ads but essentially marketing is all about getting the customer to remember your name and to come back and purchase from you again. In this case the family farm is achieving this in the simplest of ways by encouraging me to bring my boxes back to them for a future discount.

Marketing doesn’t have to complicated or convoluted – good marketing is that which is fairly easy for you to execute, is within your budget, and stands out to your customers.

I’d love to know what simple things you do to keep your cu...

David Crabill of Forrager.com, an expert on home-based food businesses, and I talk about where the cottage food industry in the US stands today and where he thinks it’ll go in the future.

David Crabill is the co-founder of Forrager.com, a website solely focused on the cottage food industry, which is a term used to describe home food businesses. Since the cottage food industry was created via a collection of state laws, there is no official government organization to help organize or improve it. Forrager seeks to organize and improve the resources available for this growing group of small, independent cooks.

On the culinary front, David has been making chocolate chip cookies since he was eight years old. While trying to start his cookie business in 2011, he learned about the cottage food industry and created Forrager to help others get their home food businesses off the ground. When he’s not developing websites, perfecting recipes, or answering cottage food questions, you can find him solving puzzles, traveling, and speaking at a Toastmasters meeting.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jennifer: So, welcome, David. Thank you for being on today.

David: Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Jennifer: So, we’re talking about cottage food and the cottage food industry today, but just to, again, lay the foundation, let’s start with basic terminology and basically, what does this phrase, cottage food, actually mean?

David: Cottage food is an interesting term because there’s no technical definition for it. It’s just the term that people have started using over time. But generally, when I use the term cottage food, I’m referring to somebody’s homemade food that they’re selling. So, that’s pretty much.

Jennifer: Okay. So, the home-based food producers, basically.

David: Yeah. I mean, there’s a commercial food space where people are selling food that’s made out of a commercial kitchen and then the cottage food is basically for people who are selling out of a home kitchen.

Jennifer: Okay. Now, within the cottage food industry, can you talk a little bit about how there is not federal oversight of this law? We’re talking here in the U.S., I just want to make that clear, for folks who are talking in the U.S. today. Other countries might have very different rules and regulations when it comes to home-based food production for sale. So, there’s no federal oversight in terms of cottage food, correct David?

David: Right. Many people don’t know, but the Food and Drug Association, the FDA, produces a food code, but states adopt whatever laws they want when it comes to food loss.

Jennifer: So, for this cottage food industry, it’s a state by state basis, right?

David: Right. So, in the food code that the FDA publishes, there actually is no allowance for selling homemade food. It’s illegal in that document. So, states have to override the food code that they adopt and specifically allow these homemade food sales on a state by state basis.

Jennifer: Can you share with us at a high level like what you’ve seen changed in the cottage food landscape in the last couple of years? Because as you and I have talked prior to today’s interview, you know, you’ve mentioned that there’s been a lot of changes in cottage food over the last probably five or seven years.

David: Right, and it keeps evolving. I’d say that the cottage food industry started to develop about a decade ago when the economy went downhill. A lot of states started to enact these cottage food laws to enable homemade food sales to actually allow people in their community to use something that they had, their own kitchen,

Starting your food business is hard enough.  Doing it while also maintaining your full-time job makes it that much harder.  But what happens when your first child is born the week before your first farmers’ market?  Visas Taskar of Bombay Bitez shares his experiences juggling it all in his first year of business.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jennifer:

Today we’re talking to somebody who is working full time while also building and creating. He started his business last year as you’ll hear, and he’s working to continue to grow that business. And there’s some other really interesting things that he’s also juggling as well that we’re going to talk about.

 

So, want to introduce you today to Vikas Taskar. He is an engineer by profession and foodie at heart. His introduction to the culinary world started, as it does for many of us, in the home kitchen while he was growing up in Bombay, which is now known as Mumbai, India. He started by learning about traditional Indian recipes as well as trying out variations of those recipes on weekends. Last year, he decided to transform his hobby into a business and started Bombay Bitez which serves authentic Western Indian snacks and beverages handmade from scratch with locally sourced ingredients, freshly ground spice mixes, and fresh herbs.

 

The company, which started as a Farmer’s Market business last summer and expanded into catering in the fall, is starting their second year of business this month.

 

So thanks so much for joining us.

 

Vikas:

Thank you, Jennifer for having me in the show.

 

Jennifer:

I wanted to start out by talking about the fact that, you know, you are not, you’re not coming into this entrepreneurial endeavor as somebody who has been working in the culinary industry their entire life. And you, like many of us, are coming from a, coming from a different profession. So tell us a little bit about what you’re, what you’re, you know, your professional background is?

 

Vikas:

Yeah, so, I grew up starting engineering as my major. And I got my undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. This is when I was back in India. And during the time I developed an interest for computers so I ended up following that passion. Ended up getting a job in software development right after graduation. After working for a few years, I came to the U.S. I got my Master’s degree. And I continued to work in the tech industry afterwards. So overall, my background is almost entirely science and engineering based.

 

Jennifer:

Which is, know it’s funny. I was about to say, which is different than the food industry, but obviously as you know there’s a lot of cross over. And we’ll talk about how you’ve been able to take a lot of what you use in your daily, professional career and transport it over into your food business. But to start with, what made you want to open up a food business? And then as you start to think about opening up this food business, what were some to the challenges that you knew, even before you started, that you were going to have to overcome?

 

Vikas:

Yes, so my interest in food and cooking actually came about at a very early age when I was growing up in India in the city of Bombay. This was a time when I happened to get very deeply interested in all types of food. Whether it was home cooked food, street food, as well as just about any cuisine that I might try out.

When I asked on the Small Food Business Facebook page, what types of topics podcast listeners would like to learn about, several people mentioned an interest in knowing more about selling to food service accounts.  With that in mind and armed with questions sourced from listeners about this topic, I reached out to Allison Ball, of Alli Ball Consulting, to find out more about what food producers should be doing if they’re interested in getting food service accounts.

Alli has offered listeners to today’s podcast a discount of $25 on her e-coures.  For more information, click here and use the promo code smallfoodbiz.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jennifer:

Allison, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it.

 

Allison:

You’re welcome. I’m excited to chat with you.

 

Jennifer:

So we’re going to start with a really basic question because we’re talking about food service today, but want to make sure that everybody listening is on the same page. So what exactly do we mean when we talk about just the word food service in general, because we’re going to be talking about how to get food service accounts, or some tips and ideas. But what does food service mean? What types of businesses does that comprise of?

 

Allison:

Yeah, that’s a great question. So food service is essentially the opposite of retail. So it’s when a producer sells to a wholesale account, then uses their product either as an ingredient or as an item on the menu. So it’s establishments where food is served over the counter rather than off the shelf. So food service accounts could be restaurants, bars, schools with cafeterias, businesses where they provide meals for their employees, coffee shops, things like that.

 

As a producer you can sell to both retail stores and food service accounts. Say you make something like a Bloody Mary mix. You could sell it in a quart container on a retail shelf, or you could sell it in bulk to a bar. Does that make sense?

 

Jennifer:

Yeah, that makes great sense. And I love the example, too. I mean some of the ones that you mentioned, things like school cafeterias and food that’s sold within a corporate setting, which certainly up here in Seattle a number of our tech firms do that. Yeah, those are ones that I hadn’t really thought of but, yeah, those are food service accounts. It’s great to think that it’s a pretty wide-ranging types of businesses.

 

Allison:

It really is. I’ve had clients who have had really, really great success in nursing homes and hospitals and things like that, so it really is a broad category.

 

Jennifer:

Oh, that’s excellent. So you know I know that over the course of our interview today we’re going probably dive into this next question in more detail, but again, kind of like at a high level. So what are some of the things that make selling to food service establishments different than selling to a retail store buyer?

 

Allison:

Yep. So like I mentioned in that past example, number one is it’s usually sold in bulk or in bigger quantities. So again, using that Bloody Mary example, you might sell a 16 ounce Bloody Mary mix on a retail store shelf, on a grocery store shelf, but you might sell your Bloody Mary mix in one gallon jugs to your food service account. So usually bulk. So usually the packaging is a little bit different. And typically it’s higher volume as well.

Today I have a little micro-pod for you, if you will. A short podcast where I’m going to share with you something that’s been on my mind as an entrepreneur. In part, today’s podcast is short because I’m exhausted – but not in the way you problely think.

TRANSCRIPT:

This past Saturday I ran my very first ultra trail marathon. It was a 50K which, to those of us in the US, equates to about 31 miles and it had approximately 5000 feet of elevation gain throughout the course – there was a lot of hills! It was a long, hot, dry day and my body is utterly worn out right now.

While my body is tired – and very sore – my mind has never felt better though.   In doing the race I gave myself permission to not focus on work for an entire weekend. Study after study shows that taking time away from work can be one of the best things for entrepreneurs yet it’s so very hard to do.   This isn’t to say that I didn’t think about work while running – when you have multiple hours with not much to keep you company but your own thoughts it’s natural that some of the things you’re working through at work will come up. But I just let them come up and let my brain mull over them as I worked on putting one foot in front of the other. For some things I came up with some potential new creative solutions and there were other issues where nothing seemed to simmer to the surface so I filed it away as something to focus on for another day.

In addition to not focusing on work, this race also gave me time away from being a mother. That may sound incredibly harsh and it’s not meant to – I adore with every fiber of my being my daughter and the time I spend with her. But if you are a parent you know how easy it is to want to spend every moment of your nonworking time with your child. As good as that is for your bond, it doesn’t always leave a lot of time for you to focus on who you are outside of being an entrepreneur and a parent. This race was a chance for me to be incredibly selfish with my time and just focus on me. In doing the race it reclaimed for me a little bit of who I am at my core when you strip away the titles of parent and business owner. It felt good to get back to that core for a little bit and made the joy of running down the finishing chute with my daughter even sweeter.

One thing I thought about a lot while running and that’s the fact that being a business owner is a lot like running an ultramarathon. The reality is that it’s a long slog. We’re not in this as a sprint – there’s little in terms of easy cash when it comes to the food industry. You have to be willing to be in this business day in and day out – albeit with taking some time now and again to get your brain out of the business – just putting one foot in front of the other thousands of times over.   There are moments of euphoria along your journey and moments of utter despair where you’re sure you’ll never finish. You will undoubtably stumble along the way – we all do – but you’ve got to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going.  The journey will make you stronger and smarter as a business person.

You know one of my new years goals this year was to do something that really pushed me outside my comfort zone. Lining up at the start of the 50K was a little terrifying, but it was also exhilarating and sometimes the best experiences in life come from those times we push ourselves – both in business and in life – so that we’re standing just outside our comfort zones.

Related Articles:

* Taking A Breather May Be The Best Thing For Your Business

* You Can’t Do It All 

*

Some of us start food businesses and never give a thought to selling it while others enter the business with an exit strategy in mind.  Regardless of which camp you fall into, knowing what buyers are looking for can help you make the decisions now that keep your options open in the future no matter what you ultimately decide.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jennifer:

Today we are talking to Bryce Hansen of Hansen Business Advisory who helps owners of privately held businesses navigate the challenges of selling their business. Specializing in privately held business of one million to twenty million in annual revenue in the Pacific Northwest, Hansen Business Advisory bridges the gap between the buyer and the seller’s unique needs, acting as a quarterback for the process. After identifying the clients goals, Hansen Business Advisory helps repair the business for sale, locating qualified potential buyers and finally negotiate and close the sale.

 

I realize that many of the listeners may not have businesses that are in the one million to twenty million dollar annual revenue range, however, Bryce is able to share a lot of information with us that is applicable to you if you are thinking either now or some point down the road you might look to sell your business.

 

Jennifer:

So Bryce, as we get started today, I was hoping that you could tell me, based on your experience, what have you found that entrepreneurs think about as they think about selling their business? What drives this motivation to sell something that they dreamt about and were so passionate about and have worked so hard to build?

 

Bryce :

The priority reason that I come across and it depends on the size of the businesses you work on, but in the space that I work in, a primary driver is business retirement. They have been working on these business their whole life, they really love it, it’s their baby, but they may not have kids who are interesting in taking over the business or they may have kids, quite frankly, that they aren’t sure should be taking over the business or they can’t afford to take it over and the parent who is wanting to retire needs the money for retirement.

 

Sometimes we see people who are exhausted, they’ve just been working in their business a long time and they’re, quite frankly, exhausted and so sometimes that’s a reason. Occasionally, they’re entrepreneurs that have lots of ideas. I don’t want to use the clinical term of ADD, but they tend to be, they’re really all over the place and so they occasionally are bored with the project and they have a new project that they want to work on and sometimes larger companies, they just want to cash out or maybe it’s beyond the skills that they have and they know that they need additional skills to keep it growing.

 

Jennifer:

Oh, absolutely.

 

Bryce :

But, retirement is a big part of it.

 

Jennifer:

Okay, that’s interesting. With regards to new project ideas, I like to joke that that’s called “Shiny Object Syndrome.”

 

Bryce :

Absolutely, absolutely.

 

Jennifer:

A new thing to do.

 

Bryce :

Yeah, yeah. They just find something new or the business they started has morphed into a place that they didn’t originally think that it was going to be and it works. It works really well, but they’re maybe more passionate about one part of it that the business didn’t morph ...

We’re back today with Natascha Sherman Hess from The Ginger Pig food truck, who’s telling us a little bit about some of the challenges of getting a food truck up and running.  In our prior podcast, she and I left off talking about feeling a little bit burned out after her first season running the truck.

TRANSCRIPT:

Natascha:

We got burned out, and I think everybody has probably felt that in some way or another and can recognize that feeling.  But we were able to take time off and recharge and we had some fun making some new stuff for the menu this year. We are really excited about some of the opportunities we have this season. So, we’re feeling kind of reenergized and recharged, and excited again, which is super cool.

Jennifer:

That’s great. Yeah, being excited about what you’re doing, I mean otherwise go back and be an attorney.

 

Natascha:

Right, right.

 

Jennifer:

It’s easier.

 

Natascha:

Yeah. You know, and just getting to put new things on the menu; I found that that’s the stuff that gets me really excited is when we start selling something new and seeing people’s faces, and having regulars come up to the window and ask what’s new. This week I realized that that’s really the fun part, you know, is developing new recipes and putting out a special. That really gave me a lot of energy and excitement, and reminded me why we’re doing this.

 

Jennifer:

Let’s talk about your menu for a little bit, and let’s talk about, both from the standpoint of before you started up, before you actually opened doors and started working, you know, kind of what you had anticipated, and then did the reality, once you were opened, did the reality change what your menu needed to be, or did consumers change what you needed to be? Like what did you kind of learn from a menu standpoint, either from what consumers wanted, or from operations, or any of those pieces?

 

Natascha:

It’s an interesting question. This is probably the biggest lesson we learned in year one. Originally, we had opened with potstickers, and originally, I wanted to have three or four different types of potstickers, edamame and mint, and pork and ginger, and tofu shiitake, and I wanted several different types. We ended up opening with two types. We had the pork and ginger, and the shiitake and tofu, and then we also had handmade Filipino egg rolls called lumpia.

 

We opened at a food park in July and it was really busy. The food park had opened the day before, but because it was the summer and a brand new food park, we ended up selling 1,500 potstickers a week, and probably the same amount of egg rolls. We couldn’t keep up making them. So, I ended up, we were at one point in late July, early August where I had three people, three days a week at the commissary making potstickers and egg rolls. We were able to sell them. Selling them was no problem at all. We couldn’t keep up making them. We would even freeze them and try and get ahead, and we’d still sell out pretty quickly each week. What we realized was that our labor was up at like 45%, which is terrifying, and I think we could’ve gone out of business pretty quickly if we had kept doing the potstickers and egg rolls.

 

So, we made a really tough decision, and we actually got rid of the potstickers and we laid off three people,

I always love talking with food entrepreneurs about their experiences ‘in the trenches’ and today’s podcast interview is no different.  In fact, Natascha Sherman Hess, the owner of the The Ginger Pig food truck, had so much great information to share that I’m breaking it into two podcasts.

 

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Jennifer:

I hope you enjoy the first one today and listen back for the rest of our interview together in Part Two of this podcast. I also want to remind food brands that if you’re looking for more information, expertise and a chance to get your products in front of food buyers, check out the Food Brand Summit, that’s foodbrandsummit.com, which is taking place on May 4th and 5th of this year. This is an industry-first online conference specific to food entrepreneurs and I hope you’ll find it interesting. With that, let’s get started.

 

Today we have a look inside an entrepreneur’s life, which I know are some of the stories that you listeners really enjoy. We have the opportunity to talk to Natascha Sherman Hess today. She is the founder of and owner and operator of The Ginger Pig. It is an Asian street food mobile truck that’s based in Boulder, Colorado. That’s all I’m going to tell you about her story because I want Natascha to be able to tell you about her story, both in terms of what it took to get the food truck up and running and then also they’re heading into their second year now so kind of what that first year, lessons learned, all of that. That’s what we’re going to be talking about.

 

Natascha, thank you so much. Yeah, so Natascha thank you so much for joining us.

 

Natascha:

Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here. It’s a real honor.

 

Jennifer:

Oh, no. We appreciate it. I especially appreciate the fact that you’re going to kind of give us a peek behind what it was like to get your business up and running and then also what that first year was like. I want to mention, you recently celebrated year two of your business and by that, you told everybody on Facebook, by year two you mean that you’re starting into kind of your second season as a food truck operator. I want to kind of back up to the very beginning and start talking about that year that you spent or that time that you spent planning and preparing and even before that, what were you doing before? Where … Were you in the culinary field? What were you doing?

 

Natascha:

I actually was an attorney and I was doing bankruptcy, divorce and criminal law and it was very depressing and I could really feel it every day.

 

Jennifer:

You say very happy stuff.

 

Natascha:

Yeah. I actually started getting a CSA from a farm, community supported agriculture. Every week I’d go and pick up vegetables at a local farm, organic vegetables, and it was kind of my meditation and my way to kind of escape from my daily life and going to court. I really fell in love with cooking, using it as my escape, I guess, and realized that I was really passionate about it. I had been a Chinese major in college and I had backpacked all over southeast Asia and just was, I would say deeply in love with Asian street food.

 

The more I started cooking and I just realized this was what I needed to be doing. This feels right, whereas practicing law for me always kind of felt ...

Industry expert Tim Forrest, of Tim Forrest Consulting, shares insightful information about how food brands can best be prepared when walking into a buyer meeting.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jennifer:

We’re talking with Tim Forrest today. Tim, as you will hear in today’s podcast, has a very illustrious background. He brings decades of experience in the food industry to today’s interview. In short, he is a marketing and distribution consultant to food companies. He’s assisted his clients in adding thousands of retail locations, millions of dollars in sales, and capital investment to their businesses. Tim Forrest Consulting, the company that he runs, is celebrating it’s 20th year this year. Tim, thank you so much for joining us.

 

Tim Forrest :

Thank you, Jennifer. I appreciate the opportunity to be here and share.

 

Jennifer:

Well, like I said, really excited. I think part of my excitement of having you on today is because you truly have seen every side of this industry. I know a little bit about your background, but I’d love if you could share with our listeners that you have quite literally worked your way up from the ground level in the food industry. Can you tell us a little bit about your story, how you got started in the food world, and your journey to today?

 

Tim Forrest :

Yeah, thank you so much. It started in school, I needed a job. I got a job loading food trucks. That’s been 30 years ago. I had no idea at the time it would lead to all the things that have occurred, from just to go on and on. I’ve spoken at events all around the world. I’ve got governments that are clients of mine in the food industry. You shared some of the business results that my clients have succeeded. I had no idea at the time loading food trucks that the food industry was going to be my career, but it turned into that.

 

So much of the success that I’ve had, I can trace back to the roots of beginning at the bottom, really pulling orders for food trucks and seeing the industry from the backdoor, from loading docks, from storage rooms and really understanding. It started back then. I’ve had success with major league baseball, NFL, you could just go on … theme parks, Disney. All that really started from loading those food trucks. Eventually, I moved up. I was driving food trucks and delivering. That’s when I started going into the back doors of all these different facilities and really understanding the operation. It just kind of continued, opportunities presented themselves and I took advantage of them, and job promotions.

 

A friend called me, said “Hey, there’s an ad in the paper, Tim, for an area manager for the state of Georgia for Unilever, Unilever Foods.” I really didn’t know that much about it.

 

I was like, “Okay, yeah. Well, I’ll see,” but I ended up going to work for the largest food company in the world very quickly after graduating school, and with this, the food distribution background, it was very exciting.

 

Jennifer:

Yeah, and so having that background, and I love … That reminds me of … one of the favorite things I ever heard was that sometimes we start down these paths, not necessarily knowing where we’re going to end up, but that each of the pieces of knowledge that we gain along the way really prepares us for that next step. That certainly sounds like the case from you is that starting from that ground level of loading the trucks and then getti...

Venture Kits founder Leslie Feinzaig shares with us her passion for helping kids learn about entrepreneurship and how that inspired her own entrepreneurial journey.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jennifer:

We’re taking a slightly different tack today and talking to an entrepreneur who is focused on growing the next generation of entrepreneurs; be they food entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurs in other industries.

 

Leslie Feinzaig is the founder and CEO of Venture Kits, the toy start up on a mission to expose kids to entrepreneurship through hands on play. Prior to founding Venture Kids, Leslie was an executive at Julep Beauty. She held earlier roles at Big Fish Games, Microsoft, and Innosight, a boutique consulting firm founded and led by innovators dilemma author Clayton Christensen.

 

So Leslie, thank you so much for joining us today.

 

Leslie:

Thanks for having me.

 

Jennifer:

So, as listeners to this podcast now, I love talking about all things entrepreneur ship. So, I was really excited to learn about Venture Kids and how the company and how you are working to grow the next generation of entrepreneurs.

 

I would love for you to tell us a little bit about what sparked this business idea.

 

Leslie:

Sure. So, thank you so much.

 

You know, I love this idea too. It’s what keeps me going every day. I was just another corporate executive plugging along last year. I worked really hard, you know. Just climbing the corporate ladder and then I had a baby. And it changed my life. And it really made me feel like it was time to get my mission into sharper focus. The first few months after I had my daughter, we spent a lot of time, my husband and I, thinking and fantasizing about what she was going to be when she grew up and you know, my husband is a software developer and so he would read to her these really long, boring text books on physics and how to program. It is a true story.

 

And I thought, wait a second. I want her to be a CEO. I just kind of looked at her one day and in the midst of that new mommy blur, sleep deprivation, I just kind of like imagined her one day getting a promotion to CEO and getting that letter that said “Congratulations on your promotion, you are now the CEO of this company” and somehow the idea just came to me right then and there. I wanted to write that letter to her. I wanted to create a toy that starts off with the words ‘Congratulations you are now the CEO’, so that she can try on that hat just like she’s going to try on all kinds of hats of different things that she is going to play when she’s a kid, right? We want her to play Doctor, we want her to play cook, we want her to play teacher. Well I want her to play CEO, too.

 

So I invented Venture Kits.

 

Jennifer:

That’s true, there isn’t really … I think back to my childhood, that wasn’t one of the hats we tried on as kids. We did play vet and doctor and everything else but we never played CEO. That’s really interesting.

 

Leslie:

Yeah and I’ve spent a lot of time in the first few weeks after I’ve thought of this idea, inviting neighborhood kids to play and to try out different versions of the toy that I came up with. And I would always ask them, you know, what is a CEO, what is an entrepreneur, what is a boss, and you know, unless your mom and dad are already entrepreneur...