Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / From a $3,000 investment to Oprah and Sharktank, with Pipcorn Co-Founder Teresa Tsou

Transcript

From a $3,000 investment to Oprah and Sharktank, with Pipcorn Co-Founder Teresa Tsou · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Teresa Tso for Female Startup Club. Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of Female Startup Club. I'm your host, Doon Roshin, and joining me on the show today is Teresa Tso, one of the co-founders behind the popcorn snack company called Pipcorn. Pipcorn.
• 0:26
  Launched in 2012 by Jen, Jeff and Teresa with just $3,000, this is a snack company that's gone on a mega rollercoaster of a journey since it started.
• 0:35
  They've gone from handing out popcorn in brown paper bags around Brooklyn to being on Oprah and Shark Tank to almost closing it down just a few short years ago. Like every business, there's major highs and major lows, and Teresa shares both throughout the episode. If you know someone who will benefit from listening to this episode, please do share it with them, and also please rate and review the podcast. This is Teresa for Female Startup Club.
• 1:03
  Teresa, hi. Thank you so much for being on the show today. Yes, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat. All things Pipcorn. Me too. Me too. Sounds delicious. I would love to start by going back to what you were up to before you started Pipcorn, what your life was like, what you were doing, and how you guys came up with the idea to start this brand. Totally, yeah. Thinking about
• 1:30
  What I was doing before Pipcorn is, wow, it feels like it's like years and years and years ago. It's like a whole other life. It is years and years and years ago. It's nearly 10 years. It's like eight years now. We're in such a different place. It's crazy. Yeah. So prior to Pipcorn, I grew up in the Midwest and I went to the University of Michigan and studied finance. And I was really raised to be like, you got to go off into the world and do like a very structured path.
• 1:57
  you need to make money, like support your family. That was really like the message. Being an entrepreneur was really not, I would say what my parents expected me to do. So I moved to New York City, which was always my dream, you know, growing up in the Midwest. I felt like there was just more to life and more people that I wasn't interacting with. So moved to New York and started working at UBS. Yeah.
• 2:25
  and in their investment banking group, basically
• 2:29
  working with large CPG companies. So like Campbell's Soup, PepsiCo, Walmart, they were all clients that we would help them figure out, you know, if they were going to acquire another company, we would advise them if they were raising capital, we would help them in that process. And that's actually where I met my fellow co-founder and my husband. We were two cubicles away from each other. And we had both just moved to the city. So
• 2:56
  Now you're right. It's been 10 years and our lives are very different. We have three babies. We have our popcorn baby. We have a three year old and we have a five week old to actually. Oh, my goodness. Wow. Yeah.
• 3:11
  So working at UBS and then I moved from there to Morgan Stanley, also doing the same thing, just working with large consumer product companies. And then I went and worked at a fashion consulting firm doing business development for large brands and expanding into other product categories and then also like investing into that space. So a very like corporate background.
• 3:36
  And I would say the popcorn seed was really planted by my husband. So when we worked at UBS in the recession, he was laid off. And I think that was like a huge trigger point for him of, you know, this corporate world isn't really the life that I have to live. And so he kind of went around and did a lot of different startups.
• 3:57
  And he was with his sister, Jen, who's the third hip person in this story. And she has a ton of dietary restrictions. She's been vegan before vegan was trendy. So she's always really had to be careful about the things that she ate. And popcorn, surprisingly, was something that she couldn't have. Really? And yeah, you think that like everyone should be able to eat popcorn. And it's definitely not the case. The shell is just so...
• 4:24
  difficult for some people's like dietary systems to eat them. So popcorn would hurt her stomach and she was working at a health food store in Chicago and a local farmer was like, Hey, Jen, I really think you can have this popcorn. It's an heirloom variety. And the shell is 33% thinner than traditional popcorn. It's just never been commercialized.
• 4:50
  And so when my husband and Jen were both in Chicago, they popped it and they were like, this is the best tasting popcorn like I've ever had. How has no one had this popcorn? Like it makes no sense. And so at the time, you know, I was still working in these like 100 hour week jobs and I was seeing in my own corporate world this like shift to.
• 5:13
  the new lifestyle. You know, people weren't caring so much about the handbags they were wearing. It was really like the food that they were eating and that they were buying. And so I think the three of us really felt like there was an opportunity where there was this.
• 5:28
  corn and this product that everyone was quite familiar with, right? Popcorn. So we didn't need a lot of money to educate people about what popcorn was. And the product kind of spoke for itself because it tasted so much better than anything else. So in 2011, we started like thinking about this business plan. And before this podcast, I actually pulled up like a photo
• 5:58
  in 2011 where like we're brainstorming like how do we start this popcorn idea and it's literally titled popcorn timeline like it's not at all but i love that literally the list is like brand name logo packaging we need to find a commercial kitchen we need to create an llc like just the basics you
• 6:19
  It's crazy how you can start a business these days literally just in your notes, right, on your iPhone. And even looking back this morning, it has brand name ideas that we were all thinking of. Thankfully, we didn't use any of our own ideas. We actually hired some professionals. Yeah, and then the last, the funny thing is the last bullet is fine retailers. The hottest bit.
• 6:46
  I think this timeline kind of showed us how naive we were, right? Like we were, and that's what's been so fun about Pipcorn, that it's kind of been this journey for us where Jeff, Jen, and I, you know, none of us had like food branding background. We hadn't launched a brand before. You know, yeah, we've worked kind of like high level within the CPG industry, but we've never actually done it. And so the last 10 years have been...
• 7:14
  so many, I think, amazing learning experiences. And that's what shaped our brand. And I think that's what's so awesome about where we are right now and just with social media and with so many people that have this desire to do their own thing, right? Because it's the journey that I think is like Pipcorn today. And Pipcorn heirloom snacks, none of that was in our business plan when we started in 2012.
• 7:43
  So yeah, so that's kind of like where I was before and kind of how the business kicked off. So like 2011 was really when idea formation started. And then we sold our first bag in April of 2012.
• 7:56
  Oh my gosh. How cool. Wow. I want to talk about when you were just getting started, when you guys were like, yeah, let's start a business. Let's, let's actually do this. How much startup capital did you have? Like, I want to kind of paint the picture of, you know, was it grand ideas from the very beginning and like huge goals? Or were you kind of like, yeah, like, let's, let's get started and see where it goes.
• 8:22
  So yes, we had, we definitely took that approach where we took the money we had that was excess from us living in the city. So that was really like $3,000 that we could really put behind this idea. And we went for it. We didn't raise proper capital. And I think that's been a huge part of our story, that like authentic nature and the hustle to kind of get it done. Just one, I think, story around it is
• 8:49
  you know, we had $3,000 and popcorn is, is quite easy to make, you know, all we needed really was like a couple of pots, some oil, and then this heirloom corn, and then various seasoning. So we were actually able to make a lot of it just out of like a shared commercial kitchen in New York City. But then the part that always stumped us when we were launching was,
• 9:13
  how do we package it? Because that part was actually what was very expensive, not the actual like manufacturing of it. So we were all kind of like banging our heads against the wall of like, well, we can't afford a proper print job. You know, we had a friend who worked at a great agency come up with the name Pipcorn for us. But outside of that, we didn't have any packaging design. We couldn't hire anyone to do it for us. And I remember like sitting there with Jeff and I was like,
• 9:43
  why don't we just stamp bags? You know, like you kind of have this whole thing in your mind. Like it has to be what everyone else is doing. But the most simple sort of like solution is sometimes I think the one that is most impactful. Yeah. And so like we were at the time like driving through the Lower East Side. And I remember still like on Yelp, literally just searching for,
• 10:11
  stamps because we're like if we can stamp it let's find a stamp guy so casey's stamps in the lower east side there's this john this guy john casey he made all of our stamps and if you go into that store it is like old school like there are stamps just like lined against the wall and ink pads and
• 10:32
  And everyone in there, the people that were in there, customers, they just love stamps. But like we were in there like, this is how we're going to package our popcorn. So we still have those stamps actually that he's made for us. But that was really, I think,
• 10:49
  That became what people remembered us for in the beginning was that we hand stamped our bag. It had a lot of storytelling to it. And it really was because we didn't raise money. Like it's because we had $3,000 and we had to decide where we would spend everything. So...
• 11:04
  That's still, I think, even with our today packaging, now that we've kind of professionalized, it's still like a thread that we always try to keep within our business because it was really like the starting place. Yeah, that real hustle. Was it like paper bags? Yep. I love it.
• 11:22
  So we took like craft coffee bags, we would fill them up with the popcorn we popped in like spaghetti pots and then we would all like literally stamp them. And I'm so like OCD about stuff that I had to have the stamp be perfect. And I like, you literally just have like, your hands are throbbing because it's very hard to do like a perfectly stamp on a bag and have all the ink look right.
• 11:49
  So we would all, yeah, we would all just be hand stamping these bags. We would fill them. And then we were able to just sell them direct to consumer because we were in a place with such a great food community. There were all these food markets called Smorgasburg.
• 12:04
  where we could literally just take the product we had made the night before or even that morning and just sell it right there to the customer. And so it allowed us a way to just sell our product without a lot of investment and get direct feedback. Wow. So no license or anything like that. You could just like go and be like, Hey, I've got my basket of popcorn. This is it.
• 12:28
  You do have to have like a food handler's license, basically like to sell there, which is pretty easy and simple. We, everything had to be made out of a commercial kitchen. So we had to apply it to like an incubator, essentially where you can pay by the hour to use their space, essentially just like,
• 12:46
  you know, a couple hundred bucks here or there. And then the actual smorgasbord, you had to apply. So we had to apply that. Like we were Pipcorn, we're selling this delicious heirloom mini popcorn. And then we were able to essentially just pitch a tent and sell to the customers every Saturday and Sunday.
• 13:07
  Wow. And so you're there every Saturday and Sunday, you're selling, people are liking it. I assume you're getting really great feedback. What was that point where you were like, okay, we're onto something and this could actually start to grow into a really big brand?
• 13:23
  I think it happened like way sooner than we were expecting because it was sort of like, let's see how this goes. You know, we really think we think it's delicious. Other people must, too. And three months in, one of Oprah's scouts found us. And I think that sort of was what made us be like, whoa, you know.
• 13:45
  We we aren't wrong. This actually is the best tasting popcorn. And the person that knows popcorn is basically telling us like this is one of my favorite things. And so I think Oprah doing that for us in the first year of launching was huge for our business.
• 14:03
  I wouldn't say necessarily from a sales perspective, but I think from like a confidence perspective for us three of like, we got something like we got to keep doing it. Pipcorn is really special. This idea is something that we want to get to more and more people. So, yeah. So that was really, I think, the first time or like, whoa, whoa.
• 14:24
  And she actually helped us perfect our truffle popcorn. Did she? Oh my gosh. That is so cool. So it's still today one of our best-selling items. And we haven't like touched the recipe because anything Oprah does and says is gold. Seal of approval.
• 14:42
  Yeah, yeah. And she knows her truffle because she's so obsessed with it. So yeah, that truffle popcorn we've had since launch, it's one of the few flavors that we've kept and it's consistently like one of the fan favorites. Wow. And so before you met the Oprah Scout, how much money were you making like at the markets? And were you like, okay, how do we scale it up to get like...
• 15:08
  you know, enough money to be able to launch into supermarkets and that kind of thing? Really not, you know, I think we were just really making enough to just keep manufacturing it to the next day. And honestly, at the time, I don't think we had really wrapped our minds around like how to scale and how to generate cash. And I think we were still just in like discovery mode of
• 15:39
  And I think the great thing about selling direct to consumer, and it's actually where we focused our business for the first. So from 2012 to the end of 2014, we were really just focused on direct to consumer, like at the food market, through our website, which, as you know, is not as expensive to operate than if you're working with a large retailer, but never really generating a
• 16:06
  you know, we weren't even really paying ourselves. So I don't think we had thought that through entirely of just like, how can we scale this? I think it was more just let's really get the customer behind our product. Cause we felt like that was the way to success. If we could,
• 16:23
  if we could kind of sacrifice, you know, I think some of some brands launched differently, right. It's about like profitability. It's about growing as fast as possible. I think we took a really different approach where it was, let's build this really loyal customer following. Let's make sure like we got this down from a product standpoint and then let's really like take it off. And so I think that, you know,
• 16:50
  thing that changed the business or it changed it from being brand building and product focused to more of what you're asking, like profitability and distribution was Shark Tank. So they had reached out to us actually in 2013 and we said no because at the time,
• 17:13
  Yeah. Which is kind of like, I think, the way that Jeff, Jen and I do stuff, I feel like where people are like, you guys are great. Yeah. You said no. But at the time, they had this thing in the clause that if you went on Shark Tank, they would take like a piece of equity in your business, even if you didn't get a deal. Yeah.
• 17:37
  So even if we didn't raise money. Oh, no way. Yeah. Just to stand in the spotlight. Ah, okay. And get exposure. They would take a piece of your business. And we just, it didn't feel right. And so we were like, no, I don't think, you know, from a marketing standpoint, also just from production to produce the product, we weren't even at a place where we could actually like monetize that. Right.
• 18:06
  And so they reach back out because one of the sharks actually told them like the quality of companies that are coming on the show is decreasing because of the cause. You know, because if you have companies that kind of have more legs, they know the value of their brand equity. They're probably going to do similar, have a similar conversation that we did.
• 18:28
  So in 2014, once they removed the clause, that's when we went on to Shark Tank and they were able to get a deal with Barbara Corcoran, which was super exciting. And it's actually crazy because right before Jeff and Jen went out onto stage, Jen and I were walking in the back. We were walking backstage and Barbara was walking by and she points at both of us and she says, Yeah.
• 18:55
  you guys got it before we went on. And Jen and I were like, that's a sign. Oh my gosh. That's so cool. Wow. Yeah. We were able to close a deal with her and that was like life changing to have that exposure. Yeah, absolutely. I think I read she made a deal for like $200,000 at 10% equity. Is that right?
• 19:23
  Yeah. Yeah. And so the crazy thing actually is, so we had done all this like valuation work right behind the scenes. I mean, we're ex bankers, so we kind of know how it all works. And I remember we were in the hotel room and I was like,
• 19:39
  quizzing Jeff and Jen, you know, like asking them all these questions. And I don't know what led me to say this, but we actually changed our valuation. I was like, I think that we are going in too high. Like we were, we actually wanted to go out at 250 for 10. And we dropped it down. And I actually think like,
• 20:03
  If you watch the episode, like Jeff was Jeff and Jen were like, we're not we're not negotiating because we had already negotiated against ourselves behind the scenes. You'd brought it down. You were like, this is the bottom line. And actually, I think because we did that. And I think for Barbara, she's also told us like the fact that we stuck to our guns. She was like, I knew you guys had it. So it's little. Yeah, she could respect it.
• 20:32
  Yeah. So it's like thinking about those little things, right. That like, if it didn't happen, if we didn't change the valuation and we negotiated, would Barbara have been as confident in us as entrepreneurs? And, you know, if Oprah scout hadn't walked by our tent and tried our popcorn, would we have gotten the favorite things? Like, it's pretty wild. I think to see all those like little things that have to work together to kind
• 21:02
  amazing that we're still branded and, you know, and in market and people want our products. So yeah, there's a lot of serendipity that plays into it to get those moments. It's, it's hard work, but there is also a lot of luck that plays into it too.
• 21:18
  Yeah. And so, um, Sharp Tank was, yeah, such a life-changing event. And once it aired, we did like $200,000 in sales in the day of airing, which was more than we had done like the 12 months prior. So it really was, it really was like the jumping off point, I think for Pipcorn. Um, and was that still D to C? Yeah.
• 21:47
  Yep. Yeah. Right. Okay. Cool. All through our website. Yeah. And we definitely were not prepared for that from an inventory standpoint at all. Because the Barbara's team had given us like some advice, like you can expect this amount. And I think we greatly surpass that because people know popcorn, right? They're like, Oh, a better tasting popcorn. I think we just got so many people that were so excited and,
• 22:16
  I still remember like the night it aired, Jeff had put his phone on like buzzer. So every time we would get a sale on our website, it would buzz. And it just wouldn't stop buzzing. Like it was just like freaking out on the table. And Jeff and I were like, we can't believe that this is our reality. It was, yeah, I can still feel like a feeling of being in that room and seeing it air and kind of like.
• 22:45
  stepping back and was like, whoa, like now the hard work is really going to start. Yeah. And now like things really kicked into gear. Yeah. I mean, we, yeah, we, we were not expecting to do as much as we did in a day that we were, we were like, we've worked our butts off for the last year. We can't even get that many sales. We got that in a day. Yeah. Wow. A hundred percent.
• 23:15
  And so is that what kind of launched you guys into all the retail stores and took you guys to that next level? And I imagine that was the money that was also able to help you fund putting yourself into the big retail stores.
• 23:29
  100%. Yeah. So the 200,000 that Barbara invested in us, we put into essentially our first packaging. So the ability for us to have like a real snack bag that could sit on the grocery shelf versus the hand stamp bags that we were doing, which just wasn't scalable. 200,000 hand stamped bags. Exactly. Your hands would have been real sore.
• 23:58
  We would be bleeding. So, yeah, it definitely was like the money we needed to be able to like really scale the business and really start thinking about like profitability to your question earlier. Right. And like, how do we make this from a.
• 24:17
  from a product to a business. Um, so yeah. And did Barbara's mentorship and her partnership in the business help you navigate that time and, and navigate becoming profitable and becoming, you know, growing to that scale, I guess, so quickly. Yeah.
• 24:36
  Yeah. The thing about like Barbara is that she's a hundred percent like who she is in the tank in real life. And she truly, I think, believes in her entrepreneurs. I think that she's she's more about the people than maybe necessarily the product or the business that comes on. So.
• 24:55
  In the early days with her investment, we would go to her office, which ended up actually just being like 20 blocks away from our kitchen up in Harlem. So we would just like take a taxi and we would have quarterly meetings with her in her office. And it was always...
• 25:12
  I think more that mentorship. I don't think that, you know, she doesn't have like CPG background. So she's not, she wasn't able to offer us necessarily like manufacturing expertise, but she gave us the confidence to essentially like make hard decisions. And I think also her own story of being a coach.
• 25:33
  female within a predominantly male industry within real estate and to hear her stories of how she pushed through, I think it was very motivational for Jen and I because the CPG world is all white men. And, you know, I think, you know, as women, but also as minorities, you know, to have her tell us her stories of like standing up for herself and definitely gave Jen and I the confidence to really...
• 26:02
  make a big impact like within an industry of people that didn't necessarily look like us. Yeah, I bet. Holy moly. Wow, that must have been so exciting going into those meetings with her. When you did have those quarterly meetings, what specifically kind of things did you do? Like, what did she like? Did she set things out? Or was it like a workshop? Or what happens in those kind of meetings?
• 26:28
  Yeah, we so we would go through the financials with her. And I think that she always really wanted to focus on sales and marketing, which I think is what her strengths were. So she would always give us some like really fun and exciting and creative ideas in terms of how we could market Pipcorn. You know, she had ideas of like, put your face on the bag, you know, things I think that just thinking outside of the box.
• 26:59
  either manufacturing popcorn, because at the time we were still manufacturing it ourselves. So we were either making the popcorn, delivering it, making sales calls, doing paperwork. So I think what really happened to those meetings was us
• 27:14
  forcing us to take time out to kind of be creative again and think of ideas with her again. And then also just opportunities. You know, I think she was really gracious about making sure if she had an interview, whether it was with Dr. Oz or with Good Morning America, that she always tried to include Pipcorn and talk about it. So like just continue to get us press and exposure and
• 27:38
  That actually is why we really didn't have to raise as much money in the early days, because I think brands raise money and you use all that for marketing. We were able to get a lot of free marketing, um,
• 27:51
  through Shark Tank and then through Barber's like continued sort of like support of our brand. Cheerleading you on. I love that. Yeah. And where are you guys with the business today? Have you had to raise since then? What's the kind of future of Pipcorn or what's the current and future of Pipcorn? Yeah, so we...
• 28:13
  So after Shark Tank in 2015, we went national and Whole Foods. And I think through that partnership, we realized that it's a very different cost model than selling direct to consumer. So our P&L started looking really different. And we started going out and talking to investors probably like late 2016. And it actually was very difficult for us to raise money.
• 28:41
  Because popcorn was a rapidly growing category and there were all these giants like Skinny Pop,
• 28:49
  and boom, chicka pop that were out ahead of us. So there were a lot of like competition concerns with sort of like, can Pipcorn stand up to those big giants? So it was actually very difficult. And it was very emotional for us to like go into these investor meetings and just get no's. Like, I can't even tell you how many no's we got. And like,
• 29:13
  You know, I think also like for me where like I'm a finance person, I took it like even extra hard because I'm like, this is what I should be able to do. Like this is the stuff I know. Yeah. So, yeah. So we were in conversations with people from probably like 2016 to the beginning of 2018, just like meeting with different investors and just never really could get something that worked.
• 29:38
  And then in the beginning of 2018, we met a South African investor who was really interested and excited about PIPCORN. And this was after like a series of no's. So we were like so excited that we met someone that saw our vision.
• 29:54
  understood what we were trying to do and really wanted to support us. And we went through a six month due diligence process with that investor. And we went down to the point of exchanging wire information. So we were there. We had signed all the documents, you know, and Barbara signed the documents. And I remember it was like the Thursday before July 4th weekend, just radio silence.
• 30:21
  which is very strange, right? Because I'm like, we've been like doing like, we've been talking like every day, almost for the last six months to kind of get here. They were going to put in $3 million into the business and just didn't get a response. They ghosted you. Yeah. Yeah.
• 30:37
  So then finally, the week after it comes out that he had been in conversations with not just Kipcorn, but two other brands that we actually were friends with as well. And down to this like last process. And the investor didn't actually have the money to put into the brands. So we had gone down this like six months, which really hurt the business. And we needed the cash. Yeah.
• 31:04
  Um, and then we had over a hundred thousand dollars of legal fees associated with a fundraising. Um, and there was just nothing we could do. There was like, you know, there's, there was really no like legal obligation that we could go back after him. And it was actually an investor that we were introduced by through a really reputable broker. Um,
• 31:29
  So it was very traumatizing for our business. So this is like the summer of 2018. Yeah. Yeah. I still remember like Jeff, Jen and I like went into the office and we were just like silent, you know, because we knew that this could put us out of business, right? Like now, cause we'd been, we'd been,
• 31:51
  we've been under the impression, right, of growing and we had this investor, we had the momentum, and now we had all these additional fees associated with it. On top of which, fundraising takes time, right? So like our cash burn wasn't going to take us like another six months to be able to find another investor. So I actually think it was like a,
• 32:13
  a big moment for us to figure out like, what, what are we doing here? Cause at this point we'd been doing this business since 2012. Right. So, and we weren't making, we weren't really making money. Like we were all living on nothing. We were all still like calling our parents all the time to help us. And I think we were just like, is this something that's sustainable for us personally and for our families? And,
• 32:41
  I think that us decide, like Jephthah and I being like, it is, is what's made us actually get to, I think, where we are today, which is a really exciting place in our business where we were like, hip corn is so special. We have to make it work. So I think all three of us only took like 24 hours to like throw ourselves a pity party. And then we were back in the office, just strategizing, like, how do we get through this?
• 33:10
  And so we essentially decided to just focus on Whole Foods as our prime partner and try to expand our products outside of popcorn. Because I think popcorn was a challenging category at the time, given all the competition. And so we really dug deep in terms of like, what is our brand stand for? Like, what do we care about? What do our customers want? And it really came down to the heirloom corn.
• 33:39
  That corn was like the secret sauce, right? To having one of Oprah's scouts just list us as her favorite things when we were hand stamping bags, right? Like that's what Mark Cuban was eating constantly on the set where he couldn't even give us an offer on Shark Tank.
• 33:59
  And so we started playing with the heirloom corn and we realized that we could make all these delicious tasting snacks using only real ingredients and keeping to our mission of bringing a better quality product to market that may already exist. Like we weren't in we weren't innovators in terms of like bringing food.
• 34:21
  plant-based, right? Like we took popcorn and we made it better. And so all of our new products that we've launched are all in that same thesis. Like take cheese balls that we loved growing up eating, make them better, more modern, healthier using heirloom corn, Frito scoops that we all love eating. Let's make our corn dippers that modern version of it that you're okay giving
• 34:51
  in September of 2018. So all this, you know, we lost the fundraising in like the summer. We went to Austin and we pitched Whole Foods this idea of a family of heirloom snacks. And we had samples that we'd made from like some co-packers that made it for us. We made our first iteration of the corn dippers, like literally in our kitchen with a pasta extruder. And we'd
• 35:18
  we sold it in Whole Foods believed in what we were doing. They saw that we had such a brand that was so like customers that were so loyal to our popcorn. So that like,
• 35:30
  bootstrapped paid off, right? When we were in real hardship, it was those loyal customers that actually like gave Whole Foods the confidence to be like, Pipcorn can be a brand of heirloom snacks. So we went from three SKUs and Whole Foods of popcorn to 11 and,
• 35:50
  with now popcorn, puffs, chips, we're in crackers. And then we were able to raise money too from a great investor who's now funded all of this growth. And so, yeah, so last year, like before we were able to get all the new items in, we've probably grown like 300% this year, which is like crazy thinking that, you know,
• 36:17
  before all this innovation, like we were sitting in the room being like, is this the end? Is this? Yeah. Is this the end? Yeah. Wow. What a rollercoaster. I think that's what keeps us grounded of like, you know, all the good comes with that and we have to make it our own. And I think that that sort of like path throughout our 10 years has really made the core on the brand it is.
• 36:43
  that we have, I think, a very authentic voice to our customer and that we're real people that are just trying to do the right thing, right? We really just want to make food that tastes better. It's good for your kids, better for the planet. Yeah, we...
• 36:59
  We didn't have like a grand business plan. We weren't like trying to change the world. I think we were just like, we love eating this food and we think other people deserve to eat it too. So yeah, it was, it was wild. And I think it's so interesting to hear like that the hustle is still there, you know, eight years on when you have to really get down in the nitty gritty and be like, okay, how are we going to turn things around when things have gone, you know, all over the place?
• 37:28
  It's incredible. I mean, whoa. Yeah, I think it was very dark for us. But that's what I think is so amazing about founders and entrepreneurs who are like. It's so your thing, right? Like you have so much attachment that you're not going to let it go and you're going to figure out a way to make it reality.
• 37:58
  such a similar quality among all the different entrepreneurs that we talk to is like, no matter what, we're going to figure it out. And it's going to work. And it may not be like, the straight line that you thought. Yeah, like this, which is why, which is why, like,
• 38:17
  I don't think writing a business plan really is necessary to start a business. Right. And that's what I when I was in business school, I was like, I learned like write a business plan. But today, like when I talk to people, I'm like, throw that out the window, because whatever you write down is never going to be what you can make reality about.
• 38:38
  And maybe the business plan holds you back, right? True. Because you're so focused on what you wrote down when in the beginning. So yeah, it's all about the roller coaster. For sure, absolutely. What advice do you have for women who have a big idea? I know you've just shared the business plan thing, but that aside, what is your advice for women who have a big idea? I think, well...
• 39:09
  I think if they need the push, I would say go for it. That would be my advice. Don't overthink it. You know, I think it doesn't have to be perfect. A mentor said that to me once, like it doesn't have to be perfect. Don't let perfect stand the way of good, which I thought was such great advice because it's so true, right? We get so stuck in making things perfect. And I think for women too, right, where you're maybe even more so for women, because you are trying.
• 39:37
  almost like expected to fail, right? Like if you look at all the founders and CPG, so many of them are men, so many of the investors are men. And, you know, I think that for women, you're like, if I'm going to put myself out there, I need to like prove that it's wrong. Like women can succeed too. And I don't think that you want to let that hold you back because then you'll never launch it. You'll never go for it. So yeah, I would say like,
• 40:04
  the advice that my mentor gave me, don't let perfect stand the way of good would be what I would say. A hundred percent. And I think there's another quote that's along the lines of done is better than perfect. Totally. Yeah. Get it done. Move forward, move forward quickly. We are up to the six quick questions. Part of the interview. Are you ready to go? Yep. Great. Number one is what's your why? I think for me, it's, it's,
• 40:34
  proving that like, I could do it. I think like just having that motivation, like it's possible, like I'm so hard on myself. And I think a lot of that's come from like the way I was raised. And so I think for me, like, I just never want to give up because like, I know I almost have to prove it to myself, like that I could do it. Which I don't know if that's the best quality.
• 41:04
  just it not working I have to make sure like prove to myself I can do it yeah there's gonna be a big exit in your future question number two is what's been the number one marketing moment that made your business pop
• 41:20
  I think Shark Tank, what we talked about. Yeah. Having that exposure and that opportunity is something like we're so grateful for. And I know a lot of brands, you know, try to get. So just being able to be in front of 8 million people was something that I think just completely changed our business. Changed the game. Major step change. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter?
• 41:48
  So with a five-week-old and a three-year-old, I feel like I'm kind of just stuck in the house. But I actually think being with my daughter, Elliot, who's three, she's actually like shown me a lot just because I think toddlers, they see things as they are. They don't overthink anything. And that's actually taught me a lot. It's like weird to think that my daughter's taught me so much. But in the last like,
• 42:16
  three or four months where I feel like she's in that toddler age. She's made me realize like, even for business, it's like to see things for what they are, don't overthink them, don't overcomplicate them. And that's actually been hugely valuable for me in like the last, you know, three months. That's so sweet. Hanging out with my daughter. I love that. Cute. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your AM and
• 42:47
  Um, so my AM ritual right now is like breastfeeding my son. Um, but I think what's allowed me to win my day is actually because I don't have a lot of time, um, taking every opportunity I can. So when I'm feeding gray, like that's when I'm doing all of my email. Um, so my, so my team right now is like, why am I getting emails from you at like 4am and 6am? But
• 43:13
  I think for me, it's about like just taking every opportunity I can to kind of make sure that I'm staying on top of what I'm doing. And then my evening routine, I would say, is at least taking 10 minutes to sort of just read the Internet. Because I think that when you're so...
• 43:35
  When you're so obsessed, right, of what you're doing. So like for a Pipcorn, it's something I'm constantly thinking about. And with my husband being in my fellow partner, we're always talking about. I think that in the evening, like just to have 10 minutes to like just read about the world, it actually helps put perspective into what we're doing with Pipcorn. For sure. Yeah.
• 43:58
  Question number five is if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? Hmm, that's a great question. I think that we would...
• 44:14
  I think we would pay our employees. I don't, you know, I'm just trying to think like we've been in those situations before and Chelsea, who's our director of operations, she's been with us for like over three years, almost four years actually now. And she's like family. And I think with a lot of like the press and stuff that Pipcorn gets, she's sort of like
• 44:35
  you know, I think like the unsung hero. And so I think for, I'm sure if you asked Jeff and Jen the same question too, it'd be like taking care of her because she kind of keeps, keeps the wheels on the, on the, whatever that saying is. Keeps the wheels on the bus going around. Yeah. I don't know if it's even a saying, I think it's a kid's song, which has turned into a saying. Love that. Oh, sure. It feels so nice when you share this with her.
• 45:01
  question number six final question is how do you deal with failure I think that I try not to dwell on it so I try to push forward yeah and try to see the positive side of that failure because I think with the fundraising especially like I felt like it was something I failed for the company because it was something I was leading um and so I think that was a good example of like how I dealt with it it was like
• 45:30
  Let's not be upset. Like, let's fix the problem. So more of that sort of mindset.
• 45:38
  Yeah, absolutely. And you know what's funny that like, I'm just thinking this now, but from our conversation before about that fundraising time, I don't know if people realize it takes that long, you know, over that long period of time, it's just kind of crazy to think how many hours you would have dedicated to doing that and like essentially stepping away from like the operation of the business at that same time to focus on the fundraising. That's crazy. Really crazy. Wow.
• 46:06
  Wow. Yeah, that's such a great point because it's so true. Like fundraising definitely is a distraction from growing your business. Yeah. And you kind of have to keep the momentum to the business until you close the deal. So like the average fundraising does take like six to eight months.
• 46:26
  before really long time. And even with Shark Tank, actually, we are processed. So we, you know, on the show, we agreed to the deal, but we had a six month due diligence process with Barbara's team after.
• 46:40
  Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I didn't realize that that was the case. It's a really long time. Half a year. Oh, my goodness. And then imagine when then you don't get the money. Oh, I mean, that's heartbreak right there. That's that's truly like heartache and heartbreak. Thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today, Teresa. I have absolutely loved talking to you and getting to learn about Pipcorn and where you guys are at.
• 47:10
  Amazing. Thank you so much for having me.
• 47:16
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 47:40
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 48:03
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favourite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 48:20
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 48:44
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 49:07
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show, and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.