Denise Woodard: Founder and CEO of Partake Foods

20:39Denise Woodard:So being frustrated and having an idea and actually doing something about it are very different things. Talk to me about what that process was like. How did you start thinking about starting your own company? And what was the timeline like from idea to actually starting to test? It was pretty quick and not to discredit myself, but it felt like some of the things happened to me in a way that made me feel like this was the path that I was meant to be on. And so I mentioned my nanny, Martha, you can find her on our cap table. She has equity in the business because honestly, she was the person who was like, you help all these other people build their business.

21:17You have this problem. You can't find a solution. You should do something. And she would come home from Whole Foods and bring ingredients and be like, let's test something. Let's bake something. And then literally just like out of a movie, this was in May. Vivian had the allergic reaction in May. We incorporated the business June 1st. So this all happened in a pretty, yeah, it was like real quick.

21:37Denise Woodard:Denise, goodness. You did not wait. Anytime. Because what happened was I was in line at the zoo with my husband and I was saying like, you won't believe this. Martha has this bananas idea. She thinks I should start a food company. And the person, I kid you not, who was in line in front of us turned around, says, it sounds like you have a good idea. You should enter this pitch competition called the start something challenge. And so I was like, oh, this seems interesting. So I go online and one of the judges is a buyer for Whole Foods. And I was like, this is interesting. And so I incorporate a business at the time.

22:10I call it Vivi's life because I don't know exactly what I'm going to do other than make Vivi's life easier and better, hopefully. And I enter this pitch competition with just an idea and I win. I win a$10 ,000 prize, which is great. But the thing that's more important that was really the kick in the butt and why I said things happened to me, I had to tell my boss because it came with some local press. And the last thing I needed was my employer to see me in the paper, like woman starts allergy friendly food company. And so I was forced very early on to tell my employer what I was working on.

22:41Denise Woodard:So what was the pitch? What was the hook that was so compelling? The hook was two kids in every classroom in America have food allergies. The rate of food allergy incidents has increased over 400 % over the past 10 years. There's no brands that are providing safe solutions that people with and without food allergies could actually enjoy together. And so I'm going to create a business that makes really fun snacks. And I was thinking about cookies and crackers and different products. I didn't know exactly what it was going to be. And I'm going to create this business and that's what I'm going to do.

23:11Denise Woodard:I mean, like no brainer. I'd give you the price too. So how did your boss take it? Was it a situation where you thought you could just like have this on the side and it would be no big deal? I kind of like that you were forced into like legitimacy so early on in that way. Talk to me about that process. So I'd always had a side hustle when I was working at Coke. I had an eBay business that was bringing in six figures. Then I had a ticket brokering business. So I always had like some weird entrepreneurial hustle about me. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Why? Why were you doing these side things while still having like a really big full-time job?

23:42Denise Woodard:What was the eBay business? The eBay business was I had gone to drop a bunch of stuff off at a thrift store and there was a Chanel jacket for$8 on sale. And I was like, this is arbitrage heaven. And so I would go to the Salvation Army on Lincoln Ave and be on conference calls with my headphones on, just like rummaging through, trying to find designer finds that I would then sell on eBay. Dang. I know, right? That's amazing. And then what was the other business? Ticket brokering, which was like that one really just happened to me because I was looking to buy Beyonce tickets in a certain city to go with my girlfriends and I bought the wrong city.

24:20And then I was like, oh my goodness, what am I going to do? And then I resold the tickets and made, you know, like a few hundred dollars. And because I worked from home, I was at home in front of a computer at 10 a.m. Central Pacific and Eastern every time like a big ticket thing was going to go on sale. And so that was a much smaller business. That was just like a buy low, sell high on tickets. Oh, my gosh.

24:39Denise Woodard:That's so funny. Anyway, so you already had side hustles that I assume work knew about. Did work just feel like, OK, this is just one more thing, like do your thing? You know, work actually didn't know about those other side hustles. so when you did go in to explain hi i just won this pitch competition how did that go well they initially kind of looked at me like i had two heads but then to their credit we went through all the big company things you go through legal and ethics and hr and the verdict was as long as your work isn't slipping do whatever you want to do on the side and when you have an actual product there's a conflict of interest because you can't be going to see a retailer and be like, oh yeah, I'm selling this and I have this other business, which is completely reasonable.

25:22That gave me about a year to figure out how to get my product and get my packaging and all of that while I could still bring in an income. At what point did you rebrand the name? I am not very creative, definitely not where my strong suit is. So I ended up hiring an agency, a one woman show out of Austin, Texas to help me with packaging as well as naming. And that was pretty early on. Like through that summer, I tried to figure out what product are we actually going to make? Where are we going to make it? How are we going to make it? And then in the fall of 2016, winter of 2016, I found this one woman agency that could help me with the name.

25:57Denise Woodard:And where did Partake come from? Actually, the name of the company was originally going to be Haven, but it wasn't trademarkable. And what I wanted was I felt like a lot of the brands that existed in this space were very like focused on exclusion, like no nuts, no this, no this and free from this. And I wanted a name that felt more inclusive and was actually about people participating. And so that's where Haven came from because I was like, we can be like the sigh of relief or like safe space for people with allergies. Now looking back on it, I'm so glad it didn't work out because I like partake as a name so much more.

26:30And so the name partake, the idea was that people with food allergies and dietary restrictions will be able to partake. But we've really pulled that thread through our mission and other parts of the business as the business has evolved.

26:41Denise Woodard:I think it still feels very inclusive because I partake in eating partake and I do not have any allergies. So it feels like for everyone, which I think is very lovely. So June incorporation hit the ground running. I assume that you have to figure out like how to manufacture and recipes and all of these things. What were the earliest steps and what were the first sort of points where you're like, okay, this is going to be a thing. This is actually like coming together or working. Martha and I tried to get in the kitchen and we failed horribly. And so I was like, I'm going to need a professional to help me with this.

27:13And I started sending messages via LinkedIn to people who had worked at competitive brands in the space. And a woman responded to my message and got on the phone with me and agreed to give me a shot for a small chunk of change and equity in the business and really helped bring the vision to life from a product standpoint. The other big challenge, which proved to be kind of one of our bigger challenges in getting the business off the ground, was where I was actually going to make the product. I'm typically a big fan of start as small as you can, go to your local commercial kitchen. But because of the allergy piece, I needed to have a top nine, well, at the time, top eight allergen free facility.

27:54And there's not very many that exist. I found the one that we work with. I was trolling around on Facebook in food allergy parent groups, and a customer was giving a competitive brand a hard time saying like, how do I know your product is allergy friendly. And the brand said, we make our products in a top eight allergen free facility in XX state. And I was like, bingo. And I started looking up the virtual white pages basically to find this facility. And when I called them, they nicely hung up the phone on me.

28:28Denise Woodard:But fortunately for you, you've got some training in cold calls, right? Exactly. And I was like, this is gonna be a challenge. After multiple rounds of I think you're too small. They were working with much larger businesses. And so I understand like now looking back on it, I see why they reacted the way that they did. But I was like, for me to turn this business into a thing, this part has to work. I ran a Kickstarter campaign. If I can go back to them and show them that other people want the product, they'll give me a shot. It could have blown up in my face because they still could have said no.

28:58And then I wouldn't have been able to fulfill the Kickstarter. But you know, sometimes you just got to take a leap of faith. And we ended up running a Kickstarter that finished in the top 1 % of food Kickstarters on the platform. And so that was enough for them to say, okay, fine, we'll give you a chance. And the rest is history. We still work with them.

29:14Denise Woodard:That's amazing. So once you figured out the manufacturer, what were the early products? And at that point, were like the recipes completely developed? I'm sure you're working on brand at the same time. I also would imagine that just because the recipe works in a smaller commercial kitchen or in a home kitchen doesn't necessarily mean it's going to scale up in the same way. So what was that learning curve like? Sure. So I skipped one step, which was originally before going to LinkedIn, I went to bloggers. And so I found a blogger who made the recipe for me the first time. And exactly what you said is what happened.

29:45It was a lovely recipe that would make for great Sunday afternoon baking, but not to live on the store shelves of national retailers, because it's like soak dates overnight and then macerate the dates. And so after I realized that That was not the same as what you could make in a commercial type setting. That's when I went to LinkedIn. And so the person that we worked with, she was the real deal. She knew immediately like this is how you scale something up. And so once we have the right person in place, she was able to bring it to life very quickly. And then the facility that we found could either do oatmeal cups, baking mixes or cookies.

30:20And I was like, I want something that feels celebratory and that people can share together. And so that's how cookies became our first product. and we felt like, you know, when I looked at the data, every brand has a chocolate chip. So we're like, okay, we need a chocolate chip. And then we didn't have money to do like real focus groups and surveys and things. And so I sent a survey monkey to 10 parent friends and then asked them to each send it to 10 friends until we got to about 300 people. And that's how we determined our first flavors. And I kind of cringe as I say out loud now because they do not sound appetizing, but there was this common thread of people wanted to give their kids more vegetables.

30:56And so the first flavor names were sprouted grain chocolate chip, carrot oat, and sweet potato millet. You know, you live and you learn. Flavor names are very different now, but that is what we launched with three flavors of crunchy cookies with not very appetizing names.

31:11Denise Woodard:Okay. So for that first run, walk me through what the timeline is like. So now you have at this point, you have the brand, you have the recipe, you have the facility, you know what three things you're going after. what happens next? We go do a test run in early 2017. It goes well. We know how much product we need for the Kickstarter. And so we do our first production run in the summer of 2017 to fulfill the Kickstarter and to actually give me product to start selling to stores. And I leave my job at Coca-Cola August 1st of 2017. So one year and two months, essentially, after incorporating, You have product and you've left your job.

31:53That is correct.

31:54Denise Woodard:That is so exciting and also terrifying. How were you thinking about money at that moment? So I had had a year to save up because we knew that I was going to leave my job. At the time, my husband was working in finance in New York. And so he was the primary breadwinner. The story takes a turn when he loses his job in 2018 and I make no money and then we have to figure out what to do. But it didn't feel as bet the company because my husband had a very stable career, was super supportive of what I was doing. We're dipping into our savings sum to fund the first production runs, but it feels safe enough.

32:26Denise Woodard:Got it. Talk to me about finding retail partners and all of the skillsets that you had from all of your years of your previous career that aligned so nicely with starting your own business and getting product into stores. So you launched in Whole Foods, right? Not exactly. We launched in independent stores in New York in August of 2017. Whole Foods was the first chain to bring us on the next summer. But for the first year, it was just me selling cookies out of my car to independent stores in New York. What was that like? What was the feedback like? What was the process like? Were those doors flying open or was it more of a grind?

33:05Kind of somewhere in the middle. I feel really fortunate that I started the business in New York because I think so many of those store owners really just respected the hustle of a person like, you know, in the story. And so whether or not they actually believed I would succeed, I'm not really sure, but they were willing to give me a shot. And I was able to sell the product in because I committed to doing demos. I was like, look, if you bring this product in, I'm going to move it off these store shelves. And so I would go in and do demos, which is how I quickly learned that those flavor names were not where it was at.

33:36And so that was a very valuable experience that really did play from so many of my past experiences, pounding the pavement, the knowing what time to get to a store and what days of the week the store manager will actually be there to what a professional sell sheet would look like and how can I recreate that on PowerPoint at home. And so I think all of those experiences really did help make the initial days of partake much easier for me to understand and to know what to do.

34:02Denise Woodard:So in addition to learning that you needed to rename product. What other important feedback were you getting during that time? What were some of those early in-store learnings? I think two of the biggest learnings, one was I didn't realize how high of a barrier to entry there was with the food allergy consumer. While those consumers were like, oh, this is so nice. I'm so happy to see you do this. They were not trying to give those products to their children because they were like, did this woman make this like in a commercial kitchen? Who is this? Instead, it was consumers that didn't have food allergies who wanted better for you products or who wanted something that they could share safely amongst other people or with all the restrictions that exist in schools around what can be taken in.

34:43So there was a lot of parents looking for things they could take into school. And so it really opened my eyes to how much of our consumer base would actually rely on customers that didn't have food allergies. And so that was a good learning. And I think kind of in conjunction with that, the initial packaging was pretty granola. It was like craft paper brown. It had all these icons, like no eggs, no nuts, all the things that I said I didn't want to do that were wrong. So I would tell this very bright, vibrant, warm story about how I wanted people with food allergies to be able to partake. And then I would show them the packaging and they would say like, if you weren't here telling me this story, I would never buy this product.

35:20And so it really helped me understand what changes we could make to the packaging to really sell the product when I wasn't there to tell the story.

35:27Denise Woodard:So in addition to changing the name. I'm assuming things continue to grow. You did get in Whole Foods. Talk to me about what that was like. I remember like running down the hallway in my house, like screaming and happy dancing. But literally, I had no contacts at Whole Foods. I went on LinkedIn, and I got whatever premium membership so you can spam people and send lots of messages. And I sent a message to every person that had the title category manager in their LinkedIn profile. And I remember the person's name. He worked out of the Boulder office and he took pity on me and introduced me to the right person.

36:02And she was willing to give me a shot in the Whole Foods Southwest region. So it's 43 stores in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

36:11Denise Woodard:How were you funding that level of expansion? Because I feel like it's one thing when you are making enough product to be able to sell to local stores, but getting into a chain, let alone one that's like not anywhere near you, feels like a whole different level of investment. Yeah. And I didn't realize that. And so I didn't realize how much money growth would cost. Cash conversion cycle had no idea how that actually worked. And I got to live that real time where you're buying the ingredients and paying for the production months in advance of actually getting paid. At this point, we've probably like used all of our savings.

36:44I'm emptying my 401k. We're maxing out our credit cards. Not all at one time, but it's like, yay, we got another Whole Foods order. But now we have to fund it. Yeah, exactly. So at that point, I'm starting to try to raise outside capital, but quickly realize how over my skis I am in terms of speaking the language and understanding anything about venture capital funding. So we're self-funding the business at this point. How long did you self-fund for? We self-funded way longer than we should have until early 2019, late 2018, early 2019. So about six months, seven months of us being in Whole Foods.

37:21And at the same time, we got picked up by Wegmans. So we're in Whole Foods, Wegmans, independent stores in New York and Amazon, and we're self-funding the business. And I'm out trying to raise money, but just not having any success.

37:32Denise Woodard:And then you mentioned your husband's very stable career suddenly had a bit of a hiccup. Wasn't so stable anymore. This is all happening at the same time. Yes. How did you handle that? You know, I think along the way, I continued to get little breadcrumb signs. You know, every time that I was like, what are we doing? Something great would happen. And we'd get some sort of press or we'd get a chain account like Wegmans or we'd get a lead on an investor. And I get asked oftentimes if this is like a family business or if my husband's a co-founder and he's not. But I think for an entrepreneur to be successful, the whole family has to be bought into what you're doing.

38:06And so, you know, he did the books for me. And when he wasn't working, he would do demos. And so we just went all in. Like we both really believed in what we were doing.

38:15Denise Woodard:So you were out trying to raise money. I believe you were denied by 86 investors. 86 that I wrote down. I think it was quite a few more. But then you finally got a yes. Talk to me about that yes. So we got some small yeses before that. We got some$5 ,000 and$10 ,000 checks from my old colleagues, from friends that kept the lights on. And it was never enough to actually make us feel like we had enough capital to grow the business. But without those early investors, I wouldn't have a business today. And then the bigger yes that I got was Marcy Venture Partners, which is the venture capital fund that Jay-Z co-founded, said yes and led our seed round of funding June of 2019, which was a million dollar round.

38:58Denise Woodard:That is so incredible. What was the pitch? Was it saying like, OK, we have all of these contracts? At that point, was it still just three products or three flavors? It's just three flavors. We're in a couple of chain accounts, but I'm still selling the cookies out of my car in New York. we meet them right when we got into Whole Foods and Wegmans. So it took about a year of showing like, you know, we're actually doing what we say we're going to do. Like customers are really buying the product. This is what's happening. These are the other accounts that I could go into if we actually had funding.

39:29And, you know, I think the pitch there was very different from all the no's that I got. Like I was really heavy pitching on the angel circuit and every conversation would start with, well, what's the TAM and what's your gross margin and all important things. And Marcy definitely did all of their financial due diligence. But the conversation started with who are you? Where are you from? Why are you building this? What inspires you? And so for me, that's been a lesson that I've taken throughout my fundraising journey, because I think the investors that have been the best fit for me and for my business are ones that I really feel like truly believe in what we're building and aren't just there for a financial outcome.

40:05Don't get me wrong. They're not investing in a nonprofit. Everybody wants financial outcome, but there's also a very different sense of belief in me in the business.

40:14Denise Woodard:Also for our listeners at home who might not be as familiar, TAM is Total Addressable Market. So you find the right early investor. You raise this amazing seed round. What were you planning on doing with it? What was the pitch for? Was it merely expansion of the three flavors? Was it development? What was the goal for raising that money? The near term was expansion on those three flavors and starting to build out a team. I was the only employee. So I was kind of doing all the things, wearing all the hats. Wait, what? You're still the only employee? Yeah, we hired our first employee in January of 2020.

40:52So yeah, it was me doing a lot. And my husband was helping out where he could. And, you know, we had a couple of contractors that would work like two or three hours a week, but we really just didn't have the money to be able to invest in people. And I also didn't feel like the business was stable enough. I take very seriously having someone's financial livelihood and being responsible for that. And I just didn't feel like the business was in a place where I could even feel comfortable about my own financial livelihood, let alone take responsibility for someone else's.

41:21Denise Woodard:Did that round make you feel like you could breathe? That's the perfect way to describe it. Yes, I felt like I could breathe. For the first time in many years, right? Because you had just been building, building, building. Who was your first hire? So we brought on a part-time operations person in probably like August, September of that year. So pretty soon after the round close, I was still ordering all the ingredients, scheduling all the freight, scheduling the production runs. I was terrible at it and I hated it. And so we brought someone on to be able to do that. I feel like that was a wise use of resource.

41:54Denise Woodard:What was it like having an employee? It was wonderful to have somebody who was there building with me in the trenches, to have someone who knew a lot more than I did about this. It was the best thing to start to be able to build the team out. Was management a large part of your day to day previously? Because it's such a different skill set. Now that you ask that, Hillary, no, I was an individual contributor my entire career. And so it was my first time managing anyone outside of my daughter. It's kind of a wild thing, right? Yes, totally. Like you think it's going to be straightforward and often it is, but there are so many different levels.

42:30Denise Woodard:How were you at hiring as you started to build the company? Because that was a skill set that took me a minute to learn. It's definitely been something that's been challenging for me. I've gone through so many different iterations of things in terms of like, I remember there being a period where I just couldn't believe that anyone would want to come work at this company. And so I kind of felt like people were doing me a favor by coming to work here. And so I had to get over that. But then there's this period where like just because someone has worked in a big company or big CPG doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be the right fit for a startup.

43:02And really understanding the difference between those type of person at different stages of the company and what really works well for below 10 million and above 10 million and over 20 million is usually a very different person. You know, knowing that some people aren't going to be with you on the entire journey. That's been hard because I think you get so emotionally attached and there's been so many people have been so loyal to me and the business. And, you know, as they've gone on to do other things, as the team is built, it's just been like hard to manage all of the change. And so, yeah, I think the people component, honestly, is probably the most challenging thing.

43:35Denise Woodard:So 2020 was a huge year for Partake. You launched Nationwide with Target. You closed a$4.8 million Series A and you hired those first employees. So talk me through some of the highs of that year. And then also, what was the most challenging part of that year? 2020 was one for the books at Partake. So the highs were we grew revenue 10x, got into dream accounts. I remember we met Target. I dragged my husband to Expo West, which is like a big natural food trade show. And I said, if you see anybody from Target's dream account, stop them. He found the head of supplier diversity in the bathroom line.

44:17with our Ziploc bag samples. And that's where our relationship started. And we nurtured the heck out of it. And they called me in early 2020. At that point, I was the only employee still, they wanted us chain wide. And then I was like, Okay, we need to really hire someone now. And so you know, getting into accounts, I had never dreamed that we'd be in and doing it so quickly, we went from less than 500 stores in 2019 to 5000 stores in 2020. It was like bananas. So that was good. And like partnerships, like we have a co-branded flavor with Ben and Jerry's. That relationship started in 2020, like so many exciting partnerships and being able to build out the team and build together was the high points.

44:58I think the low points were, you know, there was a pandemic that had shut the country down. And so people were sick and unhealthy and there was just so much hurt happening around us. One thing that had a really big impact, I think, on our business and specifically on me and how I think about impact was George Floyd got killed. And the amount of inbound that we saw as a Black-owned business was unlike anything I could have ever imagined. And I started to honestly reckon with feelings of guilt because it felt like the same few companies were getting talked about all the time, whereas Black women are the fastest group of entrepreneurs starting businesses in the country.

45:34Yet, we were only talking about the same few companies. And I was fortunate to be one of them, but I think it was because there weren't that many that had the scale to be able to go after some of these large opportunities. And it was like, well, this tragic thing happened and then my business is benefiting from it. How do we take that hurt and turn it into something positive? And so we ended up starting a fellowship program.

45:55Denise Woodard:I just want to point out, if you were a white man, you would not be worrying about that at all. Which is why I think more women should be in leadership roles because we do think about the greater good and we want to help other people. And yeah, so we started a fellowship program that was aimed at helping increase diversity in the food industry. And it was just a roller coaster of a year. Oh, I guess my other bright point on the year was it went from like begging for money to people throwing term sheets at me, which was like very, very different. And like, it was interesting to be able to think about like what the right type of investor was and to be able to be selective about that.

46:28Denise Woodard:And I think to that point, for any of our listeners who have not gone through the joyous process of raising money, there is an interesting math that you have to do when considering investment if you're in the lucky position of having more people wanting to fund you than you have space for, which is, okay, there are some people who will give you more money, but you're not exactly sure what else they bring to the table. There are other strategics who sometimes you want to bring them in because you think you have to start thinking about what additional information could they bring to us or insight besides just money.

47:00Denise Woodard:Then you also start thinking about, okay, well, if this person or this company invests, how does that impact my exit necessarily? Because if you take money from a leader in your industry, that might potentially have impact on who you're able to sell to. Exactly. So trying to think through all of these things is a conundrum. What guided you? How did you know a company or a fund or an investor was right? I did a lot of backdoor reference checking. And so I think that's something I would encourage people to do. Talk to founders. Inevitably, I think any startup is going to go through challenges. And so understanding how investors have shown up during challenging times was really important to me.

47:43As I thought about what the business could use, for me, manufacturing is always a challenge just because there's not a lot of allergy-friendly manufacturing. And so we brought on a strategic partner that owns a ton of cookie factories around the world. for me, helping to close the racial wealth gap was really important and the wealth gap between genders. And so I wanted to get as many women, as many people of color on the cap table as possible. And that looked like impact funds. It looked like celebrities like Rihanna and Ashley Graham who could help amplify the mission of what we were working on.

48:12And then it looked like giving folks who had been down with the business since day one when we didn't have the traction, an opportunity to reinvest if they wanted to and making sure that we save space for them.

48:22Denise Woodard:That is so exciting. and also so much to contend with all at once. And it's such an interesting moment because it's like you've been using so many of these skills that you had been honing for so long to get you to a certain point, but then it sort of unlocks a whole new set of opportunities and problems that go with that and learnings. And you had been navigating with a lot of skills that you already had. Now, all of a sudden, it was like time to develop a whole bunch of new ones. Yep. Management, people, cap tables, all of that stuff. It seems like you've done it in a really thoughtful way. So since 2020, you have been able to focus on scaling as well as innovating with your products.

48:58Denise Woodard:You are in now more than 18 ,000 retailers. That is crazy. Talk to me how you think about newness because you've introduced graham crackers and vanilla wafers to your product line. How long does the process take? How do you know when to make something new and how have you gotten better at naming? From a newness perspective, the innovation that we've launched most recently, the vanilla wafers and the graham crackers and lunchbox offerings of some of our other products has really been consumer driven. A lot of consumers writing and saying, I can't participate at the campfire and make s'mores. I want to make a banana pudding and I don't have an option.

49:36And so we looked at the data, so took some quantitative measure, but then also the qualitative piece. Like I literally still read every single customer service message that comes in because I want to know what the consumer is thinking and what their experience has been. I'm excited for some true newness, further newness to come into the business. We're going to start launching products outside of the cookie category later this year. We needed to get our house in order and make sure that we felt good about the unit economics and the profitability of our existing product line and that we had the infrastructure from a people and operations perspective to be able to continue to scale.

50:09And I feel like we nailed that. And I'm thinking about 2020 and what happened for us in that year. And I'm hoping no tragic incidents, but I'm thinking about from a growth perspective, of how I'm really excited to start to lean into growth more. I feel like there's been a period most recently where there's been such a strong focus on profitability and there's been so much economic uncertainty that it really stifled what we were willing to do from an innovation perspective. But I think we're ready to play offense again, which I'm super excited about. And then on the naming front, I think the flavors are much more appetizing names like Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Chip now.

50:42But you know, you live and you learn.

50:46Denise Woodard:Yes. So one of the things that we like to talk about on this podcast is mistakes, because everyone makes them. But we don't always talk about some of the bigger mistakes. And I think it's important to because I think it shows resiliency. And I also think that women put a lot of pressure on themselves to get it right every single time. And hearing about other women making mistakes and being able to recover is important for us to all hear. So I'm hoping that you can tell me about a mistake that you've made at any point in your career and what you've learned from it. One that comes to mind, I referenced how there was a bit of a growth at all costs mentality previously.

51:26And I subscribed to that, even though I didn't really believe it. Our products weren't ready for prime time. Our margin was not there. We didn't have the profitability that we needed to have, but I would listen to the market and other investors saying like businesses have to be growing at this clip. And we burned through way too much capital, way more than we should have, because I was following this growth at all costs mindset and went into accounts that we weren't ready for and launched products that we shouldn't have launched. And so I think rather than listening to my own intuition, or, you know, I'm really fortunate to have folks on the board or some investors who are a part of the business who have been through downturns and upticks and seen it all.

52:07And I think I should have listened to like the wiser folks in the room rather than just the venture capital narrative that was really prevalent at that period. And so thankfully, we're able to recover from it. But we spent more than a year and a lot more money than we should have because of it.

52:22Denise Woodard:So a lot of folks who listen to this podcast are in their first lives. And And they know that they want to make a change, whether that's changing industries or going from a big company to a startup or even staying in their same industry, but just tackling a different aspect of it. But they're scared. As someone who has made a couple of pivots, one incredibly large one, what advice would you give someone who's standing there thinking about it, but just hasn't made that leap quite yet? The only way out is through. I think about like scary things that I'm scared to take a leap on. And I'm still here and I'm still standing and every failure and every mistake teaches you something.

53:02And so I'm not saying to just blindly follow your dreams, couple that with data and talk to people who have been there and done that and run the numbers. But then if it's something that you're so passionate about that the world needs or that's keeping you up at night that you believe in your soul, you're meant to do, you're enough to do it. And you can start small and taking the first steps towards it.

53:23Denise Woodard:My last question, also my favorite, which is if you could go back in time and speak with your younger self and give your younger self some advice, what would you say? I would say savor the present. I've spent so much of my life wishing away to the next thing. Like when we were in those independent stores in New York, I thought I can't wait to be in Whole Foods. We got in Whole Foods. I said, I can't wait to be in Target. We raised our seed round. I can't wait till we're a growth equity stage company. Like rather than just like be in the moment and actually learn and listen and soak up. I just was so focused on getting to the next moment.

53:58I don't think that's healthy personally. And I don't think it's healthy for the team. And so just telling myself to like savor each moment because you can't get it back.

54:05Denise Woodard:I feel like there's something specific to female entrepreneurs where we're always looking at the next thing and have a really hard time sitting with the success of the moment. And by the time you hit that milestone, you're already so far ahead focusing on the next one that you can't actually have joy in the, oh my gosh, look how far we've gotten. This is great and celebrate it. So I think that is really great advice because it's something I could have used along my journey as well. Yeah. Well, Denise, thank you so much, not only for what you have built, but also for creating a product that is just great for everyone.

54:41Denise Woodard:It's been such a pleasure to have something that's actually delicious in the house that everyone wants to eat. And I just believe in your mission so much. So congratulations on your really intensely quick growth and for making something that is truly such an amazing brand. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.

55:07Denise Woodard:that was the founder and CEO of partake foods Denise Woodard for more inspiring interviews with women like Denise head on over to secondlifepod.com where we have so many more for you to peruse if you like today's show please subscribe on apple podcasts or spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review us. We love seeing you spread the word on social. And now you can tag us in your posts. We are at second life pod on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. We always want to know who you're interested in hearing from on the show. So send in your requests to hello at second life pod.com, or you can DM us on Instagram.

55:49Denise Woodard:I'm at Hillary Kerr. The show is at Second Life Pod. Our DMs are always open. I'm Hilary Kerr, and you've been listening to Second Life. This episode was produced by Hilary Kerr, Summer Hammeris, and Natalie Thurman. Our editor is Natalia Perez. Our audio engineers are at Treehouse Recording in Los Angeles, California. And our music is by Jonathan Leahy.