Blog - Industry Insights Panel Series

The Industry Insights Panel on May 18th enlightened all in the audience - even those of us who are not in the food business. The panelists have all invented themselves (and re-invented themselves) in the food industry, but have vastly different experiences, and we suspect that there were a few sparks of inspiration from even each other.

Located in the beautiful Culinary Loft on the second floor of a charming building in Soho (where we also bumped into our friends Grasshopper Pilates who have their studio on the 5th floor), the Collective-E dessert foodies brought their tempting desserts for everyone to sample and gush over: Jill Frechtman of Fretzels with her chocolate covered pretzels, Laura Siner of Sweet Muse with her unbelievable brownies, and Regina Furphy and her sister of Gourmetables. Other foodies included Nichelle Stephens from Cupcakes Take the Cake, Cori Snyder Schuman of Celebrity Chef the Game, Anu Karwa of Swirl Events, and non-foodies who wanted fresh ideas in marketing and to learn from these veterans like Rachel Dooley of Gemma Redux, Suzanne Caezar of Rhythm for Life, Mariann Smith of Just Bubbly, and Betty Newman of The Holding Company (packager galore).

What we learned:

Necessary Ingredient: PASSION
All three panelists cited "passion" as the reason they got into this business. And "passion" meant different things for each of them, but they all love what they do.

For Drew Kovan of Geoff and Drew's Cookies, he was already a seasoned entrepreneur, was recruited by other companies to get startups off the ground, and ended up developing genius marketing efforts for Fresh Direct (NYC's local online grocery delivery service). One day he woke up and thought to himself that he wanted to sell something he believed in, something closer to home. He knew his best friend, Geoff, had dreamed of opening a bakery one day. Drew proposed that they go into the cookie baking business together, and practically in one day, they agreed.

Wendy Friedman was a marketing executive and loved her job. She took a leave from that when she had children, but was looking for the next opportunity.  An old friend apporached her about an idea, and like Drew, it took only one day to decide to go forward with the idea of selling chocolate souffles.  Without a set recipe or a background in food, they launched Heavenly Souffle.   Wendy and her business partner/best friend have grown their business from being in a shared kitchen and conducting research and development with their mothers around the kitchen table, to being in their own facility, baking and shipping thousands of frozen chocolate souffles a day.

Kim Yorio was a big time food publicist when she realized she wanted to be her own boss (meet this dynamite fireball and you'll see why). The interesting part was, there was another big time food publicist in town, and the two of them seemed to be getting all of the jobs. At first it was ok, and then potential clients had to really think about which to hire, because both of them were so great. As with any good business, the clients saw the solution before Kim and her now partner. They decided to combine forces and formed YC Media.  Still a raging force in the publicity industry, they've also authored a series of business books: Girls Guide.

Necessary Ingredient:  MANAGE GROWTH & SPEND WISELY

Organic growth is especially important in this economy, many busineses, like Mrs. Fields, went bankrupt due to their high debt.

• Drew made a few very smart investments in the cookie company, one being to "buy the headache" from a kitchen who had financial trouble with creditors swarming. He bought their kitchen, fully stocked with machines, for $10K.
• Wendy explained how they do not make a financial investment into expansion until they have a signed purchase order. She knows how to double or triple her production in one day, but will only make that commitment when she knows what her return will be.
• Kim keeps it small and manageable, they are very niche focused and plan to remain that way.

Necessary Ingredient:  FLEXIBILITY

• Geoff & Drew's started as cookie delivery service for college students in the Domino's model; after some press and other developments, they realized that their niche was online and to be the 1-800-Flowers of cookies, where they now sell millions of cookies online.  
• Wendy and her partner developed the receipe, packaging and business model as they went along, changing and evolving.  While the direct to consumer model was in their business plan, they quickly realized that individual orders are more costly and time consuming than wholesale, so that became the main focus.
• Kim reveled the change in PR, now bloggers and social media have become equally as important as your media contacts, a complete change in the publicity model.

If you area  Collective-E member, this event was free for you, and there are more to come. Everyone is welcome to attend these events at the regular ticket price. Stay tuned for our next panel, which is actually more of a field trip into the inside workings of a popular trade. These events are only part of your membership with Collectie-E, which extend far outside of New York's borders. Consider joining us to nurture your ideas and build your brands.