From Zero to A National Brand

By dcpreneur 2017-06-21 2017-06-20 Podcast

Agatha Achindu is the founder of Yummy Spoonfuls, an innovative company that makes flash-frozen baby food from fresh, organic and wholesome ingredients.

In this episode, Agatha shared about how she went from making healthy baby food out of her own kitchen to starting a business borrowing money from her own 401(k), to today with a national brand that’s distributed through Whole Foods and Target, with tons of celebrity customers including current co-owner Camila Alves, model-designer and wife of actor Matthew McConaughey. Agatha talked about the lessons she learned in growing the business, including how to get your product into the hands of customers when you had no distribution channels, and how to find balance between the roles of mother, wife and entrepreneur while living your purpose.

And if you’re looking to learn and grow as an entrepreneur, you should check out Soundwise. Soundwise aims to offer a wide selection of audio courses in business and personal development, so that you can learn to become a better version of yourself…on the go. Soundwise just released a series of crash courses on how to build a startup. They are sourced from some of the best entrepreneurship classes ever taught at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, taught by real founders who have built successful businesses over and over again. They cover the essential insights you need to start building your business, ranging from how to get customers, how to talk to investors, to how to project your financials and how to protect your intellectual properties. And the best part, they are free! Go check them out at mysoundwise.com/courses.

“Don’t be afraid to go right to the top (to get your product in the door).”

– Agatha Achindu

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Yummy Spoonfuls

Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook

Reference

Entrepreneurship Crash Courses by Soundwise

Dean & Deluca

Amazon

Whole Foods Market

Target

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Building A Business from Scratch as An Industry Outsider

By dcpreneur 2017-05-16 2017-05-15 Podcast

Danielle Vogel is the founder of Glen’s Garden Market. Glen’s is not your average grocery store. Almost all of what they sell are locally sourced. And they’re on a mission to combat climate change. In her pre-entrepreneur life, Danielle was a successful lawyer. She started Glen’s from scratch, with no retail or food business experience. And at the early stage of the company, there were quite a few occasions when she almost thought she couldn’t make it. It’s been quite a journey, and in this episode, Danielle talks about the length she had to travel to make the impossible happen, what to do when your business is not gaining traction, and how to survive those dark moments of intense stress as an entrepreneur.

“I remember sitting here, 3 months in. It’s another 20 hr day. And again we do no sales. It’s not just I don’t get paid if we don’t do well. My house is on the line! It’s a sense of urgency that cannot be overstated.”

– Danielle Vogel

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Glen’s Garden Market

2001 S Street NW,
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 588 5698

1924 8^th Street NW,
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 939 2839

Reference

EagleBank

Restaurant Man

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

Soundwise: Learn on the Go

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How to Test Your Restaurant Concept with Minimal Cost

By dcpreneur 2017-03-14 2017-03-13 Podcast

Suzanne Simon and Bettina Stern are the co-founders of Chaia, a very popular, fast-casual vegetarian restaurant in Georgetown, DC that features delicious plant-based tacos.

Despite their different professional backgrounds, a common passion for food brought the two lady bosses together. In this interview, Suzanne and Bettina shared their story from food blogging to testing their food at a local farmers’ market, to then building their own vegetarian restaurant together. They talked about how to test the water with a new restaurant concept and what you can do to make yourself stand out in the highly competitive food industry.

“You have to be truly inspired by what you are making.”

– Suzanne Simon

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Chaia

Location:

3207 Grace St NW
Washington DC 20007
Phone: (202) 333-5222
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare

Reference

Union Kitchen

Loulies

Soundwise: Audio Courses in Business and Personal Development

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How to Run A Successful Food Business while Keeping Your Sanity

By dcpreneur 2017-02-21 2017-02-20 Podcast

Today on the show, I interview Kirk Francis, who is the Captain of Captain Cookie and the Milkman, a mobile bakery and dessert shop in Washington DC. By popular votes, they have the best ice cream sandwiches in town, and Kirk has an inspiring entrepreneurial story to tell. In this interview, he talks about why he picked making cookie as a business, the extreme extent he went to get initial customers, how he bootstrapped the business from nothing, and how to find the perfect locations for your food trucks. Kirk not only have great stories to share, he is also the hardest working man in cookie business. And you’ll know that’s not an exaggeration after you listen to this episode.

“Don’t be swept away by the romance of starting your own business. Although it’s very sweet sometimes, it’s mostly a whole lot of work that goes unappreciated and unacknowledged. But if you’re willing to work very hard, put your customers first, and treat your employees and partners with respect, you might start to make it. There’s really no magic formula.”

– Kirk Francis

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