Nicole Bernard Dawes
Founder & CEO, Nixie Beverage Company. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutivedrinknixie.com ↗
Nicole Bernard Dawes is an entrepreneur who founded Late July Snacks in 2003, building it into an organic snack brand acquired by Campbell Soup Company. In 2019, she launched Nixie Beverage Company, producing organic sparkling waters and zero-sugar sodas sold at retailers nationwide.
1shows
1appearances
28statements
6resolved
5supported
1contradicted
83%fully supported
Everything Nicole Bernard Dawes said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Dawes: Taking strategic investment usually leads to selling the company to them
“What I now realize in hindsight is whenever you take a strategic investment, whether or not you intend to sell them the business, you should expect that to be the outcome. And the earlier you can know that when you're negotiating, probably the better.”
Dawes: Scaling a brand from $10M to $50M is harder than reaching $100M
“I mean, the one thing that I know about building a brand is starting is not really the hard part, and even getting to a million dollars isn't really the hard part. It's really getting from, like, ten million to fifty million is probably the hardest part, and t…”
Dawes: My career goal is making organic foods taste like conventional snacks
“I have built my entire career out of making organic and natural products, healthy organic natural products, taste like conventional ones.”
Nicole Bernard Dawes: Organic Food Movement Only Grows via Superior Taste
“The only way to help the organic food movement grow was to make delicious tasting products that people would like back into finding out about how They were made.”
Dawes: Food industry makes it hard for national brands without fast growth
“One of the things I think about the food business is it's very hard to be a national brand that isn't growing fast. It's just like our business isn't designed to support like slow, steady growth”
Dawes: Bank defaulted Late July's equipment loan after father's death
“So we had this large equipment loan, and at the time, you know, interest rates were so low that most banks were, like, kind of upside down in some of these, and we had a death of a member clause in our loan agreement, and we were an LLC, and my dad was a membe…”
Nicole Bernard Dawes: Success requires category dominance or entering massive categories
“And I always feel like there's two ways to be successful. You can be a big part of a small category, or you have to be a smaller part of an enormous category.”
Dawes: Founders must provide early angel investors a path to exit
“And I think when you sign up to be an entrepreneur, you sign up. You don't necessarily get to bring those other people along with you, and that includes your family and friends or any early angel investors you have. You know, you have to be realistic about, ev…”
Dawes: Hirshberg structured Snyder's-Lance deal to retain board control
“Gary Hirshberg was a great mentor to us, and he helped us structure a deal that still effectively gave us control of the board, which allowed us to really still control our destiny. And at this point, we were profitable, you know, so, like, we were a good addi…”
Dawes: Late July Buyback Clause Was Bypassed by Snyder's Merger
“We did have a clause in our agreement that allowed us to buy it back in the event that Snyder's sold. But apparently they didn't sell. They merged.”
Dawes: Founders should master product velocity before accepting outside investment
“What I think is the most important thing before you bring in any kind of investor is that you know your products. You know your best-selling products. You know you understand your velocity. Like, you know exactly what your product potential is, and so funding …”
Dawes: Cape Cod Potato Chips was saved by a storefront car crash
“You know, there was a few other factors that maybe weren't fully fleshed out, and the first year it almost went out of business. But unfortunately, a car came through the front of the business. The man has a heart attack. He drives his car through the front. I…”
Dawes: Early health food brands chose to make bad-tasting products
“Because I saw what my dad did, you know, I knew it was possible. You know, I knew that this was something, so it's like, to me, it was like businesses were making a choice to make these bad-tasting products.”
Dawes: Cape Cod Chips were repurchased for less than Anheuser-Busch paid
“No, it was actually much lower.”
Dawes: Cape Cod factory was Cape's second-biggest tourist attraction
“I mean, the only thing that was practical about it, maybe, was that we had a factory tour, and at the time, you know, when we reopened it and redid the factory tour, I mean, we were the second largest tourist attraction on the Cape after the National Seashore.”
Dawes: Early Organic Industry Had Only Single Suppliers for Key Ingredients
“And, you know, what was so hard, though, is even though this great organic product Laws had passed. There was still no suppliers. So, I mean, there was maybe one supplier of flour, one supplier of cheese, one supplier. I mean, it was very hard.”
Dawes: Consumers buy potato chips over crackers at a ten-to-one ratio
“You go through probably 10 to one bags of potato chips to boxes of crackers.”
Dawes: Late July's sandwich cookies needed 3x higher pricing to work
“They should have been like three times as expensive as what we were charging for them.”
Late July discontinued its $2 million cookie line due to lack of profitability
“We realized that the cookies were never going to be a profitable part of our business. It was two million dollars of our sales, but the right thing to do was to discontinue them.”
Dawes: Founders taking on company debt must get key man insurance
“And, I mean, I tell everyone I talk to, like, if you get debt, get key man insurance.”
Dawes: Food brands struggle expanding across different grocery store categories
“No, it's very hard. It's a completely different part of the store. Sometimes it's different buyers. I mean, and usually it's very difficult for a brand to go into two different categories like that.”
Whole Foods Launched Kettle's Tia's Beside Late July, Favoring Tia's Displays
“Whole Foods decided, they said that they would give us a chance, but they launched us at the exact same time as Kettle decided to get into the tortilla chip business with a brand called Tia's. So Whole Foods launched us at the same time, but they gave Tia's al…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Nicole's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Nixie Beverage Company | 1 | 28 | 83% 5/6 | full record on How I Built This → |