The Exchanges

Q How are you making all these bars, and then going out and trying to pitch it to co-ops, and like, tell me about Your day-to-day up there in Sacramento?

A Oh, it was, we would spend, oh, our mornings prospecting, going door-to-door, um, and then we would spend our time doing demos if we were lucky enough to get a gym here or there. We actually had a chain of four different gyms in Sacramento that we were in. Um, at nighttime, after we were done pitching, we would, um, make the product, and we did almost every day. And, um, We put a big old goal, I'll never forget, in my office. It was a small office, and then next to it was the warehouse, and it was 10,000 bars a month. If we can get, that was our break-even point, and I, the first month, it'd be 2500. The next month would be 2700. I mean, it, it was taking too long, and you start going three or four months, five months into it, not hitting your hurdles, starting to get in bigger and bigger debt. Well, we found ourselves in a point where We had a month's worth of cash left, and this was gonna be it. All of the credit cards, I was over a 100,000 dollars in debt, and I was reaching the breaking point. Hmm.

AI assessment note: “mornings prospecting... nighttime, after we were done pitching, we would, um, make the product”

Q So you, you've really got to do something to generate more sales here, right? And And I guess one idea that you had was to start going to like, like, like music festivals, rock festivals in Northern California to hand out samples there, right?

A Yeah, so we looked at, uh, these festivals, went into the, a local, uh, sort of a hippie festival up in Sonoma County, a harmony festival. They would come and, and, you know, listen to music, and everybody was Feeling great. And let me just tell you, they had the munchies for peanut butter and honey snacks, you know, and, uh, um, and so we did very well. And one of the folks that attended our booth worked at Berkeley Whole Foods, a grocery team leader, and she tried the product and she loved it. And she said, oh my gosh, I'm going to put this in my store. And, and me knowing that you had to get corporate approval, you know, I, I, I called her afterwards and, uh, Um, I end up getting a meeting at the local corporate office in Livermore. After going through all the details, um, we were fortunate enough to get a one-store test.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, so we looked at, uh, these festivals, went into the, a local”