The Exchanges

Q But, but how did you even test, you know, prototype the idea, you know, beta test the idea that maybe these would sell in a store? Did you at least make some and bring them to a store to sell to see if people would buy them?

A That's what ended up happening. This friend of mine owned the local health food store, and I brought her a bag just personally to taste them, to see what she thought. And instead of eating them, what she did, she opened up the bag and put them on the counter by the register. And I went shopping in the store, and then I hear all this hubbub, and people are eating them at the register going, oh my god, Where can I get these? I want some. And by the end of, you know, that half hour or whatever I was in the store, an hour, she came to me kind of sheepishly and said, you have to bring me more of these. Um, and so that's how that got started. So then I was making bags. We, you know, handmade, we had, uh, I bought a bunch of coffee, brown coffee bags with the window in them. And I made them by hand and brought them to the store, and she sold them.

AI assessment note: “That's what ended up happening. This friend of mine owned the local health food store”

Q Um, and how did you approach people? Who did you, who did you go to? Did you go to friends?

A Well, again, remember now, everyone and their brother has tasted these crackers, and everyone loves them. One of my close friends, who was in my women's group, her cousin, Um, loved them, and she was married to a very high-level person at Bechtel Corporation. This was where Dale got a PhD in business, in, in, uh, business plan writing and in finance, and, uh, so this guy was not gonna put a penny into it until that business plan was perfect, and until he could sell it to his friends. So he ended up becoming a lead investor, and he brought in a lot of, a few other Bechdel people and other people that he knew, uh, he brought in half the money.

AI assessment note: “One of my close friends, who was in my women's group, her cousin”

Q So, how did you find, I mean, even before you did your first production run, did you have a store that was on, like, ready to go on, on deck to sell them?

A No. You know, in the food business, it's, you don't sell to stores, you sell to distributors, and there was one distributor at the time that specialized in gluten-free stuff, so, but our strategy was different. We wanted to get the crackers into people's mouths, because we knew, obviously, by that time, that anytime anybody ate them, they would love them. For example, the gluten-free distributor, we gave them little sample packs, and they gave them to their truck drivers, and so the truck drivers would taste them, and they would, they would deliver them with whatever they were delivering, and so again, we knew these crackers were going to get into the hands of the buyers, which is what we wanted. We, we sent out our samples to those 400 celiac support groups for the same reason. We got the list of, you know, UNFI is the largest natural food distributor. Back then it was divided by regions. Now it's, it's all one all over the country, but we got their top 100, um, Uh, stores. And we sent a package of our crackers and a letter from me to an, in a nice box, because we had a great logo, and we had a, had great packaging, and we sent them to the, all the grocery buyers of those top 100 stores. Um, so we were just going directly to the people that we knew would love these crackers and would want them.

AI assessment note: “No. You know, in the food business, it's, you don't sell to stores”

Q And, um, And obviously the name, Arescon Crackers, it's a little bit of a nod to what you did professionally. Was it kind of?

A Yes. Well, I was in a women's, uh, a women's group that I started, and I was having a hard time coming up with a name, and Dale said, you know, you have to find a name, you have to find a name, it doesn't matter, and I said, oh no, it matters a lot, and so I went to my group, and I said, you know, we need a name, and one of the women said, it should have your name in it, and it should be something like Mary's Cracking Up, or something like Which we thought was funny, and then my other friend said, yeah, Mary's Gone Crackers, and that was it. The, the, the angels started singing, the sky opened up, and that was clearly the name.

AI assessment note: “then my other friend said, yeah, Mary's Gone Crackers, and that was it.”

Q Why were they saying shut down? Because you were, you were.

A We weren't profitable. We were, you know, because we were growing so fast, um, and the more you grow, which I didn't understand, I don't think Dale did either, that you need more cash, because you have more, more product, you know, in the pipeline, and you're not getting your money back as quickly, and you know, you just need more and more cash as, You get bigger and bigger, and then on top of that, we had to move in, into our own space. We never could have grown, um, at, at the rate that we needed to grow in the co-packer. Um, they, we almost went out of business with them because they just didn't, they just really didn't care, and they were very sloppy, and we needed to take over. So in 2006, we moved up there, um, I closed my practice and did that.

AI assessment note: “We weren't profitable. We were, you know, because we were growing so fast”

Q said, um, I want to read this to you. Um, you said, uh, when I look back on this journey, this was not a generally joyous experience for me to do this business. Um, There was very little joy on a day-to-day basis. That, that sounds like, part of me is like, God, was it worth it? You know, like, when I hear that, when I hear you say that.

A Well, what was joyful for me was how many people loved my product, and, and how many times I would go out into the, the more of the public domain, and, and, Be told that not only do they love my product, but they love me because of how the product saved their lives, and so that made it worth it to me, because I understand that. It saved my life, too, and I was, um, I was surprised by the response, but I shouldn't have been, because it was, it was what I was going through, so That brought me and still brings me incredible satisfaction to know that, um, that I helped a lot of people and, and still do.

AI assessment note: “and so that made it worth it to me, because I understand that.”