Insight
Stafford: Family is the worst source of advice for new founders
“And family, I always say family is the worst person to get advice from in the beginning, because they don't want you to fail.”
Assertion Supported
Stafford: Bobo's and Justin's Nut Butter formed joint LLC to share kitchen
“And so he and I jointly took this new space, bigger, and it was just the two of us, And we formed a little LLC. It was crazy. And we shared employees, and we shared the space.”
Disclosure
Stafford rejected outsourcing baking to keep Bobo's homemade texture
“Most of them advised me to stop baking and Have somebody else make this, and you focus on sales and marketing. And I said, no, I want to control this, and I don't want them to look like they're guillotine cut with four square corners. They're imperfect, each b…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Stafford: Bobo's will become a 100-year brand by resisting food trends
“We are sticking with what the bar was in the beginning, which is just an old-fashioned cookie that your grandmother could bake in her oven, and we'll be a hundred-year-old brand. We're not trendy, and we're not adding any superfoods to it.”
Disclosure
Stafford: Investor conflicts centered on economic terms when raising follow-on capital
“Well, I would say mostly the economic terms of their investment. That, that has been a struggle each time we ran out of money.”
Insight
Costco rotates products out to make shoppers miss them and get excited
“Costco likes to find the newest best thing and be the first to market with it. They will bring you in and then want the customer to miss you and then be excited when you're back.”
Insight
Stafford: CPG buyers now demand profitability over rapid revenue growth
“It has gotten a lot harder to sell and sell for a figure that you're happy with. Like you said, it used to be profitable. Who cares? As long as you're showing fast growth. And now it's different. It's a lot harder to sell your company now.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stafford: Bobo's was funded via second mortgage, credit cards, and $100k loan
“I went to the bank back then. It was easier, and they gave me a loan for a 100,000 dollars, but first, up until then, I took a second mortgage on my home, and I used credit cards, and I just was very frugal, and I mean, this was all just very scrappy.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stafford bought Bobo's ingredients at Whole Foods for nearly a year
“And then I started buying it in bigger bulk, but at Whole Foods, until I figured out the food distribution network. But crazy expensive. But I did that for almost a year. Just figuring out the ingredients.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bobo's reached profitability six or seven years after launch
“So I was, I became profitable probably six years after I started, six or seven years.”
Disclosure
Stafford took secondary liquidity in Bobo's initial institutional round
“I took some money off the table when the investor came in.”
Assertion Supported
Stafford: Bobo's operates a 125,000-square-foot facility with 500 employees
“We've got 500 employees, and It's a 125,000 square feet, which sounds enormous to me.”
Disclosure
Stafford: Bobo's bakes in-house and relies on co-packers during Costco spikes
“We have a little bit of co-packing, but mostly we do all of our own baking. And when things get very busy, when we're heavy with Costco, we use our co-packer.”
Disclosure
Stafford: Bobo's has raised roughly $17 million in total capital
“A little bit more. 17.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Mar 2029
Stafford: Bobo's will eventually be sold to an acquirer
“So, so yes, we will be selling at some point.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stafford worked at Peppercorn for $7.45 an hour during her divorce
“I did get a job making seven dollars and 45 cents an hour, At this kind of gourmet cooking store called Peppercorn here in Boulder.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stafford: Bobo's reformulated bars with sucanat, coconut oil, and brown rice syrup
“Well, what I picked was sucanat. It's a less processed brown sugar than brown sugar. And so I picked that, and now we use coconut oil, but coconut oil was one of the first oils that I used, and instead of corn syrup, I used brown rice syrup. And it wasn't so e…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stafford: Bobo's launched during the emergence of vegan and natural snack bars
“That's when Laura Bar had just come around, and Cliff Bar was here, but we're all kind of new, you know, and vegan was new. And they said, you know, go to Whole Foods and see what the bars are like. There's, it's growing. It's becoming a bigger category.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stafford: Bobo's iconic logo character was drawn in five minutes
“She right there drew on a piece of paper the girl that's on the bar to this day, I mean, in five minutes, and she was trained in graphic design”
Assertion Partly supported
Early Bobo's bars sold in plastic wrap with a three-day shelf life
“Very granola-ish, and they didn't mind that I was wrapped in saran wrap with a three-day shelf life.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stafford: Bobo's first packaging machine cost $25,000
“And I finally ended up with my first packaging machine, the biggest piece of equipment that I bought for 25,000 dollars.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Whole Foods initial pitch landed Bobo's in 12 Colorado stores
“She said, yes, I want these. Tell me everything, but you're going to have to get your packaging together. In other words, I need a freezer safe packaging. And I said, you got it. And she goes, I'm going to get you in 12 of the Colorado stores.”
Insight
Stafford: In-store demo tables give founders control because customers want free food
“I always tell people when you're standing behind that table, you know, you're kind of in charge, and they don't know anything about you, and they're happy to eat free food, and I got good at it.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stafford: Bobo's had one full-time employee for years after Whole Foods launch
“Yes for a few years, and then I hired a marketing assistant slash sales assistant, and she did the trade shows with me, and then I had my bookkeeper, who was a contract laborer.
Well, they're all part-time, though.”
