Opinion
A food VC firm plotted a hostile takeover within three months
“They had a very different agenda. I think it maybe took about three months where, you know, we had a little bit of a honeymoon phase where they did connect us with a better sales force and better manufacturing expertise and things like that, but it was very so…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
VC covenants blocked Mary's Gone Crackers from unapproved outside fundraising
“They had set it up that we couldn't get more money beyond a certain amount without their approval”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hostile VC investors refused a founder buyout offer
“We asked them if we could buy them out. They refused.”
Assertion Supported
Mary's Gone Crackers had to invent custom machinery for gluten-free dough
“What ended up happening is we had to invent a machine that would flatten them, because that was the challenge. So we got the blobs on the pan, but then we had to create our own piece of equipment that flattened them.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A Bechtel executive led the seed round, funding half of it
“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 he brought in half the money.”
Disclosure
Mary Waldner amassed $150,000 in credit card debt before raising seed
“You know, we were probably, probably about a 150,000 dollars in debt.”
Disclosure
A venture capital firm bought 14 percent of Mary's Gone Crackers
“14%, actually, it wasn't a significant share, or we would have lost the company.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Angel investors voted with the founders to block a VC takeover
“Because of our friends, not because of us by that time, but because of our friends, we still had a majority share of the business because they voted with us anytime we asked them to.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Mary's Gone Crackers scaled to $30 million in revenue by 2012
“I think we were at thirty million as a company then.”
Assertion Supported
Acquirer Kameda modernized manufacturing with Japanese automated production experts
“The first two years they were there, they brought People from Japan, they're manufacturing experts right away to clean up our, I mean, there was so much room for improvement, but they also made the commitment to, we needed an automated line. And they were will…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mary Waldner's celiac diagnosis came from a chiropractor, not doctors
“The diagnosis came from my chiropractor. Again, doctors never figured it out.”
Disclosure
Early Mary's Gone Crackers were hand-flattened using an oiled glass
“So, what I did was I got, yeah, they're very sticky. It's like You know, it's like glue, and so I got a glass that had a flat bottom on it, and I put a piece of saran wrap over it, and then I put, I had a paper towel with some oil on it, and I wiped the bottom…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Waldner: Standard Cracker Dough Rolling Machines Fail on Gluten-Free Dough
“Most cracker places use a pretty standard dough machine that rolls out the crackers and cuts them, and that wasn't going to work.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mary's Gone Crackers targeted a $750,000 initial seed raise
“Well, our original raise was 750,000, and we thought, it's just, the whole thing is so funny when I think about it, but we thought that would be enough, that that's all we would need.”
