The Ledger
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Back to the Roots was first brand with ingredients on the front
“So on our cereal actually was the first identity preserve, like a hundred percent stone ground biodynamic cereal. I actually put the ingredients, first brand put the ingredients on the front of the box.”
80% of first Kickstarter water pumps died within 30 days
“Our first pump was overheating in the unit because of the design constraints, and, you know, almost was like, 80% of the pumps, Alex, died within the first 30 days of the units going out on Kickstarter, and it was it literally put us out of business almost.”
Jony Ive replied to founders' cold email and mentored them
“We actually, funny story guy, we ended up reading the Steve Jobs biography and were super inspired by their design principles and cold emailed Johnny Ive from Apple on a Sunday afternoon, and he actually got back to us in like five minutes. And We were able to…”
Velez: Costco accepted Back to the Roots after seven years of rejections
“Guy, we presented to Costco's lawn and garden department seven years in a row and got turned down every single year. They've just announced they're launching us this coming spring spring, 20, 22, seven years later, same exact merchant as well.”
Velez: Back to the Roots cereal launched in 2,000 NYC public schools
“We launched an New York Public Schools, which was it was 2000 schools that started serving an organic and biodynamic cereal. It had one fifth of the sugar with three ingredients.”
Velez: Back to the Roots' Water Garden became the top-selling aquarium on Amazon
“At this time, Amazon was really starting to explode, so we put this item on Amazon, and it became the number one selling aquarium. And stayed that way for quite some time.”
Alice Waters tasted and praised Back to the Roots' first mushroom batch
“He ends up plucking half, half of the mushrooms out of his bucket, And I remember he chops them up, sautes them up in the back of a restaurant, and she tries them, he tries them, we try them, and I remember Chef Alice Waters was like, man, these are delicious.”
Back to the Roots customer average age is 29 versus industry's 59
“So the average gardener today is 59 years old. Our average gardener is 29 years old.”
Back to the Roots raised $2M from angels and $10M from Acre Ventures
“We did like a two million dollar round from angels, from angel investors. And then after that, we did the, a ten million dollar round, and that one came from Acre Ventures.”
Velez: Back to the Roots is Walmart's fastest-growing garden brand
“And then Walmart presented for four or so years. And then within two years, we are the fastest growing garden brand in their entire department.”
Peet's Coffee paid Back to the Roots to collect their raw materials
“We ended up negotiating a rate that was a little bit cheaper than I think what they were paying waste management and so we really became valet waste collectors.”
Arora: Back to the Roots generated $500k in aquaponics pre-orders
“We put a 100,000 dollar goal up for 30 days, and we ended up hitting 250,000 dollars of pre-orders on Kickstarter. And another two 50 can our website in the following 30 days after close. We had almost half a million dollars of pre-orders off of like a three m…”
Back to the Roots snack line was unprofitable without vertical integration
“We had great revenue growth, really great revenue growth, but we were just not able to be profitable on the cereal and snack side at the moment. And there was no clear path unless we went and purchased our own equipment and fully vertically integrated, which w…”
Home gardening is a $20 billion market led by Scotts Miracle-Gro
“It's about twenty billion dollars, and by the way, Scott's Miracle-Gro being the category captain, they're about a twelve billion dollar market cap company.”
Velez: Back to the Roots has raised $40 million in total funding
“By the time this airs, it'll be forty million.”
Mushroom grow kits succeeded because of the experience, not the food
“The kits weren't about the mushrooms. They were about the experience of growing, and just seeing something grow, and growing something yourself.”
Founders pivoted to nationwide kits over local farming for better scale
“And it became so clear that with fresh mushrooms, we could have a local farm, sell locally, get our mushrooms into people's homes locally, or we had this other avenue in which these mushroom kits could be shipped nationwide, and it just was like, let's do the …”
Back to the Roots raised over $100K in competitions and $25K Oakland grant
“We probably, what, got, Alex, a hundred-something thousand dollars from different winnings. The city of Oakland was incredible, and we ended, we moved from Emeryville to Oakland and got about a 25,000 dollar redevelopment grant from them to build out our, what…”
Velez: Back to the Roots rebranded Aqua Farm to Water Garden after trademark lawsuit
“We actually got sued for calling to the aqua farm, and we had to go and beg for forgiveness, and they said, okay, fine, we won't make you discard all your packaging inventory. Just sell it out, but you need to change your name to the water garden.”
Back to the Roots outsourced mushroom kit manufacturing to Gourmet Mushrooms
“What we were doing in our warehouse in Oakland of collecting the substrate, the coffee grounds, mixing of the spawn, growing the kits, packaging them. We fast forward ended up now buy those from him as a supplier to us. So they're the ones incubating all of th…”