The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 17 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Dawes: Taking strategic investment usually leads to selling the company to them
“What I now realize in hindsight is whenever you take a strategic investment, whether or not you intend to sell them the business, you should expect that to be the outcome. And the earlier you can know that when you're negotiating, probably the better.”
Dawes: Hirshberg structured Snyder's-Lance deal to retain board control
“Gary Hirshberg was a great mentor to us, and he helped us structure a deal that still effectively gave us control of the board, which allowed us to really still control our destiny. And at this point, we were profitable, you know, so, like, we were a good addi…”
Dawes: Founders must provide early angel investors a path to exit
“And I think when you sign up to be an entrepreneur, you sign up. You don't necessarily get to bring those other people along with you, and that includes your family and friends or any early angel investors you have. You know, you have to be realistic about, ev…”
Dawes: Bank defaulted Late July's equipment loan after father's death
“So we had this large equipment loan, and at the time, you know, interest rates were so low that most banks were, like, kind of upside down in some of these, and we had a death of a member clause in our loan agreement, and we were an LLC, and my dad was a membe…”
Nicole Bernard Dawes: Success requires category dominance or entering massive categories
“And I always feel like there's two ways to be successful. You can be a big part of a small category, or you have to be a smaller part of an enormous category.”
Nicole Bernard Dawes: Organic Food Movement Only Grows via Superior Taste
“The only way to help the organic food movement grow was to make delicious tasting products that people would like back into finding out about how They were made.”
Dawes: Late July Buyback Clause Was Bypassed by Snyder's Merger
“We did have a clause in our agreement that allowed us to buy it back in the event that Snyder's sold. But apparently they didn't sell. They merged.”
Whole Foods Launched Kettle's Tia's Beside Late July, Favoring Tia's Displays
“Whole Foods decided, they said that they would give us a chance, but they launched us at the exact same time as Kettle decided to get into the tortilla chip business with a brand called Tia's. So Whole Foods launched us at the same time, but they gave Tia's al…”
Dawes: Late July's sandwich cookies needed 3x higher pricing to work
“They should have been like three times as expensive as what we were charging for them.”
Dawes: Consumers buy potato chips over crackers at a ten-to-one ratio
“You go through probably 10 to one bags of potato chips to boxes of crackers.”
Dawes: Early Organic Industry Had Only Single Suppliers for Key Ingredients
“And, you know, what was so hard, though, is even though this great organic product Laws had passed. There was still no suppliers. So, I mean, there was maybe one supplier of flour, one supplier of cheese, one supplier. I mean, it was very hard.”
Dawes: Founders taking on company debt must get key man insurance
“And, I mean, I tell everyone I talk to, like, if you get debt, get key man insurance.”
Dawes: Food brands struggle expanding across different grocery store categories
“No, it's very hard. It's a completely different part of the store. Sometimes it's different buyers. I mean, and usually it's very difficult for a brand to go into two different categories like that.”
Late July discontinued its $2 million cookie line due to lack of profitability
“We realized that the cookies were never going to be a profitable part of our business. It was two million dollars of our sales, but the right thing to do was to discontinue them.”
Nicole Dawes: Late July secured national Whole Foods distribution at debut
“We signed up Whole Foods nationally. We got two big distributors.”
Dawes: Crackers were neglected in natural foods despite huge conventional market
“And I went to the cracker section, and it was like, you almost had to, like, take a time machine into the section of the store. And I thought, that's a huge category in the conventional world. And, you know, nobody really seems to care about it in the natural …”