The Ledger
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Stacy Madison: Prove your concept in retail before pivoting from side hustle
“You ask the question, well, when do you know when you switch or you make that decision? My answer would be, you need to prove out the concept outside of just where you are. So you have to take, whether it's taking the bags of chips to the stores, talking to th…”
Stacy's Pita Chips used a female name explicitly to sell more snacks
“We chose it because we thought that a female name on a snack food brand would sell more than a male name.”
Stacy Madison: Female names on snack brands sell better than male names
“We chose it because we thought that a female name on a snack food brand would sell more than a male name.”
Stacy's hacked a Campbell's Soup carrot cutter to slice its pita chips
“What we ended up buying was a machine that used to cut carrots for Campbell's soup. So, you know how they cut those tiny little squares? Well, what he did is he took those blades and spaced them further apart”
Trader Joe's paying early allowed Stacy's to avoid taking outside equity
“Trader Joe's was an amazing company to do business with. They paid On time or early. And because of that, we were able to not take on equity.”
Restaurants routinely hire temporary launch staff only to immediately lay them off
“They always hire people to get restaurants open, and then they let them go”
Madison cold-pitched Bread & Circus in Boston for her first retail account
“I took the bag and I walked into Bread and Circus in downtown Boston and I said, hi, I'm Stacy. These are my chips and I'd love for you to give them a try.”
Madison: Stacy's Pita Chips secured a $350,000 bank loan after $500k rejection
“So they said no to 500, and over a couple of months, we were able to scale it back, and they did say yes to 350.”
Stacy's Pita Chips automated pita slicing using a modified Campbell's carrot cutter
“What we ended up buying was a machine that used to cut carrots for Campbell's soup. So, you know how they cut those tiny little squares? Well, what he did is he took those blades and spaced them further apart, and when he first spaced these blades, and all of …”
Madison: Turning a real profit takes five years, not three
“People say it takes three years. I would say it takes five.”
Co-founders Stacy Madison and Mark Andrus split the company 50/50 during divorce
“We went to court together, and we went before the judge, and we said, we want to get a divorce, and we're splitting this fifty-fifty, and we really had no assets. Everything we had was the company, and we agreed, we built this together, and we were splitting t…”
Massive Trader Joe's purchase orders allowed Stacy's Pita Chips to avoid VC
“And at that point, you know, everything just went back into the business, but we were just about to give up a piece of the company, and we never ended up actually doing that because we got Trader Joe's, and they were ordering by the truckload.”
A factory fire caused $9M in damages right before the PepsiCo sale
“There was nine million dollars in damages, and 25% of the factory was burnt down.”
Madison: Stacy's Pita Chips succeeded through resilience, not just luck
“You know, a lot of people say, oh, she got lucky. That really pisses me off. Cause, you know, yeah, maybe the stars aligned, and maybe the timing was right for a lot of things, but each and every one of the challenges and the hurdles that you overcome, others …”
Madison: Stacy's Pita Chips launched with Parmesan and cinnamon sugar, not Simply Naked
“Everybody thinks Simply Naked was our first flavor. It wasn't. It was the Parmesan and the cinnamon sugar.”
Madison: Stacy's Pita Chips fire caused $9M in damage, burned 25% of plant
“There was nine million dollars in damages, and 25% of the factory was burnt down.”
Stacy Madison: Food brands should pair founder names directly with core products
“And I would make sure that you're always the Stucky's Pecan. Get your name with your product. Stacey's Pita Chips.”
Madison and Andrus Ran Honolulu Food Venture Called Condo Cuisine
“Mark was a total foodie, and we marketed to our building and the surrounding buildings that if anybody else wanted us to cook them dinner, that we would do that too, and we called it condo cuisine.”
Health Department Shut Down Madison's Early Honolulu Food Venture
“We were cooking in our apartment and got very quickly shut down.”
Mark Andrus had $100,000 in student debt when starting Stacy's Pita Chips
“Going into this, I mean, you gotta also keep in mind the reality of the fact that he's got a 100,000 dollars in student loans, I don't have a penny to my name.”
Madison: Initial Boston food cart cost about $5,000
“We decided to buy a food cart, because we couldn't afford anything else. I think it was 5000 dollars”
Madison: Stacy's Pita Chips debuted with Parmesan and Cinnamon Sugar, not Simply Naked
“Everybody thinks Simply Naked was our first flavor. It wasn't. It was the Parmesan and the cinnamon sugar.”
Madison: Stacy's original goal was to remain a regional Northeast brand
“Our goal was to be a regional brand, more like Cape Cod potato chips, and we were going to keep things manageable and in the Northeast”
Stacy Madison: Stacy's bought a 52-foot custom oven the size of an 18-wheeler
“Yeah, in the endgame, we ended up having to purchase a custom-built oven. It was the size of a fifty-two-foot, like an eighteen-wheeler truck.”
Madison: Stacy's founders reinvested all early earnings into factory equipment
“We really paid ourself very little, and if anything, we really weren't making anything, because everything went back into, you know, if we needed another oven, well, you know, you don't buy this, you don't buy that, you don't do this, because you need another …”
Madison: Stacy's Pita Chips converted a 200k+ sq ft Sealy factory
“At this point, we were, we had moved to the Sealy Mattress Factory, where we bought the building, and it was Two or 300,000 square feet, something like that. It was basically four acres inside. And we converted the Sealy mattress factory into a giant pita chip…”
Stacy Madison: Post-sale PepsiCo contract required only 20 days of work per year
“I was contracted to stay, but I really only had to work 20 days a year”
Madison: Mark had $100k student debt and she had no savings when starting out
“Going into this, I mean, you gotta also keep in mind the reality of the fact that he's got a 100,000 dollars in student loans, I don't have a penny to my name.”
Stacy's secured $60,000 SBA bank loan with 20% family funding
“So we had to put down 20% of the 60,000, and that's where our family kicked in.”
Stacy's secured $350k bank loan after initial $500k rejection
“They said no to 500, and over a couple of months, we were able to scale it back, and they did say yes to 350.”
Madison: Stacy's bought and converted a 200k+ sq ft Sealy mattress factory
“We had moved to the Sealy mattress factory, where we bought the building, and it was two or 300,000 square feet, something like that. It was basically four acres inside. And we converted the Sealy mattress factory into a giant pita chip factory.”