Co-Founder & Ceo
New York, New York, United States
1st 100% grass-fed beef jerky in Whole Foods Market (WFM). 1st meat brand to earn Certified B Corporation status. Started by a group of friends in a NYC apartment and scaled to national distribution (acquired by The Great American Turkey Co. in 2019).SALES & MARKETING• Achieved top performing brand performance at WFM through incubating the brand in WFM Northeast, expanded to 2 additional WFM regions.• Established relationships and obtained business across conventional grocery, natural, mass, specialty, convenience, foodservice (airports/offices), e-commerce and independent retailers (including but not limited to FreshDirect, OTG/CIBO Express, Shaw’s and Star Market, Roche Brothers, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Goods, Erewhon Market and Metropolitan Coffee House). • Grew company’s website e-commerce business to $100K in annual sales and launched products on Amazon.• Secured and developed private label business, accounting for 50% sales growth (first customer launch planned for 2H 2020).• Secured distribution relationships with UNFI and regional specialty/natural distributors, resulting in 20% revenue growth the first year including 50 WFM SoPac stores.• Identified, hired and collaborated with 3rd party agencies to launch two iterations of brand redesigns.OPERATIONS• Built out and managed supply chain through partnership manufacturing at a small family farm.• Transitioned manufacturing to new partner in 2015 to support business growth – increased production capacity, improved margins by 250% and reduced COGS by 40%.• Created new flavor profiles for product launch into WFM and converted all flavors to gluten free, low sugar recipes.FINANCE• Managed day-to-day finances of the business including budgeting, forecasting, cash flow and P&L.• Secured SBA loan; utilized funds for working capital and to hire sales team, increasing revenues 50%.• Raised seed capital, investing in sales team hires and online marketing, growing sales 35% and increasing margins 25%.
