S2 E6- A Conversation with Denise Woodard, Founder & CEO of Partake Foods.
Join Daniella as she sits down with Denise Woodard, CEO of Partake Foods, to uncover the inspiring journey of tackling food allergies through entrepreneurship. Denise opens up about the highs and lows of starting a CPG business, sharing pivotal lessons on branding, customer service, and ensuring food safety.
Discover how she navigated the complex world of fundraising and scaled her minority-led startup, all while championing diversity and inclusion. This episode is a treasure trove of insights on leadership, mentorship, and the dynamic growth of a purpose-driven food company.
Tune in for a compelling conversation filled with actionable advice and personal stories that highlight the essence of entrepreneurial resilience and innovation.
Where to connect with Denise on the internet:
Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
EPISODE KEY MOMENTS:
Food allergies and entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship journey, challenges, and learning curve.
Early lessons learned from starting a CPG business, including the importance of brand, customer service, and food safety.
Fundraising and growth for a food startup. (14:48)
Culture and product innovation.
Mentorship in the food industry.
Diversity and inclusivity in the food industry.
Episode Transcript:
Daniella Allam: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited for our guest today, Denise Woodard, the CEO and founder of Partake Foods. Welcome, Denise,
Denise: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited about our conversation today.
Daniella Allam: I'm so excited to have you on the show. I've been such a fan of you and your brand for a while, and it's such it's such a shining light in the industry. So I'm really excited to get into the conversation. But per usual, I'll introduce Denise and then we'll get going. So Denise Woodard is the founder and CEO of Partake Foods, a natural food company that was inspired by her daughter's experience with food allergies; launched in 2017 part takes first product, delicious, better-for-you allergy-friendly cookies, can now be found in more than 14,000 retailers, including Target, Kroger, and Whole Foods, Partake's offerings have since expanded to include graham crackers and pancake and waffle mixes. Denise is the first black woman to raise more than $1 million publicly for a CPG food startup, and to date, the company has raised over $20 million from investors, including her Rihanna Circle Up, Growth Partners, FF2032, and Marcy Venture Partners. Partake was named 151 on the Inc 5000 list in 2023. Prior to launching Partake, Denise spent a decade in consumer packaged goods at various Fortune 100 companies. She's also the founder of a 501 c3 Black Futures Fellowship, which is an annual program that matches HBCU students with paid internships in the CPG food and beverage industry. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Jeremy and her daughter Vivian, and she graduated from with her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Arizona State University. Denise, such a pleasure to have you on the show.
Denise: Thank you so much for having me here.
Daniella Allam: So I love to just start off the show with the genesis of Partake. Can you walk us through a little bit of what was that process and what made you decide to embark on this crazy journey called entrepreneurship?
Denise: It is a crazy journey. Indeed. My dad is an entrepreneur. He started as an over-the-road truck driver and eventually saved enough money to buy a truck and then several others and run a small trucking company in my hometown in North Carolina. And it was through his journey I got to see how crazy the entrepreneurial journey is, and I wanted zero parts of it. So ,I spent most of my career in corporate America, and most recently, I worked at Coca-Cola on their venture business, where I worked on brands that Coke had invested in or acquired. I was getting exposure to entrepreneurship in a different way. I think I'd seen my dad, I'd seen like our local barber shop or nail salons, and thought of entrepreneurship in that way, and I got to see entrepreneurship at scale, and with a really heavy focus on mission through brands like Honestea that I had the pleasure of working on, but I still had no no plans to join the entrepreneurial community, and that was until my daughter came along. She's nine now, but right around her first birthday, we learned that she had several food allergies, I was really frustrated with the options that exist or didn't exist for her, and that's where the idea for Partake came from. Thought of the idea for a brand that made products that tasted good, that had ingredients you could understand, that would appeal to consumers with and without food allergies, and when I couldn't find anything that I felt, felt that I felt fit the bill, I decided to do something about it, and had the idea for Partake and in the summer of 2016 spent a year moonlighting, trying to figure out how to actually turn this into a business. And then, in June 2017, I left my career at Coca-Cola to start Partake officially.
Daniella Allam: Wow. What a what a journey. And it's, it's great to hear. I hear from a lot of entrepreneurs as well, of having that, that mindset in their family already, but it's usually always like these life things that kind of come and then bring up this, this new venture, this new journey, for for folks that are, that are that have the entrepreneurial gene. But maybe it was, it was a little dormant for a little bit. And so I'm curious to hear about, what were those early days like? What were those first couple of years of you, you know, leaving your corporate job and and bringing this, this company, to the market?
Denise: It was definitely filled with challenges. I think some of the biggest challenges we faced in the beginning were where to make the product. Finding an allergy-friendly copacker was quite the quite the challenge, figuring out how to make the product. I had the vision for the company that I'm a terrible baker. I think oftentimes people see my company and think that I was like in the kitchen, whipping up things for my daughter, and that was the not the case. And so I think overcoming those challenges also understanding that I had a huge learning curve, and so it was really important to me that we start small, because I couldn't afford any big mistakes. We were bootstrapping the business initially. We probably bootstrapped it a little too far. I ended up emptying my 401 K, maxing out all of our credit cards, selling my engagement ring over the course of the first couple years to fund the business. And from a distribution perspective, I heard all these horror stories about chargebacks and spoils and all of the ways that you would lose money working with distributors. And so I was my own distributor for the first year. I just sold cookies out of my car. And I was fortunate that we were living in New York at the time, so there was a plethora of natural food stores and independence where I could really go out and meet consumers make sure that we had a minimum viable product. And so the first year of the business, it was just me and my car doing lots of demos, local trade shows, selling cookies. We got really positive results in the New York market, which gave me the confidence to try to take things a bit further. And then in our second year of business, we went into a region of Whole Foods, and we went into Wegmans, and we started to think about raising some outside capital, but until January of 2020, so about three years post our launch, I was the only employee in the company. We had a lot of really great facts, fractional support helping me out along the way, but I was the only full time team member.
Daniella Allam: Wow. And so what would you say? So it sounds like you were, you were out in the marketplace, and you were testing the product, and you were talking to consumers. Would you say that that was one of the sort of drivers of where you are right now is, is being able to to talk with consumers, see what they were resonating with. Was there anything there in that moment where you're like, maybe I need to adjust something or or maybe it's good that I was this small so that I could test, learn, and before I go into the big into the big guys was that, was that that experience in that in that first couple of years?
Denise: For sure, it was a grind for like a physical like physical work, like a grind, but also probably the most valuable experience I've had in building the business. Some of the early feedback we got, I knew that there was a high barrier to entry with food allergy consumers because, like, nobody wants to be the guinea pig when they have a life-threatening food allergy. I didn't realize how high that barrier to entry was and how much work we would need to do to prove out our credibility. So we did that through third-party certifications, by partnering with nonprofits, by sampling with local allergists. But also I didn't see how big of a market opportunity we actually had. And as I was doing demos, like half the people who were buying the product didn't have food allergies, and that is something we still see to be true to this business and in this business today. I also didn't realize how much the story mattered. I didn't realize how much consumers cared about who they were buying from why that person had started the company. And so people would see the packaging, and the packaging is very different than what it is today. And they'd be like, this looks like another, like cat craft paper, supernatural, free from everything that tastes good product. But then they would hear me tell this vibrant story about how I wanted everyone to be able to partake and the wholesome ingredient, ingredients we were using, and the taste, they would get a chance to taste the product, and then I would convert them. And I realized that there was, one, the story is really important, and we needed to be really vocal about sharing that. And two, the packaging wasn't working for us on shelf, because as we went into more stores, I wasn't going to be able to be in every single store telling the story. And so we learned a tremendous amount. We learned that, you know, I had this bright idea that I thought parents would want to give their children, like vegetables with everything. And so we had these really appetizing, and I'm using air quotes with appetizing flavor names like carrot, oat and sweet potato, millet and sprouted grain, chocolate chip. And I realized that people want a cookie to be a cookie. They want ingredients they understand, but they also want an indulgent treat. And so we changed flavor names, and I got so many learnings from those early days.
Daniella Allam: Yeah, that's so interesting as a as a consumer, I can say that, yeah, somebody that doesn't have allergies, what really first drew me in to Partake was, was the packaging and the fact that it was built as like a better for you indulgence. And so I love that story and that idea of, yeah, iterating and getting those insights. And I'm sure it was helpful to have those earlier on than, like, later in the game, once your distribution has really expanded. But I'm also curious so you worked in CPG for 10 years prior to starting this business and that's something that I think a lot of founders don't share with you. So how did that kind of prepare you to run your own CPG business? Because I imagine that that has had its advantages.
Denise: I think it gave me some false confidence because I thought, well, I worked at Coca Cola for this long. I know what I'm doing. I did not. I didn't realize how many resources and how siloed my role was, and so I knew enough to be dangerous. I could talk the talk and speak the acronyms, but I didn't know anything about accounting, operations, procurement, food safety, marketing, anything besides the one lane that I was playing in, which was sales, which has been very helpful to me because I think it's allowed me to really understand how to sell to our consumers and sell to our customers and sell investors. And I think so much of your job as a founder, selling employees like is being a salesperson. And so I think that part equipped me. I think seeing how a brand like Coca Cola thinks about brand, that also really helped me. We couldn't afford to do it in a meaningful way in the beginning. But like, I think oftentimes people think brand is like, Oh, your Instagram page or your logo or your packaging, but brand is like, how your company makes people feel whenever they hear the brand name. And that comes across through customer service responses, how your team shows up at a demo, who you involve in your business, like so many other things, and it made me really think about the brand that we were creating, probably in a more in-depth way than I would have thought about it had I not had that experience. And then I think probably the least sexy thing, like food safety, quality, which, like, isn't high on most people's radar, that's the stuff that'll make or break your business. And so, like, I saw how seriously we took that at Coca Cola. And so when I was building my company, I didn't have a lot of money to put resources in certain places, but I knew like when it came to like contracts, things that related to our attorney and like legal documents and things that related to food safety like I was crossing every T, dotting every I, like I could cut corners on social media. I could cut corners on my cell sheets, things like that, but things that were focused on, like the governance of the company, as well as the food that people were putting into their bodies, like I had to take that very seriously.
Daniella Allam: That's so interesting. But then it also sounds like, because you were a one-woman show for so long, you had to wear all these different hats that you weren't, you know, used to maybe doing. How did you go about kind of going into that and learning about those hats? Was it just learning by doing or or did you find yourself having to find people to support you, or having to learn things that maybe weren't, weren't in your toolbox before,
Denise: I think, a combination of the both? So definitely a lot of trial by fire, learning by doing, but I also, like, I'm a work smarter, not harder, kind of person. Like, it's already hard enough to build a business if there's places where somebody else, like, none of this is rocket science per se. Like, 99% of the problems I'm facing, somebody else in this business has faced before, and so I had to really get comfortable working the muscle of asking for help, cold emailing people, and people were so much more willing and generous and giving than I ever expected them to be. And so one, I think it inspired me to do the same with my time and resources. Now, as I meet, it's aspiring entrepreneurs. And two, to realize like that, like I used to be so scared to like, tell people my idea, I realize now ideas are kind of a dime a dozen. The magic is all in the execution. And so being really vocal about being vulnerable and like, where I need help and what's working and what's not working, but also being really specific in my ask, because I feel like a lot of these professionals are getting tapped every day with a, can I pick your brain? And that's not what I feel like you showed someone up with. It's more like a, I have a very specific question about trade spend in this retailer or, like, this specific term sheet, or whatever it may be, and so making sure that I was really being respectful of people's time, if they were willing to share their time and energy with me,
Daniella Allam: yeah, and just being working smart, working smarter, not harder. Such a, such a great motto, I think, for the entrepreneurial life, especially for folks that are doing it basically on their own to begin with. So, but, you know, fast forward and now Partake is this huge brand, basically everywhere and so, but I'm curious, like, how did you know it was time to start growing your distribution? So you said, you know, you started smaller with tests, right, like, or going into regional areas like Whole Foods and Wegmans, when did you know you wanted to take this big and it was the right time for the company, and the company was set up to do that?
Denise: I think it's kind of like, I hear people say this a lot about having a baby, that you like that no time is a perfect time, and sometimes you got to just get a kick in the butt or a sign or something. And so, you know, we were chugging along in Wegmans and one region of Whole Foods. So we're probably in about 100 stores total. It was going well, I was still the only employee, and I dragged my husband. I dragged my husband to Expo West in 2017, where I had Ziploc bag samples. And I said, If you see anyone from Whole Foods or target, because those were my dream retailers, I don't care where they are, stop them. And he found somebody who was leading supplier diversity for Target at the time in the bathroom line at Expo West. And that's where our relationship began. And we, you know, we're able to nurture that relationship by attending, they had a Black-owned business fair, and again, gave us the opportunity to meet with our buyer, who was like, you know, I like what you're working on, but you're like, much too small. And here's some updates I would make to packaging, etc. And so we went in at the end of 2018 so we've been in business for slightly over a year at that point, and did a line review. And then in early 20, I take that back, late 2019, so we had been in business for two years. We went in for a line review meeting. I thought we would get a small test. We were in about 100 stores at the time, and they called us at the start of 2020 and said they wanted us in 1600 stores, which is nearly every Target. And so at that point, I felt like I had kind of a bet the company moment, and I said, Can I call you back? And I called our contract manufacturer and said, like, can you do this? At that time, we had one other employee in the company who was running operations. And I was like, Can we do this? At that point, we'd raised a million dollars in outside capital, and I started looking at like, could we afford to do it? Was there a way to, like, work with some non dilutive debt providers? I got my ducks in a row over the course of a couple days, and called back and said, Yes, thank you so much for the opportunity. That's very backwards from how I thought I would build the business. I thought we would go region by region at Whole Foods, and we would grow in the New York area. And I like, that wasn't the vision I had, but I also wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. And so we went into Target nationally, and that became a spring springboard for us. As we increased distribution, we finished 2019 in a couple 100 stores Max, and we finished 2020 and 5000 stores.
Daniella Allam: Wow. Yeah, that's, it's funny how that happens, like at the line at the bathroom line at Expo West, all it took was that, and I love that visual also, of just the samples and Ziploc bags, because it just shows, right, like that, you're going from from being a small business run by you and your husband and and then just exploding into what it is today and not so long ago too. So now you've raised over $20 million for Partake, and you also have been the first Black woman to raise a million dollars publicly, first for a food startup. When did you know you needed to fundraise? Did that come in line with the big distribution push? And I think a lot of entrepreneurs that I talked to ask about like, how did you go about fundraising and finding the right partner? Because there's all these scary stories out there, and nobody really wants to get diluted. So if you have any thoughts or or advice from your own journey of fundraising, a good, chunk of money.
Denise: So, initially, I tried to fund the money every way I could. I won about $100,000 from pitch competitions and grants. We ran a six we ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. I bootstrapped it as far as I could, and when I had exhausted every option, that's when we started to look at raising outside capital, I will say, speaking like venture capital investment language was a foreign language to me. I didn't know a convertible note from a cap table. So that was also some learning by doing, but also surrounding yourselves with the right people, whether that be other entrepreneurs who had done this really strong legal counsel, and initially, we tried to raise a friends and family round. I think that term is used a lot, but we had no accredited I have no accredited investors in my family, so it was a very loose term. It was like old co-workers. And my husband's old co-workers and five and $10,000 checks, and never all the money at one time. And we always thought we were going to run out of money. And we started raising that capital when we were in Whole Foods and Wegmans because I saw very quickly how expensive it was to compete at retail. And then in that was the end of 2019, and excuse me, at the end of 2018 and then in the middle of 2019, we raised the $1 million seed round of funding. I don't want to say I got lucky, but I also, like I recognized that it wasn't just like my strategy of getting the right partners around the table. Like, when we got our million dollar seed round of funding, I maybe had two or $3,000 on our business checking account, like, I would have taken capital from anyone and so like, I think it's easy for me to say, Oh, I wanted the right value, the line partners around the table and all of this, and that is true, but at the end of the day, I also needed to keep my business funded. And I think I got really lucky that some partners that were values-aligned and believed in me and what I was building showed up. And then from there, I think it was. It's been really interesting to see, just like the leverage and power dynamics and the fickleness of the fundraising market, and there's just so many things and so, you know, I think what I would. Counsel people to say is, like, always be developing relationships. So because I think that was a place where I took a misstep, like, I should have already started then started to try to have, like, warm relationships with people, which is also really easy for me to say now, but like, when you're working 18 hours a day on delivering cookies and managing your QuickBooks account, like, it's not always possible. But I think wherever you can, investing and building relationships with investors you think you'd want to work with one day so that they can follow the progress of your business and so they can get to know you is really important. I think being very clear about who you are, like somebody's asked me, how you how I attract investors at this point of the money we've raised, the bulk of it has come from women, people of color, funds that support those group or groups or impact funds. And it's in my immediate spiel is like, I want to do good in the world. We are certified B Corp. We have a 501c3, that's trying to help more Black people get jobs in this industry. And so I think people self-select out if that's not something that they want to be a part of. And I try to be very loud and clear about it, because I think where a lot of the mishaps happen in investor relationships and is when there's a misalignment, where people will say anything to be able to try to get the money or the investor will say anything to get the person to take the money, and people aren't, like truthful about, you know, what their what their intentions are, what success looks like, how they want to run the business. And I think you have to be honest with yourself and honest with potential investors about that, and also reference check like crazy because I think it's easy for someone to say something, but to really talk to other companies that have worked with investors, particularly during challenging times, because I think that's when you get to see who somebody really is. I think that's also really helpful.
Daniella Allam: Yeah, that's super helpful. Well, speaking about challenging times, I'm curious to hear what have been some of those challenges that you've encountered as you've scaled the business.
Denise: I feel like I've had like, four or five jobs since I've started this company. Like your role as CEO changes so much as the company's changed, and so, you know, I think funding like, point less than two. I think the stat doesn't need to be repeated, but it's so, like, so frustrating. Less than 2% of venture capital dollars go to women, less than less than a half a percent go to Black women. Like, fundraising has been a challenge. I think we've successfully managed to get great investors around the table and raise the capital we need to grow the business. But it's not been without sleepless nights. It's not been without like, Oh my goodness. How are we gonna make it moments. Team, I think, you know, it's easy to try to like, for me, it was easy to like, I can do everything and I'll do every job, but like, eventually you have to kind of loosen the reins on that if you really want the company to be able to scale. And so getting the right people in the right seats has been a challenge. Once you have the people there like, I'm so appreciative of the team that we have, and I want to make sure that we're showing them that, and we are building a culture that people that I can be proud of, that people want to be a part of. So culture. Investors. I think there's also just always the daily fire drill, and, like over the past few years between covid and supply chain challenges and racial Reckoning and like all of the turmoil in the world like it's been no shortage of challenges.
Daniella Allam: No shortage of challenge. But here we are, and we're still we're still trucking along. I love it.
Denise: Exactly.
Daniella Allam: Um, and I and through this time, you've also innovated into other like products and categories like grahams and wafers and baking mixes, what, what was sort of that thinking behind that, and what, how did you find that need, and what's been the experience of going into other parts of the shelf?
Denise: So I think positive and negative. I'll start with the negative. So we launched our line of baking mixes, which I think were delicious products at the like, right? Like, during the height of COVID, people were at home, everyone's talking about baking. We were like, Let's jump on the train. Our product developer had whipped up a delicious cake mix that I was just using for my daughter at home. And I was like, we should turn this into a product. And then we did, and we invested time and resources and developing the product and working with our copacker to make the product. And then as the world opened back up, we realized that baking mix wasn't a category from a velocity perspective, where we wanted to play like it wasn't a huge category. It's very price sensitive, dominated by a few giants, and so we ended up pulling out of that category. And so I think it was a lesson in using data to make decisions instead of emotions. I mean, I think the best decisions come out of a combination of both and being really focused on, like, the project that we have at hand, which is building in the snack category. And so I will say, like we launched that, and we learned a lot, and we aren't making those products anymore. And then, on the other hand, graham crackers, when I started Partake, that was the first product that I wanted to make, but we didn't have the capital to be able to invest in the equipment needed to do it. And finally, through the funding and through the growth of the business, we've been able to do that, and they've outperformed our expectations. Both the Graham crackers and the vanilla wafers. But we use data to make those decisions, and we saw, like, what the different differentiating points would be on Partake versus some of the competitors that exist in the categories today. We also saw that there was like we saw there was a ton of white space. We took our time to perfect the product to make sure that we had something we could be really proud of that tasted good. We worked with retail partners well in advance of the launch and built marketing plans out. And so I think that for us was a lesson in making sure there was this white space, using data to guide decisions, working with our external partners to make sure it was a success. And so yeah, we've seen both ends of the spectrum of innovation.
Daniella Allam: Yeah. And I think the story of of the baking mixes is actually a great one, because I think a lot of times, especially like one, one person teams and entrepreneurs that are the formulators, or that are the ones that are come up with, actually the products, oftentimes have a really hard time letting go of product ideas that are like, this is my baby, you know. And, and the call to just look at the data and and, and turn on that hat, right? Instead of like, I love this, and I love it, and everybody should love it, too. And, but instead of being like, is there a need? Is like, what is the opportunity? What is the dollar opportunity behind this is something that I think a lot of founders go through as well, and it just shows right like focus on the things that that are actually going to build your business and and sometimes it requires having to make hard decisions about discontinuing products or not going down lines that you thought you were going to but I think your story just shows the importance of focus, also, right, like as as a brand and as a company, which I'm sure is also a contributor to your success. And so I want to talk a little bit about, we touch a little bit about, you know, this is, this is a very white male-dominated industry, as I'm sure you know and have experienced. And so Partake has not just like revolutionized industry in terms of these delicious, allergen-free snacks, but you've also demonstrated a commitment to supporting underrepresented people in the food industry through initiatives like the Black Futures Fellowship. Why was that so important for you to build into the fabric of your business?
Denise: I think for a few reasons. So I remember, in my experience in corporate America, which was generally a really positive one, I just remember sitting in rooms with leadership team and saying, like, this is all white men if I ever start my own company, I think there's like been study after study that shows how businesses are so much stronger when there's diversity on the team, diversity in decision making. And I thought, well, it'll be different when I have my own company, if I have my own company, and when I went out and started my own company, and I needed to build the team as I needed folks who had a very specific experience set the applicant pool was much more homogeneous than I wanted. And I'm definitely not a just sit on a problem kind of person. I was like, Well, if I see a problem, like, it's part of my like, this is a problem I'm passionate about. I want to make it my responsibility to take a small part in fixing it. And so we realized that helping students at an earlier age be able to get experience with the tools needed to be successful in the food industry, to have the mentorship, the peer network was really valuable. And so that's why we started the program. We started in 2020 when we were a team of three. I think I was also really compelled to start it, because, you know, when we went into Target, which was like a pinch me moment in May of 2020, at the end of May of 2020, a tragic incident happened in George Floyd being murdered. And our company saw so much benefit from that. And I felt really even more compelled in that moment, like to turn that tragedy into something positive, at least, you know, in a small way in our industry. And so I think that was the catalyst for us to do something about it, alongside just kind of looking at the industry, looking at LinkedIn, walking around trade shows, and realizing, like, there's a lot of people who look very similar, who are making decisions about what we put into our body, who gets to, like, who what retailers have, what products, etc. And I wanted to take a small part in changing that.
Daniella Allam: I love that as somebody, yeah, who has also been in the industry for so long, it's disappointing year after year, right to go into these halls, and it's just like a sea of white men, and it's like, where is the diversity? And as we know, right, that it does create, usually, better organizations, better products, but it's also a really hard one to crack, because I think a lot of entrepreneurs, especially people of color, especially women of color, feel that because of that, they don't have room, right, that they don't belong in that room. What like, what made you like feel that you could do it, because I think so many entrepreneurs that I that I talk to, it's like that confidence that, you know, I don't know what I'm doing, nobody looks like me that I don't know. You know, it can take a toll on folks and really make them feel like their ideas or their companies are not worthwhile, because the industry looks a certain way. Did you experience that? And how did you kind of work through that? If that was something that you experienced at first.
Denise: I think you know, self-doubt, imposter syndrome is still something I battle every single day, so something I experienced and continue to experience. I think this goes back to the idea of being an entrepreneur for the right reasons, and for me, it was to do something and create something better for my daughter and along the journey, originally, the name Partake came from this idea that I wanted my daughter and people with food allergies to be able to partake. And then on this journey, as a woman, as a person of color, as a first-time founder, got to see how many other groups of people didn't get a chance to partake, and felt like I had a responsibility and a privilege to be able to open up doors for more people. And so, you know, I think really looking at my North Star and what's guiding me is the thing that keeps me going, it's like, if not me, then who? And, like, If I don't help other people open this door to get further faster than I have, like, am I wasting the opportunity? And so I just feel very compelled to do it from a mission and kind of why I'm here to exist perspective.
Daniella Allam: why you exist. Well, I love that with the name partake earlier, when you were mentioning that, that was like a thought that I had, which is like, actually partake also has that, like everybody is welcome to the table. It's like this inclusiveness that and everybody can partake. And it's so needed, both on like a product level, but also on an industry level, on a on a world level, on so many levels, right, too. And so I love that sort of other meaning of of the brand name. And I'm curious, how did you kind of land on that name, actually?
Denise: I wish I could say that I came up with it. We worked with a one-woman show down in Austin who helped us with naming, logo, and packaging to start, and she gave me names to choose from. And I honestly, the name I don't think I've ever shared this publicly. The name of Partake was going to be Haven, like a safe haven for people with allergies, and it was trademarked already, and I feel like that was one of my other biggest blessings because I didn't know that Partake would take on this additional meaning. And so I feel like it was meant to be that we had the name. I felt like so many of the products that existed were focused on such negative aspects, and like, excluding this and know this and free from this. And I wanted to talk about, like, being safe and being welcoming, and so that was the ethos we were trying to create. Thankfully, someone much more creative than me brought it to the table, and we've been able to hopefully champion the name as we've been growing the business.
Daniella Allam: I love that. How that happens. Sometimes I've had that experience too with other brands and naming and just getting to the trademark stage, and that's that's when things shift. But then you actually might end up with something a lot better, and that actually communicates that essence of what the brand is, which is, which is this like very inclusive point of view. And so as we sort of start to wind down, I really wanted to ask you, what advice would you give other founders, particularly women of color, who have perhaps great ideas for their products and but they're struggling like they might not have the CPG experience, they don't have the contacts, so they're trying to find the resources, the know how, and really that confidence to launch their business. What would you tell these folks?
Denise: The piece of advice that I would give is that it's okay to start small. I think people expect that because I was in the industry, I had contacts. The way that we got into Whole Foods was I cold messaged every single person on LinkedIn that had the title Category Manager at Whole Foods, and someone working at a Boulder store took pity on me and passed me on to the right person, like it was just doing the work, like finding, like, the whole idea, find a way, or make one like, I think I was just living that. And I think that I became a much stronger business person, and that Partake is a much stronger business because we started so small, because I did do every job in the company. I think that helps the team understand one I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and do everything, but also helps me get a better understanding of the business. I think that the financial scarcity in the beginning allowed us to be much more creative about the types of accounts we would work with, how we would resource the business. I think it just made me stronger overall. At the time I didn't recognize it, that's for sure. But I think the idea that it's okay to start small, and sometimes it's better to start small, is the advice I would give. I remember being so embarrassed by our early setup. Like, we would carry a demo table in the back of the car, and, like, I would get into a new store, and like, we would just do a demo on the spot, or we had this, like, $5 tablecloth with this like sign I present printed at FedEx Office, and I would be so embarrassed. But I think it was, it was that one, that was like a special, magical experience that, like, I advise people not to take for granted when they're living it. And two, that it's okay to start in that way, and sometimes it's for the better.
Daniella Allam: It's for the better sometimes because then you'll be able to test, iterate, get things perfect before you you go you go larger. And I'm curious, like, what So what has been your own leadership journey throughout this time? Because you started from doing all these different functions and basically touching every part of the business, what is your what is your kind of day-to-day look like now as founder, CEO of this huge company now, and yeah, how have you evolved your own leadership and in that journey?
Denise: So I think my roles evolved in that I spend a lot more time thinking about the future of the company, long-term strategy, hiring strategy, and fundraising strategy, and not as much in the weeds as I once was. I think my leadership journey has evolved, and I will, you know, be honest, like in my role at Coke, I was an individual contributor my whole career, so this is definitely a steep learning curve for me. So surrounding myself with other CEOs that I admire, getting professional support in the form of a coach have been ways that I resource myself to make sure that I'm equipped to be able to do this and do it well, giving myself the same grace I would give my team. I'm kind of figuring out as I go. And I think being a parent of a young child along the way, like a young kid, isn't that different from a company in terms of, like, having to have patience and like doing what you say you're gonna do, and like all of those things like, I think it's been interesting to parent both a company and a child at the same time, and both have kind of helped support each other.
Daniella Allam: Yeah, around similar ages. It sounds like similar ages of their journey. It's funny. We had another founder on the podcast that said that exact same thing, like building a business is basically akin to having a child, and there's things that you can kind of prepare for, like reading books and whatever. And then there's things that you can't really prepare prepare for until you're in it, and until you you know, like, what is the child, or what is the company that you're actually building, and what it requires from you? So given that now you're focused on the What's next for Partake, what are you most excited about in this next phase of Partake's journey?
Denise: I'm excited for us the innovation that I mentioned our graham crackers and vanilla wafers, to be able to share that with more consumers and more stores. I'm excited for future innovation that we're working on right now as well. Excited that as our business grows, that hopefully our positive impact will grow. We're going to go into our fourth year of our Black Futures Program this summer. So excited to see that evolve. We got our B Corp certification, and just like thinking about ways that we can show up as a positive force for good in the world is something that I'm also excited about.
Daniella Allam: Wow, that's that's awesome, and I wish Partake all the best. This was such a great conversation full of awesome insights. It was such a pleasure to hear your journey, how you've basically built this business from a one-woman show to what it is now, and really all the impact that you're actually having on on the industry at large and increasing inclusivity and diversity in the industry, it's such it's so inspirational. And I'm sure a lot of people will feel very motivated hearing your story.
Denise: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I enjoyed it.
Daniella Allam: Thank you.