From College Idea to Retail Shelves | Micah Specialty Foods Story

Kwamena and Natasha from Micah Specialty Foods share the real story behind building a product-based business from the ground up. What started as a college idea inspired by homemade Ghanaian sauce turned into a growing brand now found in retail stores. 

In this episode, we walk through the full journey. From testing recipes in a dorm kitchen to finding the right co-packer and scaling production. They break down the realities of launching a food business, including the mistakes that cost them time and money and what they would do differently today. 

One of the biggest takeaways is a costly production mistake that forced them to pivot. Instead of quitting, they adapted, adjusted their strategy, and kept moving forward. That’s where most people get stuck, and it’s exactly why this conversation matters. 

We also get into raising capital, getting products into stores, and why consistency over time matters more than trying to move fast and force growth. 

If you’re building a business, thinking about launching a product, or trying to figure out how to grow something real, this episode gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what it actually takes. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

All right, welcome back to Poor Decisions, and I'm so excited to feature a food business. And so we have Kwamina and Natasha with Fica specialty foods. And um I have tried the foods, but the sauces, and they are delicious. So I was so excited, you know, to be able to have you guys on to tell your story. And um, so what you know, why food? Why'd you guys want to get into the food business?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Because you love making food or so it all started with uh Ghana Supreme Sauce. Okay. I was in Hiram College. I missed my mother's, yes, missed my mother's home cooking, um, fell for very homesick. Okay. And then uh there was uh Entrepreneurship Immersion Week, which was held in Ashland uh uh university in um I believe it was August of 2011. Uh I was a freshman at the time going into my sophomore year. And um we was on the Hiram College team, we're going up against Case Western, Lake Erie College, Baldwin, and a bunch of schools, and uh we had to figure out, come up with an idea. Uh and uh could we're brainstorming and can come up with anything. I said, hey, well, my mother makes this delicious sauce that you can put on everything that makes cooking much easier and faster for easy meal prep. You can use it as a marinade, you can use it as a dipping sauce, you can use it to saute vegetables, you can use it almost like a marinara sauce because of the tomato base. And and that's how we got into food.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Oh my gosh. Okay, so from a from college, you knew that you wanted to be an entrepreneur. Yes. And with like was your family, was your family entrepreneurs at all? Or no, I came from a different background.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Okay. So um when I went to Hiram, I studied communications sociology. So um, but we became a couple while we were students at Higherham.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Okay. Yeah. Okay. My I my undergrad was in communications also. Oh really? Yes. Kindred's favorites. Yes. And then was your was your family like were they um entrepreneurs?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Yeah, so yeah, my uh on both sides are entrepreneurial. My dad um owns uh Afrodandum, there's like an office furniture business. Um so they make office furniture in Ghana, um, that picture framing business. He has a music school. He's done like a medical diagnostic business. He's had like, he's a my dad is what you call a serial entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Um, so I always wanted to um um take after his footstep. He also practiced law. So he was hustling and doing everything. Uh and so my my dad was my first role model. I wanted to follow his footsteps. Okay. Um at the time I was thinking practicing law and doing business as well. I didn't go the law route. I left that to my sister, so she's a lawyer now. And I took the entrepreneurial stuff, so we split the Right, right, right. We split the genes into half, and that's how it happened. And my mother is a consultant, and she worked as a banker, but she's not a full-time consultant. She she runs her consulting business. So I I had enough examples, and then I was exposed to it at a very young age. Yeah. I remember as a kid like putting price tags on like stuff in the store and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

That's awesome. Yeah. That's that's how it starts. And then you you get this idea um, you know, as you go on in life, and then you're like, Yeah, I can do this. I saw my parents do it, I can do it too. Um, so okay. So you're in, you're at Hiram, there's the, you know, you so you you come up with the idea for the sauce. So did you reach out to your mom and say, hey, I need your sauce recipe?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yes. I told my mom, hey, um, I need to perfect this recipe. We just pitched it. Um in uh the pitch competition. We didn't win, and we had to pretty much go off information online and resources and stuff like that. Um, but I wanted a real recipe, so show me how to make it. And um, so she taught me how to make it, practice perfecting the recipe, using uh my friend's uh dorm. He had like a like a little town townhouse, town hall, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Uh you needed a kitchen, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Living in an actual dorm, I did have a kitchen space used, so I bore his space and then used it and eventually um started producing small batches, eventually found a a cold pack or a manufacturer, and then the rest is history.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Oh wow. So, okay, let's go through the whole like finding the co-packer, because that to me, from talking other to other people that are in the food industry, like that's one of the most difficult aspects of it, finding someone that you trust and that will, you know, actually make your recipe the way you want them to. And um, how did you find a copecker? And and what part of the process like were you at when you were like, we need a copecker? Because were you you were making it just out of the kitchen for a while? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So it was pretty much at the idea stage, the recipe stage, making small samples on Super Bowl weekend. I remember like passing out samples around Super Bowl weekend and stuff for people to taste with choke chair chooses. Giving out surveys, exactly, giving out surveys on campus.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Just to see if they want it hotter or less.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

So you were using the students at higher as your um like to provide you with the intel as yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah. And you just would you like give or you would give out samples to the students at at higher? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Well, mostly like within my French circle, yeah. But for like for the surveys, we collected it. There was something we called the inter uh intercultural forum, uh, where, you know, with the various um international students from various countries, including the United States. And um, you know, there'll there was a time of year where it was usually in February where I would prepare your national dish, okay, wear your national clothes. You get to perform at a cultural dance or like so to share with the highroom community. Right. And that was my opportunity to make dishes using our sauce and then collect the data and see what with people, you know.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

Whose idea was the survey? Was that choice? No. No.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Right, right, right. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

So my major was actually, I was a business major and a minor entrepreneurship. Oh. So um, you know, kind of like just learning from business classes, like importance of surveys. I and you know, you you take statistics, you take business courses, so you understand the the the usefulness of data, and yeah, I was basically trying to apply what I'd learned from the classroom and right into real black practice, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Okay, so you're getting the surveys, and were people telling you things that you didn't already know, or were you kind of like, yeah, we kind of figured that people might want it a little bit more hot or something like that?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Uh well, yeah, we did get some initial feedback, but we were um, you know, like I said, just trying to collect as much data as possible because sometimes you get feedback from your friends, and it's only um a a small sample size. So we were just trying to get feedback from people who uh had no skin in the game, yes. Yes and didn't know us person, they could give us honest feedback. Right. Right. That was the that was the real goal and objective. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Okay. And um, so you so you got that feedback and then you kept like tweaking the recipe.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

Um yeah, we eventually um started tweaking it some more um when we went to the Cleveland culinary um launch kitchen. So in downtown Cleveland, so that's when we ended up having like RD samples. And um we keep tweaking it, tweaking it until the manufacturer got it right.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

So And when you when you um started in the culinary kitchen in downtown Cleveland, were you already like producing it just on your own, like bottling it on your own, or did you have the copecker at that time?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Well, we were b bottling on our own, but in small batches. So we were testing it out at that point.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

So that was the power, you know, we really started the production phase. And we realized we were gonna need or use a copacker because it takes time to be in the kitchen. You might spend an entire Saturday and Sunday, I bet, you know, um, late hours and stuff like that. So um it wasn't gonna be feasible. We were focused more on getting the right recipe that tasted right and then being able to sell it at scale. That was what our our objective was.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

So how long like how long would you be in the in the kitchen, like making and bottling?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Bottling. Well, I at the time, maybe about two, three hours, not a whole not a a whole lot of time because we were, like I said, doing it in small batches. So the samples that we did make were gonna be given to like friends or people anyway. So it wasn't um necessarily stuff we were planning on selling initially.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

Okay. And how many bottles would you make? Like what's what's considered small batch?

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Oh, I mean, small batch could be 20 jars or as low as 10 jars or as low as five jars that we wanted to give to certain people. Okay. Um I used to do um what you would call network marketing. Um I don't want to mention any brands, but we would have our meetings, and then I would take some jars to the network marketing event, and then I would, you know, pass out samples at the time. Actually, network marketing was actually my one of my early tastes of entrepreneurship or you know, trying something on my own at the time. So I I I that was also how I collected data and sort of like start started building a uh a base of customers.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Okay. So you would get feedback from that also? Like they would they would give you oh nice. Okay. So then so you how did how did you find the copacker?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

How did it find it? It was through a referral. Um there was a Hiram alum who used this Copacker and in Garrow Base in Illinois. Um, and so it was just through a referral um while working on the idea pitch competition back in uh in well when we went to Ashland um university, we said, hey, well let's um I'll introduce you to somebody who's in this business. Get some feedback from him on your the on this idea and let's see what his feedback produces. So that was how we um um we heard about this co-packers. It was a contact that we had. We weren't sure if we're gonna use them anyway, but we wanted to um at least, you know, see what was out there. And um they were capable of making small batches because one thing about co-packers, which I'm sure your audience will love to know, is that um you need to um find somebody that can produce the quantity that you can afford. If you're a startup, you don't need to use a coal packer that would require a minimum of 50,000 bottles.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

You have you have no customer base, you have no retail stores, you have no, you have no one pretty much to sell it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Right. Yeah. Like who am I supposed to who am I supposed to sell 50,000 to? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Um so the one you pick has to be the right fit. And luckily, they they had minimums. Of course, when you're a startup, um no matter how low the minimums are, it's still gonna be a challenge. Yeah. Um, but at least we had something that was doable.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

You know, um that fit our our needs.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

So every so doing like shopping around, I guess, in terms of finding the copecker that works with you is important because they're not all the same. No, they all have different requirements. Yeah, far from that, yeah. You've had I'm sure you've had numerous of experiences with do they um do they require money up front, the co-peckers?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, especially when you are um like a new startup, you have to build some credibility.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Um, so um many of them will do um, like at least some you do have up front.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Or they may require the full payment up front. And um maybe after one or two orders, and when you you have, you know, I mean, when business is operating and you have some customers and stuff, then they could decide um they could do like 30-day terms and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 12:34

Yeah, but sometimes um I think with our experience, some of the cold packers weren't too sure if they want to take on our sauce. So we did get like a few like maybe you eventually got the the right.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Also, I think it's important the code pack has to be um honest about if they can really produce your product. Like if you know you don't have the capabilities of producing a certain recipe at scale, then there's no need to even try it. You know, you could refer them to somebody who can. Uh, but you know, if if a if a cult packer is willing to take on something they know they cannot do, that's a red flag. That's the first red flag that they need to look out for.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Um and they need to provide you with honest feedback.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yeah. And how would you know until after they you've paid them and they've, you know, ran the um cycle with your products?

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Yeah, so with with our source, what we did was uh we made, first of all, we did the recipe. Um, of course, they had to sign an NDA. They created the NDA. In hindsight, we should have created our own NDA. It hasn't harmed us, but um, it's also important for your lawyer to create an NDA. But they provided an NDA. Yes. Um they made provided an NDA.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Oh, you know, signed the NDA.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

And you know, as college kids, you don't you don't know any better, but not now with all the experience that we have. Um, you know, but the the main thing was um they you they have to show proof of product. So they'll have to use your recipe and make a very small batch, which is not supposed to be sold, by the way, just for you to say, are you satisfied with this taste? Okay. And uh if they are able to show proof that it's uh spike and you know, like you are if you provide feedback and say I'm satisfied with this taste, then you can authorize them to produce at least on on a on the on at scale.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

So will they do just like one bottle for you to taste?

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Well, uh it's a tabletop amount, so it can be ten jars, okay, five jars, but it uh sometimes it just has to be enough for you to taste to provide feedback. Right, right. So um, you know, you don't necessarily have to provide it to your whole family or friends.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Uh but enough that you can have a number of people give some uh feedback to make sure that this is right. Yeah. Okay. Now, okay, so we didn't, I didn't, I don't think I asked, how did you come up with the name Micah Specialty Foods?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Oh, Micah, so Micah, my last name is Teichi Micah. So Micah is uh part of my last name and specialty foods on because we are creating delicious and authentic uh African food products. So that's how Micah Specialty Foods came about.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Okay. And it have you sent your mom the hit the the um bottles? Like, does she know she knows well about it?

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Mom is our biggest fan.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Yeah. Oh, so she's like, You did my recipe good. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

She helped us finance it, she helped us um in the early stages, you know.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

That is awesome. Yeah, that is wonderful. Yeah, um, that's again, that's so cool. All right, so you're um going along with the Copacker, and um the first one that you picked, the is that the one that you have stayed with, or have you gone through a few different ones?

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Uh well well, we have um we pretty much stick stick to the one that we wear because of their volume. We we did um look at other options, but um uh what the ones we use are it fits what we are doing now. So, you know, and we're not gonna obviously be tied, you can't be tied to um a single one because what did they close on? You should have other options in place. So if something happened, you could pivot. Yeah um so we have some contacts and you know people that we have a relationship with. Um, but yes, we have used the same one throughout the entirety of running the business.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

Okay. And I know one of the things just because I my husband and I we had a wine company, and like picking the labels, picking the bottle, that's all something you did you do that with the co-packer, or did you do that and had you guys already established that ahead of time?

SPEAKER_04 16:58

Yeah, so we actually had someone to design it, so somebody else that wasn't the co-packer. Okay, and the original action design was way different than it is now. Like used to be like just a jalapeno pepper in the front, and it looks like a mascot, and so that was just the original like design, which and was just one flavor back then. So eventually, as we were growing, we decided to branch out into different flavors, and then um um through your friend, he was designed, he designed different um designs. So this is a couple of them.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

So oh, okay. So this is much more entailed than just uh jalapeno border. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:44

So we had the dinko symbol in the front that shows like the Gardayan culture, like um, yes, so tell me more about this.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

So that's the Dinkarak symbol, which is like the it looks like a rum's um horns. And it's it symbolizes strength, a honding. Uh so it's uh it's basically the tr traditional writing of Khan ethnic group of Ghana. Oh yeah, and then you can see a giraffe here, so it's like in the in around your tree, so it's like the goods uh and stuff like that. So um and uh in the background you can see jalof rice here.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

And then chicken on the side. So you have to like take a close look. Yeah. Our product is gluten-free, vegan, all natural ingredients.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

And um and then okay, so what are the different um like sauces or have a mild, medium, and spicy?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Okay, and then for our non-alcoholic drinks over here, we have uh mojito and pina colada sauce.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

So the pina colada mocktail and mojito mock tail. Okay. How so you saw it it started with the sauces? How did you get into doing mocktails? What prompted that?

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Yeah, so it it happened um by I I guess if you say by chance, I always wanted to um, you know, launch a drink at some point. Okay. Like a traditional Ghanaian drink. And um I I was brainstorming and thinking about ways in which I could do that. But I came across um adventure capitalists who introduced me to somebody in my space, just to network with an entrepreneur who understands the um, you know, like my industry and you know, learn about what their struggles were and you know, share about my story and what my challenges were and so on and so forth. And how they navigated through it. And he happened to be um pretty much somebody in my space who was making drinks, but during the pandemic started making drinks for people and creating recipes for people based in the UK.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

And and then he said, uh, well, I don't just want to do this particular um Ghanaian drink or West African drink that you enjoy. I can also do pina colada, I can do mojito, I can do all these flavors. Um, and that's that's how that's how the the drink started.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

It's always so important as a business owner is to have like a team. And you know, with your venture capitalist that he was part of your team or she was part of your team, and um and introduced you to someone else. That's I mean, that's what this is all about, like connecting. So that's that's so cool. Um so uh do you have any other new products that you think you're up there? Are you thinking about introducing anything new or on the horizon?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Or new near the horizon will will surprise our customers, but um we definitely want to obviously expand the drink line and just grow. I think now we're really focusing on getting into more retail, selling our products, reaching new customers in various regions and various parts of the world.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Um so that's what our our focus on. So we put a pause on um just like creating new products per se, but we we definitely still wanna obviously, you know, expand what we have in terms of getting it into new retailers.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

So we still own that website. So if there's there are people that's overseas, we can ship it to them with no issues.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

And then are you so you're in like all of the stores around uh Meyer, uh select Meyer locations. Um we're in high ends, all the highness locations, right? Market district, Johnny Go market district. Um we're in Dave Supermarket, Lucky's Market, uh, Rego's Brothers, Lake Road Market, stuff like that, you know. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

And I'm sure that was a process with each store to get into. Um I'm sure, like applying, interviewing, sampling.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

You know, and then did you have to do like a certain amount of like kind of like probationary time where they put you on the shelf to see if how you sell and velocity is like the most important thing in our industry, so you have to sell as quickly as possible and and you have to sell in volume. So there was definitely a um uh like a probational period. We also had to, you know, be active, go into the store, do demos, interact with customers. You met us at the at the garlic festival last August. We do big events like that, so we expose the brand, people know who we are, and we spread um you know the gospel of our products.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Right, right. That's awesome. Yeah. Um so I know you talked about um the NDA. So were there any uh was is that like the biggest, I guess, legal aspect or thing that you guys interact, you know, had to deal with was the NDA from the um Copacker?

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also um establishing a a production agreement is what we should have. Um what what you need to do. I mean, you have to make sure that if if they have you provide you you provide a list of ingredients you want, you provide the process or the recipe and so on and so forth. Uh the co-packer will have to sign a green to produce what you asked for. Because what if um they make a you know, you uh you are paying them to say create a delicious sauce from your country of Ghana and then they literally create something that tastes like Heinz ketchup. Um, your customers are gonna taste it.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

No, yeah, it's totally different.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

This is totally different, like but it's like and they could and they could literally say, Well, we made what you told us to make, and it's and and and and and and and that will definitely be uh a red flag um for co-packers who do things like that. And such such co-packers wouldn't last. But um, yeah, but but I but you know, so you anybody going into this industry definitely has to talk to a lawyer like Sharice.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

I highly recommend that.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

You know, or or a good lawyer who um understands this industry, yeah, who can at least prepare a solid production agreement and a solid um NDA, those two documents so important for your business, game. Yeah, and and and believe me, it may intimidate or scare off a few co-packers. We I think we've experienced already preventing a solid NDA and a production agreement. When you bring that up, it's like you might scare some people away. And if you it scares them off, then they're not the right ones.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

So um Absolutely. Yeah, so always look out for the red flags.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

Yes. Um, well, it's a good thing that you know you learned those lessons early because you know, if you don't have the right contracts agreements in place, then you know, they're in place for when things go wrong. Hopefully it doesn't happen, but when it does, you're like, we have an agreement, and this these were the turns, and um, so then you're able to really um enforce things. Yeah. Man. So I'm glad that you guys were I'm glad you guys did that. Absolutely. Um, so how about you know whether was there a poor decision at all that you got that you made during the course of the business that you were able to navigate through?

SPEAKER_00 25:37

And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh the this poor decision um definitely is emotional, but I'm happy to share so your uh viewers can learn from it. So basically with the drinks, um, as I mentioned, you know, we had connected with uh um somebody in the UK, came up with a recipe, we realized that shipping wasn't gonna be feasible because it was gonna cost a lot of money, and then now with the tariffs, months later we discovered that there were tariffs gonna be in place. So it was gonna make international business very difficult. Okay. Um, so we saw an ad on on Instagram, clicked on it, um, reached out to the people. Um, you know, obviously we went in for the NDA. You know, they said, Oh, I'll give you our MDA, whatever the case may be. And um, for one of the flavors, um actually all the flavors I could I uh so to say, um, but one but one one but flavor in particular was so off that it was so insane.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

Oh no, I never colored it. It was clear.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Imagine having a hibiscus drink, and then it's clear. You know, and um and all all they had to do was to steady our process, provide a quote for us, um, let us know if you can do it based on and let's get through it. Instead, um, you know, these folks were just you create they create they create you an invoice. I mean, an invoice off what? It's like they literally will just create an invoice for you. Um, and they that's so they created an invoice for us. Um, no red no true response on whether they could produce our product. I'm like, wait a minute, like what's going on? We need proof, like I mentioned earlier in the conversation. So give us a small batch of samples.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

And then they said, well, if you want to do that, then it's five thousand dollars per flavor.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

But we already smell a small batch.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yeah, and I'm like, wait a minute, but we already um paid somebody to do our flavors. So can you make um can you make at least like you know, do a small batch or something for us, like we did with the sauces. And um it was like the answer was no. And that was a red flag, the first red flag that um I should have um, you know, uh responded differently to, because sometimes when you want to launch a product, you're so excited.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

And and also for drinks, you wanna uh launch at the further time to launch a drink is by the spring. So it's ready for summer when it's warm and it's hot and people are out and there are a whole bunch of events you can sell it. But in this industry, it's better to move slow when it comes to producing than move fast and crash and burn. And so eventually uh the after eight, nine, ten weeks, the product came, wasn't what we had agreed on. They didn't follow any of our directions. They argued, they were, they lied about it, they were rude about it. Um, there wasn't enough proof because it's like you're communicating with one person who was obviously very um incompetent, very inefficient, and also a liar. And then another red flag was you know, you have to ship a product from point A to point B, you know, being told that um don't use this shipper because we're on a blacklist. That's a red flag.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

So even on the shipping side, you are essentially um shady. Yeah, you know, you are essentially shady. That's a huge red flag.

SPEAKER_03 29:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Um, you know, and so so all these um these lessons, we should realize we should have probably moved a lot uh kept looking for the right fit.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Um and it would have been better to find the right fit as opposed to rushing into one because you think you found one, and so I see a few red flags and I would work around it. Yes. And you know, and so what we do is we pivot. Uh if you have a product that you're not happy with the way it tastes, um, of course, we had to take out the third flavor, but for these two, um we we basically create recipes where customers can mix.

SPEAKER_04 30:06

Oh, yeah. So yeah. So you can mix it with, so for example, the mojito, you can mix it with the strawberry and extra mint. You can add like a little bit of like simple syrup to sweeten up. Uh one of our customers, she actually mixed the mojito with blueberries. Oh, and it looked really good.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:26

It sounds good. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

And if you drink alcohol, um, you can mix rum, you could do vodka. Yeah. And if you want to balance the sweetness, but it's really a really it's still a very good product for um, you know, I mean, people who are low on sugar and who want to wash their sugar, and and we all we use natural cane sugars, it's also uh packed in antioxidants. Uh so you know it powers your day and you can enjoy it. And that's how you pivot. You have to, you know, I mean, you you've already spent $15,000 on product. So you need to pivot, uh, sell it, find, find the right core packer, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:07

And then figure out something to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Yeah, and then and then keep it moving. And and that's what we had to do. Um, so um, and all and of course the product that was off for the hibiscus drink that we were preparing. I mean, obviously we have to find a way to sell it.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Um, at a at a even if it's at cost, you know, just to so recoup.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

Right, to recoup your ear.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

So these are some of the key lessons that we learned.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Um but those are good lessons. And yeah. And I mean, to be able to, to be able to move on from it. Because some people will get stuck and then just say, oh my gosh, you know what, I'm not even gonna keep doing this because this is, you know, all this money that I've invested and it's it didn't work out. But the the fact that you guys said, nope, we're gonna like pivot, figure out something else, and still keep going, like that that's that's really a testament to you know resilience and creativity and just you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Yeah, absolutely. So that those are our key lessons, and um people need to avoid avoid shady cool packers if people are if if people are asking for an invoice without understanding your recipe or your process or what you want and they are sending an invoice, you you you should probably uh avoid them with the plague because there are a lot of shady people out there. Look at other options. Yeah, yeah. Look at other options or wait, don't let don't don't let your customers pressure you into giving uh you um like a a release date, you know. Don't feel pressured by release. We we were trying to beat the um the the August 2025 uh release date, which we did. Um at least we the good side of it, you know, when you look at the it's depends on how you whether you look at the glass half empty or half full. I mean, at least we we did release a product, we did launch a product, and we share proof that we grew that because we even raised some capital. Um, however, um, you know, be careful of shady co-packers and take your time. And even if even if you need two years to find the right um people to partner with, you are not gonna regret it. You thank me later.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's that's really good advice.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Yeah, and get your NDA and your production arena from a lawyer.

SPEAKER_03 33:35

Right, right. Yes, yes. One last thing, too. Um, so how was the process of raising capital? Um, because that's that's a big thing to be able to do. I mean, because a lot of people they they're do, they're constantly pitching and are not able to raise capital.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Yeah, yeah. Well, um uh the process of raising capital, first of all, you should have uh good credit. Um it's important to have proof of business, you know, some revenue. Um, you know, I mean, have hopefully have some product and some sure show proof of concept. Uh we we um we got a loan from HFLA. Shout out to HFLA, Hebrew Free Loan Association, they provide interest-free loans. And then uh we later on got a loan from ECDI. Okay. Um, so we haven't done any investment um sort of fundraising. We've done crowdfunding in the past. We've done uh in the early stages of the sauce. We did crowdfunding in the past, uh, but we have not done any um uh we we've not done any uh like I said investment, but we've done uh you know just raising money and grinding out to pay pitch competitions.

SPEAKER_04 34:49

Yeah, so when we win one money from that, straight.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Any grant available we sign up for, any pitch competition we sign up for.

SPEAKER_04 34:56

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

And we and we usually win. So we've been very blessed and fortunate to be winning uh constantly.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

And this and what year, what year um were you guys in HiRim?

SPEAKER_00 35:08

This idea started. Yeah, so I I the idea started in 2011. I graduated in 2014.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Okay, okay, 2011. Um so that yeah, you guys have been doing this for a while.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Yeah, we've been yeah, we've overcome um um all the challenges. Um business, um, business has its ups and downs. We launched of we launched our first um rendition of um Ghana Supreme Sauce in uh 2014. Business actually took off during the pandemic in 20 uh 20. It was 2021 that we got into market district, general market district. And 2022 was when we took off. On my vision board, and I revisited an old vision board in 2017 that said I wanted to be in at least three retail chains. Um that prayer wasn't answered till I think 2021, 20. It must have been 2022. Five years later, after I had set a goal to achieve something on my vision board, it came to pass in 2020. And then, you know, now we're in all these retail locations, buyer hymn, yeah, gives and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 36:16

So just keep going. Keep going. Keep going, yes. Yeah, but keep going to the farmers markets too. Because that's where we started as a farmers market. She have all some loyal customers. I bet.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Yeah. Yeah. That's that's so great. Yeah. And I mean, and the the reality is that there are very few, if any, businesses that just, you know, like blossom overnight. And it is just that consistency and kind of like changing, switching gears, and you know, revamping ideas and changing labels or changing concepts. And then um, and then once you hit that stride, then you're like, oh, okay. But a lot of times those learning lessons that we had earlier, we needed those to be able to. So now where you are, you're like, oh yeah, we know about this because we learned it earlier when we were, you know, not when we were selling less product, and that's a better time to learn it because it does.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:18

Imagine we were in like the thick of the production and we made the three different flavors and we invested so much money. Right. It was like a big waste. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Exactly. Um, so we learned our lesson. I think it's how you respond um to um, you know, adverse adversity. My wife has been very supportive and you know, also working in the business.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Um, you know, she's helped me cope through those obstacles. Um, so it's good to have a good partner who supports you. Absolutely. You know, in in the in the various challenges. I think it's also um uh I I I think as men we get um excited and over zealous, and sometimes we don't see the red flags or you know, we're in a hurry to um I think it's actually dangerous, although we should work in a sense of urgency. You should also be patient and make sure that you're you're you know, you're applying all the um applying wisdom, you know, looking at the red flags, taking your time through these things to avoid um some of these pitfalls. So we've learned and uh we're moving forward and and you know we would um you know grow even more and you know be bigger and you know, greater than we already get.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

Oh well, yeah, you guys will. You absolutely will. Yes, and I'm ex I can't wait to you know see the gr continue to see the growth and all of you guys. Yes, yes. Well, we let's cheer to um all of the success and everything that you guys have done so far. I know we're we're gonna be sample, we're gonna be pouring wine and water um to water.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Water. Uh my my Gabriel likes when we say What's out, what's out.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

I love it. All right, so cheers to Micah, especially too cheers.