A Start-Up's First Year in Review: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As every year comes to a close, it’s impossible not to look back on the past year…be thrilled with some decisions, regret others, and look to the new year as a completely clean slate. Most importantly, I find myself bubbling with anticipation for the New Year and new decade!

The Good:

The 2009 year started off with naïve excitement! As this was our first full year in the market, we viewed 2009 as our first chance to help get America off the devastating high carbohydrate and low protein diet that the USDA food pyramid recommends (see how obesity rates increased when low fat diets were endorsed). Shelved in select stores on the East and West Coasts and in the Midwest, consumers were able to purchase our yogurts in multiple locations. This only fueled our enthusiasm and energy for our first full year.

To support our launch, we executed various marketing programs, which yielded some great lessons. Two professional sports teams (the Chicago Blackhawks and the Cincinnati Bengals) brought Better Whey of Life Protein Yogurt into their locker rooms for the 2009 season. Both teams currently lead their respective divisions.

Most exciting in 2009 was the interest we received from large grocery chains across the country. We were validated that our mission and product concept was right on. With this interest; however, came reality…

The bad:

In discussions with these larger grocery chains, it became clear that in order to meet their thresholds, consumers needed to buy our yogurt at a higher frequency than they were. We took a hard look at our yogurt and knew we needed to make some changes before expanding. So, just like they say to do in the venture capitalist's bible, Getting to Plan B, we quickly began making changes to improve our yogurt. This was a difficult time. Not only did we postpone expanding to 700 new stores until we had an improved product, but in an effort to focus our resources in the right way, I pulled out of some resource intensive stores.

The Ugly:

Would I be an entrepreneur if I had the attitude that anything was ugly?!? No way!!! Let’s get back to the good!

Back To The Good: 2010 Plans!

We have been working tirelessly to improve the taste and nutrition of our plain yogurt flavor, and we will launch this improved product later in 2010. Our work was recognized in the Innovate Illinois competition. Innovate Illinois, funded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DECO), awarded a $30,000 grant to Tula Foods for our innovation. I can’t wait to share with you what we have in store! Stay tuned…we are living our brand and will bring you an even Better Whey in 2010!

How I Won With a 5-Minute Presentation

Yesterday, I competed in the second round of Innovate Illinois. This organization is giving $80,000 worth of grants to start-up companies. The first round was a written application, which narrowed the list of competing companies to five. They then held the second round, which was an oral competition. Each company had five minutes to present their company and two minutes to answer questions. And, guess what...we’ve made it to the third round!

Let me tell you why I think our company made it to the final round. I'm going to borrow some principles from the latest book I'm reading Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

Simplicity—With only five minutes, I decided not to use an overhead presentation. I practiced and whittled the presentation down to 5 minutes by highlighting only the most salient points.

Unexpected—It was completely unexpected that I didn't use an overhead presentation. Instead, I surprised, and delighted, the judges with physical props and fed them my product. Every other company just did the usual, ho-hum, overhead presentation.

Concreteness—Physical props help convey the concreteness of what you’re trying to sell or explain. By providing the judges with samples, they could touch, smell and taste. I would have lost these senses in an overhead presentation.

Believability— In business, be a name dropper! There is something to be said for Sinatra’s New York, New York song. "If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere". I dropped Whole Foods, the Chicago Blackhawks, my background from Kraft, and the list goes on....

Practice—Someone once told me "If you have 6 hours for a presentation, you can prepare for 6 minutes. If you have 6 minutes for a presentation, you need to prepare for 6 days!"

Wish me luck at the final competition!