#5 - The "Only" Three Things You Need
(And a bonus 4th: "Delaware, shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?")
Ok, picture the scene: Pegi and I have had the big idea. We’ve got names locked in for both brand (Noshi) and product (Food Paint), trademark applications submitted for names and logo, a New York LLC formed and a bank account opened. We know what the colors are going to be and we know what the flavors are going to be. The only thing we’re missing (that we’re aware of, at least) is packaging.
Hold on, hold on: there’s a mistake in the above paragraph - can you spot it?
That’s right: we formed a New York LLC when we should have formed a Delaware LLC. I didn’t know you could do this if you weren’t physically based in Delaware but you can. And you should. Why? Well - Delaware, shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day? Ok:
That got your attention, right? You need to do the research and make the decision that’s right for you, but there’s a reason Delaware holds a warm place in the otherwise cold hearts of America’s business titans. I don’t need to list all the other reasons here - You can Google them - because the above is the only one that matters right now (and honestly, compared to the other reasons, it’s the sexiest too. I know, right?)
Ok, back to the story. Packaging. I’d been contacting pouch companies because we couldn’t find tubes anywhere, and the previously-mentioned Sara worked for one of these pouch companies (Pouchy McPouches, remember?) I’d emailed her because every other company had a standard ‘contact us’ form apart from this one, where Sara’s email was listed. Actually there were two email addresses listed, hers and some guy’s, but if either of them was going to understand Noshi, I reasoned it would be Sara because of the two of them, the guy was less likely to be a mom - so I sent her a quick note spelling out what we were trying to do. She responded, laughed at the tiny number of pouches I was trying to order and offered to come on board in her capacity as a freelance startup advisor.
She then immediately gave away the farm by revealing the three things that were essential to turn our idea into reality. But crucially (for her at least), I didn’t know that I could - and probably should - have parted ways with her after that (why “should”? I’ll tell you in a bit).
So here it is, the big reveal. The three things that you, the founder of This Shit Is Amazing LLC (Delaware) and creator of The Next Big Thing In Food And Beverage, need to know. Once you have this list, you can stop reading my gripping narrative and go off and form your own: just cancel your CPG WTF subscription and wave goodbye. I wish you all the luck in the world.
Actually, don’t do that. I’m just getting started and you’ll really benefit from getting regular reminders that some people - me - were once even worse at this than you are.
But back to The Big Three Things. Ok, ready? I guarantee you’re going to be underwhelmed to a quite startling degree, but this is big news. HUGE, in fact.
A Co-Packer - where you get your stuff made and packed (affordably)
A Food Scientist - to make sure your stuff is safe, legal and the best it can be
A Packaging Designer - to make your stuff look amazing on the shelf
That’s it. That’s all you need. If you’re brave and have those three contacts in your phone and they understand what you’re trying to do and the co-packer has the right machinery for your product, you’re good to go.
(and if you don’t have them, we should talk)
Sara then started to break down the estimated cost of everything we were going to need to do next and the numbers were… something. I’m British and we swear, like, a lot, but when those numbers started popping up in my inbox, I swore, like, a LOT. The swears were long and drawn out and mostly under my breath (because I was also a stay at home parent, remember?) but they were plentiful and varied.
So we put a kickstarter online. Look, here it is:
My current internal monologue: “I don’t remember creating that camo print but it’s pretty cool. Very Bape. I might get it printed on a t shirt. Or t shirts plural. And sell th… Tomo, STOP!” This is the curse of the entrepreneur’s mind - too many ideas. You have to slow down, focus and not get distracted by shiny objects. Or t shirts.
We were looking to raise $20,000. I look at that number now and compare it to the amount we’ve spent since then and honestly, I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or howl at the moon. But that’s a story for another day.
The wheels creaked into motion. First, we got our very first press coverage via a friend of Pegi’s kids (you may notice that the pouches are different colors, unlike the silver sample pictured above. That’s because I spray-painted them - health and safety FTW!)
And then, three days after the Kickstarter went live, we got an email from… Shark Tank.
WTF??