Becoming an Entrepreneur that Attracts Investors: Insights from a Harvard Grad Leading a Fast-Growing Startup

If you want to attract top investors, grow your business successfully and outcompete in tough markets, then today’s guest, Leslie Danford, Founder and CEO of Vitaminis, is a must-hear resource. With extensive business and marketing experience working with high-growth companies and an MBA from Harvard, Leslie has a wealth of invaluable knowledge to share.

In this episode, Leslie joins us to discuss how she launched her first Vitaminis product within a year of conceiving the idea - a rare feat in the highly-regulated food and beverage market. She reveals how she balanced product development and perfection and overcame numerous rejections to make Vitaminis a retail favorite.

What if you’re struggling to secure early-stage investors for your business? Join us to hear Leslie demystify the fundraising process and how you can become the entrepreneur investors want to support, even when your idea is still in its infancy.


In today's episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we cover:

●      How to become the kind of entrepreneur that investors want to support

●      Common fundraising misconceptions that can hinder startup success

●      The role of resilience and mental strength in entrepreneurial success

●      Strategies to get your product into a dream retail outlet and expand from there

●      The importance of networking with other founders and business owners

●      And so much more!

 

Tired of vitamin supplement pills or sugary vitamin products? Want tasty, sugar-free nutritious foods rich in vitamins? You'll love Vitaminis. Vitaminis is a nutritious juice-shot beverage rich in vitamins with minimal ingredients, no artificial ingredients, dyes, or sweeteners, and no added sugar.

Visit www.vitaminisbrand.com/pages/a-special-discount now for a chance to receive 12 FREE packs of Vitaminis and a special Vitaminis Tumbler. Sign up for the email newsletter to kickstart your health journey with a big win!


To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!

Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands totaling over $2 billion in revenues? Visit HarvestGrowth.com and set up a free consultation with us today!

Transcript

Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
What happens when you combine an education from a top MBA program, years of experience at large, high growth companies, and a scrappy mentality? Today's guest turned that combination into her own successful venture, and she shares actionable learnings to raise capital, get into retail, and grow your business.

Announcer [00:00:19]:
Are you looking for new ways to make your sales grow? You've tried other podcasts, but they don't seem to know harvest the growth potential of your product or service as we share stories and strategies that will make you, your competitors, nervous. Now here's the host of the Harvest Growth podcast, Jon LaClare.

Jon LaClare [00:00:39]:
Welcome back to the show. I'm really excited to have Leslie Danford on the show with us today. Now, she is the founder and CEO of Vitaminis, and she's going to talk more about what that product is. It's a really compelling product in the food and beverage space, and she's got quite a background where she's learned and brought a lot of those learnings into play in this new venture. She'll share some of those learnings that you can apply to your own businesses as well, but some really cool stories along the way. Now, this is a relatively new business. It was started back in 2020 and did not take very long to actually launch into the market, which is not easy to do for any listeners that are in the food and beverage space. It's difficult to get through regulations and find the right manufacturer and formulation and tasting everything that's involved.

Jon LaClare [00:01:20]:
And so we're gonna talk a little bit about how she was able to launch successfully, but also quickly and talk about, again, her background. Now, she has a great background working with large companies where she's been in the food and beverage space, as I mentioned. But she's also, I would call, a classically trained marketer outside of the experience itself, but also in education, coming with an MBA from Harvard University, not too shabby, as well as a BA from the University of Chicago, where we share, actually a degree from there. So that's where I got my business school degree. So we can chat a little bit about that, or certainly did before this call, have a little Chicago roots behind us. But Leslie, I want to first welcome you to the show and thank you for taking the time today.

Leslie Danford [00:02:00]:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Jon LaClare [00:02:03]:
Let's start off first, if you could explain what are, what is vitamin es and explain how you came up with the idea.

Leslie Danford [00:02:10]:
Yes. So vitamin e, my overall vision is a clean label, functional food and beverage brand, delivering great nutrition without all the trade offs in tasty little bites and sips. But our first two products are these two juice shots. So they no strong flavors. So these are not like ginger, pepper, turmeric shots. They're shelf stable. This one is orange pineapple juice with vitamin c, zinc, and magnesium for your immune system. And this one is a berry banana juice with probiotics and fiber for your gut.

Leslie Danford [00:02:37]:
So we have these two products. I'm working on a third shot. And then long term, I'm envisioning little bars, little bites, all whole food based, no added sugar, clean ingredients. So how I came up with it, I have always been a holistic health and wellness junkie. So I'm one of these people that really believes if you take care of your body, you put good nutrition in, you will have better health. Not just, like, not get sick, but just have more energy and vitality and all that. And at the same time, it can be really hard to get all your nutritional needs met through food alone, especially if you're busy, you've got kids, whatever. So I looked at supplements, and I've taken supplements, but I don't love them.

Leslie Danford [00:03:18]:
Like, pills make me nauseous, so I have to kind of make sure I don't have an empty stomach and all this stuff. And then gummy vitamins. Everyone's tried them, but they're so sugary. And then our dentist has actually started, like, warning us away. Like, there's a sign on the counter that says, like, do not take gummy vitamins regularly. So when during the pandemic, I was working in the hospitality industry, I got furloughed. So I was at home with my kids who school had shut down, and I was kind of thrown into, like, stay at home mom mode, honestly, because my husband was still working and we had no childcare. So I was back to, like, getting meals together, thinking about our health, making sure our nutritional needs were met because it was Covid.

Leslie Danford [00:03:56]:
I wanted to make sure everyone had their immune system strong. And I was reminded of how difficult it is to do all that without sugary gummies or, you know, we can't take pills, whatever. And I was like, where is that whole food based solution that has extra, extra nutrition added, but still, like, clean, whole food feel good about it? And I did not see anything like that. So that was where it started. And I also, while I was working in the beverage industry, you mentioned I have, like, a corporate background. All that time, I'd seen all this research come through about clean label, functional food and beverage nutrient density, you know, ready to drink and so I knew that was, like, a big thing. I knew I wasn't the only person who wanted that. And so that's kind of where it started.

Jon LaClare [00:04:44]:
Let's talk about clean label for the benefit of our audience. What does that mean when you say it's a clean label, functional food?

Leslie Danford [00:04:50]:
That's a great question because I think it's very subjective. I'll tell you what it means to me. To me, it's no added sugar. Like, I don't care what your product has in it, but if you're adding a ton of sugar, you are not clean label in my book. And then my other thing I say is, no mystery ingredients. Like, I want to be able to read what's in it and know exactly what every single thing is. And if there's a bunch of, like, monosodium glutamate type of stuff, no offense to MSG company out there, but that kind of thing, I just. It's suspicious.

Leslie Danford [00:05:18]:
It's not clean.

Jon LaClare [00:05:20]:
Yeah. And I think I've got a bottle in front of me here, and it does. I will, for the sake of the audience. It is delicious. And it's, you can tell it's very different from, you know, something that's, I would say a pure vitamin. Right. You've got the natural or whole foods in here that make the difference in the ingredients. I can pronounce everything.

Jon LaClare [00:05:35]:
I know what everything is on the label that makes such a difference. And, you know, you're consuming something healthy by the taste of it, but also by looking at the ingredient label as well.

Leslie Danford [00:05:43]:
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. This one that you're looking at is only seven ingredients and water. It's so simple, but it's like juice and vitamins, so it's like a digestible, easy way to get that nutritional need meth.

Jon LaClare [00:05:55]:
I had mentioned in your intro that your speed to market was very fast. So less than two years from initial concept until launch. Now, some products that might be slow, for some, it's hard to launch a product. But as I mentioned in the food and beverage space, the hurdles you have to go through to come up with a product, make it good, make it work, and find the manufacturer all the stuff that's involved in that, that's very fast to run from start to finish until you're launched in market. How did you do it? What were some of your secrets to getting the product launched successfully so quickly?

Leslie Danford [00:06:26]:
Yeah, it's funny because it didn't feel quick and. But now that I think about it, I think from concept to actual first sale, was less than one year. And then within about two years, we gotten into retail. So, you know, I have a couple thoughts on this. One is I think sometimes what can take up a lot of time is like seeking perfection and second guessing everything and wanting to like, eliminate every risk before you actually get moving. And that is like the antithesis to getting the thing out the door. So I do think, and it's hard, and I'm not saying I completely mastered this, but you do always strike this balance between, like good enough and going. So it's like progress versus perfection.

Leslie Danford [00:07:16]:
The first product that I launched within that less than a year, a couple things going on. First of all, I found out I was pregnant after I had the idea. So that kind of set a timeline on me. I was like, I want to get this product out the door before I have this baby, just to take some pressure off. But the first product that I launched has changed. Almost everything about it has changed since I launched it. I did not launch a perfect product, but it got it out in the marketplace. I got that feedback and just go from there.

Leslie Danford [00:07:46]:
And I'm still on that journey. But we've changed since that first product. We changed the packaging, we've changed the formula based on feedback we got about the taste, we changed our audience that we were speaking to since then. So that first product was quick to market, but it was like those of you from a business background, that kind of idea of a minimum viable product, which is usually a tech term, you can think about that with CPG products, too. Is it good enough? Will someone buy it? And then you can always improve on it from there.

Jon LaClare [00:08:15]:
Yeah. Well said. I love the way you phrase that of progress versus perfection. Cause we talk a lot on this show, specifically about how much more you can learn by actually doing even a small test launch, by being out there in the real marketplace, not just doing market research. That's very important to do in the upfront stages to get some market research, some direction, et cetera. But you'll never learn as much as you will when you actually launch, when you actually are working directly with your customers and you can tweak and improve and progress, as you mentioned, to really perfect along the way. So perfection is an end goal, not a requirement, before you start. So I love that I wrote that down.

Jon LaClare [00:08:50]:
I'm going to start using that phrase, if you don't mind. Progress versus perfection. Great way to say it. So when you got started, another hurdle that a lot of inventors and entrepreneurs hit in the early stages of business is capital. So early exceed capital to really help a business get off the ground if you don't have the funding yourself. Can you speak to a little bit on how you worked with angel investors in the early stages to help really grow this business from day one?

Leslie Danford [00:09:15]:
Yeah, it's a process. So a couple things. One is I had the benefit of starting this business a little bit later in my career, so I had more than 15 years of business experience before I started this. So that's different from somebody who just graduated college. I did have some money that I could spend on it from all that time working in other environments, but that doesn't really change the math. Right, because you don't want to take your life savings and just throw it at something either. I think the real key in the very beginning is starting with very small incremental steps. Some of the initial research I did was completely free, aside from my time.

Leslie Danford [00:09:56]:
And then the first dollar I spent on vitamin E, I hired a food scientist to help me come up with a formulation, and it was a project fee. So it was a, you know, one single dollar amount, and it wasn't nothing, but it was small enough that it could easily be scraped together by almost anyone. And if it was lost, it wasn't going to kill me. So I think that works if you're bootstrapping with your own money, but it also works if you're seeking angel investment in those early stages, because it's a lot easier to approach somebody for a small amount with a very concrete use of it, like, hey, I need x. Hire a food scientist to work on a formula. And here's what we're going to get out of it. We're going to get samples, we're going to be able to taste the product, see if it's feasible, whatever. That's so much easier than going out and saying, hey, I need $500,000.

Leslie Danford [00:10:47]:
You know what I mean? So I think that's a really, a big tip. I guess I would share for either scenario is just think very incrementally, because each little spend will yield data, it will yield some traction, some information, which makes it a whole lot easier to get that next little bit. And that's kind of how the process has gone from that first check that I wrote myself to where we needed angel investment. It was the same thing. It's like, get that first amount. Exactly what is it for? And then see where that takes you, and then get that next amount. Because I think sometimes when people read articles about fundraising, or you think about fundraising, they're picturing like those big, splashy press releases where you get millions of dollars and you just go nuts. That's not how it is, how it's been for me, but that's fine.

Leslie Danford [00:11:34]:
It still works. So I would say that's one thing. And then the other thing is, you know, what? If your business is successful and big and making tons of money and it's everywhere, everyone's going to want to invest in it. But when it's just an idea and it's small and it's unproven and it's risky, people are investing in you, like as a person. And when I first someone said that to me and when I first heard that, I thought that meant like, they're investing because they know you're smart or they know you have worked in this area. That's actually not what they're investing in. They're investing in you. Do you have the grit and determination and passion about this thing and some experience, but honestly, it's more grit and determination than it is experience in the early days to figure it out.

Leslie Danford [00:12:23]:
And if you get knocked down ten times or you hear no, 25 times, are you going to get up the next day and try again? That's what they, that's what they're looking for because that's what's going to make it. You succeed. So think about your angel investors that way. It's not like the rich guy that you've never met or whatever. It's like maybe your uncle who knows you really well and they've seen how determined you are playing sports or something. Or maybe it's your school classmate from like 15 years ago that has seen how hard you've worked and knows you personally and believes in you. Those are going to be your first checks. And it's the same incremental thing.

Leslie Danford [00:13:03]:
Once those first checks get you to that next milestone, well, then that stranger might be interested. But the first ones are going to be that really close circle that really believes in you personally.

Jon LaClare [00:13:14]:
Great advice. I want to touch on a couple things you mentioned in the very beginning. It is about you. As you said, that's why relationships, we always talk about friends and family often being involved in these early rounds because they are people that know you or at least have maybe through somebody else, a connection to you as opposed to just money that's out there. And then as your business grows. You said this, but I just want to clarify. Then it becomes about results, right? So now that you've got a business that is successful and growing, it becomes much easier to bring in funding that could even be debt financing. Right.

Jon LaClare [00:13:43]:
So loans, et cetera, which is low risk once you've got really a proven source or bring in equity investors. But the process really changed. And I want to talk about, too, again, that word progress that you use because I think it's important. I think you alluded to this, but again, I just want to clarify that as we bring in investors for these little stages in the beginning, it's important that they, again, I know you know this, but for our audience sake, that they understand where they are in the journey, right? That they understand that they're, whatever, call it a small investment because it's small compared to what's going to be needed eventually, whatever dollar amount that is, that it is a piece of the puzzle, right? That it's going to start that process. And if they understand, okay, this is just to get the formulation done or just to get market research or just manufacturing, that they understand that there's, okay, when I hit that milestone, that's progress. And you can show that investor that you've got progress along the way because a lot of times, I'm sure you've seen this, too. When you have an investor upfront that does a small amount and you show progress along the way, successes, then you can get more money from them. Or they may know other people as well.

Jon LaClare [00:14:46]:
But it's so important to communicate with your investors, especially in those early days, so they know how they're involved, what stage they're at, and really understand expectations. So. Yeah. Well said. Let's talk about manufacturing a little bit, because I know you mentioned you've gotten into some hurdles, some challenges along the way, I guess. How did you turn those hurdles or overcome them and get to the other side, which is success for the business.

Leslie Danford [00:15:11]:
I don't have a secret answer for that because it just varies. But someone once said to me, at any given time in your startup, you're either going to have lot of hope and optimism or money or both. And if you don't have either, you're done. Because if you don't have any money, but you got a lot of hope and optimism, you could go out and find the money, you know, or maybe there's a day or you don't really have a lot of hope and optimism, but you still have money, so you're still gonna, like, keep running the business for another day and you can keep going. I really think that's true because, you know, there have been times where I've been told no, you know, maybe like ten times. And I'm literally sitting here like, what do I do next? Because, you know, no one's. There's no playbook, there's no one. You don't have a boss to tell you.

Leslie Danford [00:16:00]:
You just have to wake up every day and think of something to do to move things forward. And that can be really tough when you've had a bunch of different avenues that you thought you were going to go down, have not yielded. And so on those days, you just get up. I mean, I have, like, one particular story I like to tell. I've been trying to get into retail for a couple of months, and I did all the online applications. I networked with all the people I knew at these retailers. I did all the things, sent out all the samples, and every single one of them said, come back when you have actual retail data. So basically, no one wanted to be first.

Leslie Danford [00:16:34]:
So I was like, well, what do I do? You know, I've been trying to get in somewhere, and if no one will take me first, what do I do? So I literally just got into my car, honestly, because I couldn't think of anything to do. So I was like, I gotta get out of here. So I jumped in the car, and I started driving around to retail stores, just thinking, like, I'll check out what's out here, whatever. And one of the stores near my house is part of a chain that had just turned me down. Not only turned down my application headquarters, but also had turned me down when I tried to network in. The guy was like, listen, you're great, but I can't go around the system. So I went to the local one, and I asked for the manager. I started talking to him.

Leslie Danford [00:17:13]:
He's like, oh, this is interesting, or whatever. And he didn't make any promises, but, you know, he seemed vaguely interested. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna go back again. So I went back to that store, I want to say, six or seven times. Oh, you know, gonna do my grocery shopping. Oh, what a coincidence. There you are again. Hey, you know, have you thought about that product? And after six or seven times, this manager finally was like, okay, we can give it a try in our store.

Leslie Danford [00:17:36]:
And so as soon as he said that, I was like, I gotta make this thing successful, so that I was sampling and making sure the product was moving. And when he saw that it was moving, I said, hey, would you be willing to recommend this to your local peers, like a handful of the other managers in the area that, you know, he said, sure. So he sent a message saying, hey, there's this new product, it's local, it's doing pretty well. And of course, nobody took that email and just ran with it, right? So then I had to go follow up with all those guys a bunch of times. But what ended up happening is I eventually got into those handful. I think it was ten stores. And after about a month of me, like, hustling around, sampling and driving progress, the headquarters location reached out to me proactively. And they were like, hey, I pulled a report and I saw vitamin E was really moving and I remember that you had applied.

Leslie Danford [00:18:24]:
I was like, yeah, you turned me down. But it was that data that kind of, like, caught their eye. And I love that story because it just demonstrates how many times you can be turned down and still works out, because sometimes you get turned down and you think like, oh, that means my product isn't good. No, it might just mean busy or like they just didn't receive the email or whatever, who knows? So that, like, follow up, it can be really helpful. And I also think it's a great story because I literally got in my car only because I had no, I had no idea what to do. And I was like, I gotta get out of my house, because there's nothing, it wasn't like, oh, they accepted me and I'm launching now and everything's great. So I think that that is like, that story kind of covers like, what I've been through on a lot of fronts. Fundraising, trying to get into retail, trying to convince anyone of anything.

Leslie Danford [00:19:17]:
You know, it's like you might get turned on a whole bunch of times, but if you can get that little toehold to just show that it works. And on that note too, I also don't want people to hear this and think like, oh, well, it just got in and it just worked. No, I mean, I had to, like, go in there and make it like, push it like it's going, but it worked.

Jon LaClare [00:19:41]:
It comes back to that same word we keep talking about, which is progress. You have to show the retailers a little bit of progress too. It's so risky for them to take on. They've got limited shelf space, they're not going to grow their stores. So to bring you in, they got to kick somebody else out to fit on the shelf, and they want to see some sort of proof of concept or proof of success along the way. So a little bit of progress either could be a competitive store. Once you get into one chain, it's easier to get the others right. Once you get into one store, you can grow to eventually get into all of them, and it's showing progress along the way.

Jon LaClare [00:20:10]:
That's a great story, I think. Great example for really all of us to listen from and find follow. Are there less?

Leslie Danford [00:20:18]:
Before I move on, the retailers definitely have Fomo, right? So, like, if you. If you're like, oh, we've been selling really well at this other source, I think that, like, part of me wondered if that was, like, not good to let them know that they're competitor. And there are some retailers that, like, for example, if you're, I've heard if you're in, like, a big national chain, some of these local places don't want you, but the reality is, like, they all want the hot new product, and so you gotta work that. Absolutely. And you can use your local store, like, maybe your local store where you do your grocery shopping. Maybe it's a mom and pop single location. But if you can get your product in there and get it moving and produce some data, you can take that around to people.

Jon LaClare [00:20:57]:
Love it. Love it. Leslie, are there any resources that you would recommend that have been helpful for you and your journey?

Leslie Danford [00:21:03]:
Yes. So I mentioned this before we started recording, but there's a wonderful group that I am very involved in that I've used a lot in a lot of different ways, called startup CPG, and it is specific to consumer product companies. CPG, consumer packaged goods. Starting a consumer brand is a very specific type of startup versus, like, you know, a tech platform or something like that. But this group has 20,000 members in a slack channel, and you can just throw your questions out there. Has anyone ever dealt with this problem? Does anyone know anyone who does this kind of work? And that's been amazing along those lines. I definitely get a lot of value out of these networking groups, and I do. Sometimes it feels like I don't have time to join a weekly Zoom call and just chit chat.

Leslie Danford [00:21:49]:
But the reality is you come away from those calls with connections answers. Maybe it's a call where you're giving help, but on the next call you're getting help. And those relationships can be really, really valuable, especially as a solo founder. When you're kind of, like, navigating everything on your own, it's like your coworkers. So those are great resources that I recommend people take advantage of.

Jon LaClare [00:22:11]:
That's great advice. Was there anything I didn't ask you that you think could be helpful for our audience?

Leslie Danford [00:22:17]:
You know, we touched on it a little bit, but I think that just knowing that this entrepreneurial path is challenging, not just because it's a lot of hard work, which I thought originally being a startup founder was going to be challenging because it's hard work. And I was like, I can work hard. That's not the challenging part. It's like the mental part of like, you don't know what's going to happen. There's no guarantees. No one is giving you all the affirmations you want. You're sort of like feeling around in the darkest, just knowing that that's kind of normal. I had a conversation with someone probably in the first year of vitamin E where I was just really struggling with the whole thing.

Leslie Danford [00:22:56]:
I didn't get the traction yet, I hadn't gotten the data yet, and I wasn't getting a lot of positive feedback at that particular time. And this person said that to me and it changed my perspective so much because I thought maybe I wasn't getting traction because my product wasn't good or my idea wasn't good. And that's really not it, because it takes time to build your traction up. And not only that, but you can always tweak your product. You can tweak your formula, your package, your audience, your messaging, you can tweak anything about your product. And there's so many great stories about some name brand companies that you've heard of that started out as a completely different company. So I think kind of knowing that when you're having those moments of like nothing's working, just knowing that's part of the process, and if you can just keep going and find that new angle or that pivot or take that learning and do something with it, you will eventually make it very true.

Jon LaClare [00:23:51]:
Great advice. This has been a really fun interview. I do want to encourage our audience. Please visit Leslie's website which is vitaminisbrand.com. the URL is in our show notes, also in our show notes or below this video if you're watching it on YouTube, or look on our website, harvestgrowth podcast.com, there's a URL where you can go to and enter your email address for a chance to win a bundle valued at $70. Leslie, what's included in that bundle?

Leslie Danford [00:24:18]:
Yes. Please drop your email and we will choose a winner to start. With this bundle you can get a twelve pack of either our immune support product or our gut health product, and a shaker tumbler for mixing your juices and smoothies and kickstart your health journey. So please join our email and we've got great email content. We have recipes, expert interviews, educational topics about your gut and your immune system. Stuff that will blow your mind about how these things impact your mental health and all sorts of stuff. So yeah, join our email list. It's great.

Jon LaClare [00:24:51]:
I also want to say, did you know you can meet with a member of my team absolutely free for a 30 minutes strategy consultation? We've launched and grown hundreds of products since 2007 and learned some of our strategies while growing Oxiclean back in the billy Mays days. We're here to help, so please go to harvestgrowth.com and set up a call if you'd like to discuss further.