From Spice Cabinet to Kickstarter Success
Have you ever had freeze-dried powdered broccoli?
Sounds a bit out there, but I have — and it is delicious. And, it is all thanks to a colleague of mine Anna Wood.
We met during our time at Cambridge, and since knowing her only a year ago, she has created a nutrition revolution.
Anna is one of the best examples I have of an entrepreneur who not only went out and created a brand that solves a true consumer and planet problem but also embraced the process of uncertainty and ambiguity with an entrepreneurial mindset.
I was lucky enough to interview her for my podcast, Everyday Entrepreneurship and wanted to share some of the highlights with you.
K: Anna, tell us a bit about your entrepreneurship journey and why you decided to start a nutrition brand?
A: So having grown up on a farm, I really care deeply about the relationship between humans and the food ecosystem. I’m aware of a lot of the problems, but also through personal experiences I have saw all seen the impact of food on health and how foods can be medicine.
So a mixture of all of these things led me to open the kitchen cupboard one day, look at my herbs and spices rack and think how is this not changed in over 10 years?
And long story short, that’s led me to where I am today with Jux Food.
K: So then how did it feel to go from originally started in the music industry, to an MBA which are both, you know, more traditional paths to paving your way to an entrepreneur?
A: So the music industry, I loved working in the music industry, it was great. But I really felt like it was the time to move on. So in terms of the skills that get gave me, I was working internationally. I was driving global teams to drive global revenue, sothat experience was great.
It was also really important in learning the importance of brand building and understanding your customer through that or your fan base in the context in the music industry.
But like a lot of people in COVID, I did a lot of soul searching during lockdown, and had a conversation with a friend who was doing an MBA.
And it just made perfect sense as the next pathway for me. So I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to study at Cambridge, and it was eye opening for a number of reasons.
I think not only the confidence that I mentioned, but also meeting other entrepreneurs like yourself and realizing you know, there’s no perfect time, you’ve got to do this now if you want to do it.
And the MBA was great because it allowed you kind of some time outside the context of a workplace where you’re under certain deadlines to be able to use the resource of your fellow students there and the resources to really delve into it. So I started doing some research alongside my studies and then as of September have been working on Jux full time.
K: But then how did you go from looking in your spice cupboard being like nothing has changed, I would say in like 100 years to getting your hands dirty with your first prototype? What was that step looking like?
A: So as you probably would expect, it was less of a step and more of 1000 steps in the wrong direction, or one step in every 10 being in the right direction.
Really, it was a process of I don’t like to say making mistakes, but more making lessons.
Actually, when I first had the idea, I then tried to go straight into fundraising, and quickly realised it’s not a SaaS or B2B software, but a consumer brand. So in this space, you need sales, otherwise, no one’s gonna give you their money, which is totally fair enough.
Then, I pivoted and decided to go completely the opposite, opposite direction, which was a DIY route. And really, that’s been incredibly fruitful for a number of reasons.
K: How did the DIY Route go?
A: So last November, I was in my kitchen, I did a food safety standard course.
And I would put on my hairnet and my white apron, etc, and literally making the products at home and then went to local food markets.
It was a fantastic exercise, and definitely anyone in the consumer goods sector!
I would advise you do that before you do anything else.
K: How was it putting yourself out there? You know, what kind of steps did you have to take to get your mindset right? To really just put yourself out there put your product out there for the world?
A: It’s a great question. I am I think I’m so busy that I often don’t…I don’t know how to say this without it coming across the wrong way. But often don’t think about it too much. So just do it. Don’t spend too much time thinking or overthinking. Just learn by doing.
For myself, it was it was quite intimidating. The first few months when I turned up to a market I thought, oh my god, what am I doing here?
My first market, I was I was next to the RSPB, which is a Bird Protection Agency and a stand selling moss, which is great, but I thought I’ve just wasted my time because I’m not going to hit the customers I thought I was going to hit.
But I was wrong. Luckily, it was a huge success. And we were the busiest stand there that weekend.
K: I have sold in markets and understand the awkwardness of just you, your business in a stand. It is vulnerability as a founder that allows you for great insight. How did you go about the market experience?
A: But really, I went about the process, not trying to sell but just trying to talk to people and understand how they are and who they cook.
And I remember that moment of sheer joy, where I made my very first sale to a lovely lady called Karen, who I think was extremely overwhelmed because I hugged her and I wanted a picture with her.
But I think it really made her day.
K: So what made you kind of transition from selling local selling two markets to basically the big league of Kickstarter, international giant crowdfunding site that it is? What were the what was the thought process behind that?
I guess two things really, number one was I had a very limited or have a very limited amount of resource. It was purely a case of using that resource wisely to get to the next stage.
So, Kickstarter is a part of that process. But also, I’m building a brand here.
And there’s a story to tell. And something I really found from the markets is people aren’t just interested in the product at all, they really care about what we’re trying to do, and who are the people and who are the team behind the brand.
Kickstarter felt like a great home for that, because I could tell my story, and I could be really authentic and honest about the story of the business and where we are and what we’re trying to do. And as a result, it’s been fantastic because I’ve reached new people, not just in the UK.
And, it’s been great for me to understand how I can also reach people in the online space, because at a food market and online are two very different realms. Very, very different.
K:So then what is next for you and Jux Food?
A: You know, the total ambition or the end goal is world domination.
But to that in the short term, we will be launching our retail campaign soon. We are working on our retail and relationships.
So you’ll see us hopefully in stores and shops across the UK.
But also we want to iterate really quickly. So we have our starting list of herbs, spices and vegetables. We want to be launching more products as soon as we can. We’re also working on some really exciting packaging innovations and background. Because we don’t want to just transform how people cook.
We also want to transform everything around that: how people store food in their kitchen, how they can access food in their kitchen, and really how to make it much, much easier for people to eat a healthy, sustainable and delicious diet.
If you want to listen to the whole interview, check out Episode 3 of the Everyday Entrepreneurship Podcast wherever you listen.
