Late July Snacks: Nicole Bernard Dawes. Crackers and Cookies were Failing… Tortilla Chips Saved Them

Key takeaways

Building a successful food brand requires persistence, resilience, and the ability to pivot in response to market needs or crises.
Chance events and timing can significantly influence a business’s trajectory, sometimes in unexpected ways.
Strong product-market fit and quality taste are crucial for success in competitive categories like organic snacks and beverages.
Strategic investments can accelerate growth but also complicate control and future direction, so understanding contract terms is vital.
Personal and family commitments profoundly impact entrepreneurial journeys, and managing these relationships is as important as managing the business.

Summary

Introduction and Early Business Challenges

Nicole Bernard Dawes introduces her background, growing up in a family with a potato chip business and launching her own snack company, Late July Snacks, in 2003. She describes how initial sales were promising but then sharply declined as consumer interest in organic products was still developing. The episode explores the challenges of introducing healthy, organic snacks into a market dominated by conventional products.

The Birth of Late July and Initial Failures

Nicole details the launch of Late July, their early struggles, and the pivotal moment when her company was nearly destroyed due to an accident and financial difficulties, including a $3 million loan default. She recounts how an unfortunate car crash at the Cape Cod factory inadvertently helped save their business by drawing publicity and insurance money, illustrating how chance events can impact business trajectories.

Pivot to Organic Tortilla Chips and Scaling

Recognizing the slow growth of their original products, Nicole decided to pivot by launching organic tortilla chips, which became a hit product. She discusses the process of developing this product, gaining retail distribution, and how it rapidly propelled the company to over $100 million in sales. This section emphasizes the importance of timing, product-market fit, and persistence.

Business Growth, Investment, and Strategic Decisions

The episode covers key decisions around funding, including taking on strategic investors like Snyder’s Lance, and the complexities of ownership and control. Nicole reflects on the difficulties of managing a rapidly growing business, handling contractual negotiations, and the emotional toll of selling parts of the business or navigating mergers.

Leadership, Family, and Personal Reflections

Nicole shares her personal journey of leadership, including her efforts to keep the business aligned with her values, her experiences during her father's illness and passing, and her decision to move into new ventures like beverages. She discusses how her family background influenced her passion for healthy food and the lessons learned from success and adversity, including the importance of resilience.

Show notes

Nicole Bernard Dawes spent much of her childhood hanging out in her dad’s potato chip factory on Cape Cod.

She liked his kettle-cooked chips a lot more than the flavorless snacks in her mom’s health food store. But when she started her own business, she wanted the best of both worlds: a snack made with natural, organic ingredients…that still tasted good.

Nicole launched Late July Snacks in 2003, when most consumers barely knew what “organic” meant. For years, sales limped along. Then, in a moment of crisis, she made a company-saving pivot by launching a brand new product – organic tortilla chips. Within just a few years, Late July grew to over $100M in sales, and Nicole decided to launch a new brand in an even more challenging category: soda.

You Will Learn:

How growing up in a family business can help–and hurt–when you launch your own

The pros and cons of financial vs. strategic investors

When to cut a product that isn’t working

Why the fine print in a contract is so important

How the hardest decision might be the best one for your family and the business

Timestamps:
04:57 - The car crash that launched a potato chip company
18:53 - Pregnant and craving crackers: The birth of Late July Snacks
32:14 - The organic cookies that tasted great but nearly sunk the business
36:09 - Tragedy and crisis: a father’s death and a $3 million loan in default
45:51 - A tortilla chip Hail Mary
52:49 - Nicole’s first big sales call… and her last chance to save the company
1: 02:39 - “The big fish eats the small fish.” A food giant acquisition
1:07:26 - Nicole launches a new brand, moving from a hard category–to an even harder one

This episode was researched and produced by Chris Maccini with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant. Our engineer was Robert Rodriguez.

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