Personal Impact

This happened back then and it still happens today where people would say to me you know as I run in and deliver product after they had run out of stock on product they'd say, "Gosh, your product is really great it's really helping lots of people." Lots of people are like, "Gosh, why wasn't this product around sooner?" And I thought, "You know, that is something that every founder, you know, everybody should want to hear about their product." That it's actually... I mean the word help... was actually helping with something. That for me I had never really heard in any other parts of my career. It was more like, "Oh your product, your service, is great you know... We love CNN... We love AOL..." But to hear the word "help" and hear the word you know, "You're changing something that has been really really hard for me around my health."

It was a very personal impact.

It's a very personal impact on people that I thought you know this really I have to keep going. THUY: So you, you grew it very organically, but was there a point where you just realized, "Oh my god, I have a big gap in experience here." How did you address that? KARA: Huge gap, I mean I remember talking to I mean one of our first stores was Whole Foods here in San Francisco and I thought, "Okay, I'm off to the races. I'm in Whole Foods!" And then they said not so fast... there's ten regions throughout the country. You have to go and get authorization from all of these regions. You have to, I remember the first time that we were at our first trade show and Whole Foods came by and one of the buyers said to me from another region, "Oh, do you, distribute your product through UNFI?" And I said -- which is a big natural foods distributor -- but I had no idea who they were -- and I said, "No but do you have their phone number? I mean I'd love to call them." And he said, "I have no idea..." and he said, "Are you through Sysco?" And I said, "Oh I've seen their trucks -- do you have a contact that I can contact?" And he said, "I have no idea..." and so that was really really hard. But for me it was so a big puzzle.

So then what did I do with that information? I went into stores and every time I saw somebody that look like they knew what they were doing and stocking shelves I'd say, "Do you, by any chance, have a contact at UNFI or Sysco?" And I just kept networking and keeping notes along the way, and usually they wouldn't give me the person that I was supposed to talk to, but I just kept calling and kept calling and you know, I heard many "NOs" along the way or, "I have no idea." But eventually I got it. I did it. And it was just really exciting. It was like I was uncovering information. You know maybe my journalism major, way back, you know I was like, "Yes! I figured it out." So it was really exciting.

So what's the biggest lesson from all that? Would you say persistence is key to leading and growing a company?

I think persistence, and I think the concept of there doesn't have to be a beginning and an end but instead a journey.