A founder series highlighting the reality of entrepreneurship, capital, and growth.
1) Out of all of the products out there, why good-for-you cookie dough?
It started (as it always does) with a personal problem. During the pandemic, I was taking fist fulls of supplements and eventually got pill fatigue. Heartburn, stomach aches, and throat pain led made me want a better (and more delicious) vehicle to get my daily "boosts.” Not to mention, I am a dessert fiend and *love* nostalgic junk food. Cookie dough hasn’t been disrupted in years, and our target consumer, Gen Z and Millennial women, stopped buying Nestle Tollhouse and Pillsbury 10 years ago. They had moved on to sexier, plant-based, clean snacks & sweets. I wanted to bring this consumer back into a sleepy, old school category in a really fun & disruptive way.
2) If you could offer one sentence of advice to entrepreneurs seeking capital, what would it be?
Test your product before pitching it. And I mean actually sell it, collect feedback, iterate, and then & only then fundraise. Gone are the days you can raise millions of dollars on a deck alone, unless you’re a Founder who has exited, or have some sort of unfair advantage. The reason we were able to raise $1 million in one week is because DEUX already had traction and proof points that people were obsessed with and needed this product & brand. I had to put my money where my mouth was and invest a bit into testing & ensuring traction, but it made my road a hell of a lot easier.
3) Entrepreneurship. Two roses and a thorn. Go!
Rose - It doesn’t feel like work. There is no such thing as work-life balance to me because I want to work on it all the time, and I am excited and passionate to work on DEUX every waking moment. Once you get past the product/market fit phase, you get to work with fun people (that you choose) on something you could talk about all day.
Rose - Entrepreneurship is a wild ride. It has high highs and low lows and you work on several different workstreams throughout the span of a day. If you enjoy variety (and honestly have a bit of ADD), that aspect is really gratifying. And you’re able to work with such diverse thinkers throughout it all.
Thorn - It is a really emotional and mentally taxing journey. Be prepared for friends & family to not understand and other Founders to become your pseudo-therapists and celebrate (and commiserate) together.
4) What do you think is your greatest differentiating factor as a founder?
I have an insane gut instinct. In consumer products, that is rare but a killer characteristic, and it can’t be taught. This was the first piece of feedback I ever received in my career - that I have a consumer intuition that is hard to find - and it has stuck with me since. It’s the reason I can sell anything, connect with people on a deep level, and intuitively know what products and marketing tactics will work (most of the time ;)).
5) In 5 years, how will the world look different because DEUX exists?
DEUX is a new age CPG conglomerate. We launched with cookie dough, expanded to DRIP, our healthy “nutella,” and will launch into snacking products in 2022. We will own full product lines of healthier, functional, and delicious options of our favorite snacks we loved as 90s kids. We’ll remove refined sugar, preservatives and animal byproducts from diets, and replace those ingredients with functional superfood ingredients that make Americans feel great about what they are putting into their bodies.
About DEUX
DEUX is functional foods brand that believes good-for-you should taste good. DEUX launched with a line of enhanced cookie doughs that caught fire selling nationwide online, with IG influencers, and on TikTok. All DEUX products are vegan, gluten-free, and enhanced with functional ingredients to give a mood boost, collagen boost, or immune boost. DEUX recently launched a new line of products under the DRIP umbrella - a healthy (and more delicious) version of "nutella."
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