Late July Snacks: Nicole Bernard Dawes. Crackers and Cookies were Failing… Tortilla Chips Saved Them — How I Built This with Guy Raz

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:

07:22 - The car crash that launched a potato chip company

21:00 - Pregnant and craving crackers: The birth of Late July Snacks

36:54 - The organic cookies that tasted great but nearly sunk the business

40:49 - Tragedy and crisis: a father’s death and a $3 million loan in default

50:31 - A tortilla chip Hail Mary

57:29 - Nicole’s first big sales call… and her last chance to save the company

1:08:49 - “The big fish eats the small fish.” A food giant acquisition

1:13:36 - 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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