Key Topics
- Veestro’s Origin Story
- Getting into Business with Your Family
- Building a Business from Scratch
- Influencer Marketing
Key Answers
What is it like to run a family business?
Ultimately, he knows I have his back, and he’s got my back. It really doesn’t matter what’s happening and how mad we are at each other, the strength behind the loyalty is just always there, it’s built in. Now, how we solve conflict, that’s been an interesting journey for both of us. Because when we started the company, it was him and me and the chef, that was it. As the business has gotten bigger, now we have a full office and a lot of employees, we’ve had to sort of relearn how to manage conflict. But it has also gotten easier because as we’ve developed the business and he has seen how I manage “my dish,” and I have seen how he manages “his dish,” we disagree on things, but we are more likely to defer to the other when it comes to decisions that have to do with what I do versus what he does. We can still disagree, but ultimately the one who runs the department is the one who has the last word.
How has social media played into acquiring new customers?
Because we’re an e-commerce business and you can only find us online, the internet has literally been it. And social media has been an incredible tool for us because when you’re a brand new business and there’s so much clutter out there, how do you differentiate yourself and how do you get out there? So we started with the most basic social media. We reached out to all of our friends and family and encouraged them to put it out to their friends, and we started getting a little bit of a following, but because we reached out to vegan bloggers who had a strong following, we had a very loyal core of first-round customers…In the beginning, we really focused on the low-hanging fruit. These bloggers were amazing. I have great relationships with all of them because they’ve been with us from the beginning.
Key Sound Bites
-We have to change the way we eat so that we can live on this planet longer.
-We’ve really benefited from the way the market has matured. Plant-based isn’t that scary, foreign, weird, yucky thing that people thought of when people thought of vegan five years ago.
-One of the best things about working with influencers is that we’ve been able to convey how delicious our food is. It’s a big perception change.
Resources