 As I mentioned, like after George Floyd was murdered, there was just so much inbound coming our way that it really helped solve that problem. And so the problem that it created for us was I started to wrestle with a lot of guilt because our business was actually in a really good place. And so why, you know, there's so many people hurting in our country, such an unfortunate circumstance with his death and the death of so many other black people in our country. And just like this long overdue conversation about systemic racism, like why was our business benefiting from that? And so we really turned that on its head and channeled that into like how can we do more good with the good that's coming our way. This is Startup to Storefront, the podcast where we inspire entrepreneurship through truth. Today's guest is Denise Woodard, founder of Partake Foods. When her daughter was diagnosed with severe food allergies, Denise struggled with finding snacks she could safely feed her. So she set out to create some herself, but it wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Her initial attempts were met with responses of this is awful from her daughter. And this is where it's important to note that Denise was able to bypass so many hurdles that plague entrepreneurs as they grow. Denise recognized her own limitations and instead of laboring for a lengthy amount of time, perfecting a recipe, she hired a food scientist. By delegating this task, she freed herself up to focus on getting Partake off the ground and running. Partake is now a nationwide brand with venture capital funding from big names like Rihanna and Jay-Z. So listen in as we cover everything from how tough it was to get allergic customers to build up enough trust in the brand before they'd even try it. Why frozen is the new fresh and why at times she feels like she's flying the plane as she's building it. Hang on, hang on. If you're not subscribed, can you go ahead and do that right now before we get on with the video? Helps us out tremendously. That's all we ask and we're back. Welcome to the podcast. Everyone on today's show, we're talking to Denise, the CEO and founder of Partake Foods. Thanks so much for joining. Please tell everyone a little bit about what your company does and what you're working on. Sure thing. Thank you for having me. Partake Foods is a line of delicious nutritious allergy friendly snacks that was inspired by my daughter's experience with food allergies. Currently we make cookies and just launched a line of baking mixes. You said something about your daughter. What made you wanna start the company? Were you always into food or was this something that you found a problem that affected you and your family and that just drove you to solving something? Definitely more of a second. I've always had an entrepreneurial nature. I always had a side hustle but my real gig was working at Coca-Cola. I spent nearly a decade there and prior to launching Partake I worked in their Venturing and Emerging Brands Division where I had the chance to work on brands that Coke had either invested in or acquired. And that gave me the confidence when my family faced a personal issue that we couldn't find a solution to to leave that career and start Partake. My daughter Vivian turned six on Monday but right around her first birthday we learned that she's allergic to most tree nuts and eggs and corn and bananas. And it was really challenging to find foods and particularly on-the-go snacks that she could eat safely that tasted good and had ingredients that I felt good about. And then most of all that were from cool brands. I think often people with dietary restrictions and food allergies experience isolation and anxiety and really negative feelings around food because they're not able to share confidently in social settings that involve food which is nearly everything it seems. So I wanna ask you this. We have some founders on that have come on that have come from a similar background where they're working at one of these big companies and they sort of understand the secrets or they understand how these companies begin to think and they understand the threats that come on. And so we've had startups that are in two buckets. I'll give you a couple examples. So in one bucket, let's call it a completely natural almond milk where it's four ingredients. The problem is shelf life, but it's completely natural. There's no gums, there's no fillers, it's there's no binders, it's just four ingredients in water shelf life being six, seven days and it comes frozen. And so you have to add water. Now, if I'm a big corporation, I'm looking at these companies as a potential threat, but the reality is for anyone to really make it you're gonna have to mass produce and trade offs will be made. When you were an executive or in the room, let's call it, did any of this give you ideas as to like what they view as a potential threat or maybe even let's call them blind spots, not even the threats, but like blind spots within the food market that because either the market's too small or it's just emerging. What was that like for you? And did it give you any ideas of like, oh, this could be something big because no one's paying attention to this particular problem or segment? I think I saw, because I was my own consumer, I could see where there were gaps in white space and it was around clean ingredients. It was around products that actually tasted as good as their normal counterparts. And then like putting my big CPG hat on, I think where I would view a company like ours as a threat is if we were able to bring other consumers to the category that they weren't able to appeal to, if we were able to gain max distribution and start to eat away at even like fractions of their share points, I think would be eye opening to a big CPG. And so for me, I was really working on solving my family's own problem, but I could see that there was a large market opportunity because I started to research how many people had food allergies, how many people may not have food allergies, but eat a restricted diet for personal or medical reasons and how there was a gap in brands that really could appeal to multicultural consumers. And so I felt like there were a lot of places where our brand could play that could make it a large scalable company. And then what was your first step? And so what was the first product you decided to either recipe, develop or create and probably having your daughter as like the perfect litmus test, right? Or maybe not. Maybe she's giving you feedback saying like, this is awful. I got a lot of, this is awful, which then made me very quickly bring on a professional. We worked with a food scientist who was able to bring my vision to life. I think I didn't appreciate how different it was, kind of the example you described. Like I could make a really good allergy-friendly cookie at home, but then it had no shelf life. It had stuff like, you know, you have to soak dates overnight and then blend them, stuff that just wasn't commercially scalable. And so we needed to bring someone in that could help us make the formula a lot more scalable. And then what was your first line of products that you brought to market? We launched with cookies. So we launched with three flavors of cookies in August of 2017 for a couple of reasons. One, because I wanted like a very simple celebratory product that people could share easily and felt like a nice indulgence. And then two, from a more practical perspective, we needed a top eight allergen-free facility to produce our products in. And there's only two large ones in the country and they could only make a small amount of product. So it was like, you know, I can make baking mixes or bars or cookies. And so I knew that we wouldn't have the capital to be able to start buying fancy custom equipment to make other products. So we went with something they already had. So there was kind of a twofold reason as to why we started with cookies. That's shocking that there's only two of these facilities. Are they around you at least in Jersey or are they somewhere else? No, we actually produced in Idaho. And that was probably one of our biggest challenges in getting the business off the ground because they get to be really selective in who they work with because there's a ton of food start-ups emerging and there's only a couple of places that can make these super allergy-friendly products. Sure, that's tough. And then it's 2017. So Instagram's probably the main social media outlet at the time kind of still is. But how do you go about getting your product out there? Are you doing tastings at different grocery stores? What are some of the first steps that, you know, you're starting to see some, maybe some orders coming in both in the wholesale setting but also maybe online? Well, while I knew I wanted Partake to be a scalable business, I thought it was really important to start small. So we started as a self-funded self-distributed venture, which means I was dipping into my own family savings and I was selling cookies out of my car to natural food stores in New York and New Jersey. And I did that for nearly nine months. And so our major form of marketing was demos. So like every single evening, every single weekend we were doing demos. My husband has a full-time job in finance. He would show up in like a suit and tie with a book bag, with a Partake t-shirt. And after work every day, he was doing demos. We did lots of local consumer trade shows. And so it was really just like in-store events, local events, keeping it very geographically tight in the New York area. Is this like a difficult time for you given that you're a mom, right? Your husband is pouring some time. You're probably your family savings or like, how did you view that time? So we speak to a lot of entrepreneurs and they really struggle with this moment where there's two answers, I think. There's one answer of like, do something you love so much you're willing to go homeless for. And I think there's a lot of blind faith that keeps you moving in that direction once you decide to sort of jump in the deep end. But then there's another side of just human nature, which is logical, right? Which is like, this is stupid. Like what am I really doing? Like am I really just bankrupting my daughter's college future on a whim? What was that moment, that time? Was it not so bad? Cause you're starting to see probably, there's also momentum, right? Where you're starting to see like, oh, people get it. And so there's these little bits of excitement. Thankfully it was the last. So I am definitely a foolish optimist as I think most entrepreneurs are, but I was also really close to the data. So I could see how we were performing versus our competitors. We had run a Kickstarter campaign that finished in the top 1% of food kick starters at that time. And so we were getting positive indicators from a business perspective. And then because the mission was so personal to me because it was built around my daughter, that also was a lot of the mission and faith and that could force me to continue to keep going. And what were people really responding to? Was it the problem that you were solving or was it just that you're making a delicious product? Like what was the one thing? It was a second and I was so wrong. I'm so glad that we did all of those demos because when I started the company, it was for people with food allergies. And what I should have known being a food allergy mom is that there's a really high barrier to entry with that customer. Like I don't give my daughter anything new unless I've seen it in like a Facebook allergy moms group. And my allergist has told me about it and it's thousands of stores. And that is what I saw as we did those demos. Like the other food allergy sufferers and parents would say, oh, that's a really cute idea, but I'm not gonna try it. I don't wanna be your guinea pig. But there were lots of more broad consumer groups, people who were experimenting with a plant-based diet, people who were gluten-free by choice, moms who needed a school safe snack, even if their kid didn't have allergies, people who wanted to support women or black-owned businesses. So it actually really broadened my eyes to how much larger a partake could be. On a personal note, you mentioned being a black-owned business. I'm a Latino here. Representation is something that has always been really important to me, but more important, I guess the way I view it is more of like forging your own way is the thing. It's, yeah, I came here from Peru and the thing that I looked around and it's like, if I asked you today, like, oh, name a Peruvian that's like, that made it, you'd struggle, right? You'd be like, I have no idea. And so my challenge personally for me, like the life mission has always been like, I need to be that person, right? Because when I look around, I don't see it. And unfortunately, and this is kind of like the hard part, right? The hard part is that means it's on you. That means if you look around and there's nobody, that means you better be the one to start making moves for your family or whoever, just so that even if they choose to be inspired, they have something to point to and go, well, that looks like it's successful. Definitely so. How deep rooted is that for you? It's a huge part of what keeps me going. I think it's unfair. I think there's an unfair, undue pressure on women and minorities to succeed because I do feel this pressure like, well, if I don't do well, then our investors might not ever invest in another woman or black-owned business. Or if I don't do well with that shelf space, Target might not be apt to give another black-owned business shelf space. And so I think it stifles you a little bit because you can't be as risk-taking because you feel so much weight. However, I feel the weight and I know it's there and I want to make people proud and I want to inspire people and I want to leave the door open for people coming behind me more wide than it was for me. And so it's definitely something that I'm very passionate about. Like how do we continue to lift underrepresented, underestimated communities as our business continues to grow? Yeah, I think it's spot-on. It is sometimes this like very annoying pressure. My wife also, my wife, so to give you some context, she owns her own construction company. That's amazing. It is, but how many females do you know in construction? And so one thing she struggles with is always the she has to be perfect. She has to be that much better because they're so used to seeing a 40, 50-year-old male period of any color, but it's an older male being the person in charge. And so for her, there's this constant, you know, and I always try to tell her, like you have to just, you have to go into meetings with maybe, like maybe that narrative's true, but don't assume it is true because once you assume it is true, you're putting a pressure on yourself that is not always healthy, but be aware of it, right? Kind of to your point. And I saw it too that you just raised a bunch of capital. Congratulations in January in a pre-COVID environment. Very awesome. You have some big names. How did you go about raising that round? What were the indicators from the market that you were getting that said, okay, we're in a position now where we're gonna go at scale. We're gonna get into every store or at least try to get into every store in the United States. Sure thing. So 2020 was definitely a very pivotal year for our business. We started the year in about 350 stores. I was the only full-time employee and we had big plans for the year. We knew that we were going into Target in a big way and that we were gonna go into Sprouts and expand with Whole Foods. And then George Floyd got murdered and there was this newfound desire from businesses and investors and influencers to amplify black-owned businesses that gave our business a lift like I could have never imagined. And so we right now in March of 2021, we're in about 6,000 stores. Our team is seven people. We're doubling that over the next couple of months. And so we're in major growth mode. And so I think it was the growth that we had over the past year that really got investors interested. And I didn't plan to raise a series A until maybe this summer, this fall, but there was a lot of inbound interest. And so I figured we should take advantage of the momentum while we have it so that we can go ahead and go into the new year ready to execute against our lofty goals. And thankfully, because we have that momentum, I got to be very selective about the partners that we work with. And so over 50% of our cap table is black and brown investors, which was very intentional. I think all of our investors are very mission aligned with our business, understand the importance of causes like increasing diversity in the natural foods industry, working to eradicate childhood food insecurity and are very supportive in my mission to drive those things as we grow our business. That's amazing. Kudos to you. Congratulations. Thank you. That's exciting. We do real estate development here and my goal for every project, so if I enter a Latino neighborhood, let's say, then I try to get to investors that are Latino because it means a little bit more to them. And to me, it's like, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for, it's a deeper connection. If you're just money, yeah, it's okay. But we're looking for more of like social capital. Like I like knowing maybe you went to high school here, maybe you know the fire chief or whatever it might be, but that personal connection to sort of your heritage, I think is important when you're investing or at least in what we do, which is investing in a lot of these communities to build something and create some jobs that help at the end of the day and impact several thousands of people. That's awesome. I agree, I think anything that you can do to create generational wealth in your community is like it's some more of that undue pressure and the responsibility and something I welcome but that I think a lot about. Yeah, that's amazing. Well, congratulations, that's pretty incredible. And then COVID hits, which we've had a lot of different companies on. I would say eight out of the 10 companies we've interviewed have leaned into the only thing that was working, right? And so all of a sudden all these options are gone. This is the only path and because of that they've been able to do quite well or in some cases their supply chain got broken up and so they've just leaned so heavily on education where now social media that was secondary to them became their primary message, their primary energy source for, this is how we're gonna tell the world what mission we're on. You know, they've seen some, a lot of positivity come from that. What happened to you and your business during COVID? How have you been affected? Thankfully, our manufacturing team and employees have all been able to stay healthy and safe, which has been paramount. We really had to pivot though our strategy because it hadn't changed that much from the earliest days in New York where we did lots of demos and local events and that wasn't happening anymore. And so we really moved to digital and really focusing on social media and email and texts and communicating with our customers virtually. But then as I'd mentioned, after George Floyd was murdered, there was just so much inbound coming our way that it really helped solve that problem. And so the problem that it created for us was I started to wrestle with a lot of guilt because our business was actually in a really good place. And so why, you know, there's so many people hurting in our country, such an unfortunate circumstance with his death and the death of so many other black people in our country and just like this long overdue conversation about systemic racism, like why was our business benefiting from that? And so we really turned that on its head and channeled that into like, how can we do more good with the good that's coming our way? And so it was the impetus or one of the factors in us launching a fellowship program that partnered with five historically black colleges and universities to help students with curriculum to help them get entry-level jobs and internships in the natural foods industry. And so it really was for us, how do we use all of this good that's come our way during a global pandemic to put more good into the world? That's amazing. I wanna ask you what that was like when this George Floyd event occurred. What were people writing to you about? Obviously that sounds like they're interested in helping, but to what extent? Like what were they doing? What were they saying? And cause I can imagine this being like good and bad or good and like icky. Like I just think about these messages of like the world, like for example, where I am in LA, the riots were right here. I mean it was like literally right here and the day starts with you see hundreds of, thousands of people walking down the street and it's like brings you to tears because it's like people care, this is great. And then eight p.m. hits and it's dark and now everyone's breaking into these businesses. And next thing you know, it feels like you're in a different country because all these businesses are boarded up and it's in quarantine. And so it's sad, right? And it's like, so we already have all these emotions happening and then you throw in, then people are messaging you to try to figure this out or help, what was that like? It was lots of influencers and press and celebrities saying let's shop Black-owned businesses. And the thing that was frustrating was there's not that many nationally scaled Black-owned food businesses. And so we were on every list, which I was proud of but just really brought to light again how few people are in this position and that's not a good thing. And so that's what we saw. We also saw retailers make commitments and investors make commitments about adding diversity to their shelves or to their portfolio. I appreciated when people were more public and also more quantitative in what they were gonna do because we can ask for the receipts a year from now and see if people really held true to that. And so it was just a level of press unlike anything we had seen before which really supported our econ business, helped move our product off the shelf. Thankfully, June was one of our best e-commerce months at the time was our best by far month in our e-commerce history. And we had partnered with a group called the Food Equality Initiative that was started by a Black woman in Kansas City whose family was experiencing food insecurity and her kids have food allergies. And so they bring allergy friendly foods to food insecure families. And we were able to with a portion of the proceeds from our online sales in June, thanks to all of that inbound, feed thousands of families, 4,000 families across the country. And so I hope that there were some good things that we were able to do because of what happened. That's amazing, yeah, that's great. I think people forget about this notion that like I know here in LA, there's a lot of minority communities that their only source of internet was actually at the school. And now we're in quarantine, no internet, no laptop. And so now they're basically without education. And this is where the gap widens and no one talks about this, right? And so it's just nice to hear your story where you still looked out to help those people that obviously still represent the community and make up a large part of it. And we're all suffering with either food or just basic things that a lot of people, like that's not in the news, right? And I think that's just unfortunate, but that's just the reality we live in. And so it's nice to hear that you've done something to help. So post COVID, let's say we're getting out of this now, you're in 6,000 stars. Yeah, it feels like it. The vaccines on the rise, Johnson and Johnson has arrived and it's directionally correct. What's in store for more of growth? Is it all business to business or are you trying to also do some business to consumer where you're selling directly to people like me? So our D2C makes up about 10% of our business and we have some pretty lofty goals against that. We really use that as an innovation channel as well. So we just launched a five in one baking mix, a brownie mix. We have a couple of new products coming in the baking mix line and they're only available as D2C offerings. And so our plan is to hopefully continue to grow retail distribution, launch new products. Like our goal is at some point to be across every aisle of the grocery store but we want to grow in a sustainable way and make sure that we're building a team that can support that and infrastructure that can support that. So we're just in a hyper growth mode which is really exciting. I feel like there's a good saying around it but it's a whole like flying the plane as you land it or whatever it may be that's what we're doing right now. Yes, that. And so that's what's happening around here. One of the things that really came to my attention was I would almost never and I'm sure there's maybe some people like me but I'll just use my anecdotal information around myself. If you came to my house there's really nothing in the freezer other than like ice and COVID hits and now all of a sudden people are looking to store, right? And so I mentioned the almond milk. So we were just buying heaps of almond milk that came frozen and we had water on our own. And I was thinking about this like from a CPG perspective it almost seems like people are spending more time looking at freezers or shopping in the freezer section to the point where extra freezer sales are up, right? So now people are buying a separate, a second or third freezer so they can store things in their home. You mentioned the brownie mix and other stuff like that. To me, it seems like this is like a ripe opportunity for let's call it even the younger crowd like teenagers that never thought of or like the college dorm room people who never considered freezing anything. I think COVID has taught us something about that world. Have you seen similar data or anything to that effect around how the freezer section might be coming like the new emerging trend in Grocer? I haven't seen a ton around freezer recently other than like frozen is the new fresh. And I do agree with that cause I think you can get really high quality items that are frozen. I think just generally with COVID like I think there's the pantry loading and the freezer loading. And that was one of the reasons we did the baking mix cause we were like, you know what better time people are at home. It came out of a personal need again. One of the few safe pancake mixes that my daughter could eat got discontinued during COVID and I was like, what am I going to do? And so we created another one and we were like, this is so yummy. We need to share it with people. And so that is how the baking mix line came to be cause we were at home having more indulgent breakfast than we normally would when we're like, you know family on the go and just like throw on having a bar or something really quick. We were making like pancakes and waffles during the week and we didn't have options that fit our dietary restrictions. So that's how it came to be. Do you think your daughter will also be an entrepreneur? Are you grooming her to become an entrepreneur? How, what is that then like? Cause I always think about this like me and my wife one day we'll have kids and I'm like, you know, I hope they will and sometimes I hope they won't because it's not always that pleasant to this journey. You know, what is that like for you as a parent having a child? It's definitely not a glamorous journey. My dad was an entrepreneur and he advised me against being an entrepreneur but now that I am one is like my biggest cheerleader. I've seen my daughter, she's only six but probably from the time she was like three she's been going to trade shows with us and doing demos and like that's just the way of life that she knows. And it also I think has created a very like solutions driven child. So like if she sees a problem she literally will say, well, we should start a company that makes this so that we can help these people. And so I could see her being an entrepreneur but she's also seen the very unglamorous side of things and the sacrifice that you have to make. So she might pass. So whatever makes her happy. Are they back in school in New Jersey yet or no? Thankfully, so she's been knock on wood in school safely in person on the whole school year. So I think they just they're at 104 days now which has been a game changer for us. I don't know how parents are doing it or kids who are all at home together trying to work and do school and manage everything. Yeah, not well is how they're doing it. It's not, it hasn't been positive. At least all the feedback I've gotten is just and the kids are kind of like depressed. You know, they're tough, they can't socialize. It's been not so ideal. Yeah, that's tough. What have you done? Have you done anything specifically for your employees during this time? Like I know some companies are doing like remote wellness or they're starting to think a little bit more around just meditation or taking time away from Zoom and the computer. Has it changed the way you guys do business in a meaningful way? Well, we are just like I haven't met a lot of our team in person because we were just one person at the start of 2020. And so we're like trying to grow the organization in this virtual environment in a very rapid growth period. And so I think nurturing our culture and getting to know each other is so important. And so we have a weekly water cooler where you're not allowed to talk about work at all. And we're just like spending time on Zoom getting to know each other. We have a bi-weekly like team building. We're doing a cooking class next month. We did like this personality assessment last month. And then another bi-weekly like team meeting because I think even in a small organization like ours, when you're working virtual, it's very easy to like be in silos and just focus on what you're doing and not have any clue what the rest of the team is doing and feel really isolated. And so I can't wait for the day that we can be in person together. But in the meantime, we're definitely trying to keep things fun and keep everyone engaged. Do you have a dream investor, like someone who's on your list that you'd love to have on in your next round? I think we have them. We literally like John Foraker who started, who scaled Annie's and ran General Mills National and Organic Business, Jay-Z through Marcy Venture Partners, Rihanna. Like I couldn't ask for a more dreamless group of investors, you know, from a high profile perspective, but more from a like mission alignment perspective and belief in our business. Did that surprise you? So we've talked to some people that have had like the Kobe, liked of Kobe Bryant who passed, but on and the question I always have is like, does it surprise you that, cause everyone knows them in a certain way, right? Everyone knows the celebrity in a certain light. And not everyone knows like that person only invest in vegan based startups. And I think it's hard people to connect the dots. And so as you were meeting some of them and taking these investor meetings, were you surprised by just their level of knowledge in spaces that maybe at the beginning you wouldn't have thought they'd know much about? I think I was just most pleasantly surprised by how mission aligned everyone was, how they cared a lot about the HBC fellowship program, the work we do around childhood food and security, how dedicated we are to making a safe and high quality product. And not necessarily like the fancy fluffy metrics, they actually cared about like building a sustainable business that was gonna hopefully try to make a positive impact in the world. I think that's it, yeah, that's awesome. I think like we invest in some companies and everyone asked me like, oh, what's the thing you look for? And I'm like, honestly, their dedication to the problem they're solving. Like I don't care, you know, if they're making money or they're not there yet, it's really just based on where is this person going? What really wakes them up in the morning and do I think that they're the best in the game? Because at some point, if there's two equal people and one person is solving a problem that's personal to them, they're gonna win eventually over time. Even if they have no business acumen or even never went to college, like they're gonna win because they're gonna figure it out because they have the like energy creates discipline and they have the internal energy to want that. And so they will at the end of the day, succeed. And it sounds so fruitful. Like people are like, that's it. There's no like Excel sheet. There's no like MRR or like the run rate or like the recurring revenue. I'm like, no, it's none of that. Is this problem really personal to the individual? And are they building things around them that are in line with their mission? And if not, it's pretty obvious actually when it's not, you know, that's my take on it. And so it sounds like you're in the same boat. Definitely so. And you could feel it in the conversations because I feel like the investors that we clicked most with, we're trying to understand what drove me and like who I was as a person and what my values were and what type of company, like what type of leader I would be. And then there were these very like transactional investors who were kind of like, well, tell me why your margin went up one point this month and then down the next point, it's just like you were not aligned and like, don't get me wrong, I know the margin and it's important. But like finding somebody that your mission aligned with and really believes in you and what you're doing, I think is the most important thing. Yeah, it's like, do you think you can find a cheaper sugar alternative? Right, exactly. To drop, to increase margin by a penny. What would that do? And you're like, okay, wrong guy, sorry, gotta go. So what's your next big thing? What's the next thing that you're trying to work on for Partake Foods? What markets are you in currently? All markets, where are you seeing the most success? So something I always think about is like, where is the product doing the best? Because that says something about that market. And so your product in my head maybe LA, seems to make sense, I don't know. But what has been surprising that you've learned on your journey as to how people have been receptive to the product? I've been really positively surprised by how well we do in conventional retailers like Target and Kroger versus natural granola co-ops. Because I think it speaks to the mass appeal that the brand could have, which I get really excited about. And what's next? I think we have so much on our plate right now. We just launched all banners of Kroger two weeks ago, Trader Joe's a few weeks before that. We're launching the new lines of products, building out the team. And so really, I think like taking a second to breathe and celebrate what we accomplished and make sure all of this feels like a strong foundation before we kind of move to the next step of adding on stores and additional products. And just so we're clear, I want you to tell everyone where they can actually find you in the grocery store. Cause sometimes this is like a mystery, but where are you at Trader Joe's or in the targets? So you can find us in the cookie aisle at Target, most whole foods, sprouts, the fresh market, wagmons, and you can find us across Trader Joe's and you can find us at partakefoods.com. Awesome. Well, Denise, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. It's great talking to you about all things life and also a startup. Congratulations Kudos to you. I love what you're working on and I'm rooting for you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate the conversation.