 Quick note before we get started, there is some cursing in today's episode, so if you're listening with young children around or impressionable ears, maybe put some headphones on or wait till later. This is Startup to Store Front. Today's guest is Becca Powers, a restaurateur and hospitality maven who has shunned the high volume approach to the restaurant biz in favor of giving her guests a tailored and memorable experience. Becca worked in numerous bars and rock clubs across Boston before opening up Tanuki, a restaurant inspired by her love of Japanese food and culture and which is named after the mystical shapeshifting creature that also happens to be very well endowed. Listen in as we cover Becca's memorable Kickstarter campaign to open Tanuki, why finding the right investors for her project is crucial to the success of that project and how she earned the nickname Becca the Wrecker. Now back to the episode. Welcome to the podcast. We're here with Becca the Wrecker, a good friend of ours from Boston who launched Tanuki in Provincetown. Thank you for coming on the podcast. So I met Becca, I was probably 24 years old. You were the matriot at Drink. Drink is probably still my favorite cocktail bar in all of the, I think the world probably. What were your days at Drink like? You guys were doing something brand new. At the time. It was a completely different concept. And surprising. What was the crazy part was too is like everybody who was working there, including yourself, they've all gone on to either start their own bars, restaurants all over the country. Yeah. Bar programs. All over. Yeah. On San Francisco now, right? What were some of the biggest things you learned at Drink like just being there with something so new, right? Such a new concept that. There's pioneers. In some way. Yeah. Oh, wow. You know, the legendary, the old Rockla, huge head work that church which is now something that's across the board. They were like the grindiest, the most places that you could hang out. But see, there was no pressure back then to be nice and about the community or the states that could go to school. And I came off the world as the five foot bouncer. Becca the Racka. That's where, that's where the name came from. And I couldn't believe that this kind of a woman that broke the glass out of the club. Shut it down. Yeah. And so I forgot this repetition for just 10 minutes. Because I was always backed up by like 10 huge dudes. And so I doubt you're really immune to them. Right. Because I've had to have an actual ability to think about women to use difficult situations, especially in the spirit field. There was so many of us who had to put the bar, or just get invested, or just get something to do with it, or just not getting in with whatever the scene of that night was. Now, you could see it from a mile away, if somebody was just acting in the mirror. But I said, there was no movement of the scene. And so I bought that job every time I saw it. I was there as popular as I'm sitting there. I wanted to know this kind of funny man. And there was no security upstairs, because I'm doing drugs. So I just had to throw my own drunk bar guests out. And I got a reputation for that. And I was like, it's a good team downstairs, but no job. This is so Boston. I love it. Hey, do you want a job throwing people out for money? Yeah. You want that? All right. It's yours. It's fucking yours, guys. Keep throwing people out. You're doing good. You're doing good, kid. But simultaneously, I was making art with the Mac Cosmetics. And so I was like, totally different worlds. Wondering stuff. Wondering good. What do you know? Brands, love to paint. And I've always, since I was a little kid, you know? Yeah, totally. I can relate. And so I felt like, as I sort of moved up in my career, I found my balance sort of in the 90s. I thought to the public, so it seemed like I was sort of in the 90s. And I thought, yeah, I got there. And all these bigger roles that I lost is very, you know, the sound and the image of business. So then I ended up out of college. I ended up out of college, but then I ended up out of dream. And had this huge spirit back then. And I feel that back then. They didn't really have a job description. They just knew that, oh, I remember. I went into everything in my life. OK. I mean, I'm not in restaurants. Well, what were you going to do there? Oh, probably like a hostess. I think I wanted to sort of start at the bottom in the higher end, who, whoa. Yeah. Because even though I had an incredible experience with all these big night clubs, it was not refined at all. I really needed my head to sort of stand it down. Somebody gave me a reference. It was either Amy Bessamette, the chef, or Garrett Ruffer, who gave me my key references. Got it. And he told me about the way it seems like a problem to people at the time. But I was rough around, he had just got a work that. Did they know they were going to have a major D? No. No, right? No, they didn't. They knew they had security issues. OK. And they didn't want to have a bouncer because they didn't want to have that 80% mentality. Right. So this isn't cheap as it is. No, I was at the first time that I felt like I could really bring both my experience, but also my personality into a space and just sort of do myself. And I had a high volume background and just had a problem on the door that people say from house to make sure that people weren't going to come into the space and act really poorly. And so for the most part, we were able to really vary carefully through our language, I guess. And that we could communicate with guests when they were sitting there in line and try to figure out, is this person going to come in here for a long time or are they going to come in here for a long time or are they going to be able to do their own business? So trying to figure out what people's motivations were and what people went into the bar originally for the security purpose. Right. And then ultimately, so this person came in here on a bad day and maybe they're going to come into this space with a bad attitude. So instead of never letting them in, what can I do to use my attitude around this? Not only if they're not going to make my life difficult, but they're going to actually have a good time. They're like, oh my god, my opinion is bad too. And these people saw me for what I am, but they're still being nicely in this. So trying to bend over backwards to make me feel comfortable in this space even though I'm kind of without gas. Yeah. Right. Wow. And so being able to make a lot of sense. Yeah. That's awesome. And to have the lot of fun as a make-to-be to make those decisions about not from a hate people perspective, but a 100% sure that you're on this space you're not going to have a good time. Right. It was great far across the street if you're not moving forward even. Because you know, some people wait for two hours and they come in and it's not the experience that they want to have. They're going to be additionally pissed off. And luck eats is a good spot anyway. Yeah, especially if you want to be in a bad mood. If you want to be in a bad mood, you have to get really drunk or like bassist and boring. Luck eats is perfect. Wow. I don't think anyone from Lucky's is going to be listening to this, so I think we're good. I'm not ready for that either. So then, did you know you were going to be the matriot for a while or did you still think in your mind I'm just trying to come in, learn, and then maybe move up to, I don't even know what you do. Cocktail, go back in the cocktail bar. I'm starting as a matriot. I'm going to have my first couple of interviews there. I always know because if something special is good, you can have a place for you or a bar of drink. And that's when you sat down with John? Don't ask me why I'm with John. I love that. That's amazing. It's my money ratio. If you need any problems, there's something that will come in the waiting for you. Everybody will follow you. There are different gaps. I don't know what you're up to. You don't have to ask for anything. You're having that power. Yeah. It really makes you feel like... Yeah, but you don't want to take advantage of it. You respect it. And I did. It wasn't easy because of you. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're a world. So you're doing this a drink, and then did you move straight from that role to somewhere else in Boston? Or did you then think about starting your own thing? What was the path from there? I think it was new. And so over the years that I was there, I started writing a business plan. It was a $5 million. It's new. I got there. And the project and what we saw was building a huge school in Boston. It was one of my big connections. Cool. And a lawyer and... Yeah, everybody. My constant, start building up your core people that are going to take care of you and go back down through this super trustable process. And you have led before and you need this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's actually why we started this podcast, is to sort of tell the story of that. It's the creativity part in creating amazing products, food, experiences, drinks, whatever it might be. It's so crucial, right? Because that's step one. But then to really make it and to bring your good to the public, you need all these other people. Yeah. And a lot of creatives are... I'd say most people try to do it themselves. A lot of entrepreneurs. Because they don't know what's involved. They underestimate the process and think, oh, I've got this handled. I think I can figure that out. And it's so tough. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. How long did you try to get the club off the ground? Okay. In what way? Well, I think it's because we've been connected to a lot of other money. We know it. And we live with friends in very, very different worlds. So their access to money was funded by the CES. Yeah. We have always found human-eaters because of this, that I know. And so support and really forthcoming in the work is going to mess around about how other methods come to a circle, you know, it's a circle, but that probably is just not something outside of what I'm trying to tell that I call all the experts. And so the downside of working with that much money is that sometimes you have to be on the side of your soul a little bit. And so I found myself in a situation where I was being put well-to-die, like in one block, there was much of an emphasis, there was much of an emphasis on inviting the waitant into the work. Wow. So they were trying to make it like their own place, literally. Yeah. Got it. We wanted a clubhouse and we wanted me to make a pool and it would be like a hot job exclusive place, but that's the hop. So where you're going for, yeah. It wouldn't have worked. You know, I would have been miserable and then we can tell when a business is run by somebody just doesn't care or it's over and or it's burned out or it's... Yeah. You feel it right away. Yeah. And every aspect of it. It's like being controlled by investors. And so creatively, you would have to make some decisions. How much better control do I want? Should it be worth any of my relationship with this investor so that I can stick to my value system and ultimately ask the length of things. Yeah. So you can see payments about how new the business is like and the business is moving in and what impacts the personal business and what they're going to have on my business in the future. And in Massachusetts, I was talking in California to get a liberal license. You have to have such a flawless criminal record that you can't have nothing if you can spot this. And so some of these guys just didn't really shade the stock on the weekends and like because they came from this sort of place with a lot of input, we really see how that affects me and my business. Right. They would have been fine in the end but we didn't find the license. Right. And so I had it out of town. It's gone by one day and I'm on my way to the Lord's office to sign an operating agreement. And he looked at me with his open sweatpants that day. My mom was like, it's the wrong dress. You know what? Let's get it out. And he said, you know what? I just don't think I'm going to watch that. She said. Are you kidding? Well, we've been like, that's the thousands of dollars already. Yeah. And I was told to me because you set up this expectation that this is what was in store for our business relationship. And that was this. Yeah, totally. Right then and we already got the 10 grand and we were all alone and we didn't even have space. Did they help you out with that? No. Wow. So basically all talk. Oh, yeah. I think that the first week they made the deposit check. For the space? We looked at sevens in the spaces. But they got that back. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I'm no worse feeling when you're depending on somebody else's money, that thought getting pulled from under you in the last year or so or so. Totally. And so after I buried that product there was so hard for doing these things. And that's what I thought it had to be. Right, so much hype. You're telling all your friends. It's exciting. And that was the lesson learned for sure in that process. What did you learn? What was what would you say like? Time around. Yeah. But you don't want to get through the point of what you have to do to get that kind of product. Did you regret not trying to reach out to more investors? Or did this group really just cement it in terms of the interest? They were just like, yeah, we're it. This group. OK. And so that brought me into Kickstarter. Yeah. By the way, so your Kickstarter campaign, I tell everybody about. You did it the way everybody should do it. Like you should literally, you could, I think, start a company on just showing people. How if you're passionate about something, all you all you're really doing is showcasing your passion for what you want to do. No, it's it's it's honest. And I just thought it was the most amazing entire campaign that I've ever seen. Very well done. I deal with tenants all the time. And sometimes I'm more convinced about their business than them. And when that happens, I point them in the direction of like, go to Becca's Facebook and scroll down on her timeline. And you'll see an entrepreneur who actually is as passionate like she gave a shit. I remember. And there's no question. You can't question it, right? And the beauty of Kickstarter is that you're not giving away equity. And so when you this is something that I looked at a little bit. So we fund her. It's a little complicated because it forces the entrepreneur to know what equity means one to how much of your company you're giving away. And then there's a little bit of legal documents that we fund her helps you out with. And a lot of people make the mistake of giving away either too much equity to the investors or too little. Or the simple one is if I'm an investor, I say if I give you two hundred dollars, what is it going to be worth? And the entrepreneurs know like you don't really know. Or if I say I'm going to give you a thousand dollars, how much of your company am I getting? The entrepreneur more often than not on we fund or doesn't know that answer. And so then it forces the entrepreneur to have to like develop that other skill, right? This new skill that you're just trying to raise money. Yeah. I'm trying to get them in for it. Yeah. With them in for it. I think it's something that's based on the knowledge. Oh, wow. They're open. They're all much more understanding. Yeah. And it's that dynamic. I think that's something a lot of business structures and different types of investment possibilities of what kind of commercial vision that you can set for an investor are fully understood. And there's not really a set formula that I've ever found that's going to work for every relationship that we've come. Yeah. That's true. It's not one size fits all. Yeah. It's neither an art or a science. It's really interesting. Yeah. Yeah, you can ask for all of this. The smartest investors in the world from a vision side, wait for them. But it's not really more great for you or for the people that you're going after. So like if you're just going after a standard venture capitalist company that has a system and they have their own set of rules and they're only looking for particular types of operators or creatives, if you don't fit in that mold, they're not going to get that answer. Right. That's a good thing. It's a good thing. I mean, they know what they want. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I sit down with some of our tenants and like one of them is a brewery, another one that we might end up developing here and they send me all their financials and their deck. And so, mind you, this doesn't exist yet, right? They're in the process of developing and hopefully getting a space. And so I'm looking at their deck and it says that their company is worth $15 million. And so I call and I say, hey, just so you know, there's no way you're worth 15 million. You're not a tech company. You don't have anything. You just have beer and retail is typically like, in terms of your valuation, one to three times your revenue. And so unless you're making $5 million a year at present, it's very difficult for you to make 15 million. And if you're a brewery making $5 million a year, you'd be the best brewery in the world. And that's just not going to be you because you haven't started anything. Yeah. And so then I'm like, no disrespect, but whoever gave you the advice to your point was clearly a tech investor. And so you're getting a tech valuation. And maybe there's an app to your whole business on a website or some like portal where beer gets delivered that I don't know about. But if you're telling me you're going to build a brewery, there's no way you're worth 15 million. But if you do convince someone to give you money based on that valuation, you've now screwed over yourself and your investor. Because when you go to raise money again, you have to fix your valuation, but you've already accepted money at a $15 million valuation. Because they thought they were getting into this. And so now you have a down round and no investor likes that. And so they're like, I had no idea. And I'm like, right, because you're going to a lawyer who's likely never an accountant, whatever it might be. And this is not a knock on them. They've just never raised money or set up a business, specifically a brewery, let's say. Yeah, they set up a million businesses. Yeah. Not a business. It's not going to be your territory or money. And you as the entrepreneur are in such a vulnerable position at that point because on one hand you have investors telling you, I got you, I'm going to be your runway or whatever. For this whole thing. Yeah, and save you. And it's going to be so great. And then you're like, on the one hand, okay, should I listen to them and go with them? Or, because I don't, this doesn't feel right, but they're giving me money. Should I let them make decisions? And that's a huge thing. And then on the other hand, you have all these people giving you advice. You don't know which to take with a grain of salt and which to take as Bible. So it's, you know. It's also going to be like smart, successful. Yeah. What we want to support you. Yeah. I listened to my mom and I said, I don't want to, I don't want like for a film a year should be 5% or 20% of the discrepancy between all of this network of products. So what about when you do the better time with that, between when you started that concept and thought about things a little bit again, I really thought about that first. Your previous experience, yeah. Yeah. And spending money on it. Yeah. Exactly. And so the cool thing about cow funding and not other than old experience of the teachers or whatever people, which is, it's all okay. Yeah. Right. It is, you don't own money. And so, while I think I'll put the next round of fundraising and going to go back to, you know, I don't think I'm going to be able to, I don't think I'm going to be able to. I'm going to go back to what I started. Yeah. And not do cow funding. I'm really glad that I have a new experience because it allowed me to raise and walk money for a prototype of the thing of this very normal concept. So, to me, the app currently talks about it is so much. Yeah. It's a very normal thing. Yeah. Let's get into that. It's an idea right now. Well, it was a storefront. It was a storefront. What is Tanuki for people listening? Tanuki, your creation, how do you describe it to people? I have a lot to say about it. Oh, okay. So, in the beginning, as you guys know, as we obviously saw the Kickstarter, the original idea was to have the first and the final week of music high up. Music high up when you break up the world of stuff. Yeah, the end of the world is a shop thing. And you break it down with the third day, you do that software and then you sell it. Oh, yeah. And so, basically, originally, music high up was just a place where you can sell it. Yeah. So, I love the idea of a place where people can come by. I'm not necessarily just going to get on there a lot, but to come and have a place to hang out and have a thing. Not necessarily a negative, it's like, I don't even know if I can get a lot of it. I don't even know what to talk about. I don't even know the best thing that it takes is to come in and get it out. I think it was a nice idea. But in Japan, all of these tiny little spots, some of them that you might want to go over, some of them are really tough with a canopy that sticks out the side, and a few old software that I once wore, plastic milk bags that stuck around. And you get there and there's a lot of places where you go to check. Not necessarily a special kind of thing to do with that. There's some sort of pressure up there through it's swimming through and rolling on new landscapes. And I'm just not gonna say that, but some of the tiny pockets of the oil and the stuff. Cool. They're all good. It's awesome. It can be such a simple, you can find stuff that you already have that needs to be in, that needs to be in, something that needs to be. It's so cool. What kind of things do you serve at Tanuki? Which day? What about the one in Provincetown that I went to? I was so lucky. Thank you. It was a snack drop in my coffee. We, because that property came to me as a short season of soba, I had the opportunity to just jump in and do whatever I think might be enough time doing the business plan for best aspects. I'm doing pretty intensive things in my business, I don't. But the stage wasn't shown as a small restaurant and there was another business that I was really good at. And I had these two guys who run the business next door saying, you know, people that do really really well in the states and back when they were here, they would quickly pop up and pop out of their life and I was like, this is not good. And then I said, I had this coffee and going to turn off but not over it, it's not doing the type of business that other businesses do and they still have six months back by the weeks. And then I just jumped in and used space as it is. I think that great, you can keep it whatever but there was an ice cream machine, a soft serve machine in my hand, a 12-flavor Delago food in my hand with a Lama d'Occo espresso machine. All this great equipment was just sitting there. And I had no attention with having an ice cream shop. I had no attention of people having a coffee shop or having a good coffee. But I had built this brand and this character and story and I thought let's just put it right in, get some serious risks, all of my money, my marriage, my concept, my sweet, my health, everything. Did you sign a lease? Did you have to like sublease? Yes, we have a marriage lawyer, so we built the law. Oh, good. Yeah. That's good. And it kind of sucked, but there was a lot of... Did you raise the money before you signed the lease? Yeah. Okay. But I only built the brand. Yeah. And then I had some of my own and I kind of knew it but I worked so hard, I grew up in this brand and as I went, it was one of those moments where the way of checking on the line was not perfect. People don't even know this. Yeah. And so... Sure, time kills all deals. Yep. It's a fact. And it's, at the same time, one of the lessons coming out on the other side is, I don't know much about this, I don't really know. I now have a problem with my health at the end. I have a feeling about this associated with this story. And I feel like as long as I have had these teachers close up time and keep my self relevant, which is one of the hardest things to do for any of you at this time, I might feel like I'm wrong with it. That's really true. But I'm glad that I didn't wait when I had that money. Because people really respect that. When did you... How long was the total campaign? Was it a month? I think it was 60 years. 60 days? Yeah. And how did you decide on 50,000? It was more than any other like minded business in the area I lived. But... Setting the challenge high. Yeah, I'm up high on 50,000. Oh, I get it. So I think the average on research is about 30,000 or 60,000. If you're successful, 500,000 is a rise up or 30,000. And you were like, nah, hold my beer, I can do this. Basically. And it goes five minutes. Yeah, it could be your security deposit in some cases. So day one, you launch and then what do you do? You're just putting it... Because they give you some tips, right? They kind of tell you like, hey, go to your network, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so you're doing all that. But you also got PR, right? You got... So I have PR background. So that I have inside and it goes from all the networks that are behind which continues to... Yeah. And then... Do you remember like your first couple of donations or did it take a while? It took, it was actually pretty quick. It was a couple weeks after the campaign was done. But my dad and I stepped out and was the first person I died. I mean, four fifths later. And then maybe started with five grand and then I probably put like $25,000 in my home and went into it just to kind of get concerned and buy food. Mm-hmm, yep. But you have to do this once. You have to pass the screening. Mm-hmm. And then the question of... To health, the health department. So even in schools... half of that had a national... ULI rating and stuff. Yeah, it was all this different safety ratings that I saw from you all. But all that stuff takes money. So if you think that you can make one pastry, let's just do this here. So I knew that I wanted to start making food use this because I knew that I was only going for like $50,000 in this first round. And whatever, you know, I would kind of put it around that money. Was not going to go far. Right. And the idea was to phase out to be excited. I was like, see, I know what you think about that. And what I wanted to do was have this real picture that I want to, which is a little walkable, which is like a picture, like something. And it has a spirit that's being planned and sorted out with this. And you're having loads and not having to do too much mission, but you can make it probably 24 hours. Wow. And I wanted time for a commercial operation. And so of course, the piece of equipment I bought was a commercial, it's not for you. Cool. So that was the space. How much was that? It was $50,000. Okay. So I hired a friend to spend a couple of hours on fun stuff and now I'm living in a kitchen and I'm here to spend a few hours to use it and have fun. And she knows all of you and doesn't know when you think you're used to ordering specialty fish and fish, but I didn't know what to do. Being on the experts. Tried to. Doesn't always work for you, I think it will. She had never sourced the time I've been in the kitchen before for like a large scale production. So specific. Niche products that does not need any learning in the States. And so we really stick with following each other. And that said, it was the second, obviously we didn't step on it. And when we arrived and we were great, and after months later, I thought about the dog and I was like, yeah, but the health inspector didn't want to see. It's so notorious to all the women who have not had the phones in the past over the years who have dealt with all these factors in their process. As the most hard asked. Oh, man. They're sneaky, I mean, if you have one piece of equipment, if you have one piece of equipment. Yeah. And so I said, why? What do you say? The rating. It's all so, if you wanted to know what the machine was going to be like. Which I actually think is pretty. That's a fair question. I watched them, especially at this point in time. So I found there was an end to the questions that happened to work for a shop. Random. Like this, like Pupi Surfer was also a scientist. That's cool. And so I picked him. So then there's a lot of machines that were in my past. And I'm very impressed with this machine. This is what we're all these factors are. You can get this machine to ask state standards all out to existing a business without this asset rating. Was it food that was sort of happening at the end of the year? Well, three percent. And was that on anything that was touching food or did it matter at all? Wow. Wow. Yeah. And it's big. Yeah. And this thing takes up a lot of space. And it's got lead in it. It has lead in it. And I've got lead in it. How long? Oh, my goodness. They work a light bulb. It was a great machine. But also, like, if you buy stuff, you know, local in a dollar store or something or other. It probably has some sketchy. Yeah. It has some sketchy. Wow. Whoa. So that was one of my favorite lessons learned. Crazy. As much research as you do, there's so many mistakes. And I see that even business for ten or five years, you think that you know everything. And if you're talking about a tall walking machine and you're trying to work, how important that is, you know? And so I'm sure there are a lot more. So you did buy a new one? I think what will probably end up doing with the next round would come in. And I would decide exactly on and what to do after that. Just to have one custom made in my case, I looked into having one reverse out of it for the next 10,000 dollars, which seems like a lot. But because we now have this with a lot of fans, with this little character, it's just people excited. What's the name of the character? It's the Tanuki. The Tanuki. He looks so happy. So for people who are listening, it's a raccoon. It's like a bear raccoon with two balls. OK, hold on. Back up. You see those balls? This isn't, I'm being descriptive. You can quite literally. He's hung. Yes. He's a chubby, a chubby raccoon. Super cute. What's he holding in his hand? Kind of my spirit animal. So a fish. The fish are a little inferior to this. Yes, let's do that. I can't continue to be depending on what controversy. The one that I've settled on, I believe, is that those that are out of that, are shining in this box before. And so originally, you would see this full four character in the written words. Mostly one is like, I don't know if it's you, but you don't know. So if you were just to believe what it is, nine years ago, it spooked something in the trees. And it could be, it could be, it's me, but passed on to you, but I'm from the future. You think about, like, a siren, but you don't know what it is. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Bad name. It's kind of the same thing as a impression, right? You're a bad mermaid. A bad mermaid is out to get you, even though it has the support of the human man, right? And so the roots of this human being were, I think, similar to that, but there's a small amount of it. And in all of the parts of the last hundred years, so the king mother of culture that came in time, was at least one version of him. There was a lot of that in some Japanese, so I think that's what we're here for. Okay. And that's where he came into this point of the religion, like this fact, that that queen-like character with the big balls that he was in the past, didn't he? Was that true? Yeah. Big balls represent prosperity. Wow, you're very prosperous in existence. Yay. Hey, PG-13. Me, also. Like me. Oh. I think you're a Tanuki. Yeah, I'm a Tanuki. What's the fish? So he's also carrying a fish, right? It's not traditional. Okay. I added the fish. I like that. Yes. So that's where it first happened, because he didn't pass health inspection, because he brain marked it as high energy. Oh, okay. And so I wanted him. But he also carries a jug of sake. And so I taught myself to eat. But from a story note, he's an investor's bat at the end of all of them. This is like me. See, it's my investors. They're worse cases. There are breweries. And they deliver the drinks. They put them in the fridge. And then gives them out. So yeah, the worst case, you can... Wow. I think you're a Tanuki. I'm a Tanuki. I think that's your spirit animal. And so you had the brand before you started fundraising, right? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. That was a big part of it. And then did you always have the costume? Cool. Cool. She does a lot of the gins. Yeah. I think it helped me. Wow. This costume at first. I was like, I want to make it myself, but... Yeah. This is a little nitty-nitty. Yeah. And it's cool. No. That's such an entrepreneurial lesson. Right. That's always your first move. Let me do this myself. And then you're like, I'm not a seamstress. I'm not a seamstress. I'm not. Maybe you are, but it's hard. Why am I trying to learn how to make clothes? But you know how to use it any medium, but it's because we'll show it. Yeah. Yeah. Some just do not come naturally. And they shouldn't because you're going to hire people who... For them, it does come naturally, which is great. Really? Disney. Wow. Are there Tanukis in Disney movies? No, I think this is where I've got started. Oh. You're allowed. In the cold. That's a hint. Oh. Did you pick up on that? Oh. Because he's got two balls, Talia. I was like, he's doing it in Florida. Becca, can you explain the joke? So the Tanuki has two big balls. I get it, but why didn't they just say that? I feel like they had to be around the bus. It's Disney. Come on, it's PG. It's Disney. It's not even PG if you work for it. I mean, yeah, but it's not public memo. It's not a public work purchase order. At the end of fundraising, let's talk about that for a second. So you ended your Kickstarter. How far are you away from the goal on within like, with 48 hours left? Close, but so close, but so far. Yeah. And you're doing Facebook posts almost hourly, it seemed at some point. Even more frequently, I think. I remember. Yeah. And so with this desperate 60 days of time to keep the mindset of creativity and hope. For most creatives, I think. Yeah. And I just have this endless stream of ideas. And this background work, they put in work. You know, it's just an idea. Right. And even if you're just a hobbyist, then you're creating a whole team thing. So you're trying to get that going to self. Right. And eventually you're doing more. Yeah, it's a hobby of yours. Exactly. You needed one of them to make money. I'm not really having a boss. I don't have a boss that I can pull up off this. The relationships don't work. I'm not trying to ask for a vacation time. When did you learn that? I was all real young. OK. But real young, I knew what I needed to be engaged in. Yeah. And I'm creating my own. And so that turned into a four-year college experience and the nine-year college experience. So I'm just trying to fit a lot more into them. I wanted to put this out in the hollow of the time who I was as a professional and who I was creative as I needed to be a lot like a boss. Yep. Real young. And I had a problem with the board. And so it got enforced and it was like a written and I didn't have to ask somebody to do that. It's just not going to happen. That's soul-sucking to me. It's soul-sucking. And I didn't do that with my boss because I do genuinely like to make people happy. Yeah. But I like to be a model actor. Your terms, yeah. And it even feels like work. You're checking out. When you opened, what was that like? So you first opened and then... The reception of this business in that space was so interesting in that meeting. I definitely felt it was both a lot of local artists and the work and service industry. The theory is quite about being in the very first and the very top of the area. And we have such a huge, quirky brand. And so at least in my case, you're going to come out with it on the food shift. It's often after all, in your eyes when it comes. And they would get, so you could also have them super obscure Japanese ingredients in our rice balls. The thing that I like the most in every iteration that's going to be is I think you can try that as well. So you can do a really good research on that. That's exactly what I thought from you. Wow. And it's called Masu, which is the brand name. And you can put it like this, it's a physical brand. And it's one of the best places that you can find. So when you blind this other place, then it's nice to have found a part. You can hide and find a part. So if you go to the grocery store, I hope you get it. If you get sushi rice, chances are you're going to find a place where you should be there. But it's, you know, a pretty higher end, probably, it is. But when you taste what you eat next, you're not too, it's a vegan classic. It's the most floral, interesting, it's sensational smell, if nothing else. But you don't get, um, because I don't know what it is. And they're both the same purpose, they're both, you know, just to make an unseekable part in this community. And so over the course of time, I haven't had that many different things about the cost of the products, but at least in the people that are not in the rest of the world, these products are massive. And they're the products, and they're the services. I mean, $25 for boxes, snacks, literally, they're a lot of money. And so at first, I had this terrible, sinky feeling, oh my God, I'm in a customer's court, where she did it. And I've created a negative experience for somebody. But I explained all this to them about the blind-face testing. I mean, when we started on buying the Western region, and so at the end, he was like, come on, buy my work, come first, and I'm going to get a map to find a binding quantity here. So like, even if you are using the best quality items, obviously, the more you can buy, the larger the operation, the more you can save. But when you're actually trying to operate, you're starting off with different brands. You're not buying huge quantities. You're buying, you know, 50-pound bags, not truckloads. Right, you don't have to wear us full of stuff. Yeah, and so surprising that I haven't really received much of that kind of advice, and that's how to do as fair as possible. I try really hard when I'm in the shop, if I'm going to pop-ups. What am I doing to make them feel so that it's making me feel welcome? I think it's an odd event. Yeah. But also like, that's too much. Let's suck my soul out for a certain amount of time, or just make me so nice of a business owner that I'm not making any money. And then it's just like a coffee where I just dig myself out. Right. All of my thoughts and all of my energy. They're nothing in return. And so like I said before, I mean, that turns into a really expensive coffee. Right? And so when you bring in to this picture, how does this feel about those kind of relationships? Type of investors that I want to put on the next line that people haven't yet, that in order to make people feel not necessarily special, but the way it's satisfied when you're building a brand and launching niche luxury products, you kind of have to go over backwards to stand out and to continue to have love for this thing too. My point, if you're just setting a set of standards that your entire staff has to follow, and you don't have the autonomy or the authority to switch things up on the fly, everything else is going to get the same long-term, live, experience that a lot of people are looking for something special. Let's talk about what's next for you. So what are you working on now? How much money are you looking to raise in the future? Is it a, are you going to be in Provincetown? Let's talk about what's next. Well, after my Provincetown experience. Did it go well? You made money, it was profitable, it was exciting. It was busy, but it wasn't profitable because our rent was $1,000 a month. And it was even in such a lot of stores and Rosa Jose and- It's just not the market, right? You have a different market, yeah. It's just not the business model, right? And in order for people to work as a business actual, it's the new experience. Actually, it's the new experience because that's what it is for. We don't have a new meaning in our life. It means whatever you want it to be. Yeah, exactly. The true meaning of that work, that they've experienced every time you walk through the door, meaning or monitoring that, what can you do? You can't size it up, you can't fit it out with. What is the experience that you're feeling in Rosa? How do you want to do it? So, yeah. And as you get to know people, you know, certain categories, you know, that sort of work. So, things that you know they respect, you know how to do it, it fits. But no person comes in at the same space over and over again, all of us can do the same thing. It's very intuitive you to identify that, very. So, will you be in Provincetown or will you go somewhere else? So, that's kind of a very simple circle. I don't think that's a good thing. I don't think that, naturally, my... It sounds really expensive. I mean, that's... Yeah, that's how it works. And it's seasonal, too, so it's like... That's the other thing, yeah. Is that if you don't do... All your money. In two months of the year. In two months of the year. Yeah. And essentially, it's maybe you have... It's like two and a half seasons. But if you're spending one grand a month and you can't even get 40 seats in your space, you know what I mean? I've never had this public info. You didn't even have hot water. I had additions with my stress mission. What? Wow. 10 grand a month, no seats and no hot water. Yeah, I mean, if you're supposed to have hot water, but the landlord is just such a queen, you ask? Yeah. No, sometimes... Most of them are, I mean. Yeah, sometimes you deal with that. I mean, more often than not, I think tenants deal with that. Like, that's the situation. That's the landscape. Oh, my God. Still me. Yeah, totally. Good afternoon. So, it chastised me for not having a barter about the front. I mean, problems come when you walk down the street. A lot of the more established forests of the Ratchanacht spot, some of these they're not proper for many of the barter people on the street. I didn't know that that was the term for them. And I'm just so happy it is because it's annoying. A barter? It's so annoying. Wow, I didn't know that was the thing either. I'd cross the street. It's an office where I'm on the floor. And why would he expect that from you? Or demand it? That's probably the culture down there for these tourist restaurants. It must have been the station of somebody out there who would aggressively go off the business. And as someone who wanted to have a destination in Ratchan, I was just in the wrong foot. I mean, it wasn't through the right streets. And so, had I had more time to think about it before I go into that space, I probably would have decided against it in the long run because it was a sublet and I knew that there was an outlet. So what's the worth in that way? So I'll spend $50,000 down the toilet, but some of the way that I'm going to experience it. It's so much experience. How are we not going to run this in the future? What works in this space? What doesn't work in this space? What, as a person, not a business owner, but like, what's the most weird way to get there? How does this feel? I don't like what I'm doing. Do I like the situation? Do I like the people that come in my shop? Are they making me feel fulfilled? And at the end of the day, I love the movie and I love to be able to have this subversive, but also when the underground exists in the community, the only sector, but Ratchan's a chef. You know, for the media, you're a business. You're no business queen. And so... Where will you go? Where do you want to go? So we've all come here in New York City, and I'm in Ratchan City, and all around the city, my year, I was in the U.S. town, I was in Provincetown. The first few months, we were in the tent. What? Where? Where was the tent? In Provincetown, I'm renting the tent space for me and my two other women. Like camping? Camping. Okay. This is not the ramping. No. It was like straight up camping when we did not have electricity or water or a tent site. It was every time when we camped. And so... Wow. Not only was that challenging for me, but it was just been challenging for people who came to look, and the little things that we've been in. So let's do that. And all of us and all of us, is that not everybody is as talkative as that one. No. Facts. And also not everybody is... You're Becca the Rekka. You gotta bet on yourself there. Yeah. You gotta be really, really tough and have a really good skiff to be in the business, even if you have moments to start. Look then to be passionate about your business where you're willing to build a tent with no doubt on it. And community that has no odds of being first. And use a massive price system. Oh, that's so interesting. And I was not the only business woman. At the end of the summer, when some of my staff left, I figured out, I think it's about like the headline of like, you know, the intro here. Wow. I moved back into my shop, which I totally wasn't supposed to do. And I ended up in the following office. In the office? On a beach chair, anything through ice cream freezers. The office is all too exposed to be outside. And I wanted it to be like, within the radar in front of it. And, you know, it's not breaking the rule a little bit. Yeah. It's fine as long as you chair it, but other than I don't have a whip, and like some fancy 1000s right now, sheets, and they've kind of self-confident. Like it wasn't a beach chair in between two freezers. Yeah, wow. And looking back on it a minute, I wouldn't have created an experience that's sort of like I have like, a pushy pad in the city, but now I have a pushy pad in the city and I'm thinking, all right, so I have a long time then. I have a long time. That's cool. But I have a short time goal of putting an exhibit or two to start working for 2000s space in this ongoing community area. Amazing. And so it's essentially the same, a similar business model with what we first raised and went for. I think that we need to file, but it's not just going to be a problem. I think I'm going to go up in the comments. But I think that I already knew about myself as I'm going to go on a date because I don't need to have some sort of access to the outdoors. And I think that a lot of, especially as it's in Boston area, months of the year I do stuff inside. Oh my God, that's it. That's why I love living here. Three or four maybe? Yeah. You're just trapped. It's tough. The trap in the world is not for myself. It's just my progression. And when you go up and inside, not my progression. So I want to have a space that you have to do it even in the winter as nothing knows enough, like enough outdoors space that we can. Maybe even it's like a, maybe even it has a, like a couple of weeks. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Oh, are you open to L.A.? And I've worked so hard in developing this brand. Yeah. We definitely don't want it to be a trend. But the thing that I've experienced through starting up as a kiosk on the beach, the middle of the sun above and just below zero and we're trying to pop Japanese pastries to people from all over Christmas time to having a super expensive high-end shopping middle of in problems town on high season to what we've been waiting for this problem and I've got friends who have sponsor floors. So I've been missing before it. How do you stay relevant between all these projects? Right? And people are so easily distracted by every other new hop shop, rush bus or shop or building company or just content-dissracting. And so I'm mixing up other patients and the menu and the service style. But two things we ask is of the hotel community. You're like a shape shifter. Yeah. Doing all that. That's exactly... Full circle. Yep. That's exactly what's in the queue. Well done. Where can people find you? How can they help you? Well, first things first on the follow-ups on the old Instagram. Yeah. Is it? At. It's at. You don't have to spell it. Got it. So I'm going to tell you about this. It's Tuesday and you play at 2AM. Why day? You play at because you can only like to use app if you want to spell it. So the next few steps are to raise your head around the funding and to answer the question about how much can we become a location? I think people really and I don't know if you guys experience this as well-heard from the creative side. But I have a really hard time even with the same consistent brand and the same basic many elements in the sense of the spirit of how people can treat it. Every time I go to a new location whether I'm at a McDonald's shop or, you know, in the future when you're building out a couple of dollars after I go to the supplier it's how low the cost is. For sure. In that location. In that neighborhood. That's smart of you to recognize that. And so I'm really anti-magnificent with training because you never really go to McDonald's and you don't become a Latin versus up near an LA. Even McDonald's makes it a point to bring in some element of culture or art or something. Yeah. I think the appropriate chain of it is less because you feel like it's the right thing to do and it's natural and it's the right thing to do. And more than just the business I expect you to do at this point. You want a chain. You have to. People are born really, really, really late and you become irrelevant. Become sterile. Yeah. And I know everyone wants to be a lot in my spaces. Plus, five years down the road we've got a shop here in LA and a shop in Boston. Everyone wants to be a lot more. It's just like business. No. But that's not what you want. No. That's smart. I mean, that's yeah. And you have like a big, beautiful, light filled space high rise of the penthouse. But it's totally different feeling and experience than a little beach shop. Right. From this town or someplace down the street from that that might be some of the place architecture. You can light it and you can smell this different feeling, different neighbors. And so, of course, there's this there. So, I left it in this house and I was thinking about how it was part-time. But then, the problem, thinking about how we want it on this for that particular space. But I have so many endless ideas of how it was in this brand. And that's just the next one. It seems like a little bit easy to be and get to the next step as I did the last step. It was so hard then to get back. And I go, I'll take that. You did it, yeah. You learned so much. I mean, the story is so good. I mean, you try to develop something that didn't work. And then you develop something and you learned a lot while doing it in Provincetown. And it worked aside from the location. Right. And the work, yeah. And for me, the most important element is that it's so working. It would be pop-ups. We're not getting there. It was sort of pop-ups. And that feels so good. It's awesome. It's a lot of things. It's exciting. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Seriously. Of course. Yeah. Just ship it is the point, right? Just try. Take the losses. You'll come back. You'll do more. Commit to your campaigns, especially on Kickstarter or whatever you decide to do. And you'll get there. You'll get there. And if you're not trying to make money, it's an expensive hobby. Exactly. Yeah. Find the balance you're paying to it. Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Thank you. We here at the start of the storefront would love to hear feedback from you. Reach out and let us know what you think about the show. Make sure to give us a rating on iTunes. Anything over five stars is the only way to go. Our music is composed by DoubleTouch. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram at start of the storefront. 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