00:00Obesity is a plague to Americans and Blacks are 60% more likely to suffer from diabetes
00:06than other races.
00:08You guys, I am just not okay with that.
00:11So bringing a food product to market that is a clean, healthy alternative with some
00:16culinary flair and panache is truly near and dear to my heart.
00:19I'm Ashley, owner and founder of Trade Street Jam Company.
00:23We are a low sugar, vegan jam company and while our jams are great on toast, they really
00:29shine in cocktails, cooking, baking and more.
00:32Our mission is to introduce the world to a concept bigger than sugary jam on toast.
00:37I know so many people who have given up on jam completely and we're really just flipping
00:42the jam industry upside down and changing the way people think about fruit.
00:47One thing to know about us, we are everything but Smuckers.
00:51Here's why we're different.
00:53What's in our jars, so no additives and three to five grams of sugar.
00:57How we make people feel excited about cooking at home with new, interesting products and
01:02why we stand out with bold, beautiful packaging not traditionally seen in the jam aisle.
01:08With over 15 years of culinary experience, I continue to inject innovation and culinary
01:13expertise into each and every funky flavor.
01:16Like with our two best sellers, strawberry chipotle and fig and smoked yellow peach.
01:22But I will say that our demographic, which is comprised of the home chef, the healthy snacker
01:26and the new age mom love all six of our unique SKUs.
01:31Growth in specialty foods is three times higher than all foods and small health conscious brands
01:36are the fastest growing CPG segment.
01:39Also, 40% of food purchases are now being made online and the jam industry is a billion dollars
01:46wide.
01:47So our method to grow a jam company online has proven and will continue to prove to be
01:52very effective.
01:53Our business model is 85% D to C and 15% wholesale to companies like Macy's, Weight Watchers,
02:00Gold Belly and Whole Foods, all of which have marketing tactics to drive consumers back to
02:05our website and have allowed us to triple our sales year over year since our inception in 2016.
02:10Our ultimate goal for 2021 is to raise $500,000 to inject into hiring, marketing, raw materials
02:17and account acquisition.
02:19We've bootstrapped this entire way.
02:21Y'all, I am so proud of that.
02:24And we've supplemented with our voracious efforts to get every single grant possible, but we
02:29need money.
02:30We went from a tiny little company selling on Etsy to selling a half a million dollars worth
02:35of jam and being featured in the New York Times, People Magazine, Food Network and more.
02:40So are you ready to invest in an up and coming woman owned and black owned brand that's ready
02:46to go to the top?
02:50Hi, Ashley.
02:55Great pitch.
03:00Two things.
03:01One, you should absolutely be proud and two, thank you because I'm also a vegan and I love
03:08your trade street jam.
03:10So I'll kick it off with the questions and then I'll go to my fellow judges.
03:15My first one is given your background in the culinary industry, why did you pick jam?
03:19I'm sure you must have evaluated a bunch of different possibilities from a vegan standpoint.
03:24What did you see in jam that you thought was worth building a business around?
03:27I'll be honest with you.
03:30I didn't see something in jam that I wanted to build a business around.
03:34I followed my heart and what my passion was and it kind of led to a business.
03:39And I actually think that's why we found so much success organically is because my heart's
03:44in it.
03:45It's my passion.
03:46I loved preserving.
03:47I love putting things in jars.
03:49People loved it too.
03:50You know, they really felt that when they ate the product.
03:52So turn into a business.
03:54There's nothing wrong with that.
03:57I'll turn to my fellow judge Keena.
04:01Hi, Ashley.
04:03Great job.
04:04Absolutely amazing to learn more about jam.
04:07As you are thinking about it, can you tell me a little bit more about the structure of
04:13your team and the role that you're trying to get them to play go forward as you continue
04:18to grow your business?
04:19Sure.
04:20So the cool thing about our brand is that I am the only full time person in this company.
04:28But we've really been smart about how to grow the team.
04:31So we've really leveraged interns and contractors to grow the team.
04:36And I think it really shows how scrappy we are, right?
04:39And how we're able to kind of use the resources we have.
04:42So we've recently hired a supply chain coordinator intern who helps grow our supply chain and manage
04:47our inventory.
04:48I have an email marketer who we pay her based off a percentage of email sales, but she does
04:54an amazing job.
04:55She actually started working for us for free years ago because she wanted to help a brand
05:00like mine.
05:01So she helps grow our revenue directly through email.
05:03I have a social media manager who helps as well.
05:06And my husband, who is probably one of the most valuable team members, is a business advisor
05:11to the company.
05:12So he helps out with just overall financial decisions and he helps me stay calm and not
05:19lose my mind in this crazy entrepreneurship world.
05:22Awesome.
05:23Thank you for answering.
05:26You should really be proud, Ashley.
05:31I like to, it sounds like you're very capital efficient to grow to the revenues that you
05:36have, you know, with one person that's fully employed.
05:38I think it's really great.
05:40My question is around your sales channels.
05:43You mentioned that you do both sort of wholesale and retail.
05:47So maybe you can just speak a bit about where you see the company going in terms of where
05:52you will put your energy from like a channel perspective.
05:56Yeah, definitely.
05:57And so we are a majority D2C company and that's really, so it's twofold.
06:03It's D2C and it's wholesale, but the website is really where we use trial driving mechanics,
06:08like our coupons, our sampler packs, and our email flows to get customers in.
06:13And then we use what we call profitable marketing.
06:16That's what we use for wholesale.
06:18So companies like Weight Watchers, Macy's, we give them a trial amount of products and
06:22then it drives customers back to our website and it drives credibility for our brand.
06:27So that's about 15% of the business.
06:30The rest is all D2C and funds will be injected in the hiring, marketing, and raw materials,
06:37which will all kind of help this brand grow.
06:40We've gotten this far organically, which is awesome.
06:43So injecting any capital into those buckets is going to be a huge win for us.
06:51Great job.
06:54Again, you should be super proud of what you created.
06:56And I'm sure you'll have a ton of success going forward.
06:59We're going to move on to the next pitch.
07:02Thank you guys.
07:03Bye.
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