New Zealander couldn't get a job in the U.S., so she sold homemade snacks—her business could bring in $10 million this yearIn 2017, Rebecca Brady took her homemade seed crackers to a farmer's market in Buffalo, New York, just hoping to sell one box.
"I'm not a refugee, but I was a new person here to Buffalo ... I do appreciate how hard it is coming to a new place and not being able to find work," she says.The company is a result of a 10-year gap on Brady's resume: She moved to Japan in 2005 to accommodate her husband Will's job at aerospace company Moog, but couldn't obtain a work visa.
She'd always been interested in becoming an entrepreneur, but"was never brave enough to take the first step," she says."I was like, 'Maybe I'll give this a try.' It was really just from people's reactions to and literally them getting disappointed when I'd turn up to practice without them."Top Seedz is moving into a 35,000-square-foot facility in downtown Buffalo, which the company says will increase production by tenfold.
Instead, Brady sold roughly 20 boxes per week at the Buffalo farmers' market during her first year in business — more than enough to turn a profit on her investment, she says. She took sample boxes to local food markets and co-ops to convince them to stock Top Seedz, and landed the holy grail of Western New York small businesses: a spot on the shelves at
Some of those employees are simultaneously learning English, which Brady says has led to"a steep learning curve for a lot of people when they first come — we play a lot of charades in our building, but our words are 'mixer' and 'oven.'"Top Seedz crackers, and other products like roasted seeds, are sold in more than 4,000 stores across the U.S.