Richmond’s career began on Wall Street in investment banking. Shortly after beginning her career in finance, she had an opportunity to move overseas to Kenya and start a school. She handled the finance operations and assisted in setting the educators up for success by helping them get off the ground, whether it was finding a facility or raising the money. “I had this incredible chance to enter education actively and fell in love with it,” Richmond explains.
One of their biggest challenges pivoting into entrepreneurship was their lack of understanding of what a clean label supply chain for school meals was and being able to provide the school meals every day. “Over time, it's taken a decade-plus to effectively catalyze a clean labeled supply chain for the school and community sector,” states Richmond. “We're a $150 million company, but…clean label products for those sorts of things were not available when we started.
Take your time. Don’t rush an idea. You need to be able to research and test what you want to accomplish. If you move too fast, you may miss an important step to the process.
Very inspiring! 🙋♀️