Dixon started the company with her childhood best friend, Milia Lando, ten years ago when her 18-month-old daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease. Simultaneously, Lando found out she was allergic to eggs, corn, and dairy. Dixon, who grew up vegan, has struggled with a severe tree nut allergy her whole life. Finding delicious treats that met all these requirements was agonizing. Raised Gluten Free grew out of the two women’s own needs.
The Covid pandemic drove up demand for healthy and convenient at-home foods. But since Bumpin Blends is staffed by stay-at-home moms, the team suddenly had to manage kids at home. The shelves at Costco soon were empty, the supply chains for materials went from a 3-week wait time to 20+ weeks, and the dry ice supplier closed. Meanwhile, Mastela was in her first trimester of pregnancy and had a toddler at home without childcare.
Dempster offers this advice for aspiring entrepreneurs “Be thoughtful and intentional when building a business, but also willing to pivot and learn quickly. Get things to a ‘good enough’ place.” Steichen adds, “Build out a team that compliments your skills. Find formal or informal advisors and mentors with varied backgrounds. I deeply believe in diverse inputs and not creating in a vacuum. This is how to build a successful and sustainable company.
“Don’t follow a playbook,” Wishingrad councils aspiring entrepreneurs. “When we were getting started, we decided to focus our energy on retailers against the many voices telling us that e-commerce is the future. This strategy really paid off for us. We’re now the number one-selling cereal in Erewhon and won a national rollout in Whole Foods in an unusually short amount of time for a new brand.