Betsy Fore and Sofia Laurell (Tiny Organics) - Delivering The Healthiest Food to Babies, Approaching a Co-CEO Partnership, and Their Unique Way of Approaching Organic Growth

Thank you Will McClelland for the introduction to today's guests Betsy Fore and Sofia Laurell, the co-founders and co-CEOs of Tiny Organics. Tiny Organics delivers organic, fresh, nutrient-rich baby and toddler meals created by their Infant Nutritionist. Their goal is to help every parent feed their baby and toddler the healthiest food. Previously, Betsy worked and created product lines for Mattel, Hasbro and MindCandy (Moshi Monsters). She was also the Founder and CEO of Wondermento, creators of the WonderWoof BowTie dog activity monitor. Sofia is a marketing and PR veteran, most recently at Ascend Foundation helping elevate women and minorities onto U.S. corporate boards and built the brand into a powerhouse.

A couple books that inspired Sofia are The Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. One book that inspired Betsy is Shoedog by Phil Knight.

You can follow Betsy on Instagram @betsyfore and Sofia @sofialaurell. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

Some of the questions I ask Betsy and Sofia -

1. What attracted each of you to entrepreneurship and consumer products?
2. How did Tiny Organics come together?
3. What is the problem that you are trying to solve? Betsy
4. You are both Co-CEOs. Talk to me about your decision making process?
5. The classic line when there are two co-founders is “complementary skills”. When I was talking with Jessica and Rod from Lovevery, we discussed how yes that is important, but also they are so collaborative on lots of the decision makings and not to restrict each other in a box. There are no right or wrong ways to build a company, but wanted to know how you think about your working relationship? Is it more siloed when it comes to decision making or is it more collaborative?
6. How did you go about sourcing the food and your supply chain? It didn’t seem like you both came from a food and bev background (I could certainly be wrong here!), was that difficult to know where to begin?
7. One of the trends that we’ve talked about on the show in consumer is curation. Now since there is so much information and choice out there, curation has become difficult. Tiny Organics seem to address that with these personalized menus and creating a plan for the child. Does that though make your supply chain more complicated?
8. How did you think about the price point at the very beginning and the competitive landscape?
9. Why did you decide to fundraise?
10. What was your strategy when you approached fundraising?
11. Did you already have a network?
12. What was the toughest obstacle for investors to wrap their heads around when it came to your business?
13. How do you think about growth vs. profitability? Betsy
14. What has been the hardest part when starting Tiny Organics? - Sofia
15. What’s one thing you would change when it came to fundraising? - Sofia
16. What’s one piece of advice that you have for founders that are starting a CPG company?