She also advises founders to build relationships with potential investors long before they need capital – a strategy that helped her recently secure seed funding from the Collaborative Fund and the co-founders of Sweetgreen and Magic Spoon.
“There have definitely been a ton of highs and a ton of lows” in the past two years, Dana told FoodNavigator-USA while she stood on the deck of her brother’s bagel shop in Washington, DC, where fans of the brand gathered to mark One Trick Pony’s milestone.
For example, she remembers with a grimace, how the brand ordered a “huge amount of jars” for its first order only to discover after delivery that the lids did not fit how the company wanted.
“I just remember being awake at 3 am, 4 am, 5 am worrying about these lids and how they were fitting,” she recalled. “But,” she added, “We launched anyways, because we thought, ‘done is better than perfect,’ and getting our product out into people’s hands was better than waiting until we had the exact right packaging.”
Since then, the company not only fixed its packaging but will soon launch a new jar that will address the common problem of separation in natural peanut butter made without added oils or emulsifiers, which requires consumers to stir the oil back into the peanut butter before they can use it – a notoriously messy and frustrating step.
The new jar will also help the young brand standout from the competition on store shelves as it expands distribution in retail over the next year, Dana said.
The product’s clean ingredients, taste and “silky smooth texture” also will help set the brand apart from other nut butters, Dana added.
She explained that One Tricky Pony’s peanut butter is made with only two ingredients – Argentinian peanuts and Patagonian sea salt.
“We use peanuts from Argentina because peanuts are indigenous to South America. So, it is the original climate where they are supposed to be grown and that makes them extra delicious and a little bit naturally sweeter,” Dana explained.
The company also uses a finer grind size than many nut butter brands, so the end product is smoother than much of the competition, allowing consumers to just as easily drizzle it as spread it with a knife, she added.
Change is the only constant
The jar is not the only part of the brand or business that Dana said has changed since the peanut butter brand launched, which reinforced her advice to other startups to “just start.”
She explained, “There are going to be so many things that you want to change, but you won’t even know what they are until you start and you get your product in people’s hands and you get their feedback.”
She continued, “Since we have launched, we have changed the roast level a little bit, we have changed the salt level a little bit, we have changed the packaging a little bit. But those are all things that were not on my radar before we launched.”
Connect with investors before a capital crunch
She also advises founders to build relationships with potential investors long before they need capital – a strategy that helped her recently secure seed funding, led by the Collaborative Fund with participation by the co-founders of Sweetgreen, Magic Spoon and more.
She explained that her brother and co-founder fostered a relationship with a stakeholder in the Collaborative Fund long before One Trick Pony needed money, which allowed the brand to invite the investor to the brand’s first birthday party a year ago where he could see “the excitement and the buzz and the people who cared about One Trick Pony,” which helped sell the business as a viable investment.
The funds will support One Trick Pony’s expansion into more retail stores, the development of its custom packaging and expansion beyond peanut butter into other categories – such as its ready-to-eat cookies that launched a few months ago.
Just as helpful as the money is the insight that comes from the investors, said Dana.
“We are most excited about syndicate of angel investors,” many of whom have started businesses and who Dana said she can turn to for advice and real-world guidance.
“It is like they are accelerating us years, because instead of making all these mistakes myself and learning as I go, I can just shoot an email to this amazing group of people” and learn from their experiences, she said.
Ultimately, though, Dana said, “the secret” to long-term success “is just continuing on and perseverance.”
