Founder Spotlight: Aman Blana (Growee Foods)
Meet Aman Blana:
We make veggie and seed-based spreads that are 100% plant-based and made from simple pantry ingredients
Startup Stage:
Bootstrapped
Location:
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
When did you launch the business?
December 2021
What led you to where you are today?
My frustration with complicated ingredient lists of existing vegan condiments whenever I tried to eat more plant-based made me start this company and an unwillingness to give in to the advice of "industry experts" to optimize my recipe, helped me develop a product that is delicious and clean-label.
What do you wish you knew before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?
I wish I knew it was not going to be enough to just make a great product. Marketing it and distributing it at the right places/times are equally difficult challenges that are often overlooked by young/first-time entrepreneurs like myself. Also, I wish someone told me it was going to be very lonely to be a solo founder.
What is the most difficult decision you've had to make regarding your business so far?
Staying true to our original recipes and mission of keeping our ingredient list simple has by far been the most difficult decision as it has made it harder to find co-packers who can make our product. This has increased our costs for initial batches and requires 2x more investment than planned.
What can you help the VEGPRENEUR community with?
I have been into food distribution before starting Growee Foods. With that experience, I am able to crack the code to get into retail when you have a product that no one knows about. This can help early stage to test their product with MVPs and understand product market fit even before they commit to putting in significant investment into the project.
How can the VEGPRENEUR community help you?
Get support and mentorship from entrepreneurs who are a few steps ahead of me in this journey. This might also help me find future co-founders and investors.
Fun fact about you:
In my downtime, I explore coffee shops and unwind there for hours.
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