Founder Spotlight: Christina Dorr Drake (Willa's)
Meet Christina Dorr Drake
Company:
We aim to create the healthiest oat milk, and the most sustainable plant milk available. Using our trade secret milling approach, Willa’s creates creamy, delicious oat milk using the entire organic whole grain oat, with the most protein and fiber, and the least sugar of any oat milk we know of. And because we use the entire whole grain oat, we have no food waste in our process.
Startup Stage:
Seed
Location:
London, UK
When did you launch the business?
2019
What led you to where you are today?
All three of us founders are plant based milk drinkers and wanted to find a deliciously creamy plant based milk that tasted good and was actually good for you. We were surprised to see that most of the plant milks were masquerading as healthy, but were mostly sugar and artificial ingredients, and on top of that, had a lot of food waste in their processes. Using our Grandmother Willa’s oat milk recipe, we got to work on creating an organic oat milk that we could feel good about drinking.
What do you wish you knew before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?
We were amazed at how incredibly open and generous the entrepreneurial community is! We have been so lucky to be connected with so many wonderful founders and advisors who have shared invaluable advice, connections and super creative collaboration ideas. We could not have gotten this far without them.
What is the most difficult decision you've had to make regarding your business so far?
We were meant to launch last March in co-working spaces and coffee shops in NYC. At the time, the decision to shift and expand our strategy to ecommerce and more consumer focused products was terrifying and required us to accept all the changes happening around us, erase our memories of our prior strategy and revisit everything in the context of an entirely new world due to the pandemic. Looking back now, the decision we made to expand to ecommerce seems obvious, but it was terrifying back then when so little was known about the virus and everything seemed uncertain.
What can you help the VEGPRENEUR community with?
I found it so helpful to talk to fellow founders who were further along than we were and ask, “What are the pitfalls to avoid?” They saved us so many headaches! I am happy to return the favor and share our own learnings from along the way.
How can the VEGPRENEUR community help you?
Aside from checking out Willa’s, they can let me know if they’re interested in collaborating in any way!
Fun fact about you:
Our Grandmother Willa was from New York City and ended up living in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. It’s so appropriate that the Willa’s team is also split between New York City and Minneapolis/ St. Paul.
Anything else you would like to share?
In January 2020, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer at 37 years old and with no risk factors or family history. I went through chemo, immunotherapies, radiation, lumpectomy / lymphnode surgery while fundraising and launching Willa’s. And by “I”, I mean “we” as a team got through 2020 and all of the challenges thrown our way, together. Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to have discovered my lump early, and have a complete response to treatment. I am now cancer free, and it is very unlikely it will come back. I look back sometimes and I’m not quite sure how we accomplished all we did last year, but here’s what I do know - prioritizing your health is critical. Throughout treatment, I carved out time to work out, meditate and eat well. So much of 2020 felt out of control, but making sure I was doing those things for myself allowed me to control what I could and reminded me that my body was part of me, not out to get me. I often wonder why it took cancer for me to realize how critical making time to take care of myself is. I remember when I was diagnosed, I searched like crazy to try and find another founder who might have gone through something similar and might be able to tell me what was ahead. If anyone is reading this post looking for that same perspective, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
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