The Startup CPG Podcast

Becca Wright
The founder knows the product best and like the little sacrifices that you make along the way can really change your product at the end of the day. And like what maybe makes you unique will be gone at the end of the co packing process. So you have to be true to yourself. One of my favorite quotes is like comparison is the thief of joy. And I think that if you're constantly comparing yourself to what's going on around you with other founders and LinkedIn updates and all of those things, you can really forget the uniqueness and the value proposition of your brand and what makes you so special.

00:47
Grace Kennedy
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Grace and I'm here with another founder feature. Today I'm talking to Becca Wright, the founder of Piedmont Pennies. Piedmont Pennies makes bite sized cheesy biscuit bites that are so decadent and delicious they were actually a Shellfie's finalist last year and the entire Startup CPG team is truly obsessed with their product. Becca and I chat about how she turned her family recipe into a brand that is now in 35 states and growing, what it's like to self manufacture their product and how they're scaling their bootstrap business. I hope you en episode and as always, let me know what you think. Hello everyone, this is Grace and I am here today with Becca Wright, the founder of my beloved and the whole startup CPG team's beloved Piedmont Pennies. So welcome to the show, Becca.

01:45
Becca Wright
Oh Grace, thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat today.

01:48
Grace Kennedy
Yes. So excited to have you here and to start, I'd love for you to just introduce our listeners to Piedmont Pennies. What is Piedmont Pennies?

01:57
Becca Wright
Well, I brought some with me just for the occasion. For the YouTubers out there, Piedmont Pennies are my granddaddy's recipe from eastern North Carolina. So they're bite sized cheesy biscuit crackers. Think of a crunchier cheesier cheez it. It's really a charcuterie to go. You got your cheese and your crackers put together. Delicious. With a glass of wine, a cold beer, any beverage of your choosing. And I grew up making them with my granddaddy and with my dad as gifts for friends and family around the holidays. So fast forward four years later, here we are with our product and we're in 35 states, three flavors, six employees and it's been a really fun ride. So I'm excited to dive into it.

02:38
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. And as I said, I'm a huge fan of the product and I've had it road trips, I've put it out for charcuterie boards. When I've had friends over, I've eaten it as I just walked through the kitchen and decided to grab a few. I love it so much. And it is like you said, a bit more like a kind of more decadent cheez it in a really lovely way. And the texture is like crumbly and buttery and just really like melts in your mouth in super delicious way. So I have to say that. But I'd love to hear a little bit about why you decided to turn your granddad's recipe into fully fledged product.

03:20
Becca Wright
Yeah, it's a loaded question. I grew up making them. Like I said, I went into corporate America. I went to college at unc. I went to corporate America, was working at Deloitte Consulting in D.C. And it was the holidays. I was feeling nostalgic. I was like, what can I give my clients as like a Christmas gift from the south, right? I was like, okay, well, you can't really, like take like fried chicken or something like that to the office. So I'm like, okay, wait, pennies. Like, I miss pennies. Like, I'm gonna go to the Whole Foods on Peace Street. I'm gonna load up my car, I'm gonna get the cheese, the butter, everything. I'm gonna make these at home. Brought them into the office and the clients went crazy. Like, they were like, where did you buy these?

03:57
Becca Wright
Like, oh, my God, you made these? Like, you made crackers. What? And I was like, yeah, this is the southern thing. Cheese straws. If you haven't heard of them, look them up. Cheese straws is a very southern delicacy, which you always have around the holidays. Baby showers. It really is like that gourmet delicacy that amps up your cocktail hour. And so I was like, you know, these are cheese straws, but they're better, they're crunchier, they're cheesier, there's more cheese to flour ratio. And it's still my grandmother's recipe. Like, it's the same since she started. And they were like, these are amazing. Like, we'll buy some from you. And I was like, I was like, this could be something one day. So I came back home, I wrote a one page business plan. Was back with my parents. My parents were like, good luck.

04:33
Becca Wright
Like, this is such a labor intensive. I mean, they're called pennies because of their small size and super. We're pinching pennies. We're literally pinching them onto sheet Pans. And my dad and I would do it. It would take like 8 hours to make 25 bags of maybe 6 ounces. So it was super intensive and a labor of love. So fast forward Covid hit. I'm in my MBA program back at UNC Chapel Hill, finishing up my internship at Facebook. And I was like, well, I'm about to take this startup entrepreneurship course online, and I have to have a project to work on. And I was like, I was like, I've always wanted to, like, do pennies. Like, let's start pennies for class credit. Why not start a company and do it this way? And my friends were starting apps. They were doing biomedical devices.

05:19
Becca Wright
They were doing all these, like, really high tech things. AI. And I was like, I'm gonna make. I've been a lot trying. Grandmother's cheese cracker recipe. And everyone was like, what? And then in four months, we did like 30 grand in sales, and it was all online, direct to consumer. And that's when I was like, hold up. Like, this actually could be something. And I had a super supportive spouse who was like, hey, you know, you don't know unless you try. And, like, now's the time to try. So, yeah, that was a little over four years ago that we started, and here we are. So, yeah, a lot of twists and turns, and I don't know what I'm doing along the way, but we can dive into this too.

05:54
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, definitely. I'm curious, when you were working on this for your class project and decided to create it, were you still hand making all of the Piedmont pennies yourself?

06:07
Becca Wright
Yes. Well, when it was a class project, I realized, like, I'm gonna have to get a commercial kitchen or rent one. But it was Covid. So a lot of the restaurants in Chapel Hill had shut down, and I. But I got to rent one that was a food truck kitchen, a commissary kitchen, and I got to rent it at night, the only time it was available, and it was 8pm to 2 in the morning, so. So I got like, really reduced rent, which was great. And what do we do is we do pre orders because cash is king. No investors. It was like we would do pre orders. We would go in for two or three days, and I'd use that cash to go buy cheese, butter, flour, that kind of thing.

06:41
Becca Wright
And then actually my MBA classmates and my own family would come in at night and pinch pennies. And this was like, again, September 2020. So we've got mask on, gloves on, six feet apart. No more than like four or five people in the room and we're just talking and catching up and having a little red wine and pinching pennies and just honestly trying to find like a reason to stay cheese in, which is our slogan now, but like a reason to be together and have that community and get through tough times together. So we would just make them at night and I'd sell them at the pickup on Saturday or online.

07:14
Grace Kennedy
Oh my God. Wow, that's a lot of work. But also probably was nice, like you said, to be in community during that time when were often so far from our loved ones or not able to see them. So it sounds like both exhausting and a lot of work and had some nice elements of it as well. So I imagine you're not still personally pinching all of your Piedmont pennies. So could you talk us through a little bit about how you've sort of transitioned your business to you and your friends and family creating these Piedmont pennies from 8pm to 2am to where you are now, where you're in 35 different states.

07:52
Becca Wright
It's a lot more manual than I wish it was still. And at the same time I do think that it helps us be so hands on and so into our quality when we're not having to make a lot of sacrifices for fancy machinery. But the evolution has been like slow steps and I think I, I thought, oh, I'm gonna have to have 250 grand to buy this dough depositor and then get this tunnel of just all these things. And I was like, wait, no, we can take small baby steps as we scale and continue to invest in better equipment and sell the old. And we can just, you know, we can do this like below and old fashioned way. It's been a lot, it's actually been a lot faster growth than I thought.

08:28
Becca Wright
But at the same time it's just fun to be methodical and not like get ahead of your skis like I see a lot of businesses do. So first step was, okay, we gotta figure out a faster way than hand pinching these. But we did do that for the first six months it was just like hand pinching all of it. And we obviously had a capacity issue and it was really labor intensive. And then we got a thing that was a little more mechanical and like hand done depositor that was helpful. And then from there we found an automatic one that helps, but it's still don't have fancy tunnel ovens or anything crazy. But we still are putting in like a huge double rack into a 48 rack oven at a time.

09:07
Becca Wright
And so we're baking them and then we take them out, we let them cool in front of a huge fan, commercial fan or kitchen. And then we have a automated waste scaler packaging machine which allows us to use our different size bags. And we're still heat sealing and everything. I'm getting a little too in the weeds, but that it's still very. I think that's okay. Everyone again thinks that it has to be some glorious process, but it does allow us to stop the production when there's a quality issue and really be hands on with like the cheese didn't come out the way we thought or you know, this didn't happen the way we thought in the oven's acting up and we've got an amazing production team of four women that are in there that really know the product well.

09:47
Becca Wright
And I think that speaks volumes to like how our quality can be on the output when they are paying such a close attention to detail.

09:53
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. I'm curious, I mean we spoke a little bit about this before we started recording, but I'm curious to hear a little bit more about why you haven't gone down the co packer route so far. I think so many founders are like in this position where they're like, do I want to like take it out of my own hands and give it to a co man or do I want to keep self manufacturing? But that's a lot of work and so I'd love to hear a little bit about that process for you guys.

10:22
Becca Wright
Yeah, I don't think there's a right or wrong. I think people want to paint it as black and white or you have to do this to scale or you can't do this if you want quality. I think it depends on the product, by the product. Bottom line, what is the product you're doing? You know, you probably can't buy a big canning machine if you're a beverage company or a hot sauce company. You probably want to go to a co backer and I get that. But the founder knows the product best and like the little sacrifices that you make along the way can really change your product at the end of the day. And like what maybe makes you unique will be gone at the end of the co packing process. So you have to be true to yourself to be candid.

10:59
Becca Wright
We've tried two different CO packers. They have sucked the life out of me to just be very candid. But at the same time I've learned so much about myself, about the importance of the quality of our product, our team. I've learned more about what we would need to do to scale and I've honestly had to turn down a couple retail opportunities because we said no to those co packers and one of them we left on like super great terms. And I hope that I come out of fancy food show with like a need to use them and maybe for a little bit different of a product. But I think it's such a science, it's such a business partnership and my best advice for anyone going down it is to trust your gut because you're.

11:38
Becca Wright
I listen to every podcast that CPG has put out about co packers. I listen. I've talked to so many startup founders that have, you know, similar products and in different categories and like I, I can't tell you how much it means to just trust your gut because I got weird gut feelings of stuff from the beginning and you just have to listen to that. But at the same time it could better and greater down the road when we do partner with the one we're thinking about in a couple months. But if you think it's going to take four months, it's going to take a year. So just be patient of that.

12:08
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. It always takes longer than you wish it would. And I was thinking too as you were talking about going the things like fancy foods or turning down retailers sort of on the other side of the behind the scenes, making the Piedmont pennies, how the pennies are made a little bit more of the consumer facing, how you get them into the hands of consumers and how you've approached retail expansion.

12:33
Becca Wright
Yeah. So we again being bootstrapped, we've taken it a little different direction than going into every grocery store tomorrow. Our product is a little bit more like gourmet and premium in both. Its, its price, its packaging, everything. So our target market are shopping at boutiques, gift shops, wine shops, charcuterie and salami cheese shops. And so that's where we have gone after. So we have gone to some like gifting boutique retail shows and positioned pennies as like the gourmet gift that you want to take along with your cute candle or along with your pretty sweater you're getting for your mom. Pennies are like that delectable gourme that's also like a present to open and to get. So it might not be a daily consumable. It is to some, trust me. We got people on subscription. Amazing.

13:24
Becca Wright
But at the same time it's really nice to have something that is a pleasure and a nostalgic Joy and to be able to gift that. So we've gone to a lot of these like retail gift markets to start. But the bottom line with food is you gotta try and to buy it. So like you have to find a way to get mass sampling out there and be on your feet with trays of your crackers or chocolates or whatever and to get people to try it. Because people would try it and be like O cheese cracker. What? And they will turn around mid aisle and say wait a second, what did I just taste like? That is so different than anything I've ever had. Like what?

13:58
Becca Wright
And that's when we can like go into the story and talk about the brand and goal is to convert people to penny pals. We call them like our loyal customers that are independent, quality gift giving, local small business and are like so supportive of that. And then from there we can introduce them to other brands and friends that we have that have a similar value alignment. So anyways, to full circle karma, like be good to others. And I think that's what's so powerful about these trade shows. And we've started in this gifting category and now we're starting. As our capacity has grown, we've started touch in. We're now in all the North Carolina fresh market locations and that is a great trial for us. And like they're amazing partners to work with or the smaller distributor, excuse me, to service those.

14:45
Becca Wright
And that's been so fun. But I'm like, let's do all the demos there. Let's just test it. Let's just go full send in a smaller market that we can handle before they want to release us into the wild of national.

14:59
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, definitely. And this episode will come out in early January. So I'm curious if you have sort of like any other retail plan. I think you mentioned that you're going to Fancy Foods next year. So do you have any other retail like goals or sort of targets you're looking to hit next year as you continue to grow?

15:20
Becca Wright
So first off, yes, our first fancy food show. So please, anyone hears this, come by and say hey to my husband and I. Slinging pennies and we would love to sample with you. And we'll be in the startup CPG section which I'm super excited about and to just meet and get everyone's energy and just make new friends. Yeah, goals for next year. That's some packaging improvements we made this year. I was, that really took up a lot ton of time and I was super excited about those. And now it's about, like, sharing those improvements with others for a better use experience. I think we're going to focus a little more on, like, gift basket companies, these more unique opportunities in hospitality, airlines, hotels. I know it's big guys to go after, but it just makes so much sense with our product.

15:59
Becca Wright
I couldn't imagine being first class or in main cabin and getting some kind of charcuterie box and experiencing pennies with the nuts and with a little spreadable cheese. And I mean, that just sounds delectable with a glass of wine. And so I'm trying to think of the opportunities where I want to experience pennies. And I ask my target customers all the time. Like, what I'm doing is any feedback of, you should get in here. You should get in here. Like, Total Wine has been a big one. People have pushed on us a couple other central, Midwest kind of larger wine stores and wine shops. And I'm like, great. Like, where you guys, our loyal customers see pennies is where we need to be.

16:36
Becca Wright
So rather than me trying to go full send into every single Whole Foods, I needed to be practical and think about where do our customers want to see us and where will that velocity be?

16:46
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I think that's so smart. And as you were saying, all those locations, I was like, oh, my God, yes, I want Piedmont pennies on the plane. Yes, at my hotel. Oh, my God, it's perfect. Yeah, that's. I think I was like, yes, I'm on board as you were saying that. So thank you. Great idea. And like you said, listening to your customers and thinking about where they're going to be and where they're going to want these things is really smart. And because not everyone is right for a Whole Foods, even if, like, sometimes it feels like in the CBG world, everybody's just like, I got to get into Whole Foods. I got to get into Whole Foods.

17:19
Becca Wright
I know, and I. And we said earlier, but one of my favorite quotes is, like, comparison is the thief of joy. And I think that if you're constantly comparing yourself to what's going on around you with other founders and LinkedIn updates and all of those things, you can really forget the uniqueness and the, like, value proposition of your brand and, like, what makes you so special. So, like, I've got a friend who has a, like, endurance energy gel company and hydration company. And like his target, he needs to be going to marathons, he needs to be in fleet feats, he needs to be in running stores and things like that and doing these demos with run clubs, and, like, you might not find pennies there. We're going to be at the wine club. We're going to be at the mahjong group.

18:00
Becca Wright
We're going to be at the bunco, whatever. We're going to be in these gifty locations and special occasions. And I think it's. That's okay. Like, saying no to something is saying yes to something else. And I think that so many people can just push, push. But if you feel like you're pushing so hard and it doesn't feel right and you' gut, you should listen to that.

18:20
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, definitely. Another thing I wanted touch on as you are, like, scaling Piedmont is the fact that you guys are bootstrapping and how you're managing bootstrapping your business and also preparing to scale into potentially more retail locations or just growing your business in different ways. And I know bootstrapping has its pluses and minuses, and I'm just curious to hear a little bit more about your experience.

18:49
Becca Wright
Yeah, bootstrapping has been, like, the best thing and also the worst the last four years. Yeah. To answer your question, I think what the bottom line is making sure your margins are there. Right. No margin, no mission. And so if you. At the end of the day, I hate when people say, oh, when we make 10,000 units or 30,000 units, then we'll have margin. And I think that. That I've heard Daniel and others talk about it, that is just not the right mindset. And so, like, from the first package jar label I made in PowerPoint, like, the first unit we made, I was like, we need to have a healthy margin because, like, you think it's only going to go up. But then, like, as you start buying and scale and paying people and rent and fixed costs, like, sometimes it can go down.

19:31
Becca Wright
So. So you just need to make sure that you're taking care of yourself and setting a high customer willingness to pay. And I credit my time in NBA of, like, just helping me think more practically, like, as an outsider looking on the business for that. Not that you need an MBA to start a company, but I think that talking to smart people and, like, figuring out these frameworks before you launch and, like, have your pricing out there, I think is important. Be candid. We've won over $200,000 in grant, so grants have been so powerful to be, like, an engine for this business. That was a. I mean, just such a blessing. We won a $50,000 grant, like, more locally in North Carolina, which helped us buy our first ovens and mixers.

20:10
Becca Wright
And helped us achieve economies of scale, more margin to put back into the business. My first employee, move her to full time from part time and then the next grant we got was one from a bank like foundation. And again you can check regionally, you can talk to economic development partnership in your state and your county level and you know, the startup CPG community obviously, which is awesome too. And there's tons of perks with all the sponsors and whatnot. So I just think that getting creative there, I was like, I'm going to apply. I know it's going to take a while, but like I'm just going to put my hat in the ring. And I like when people say like, don't let yourself be the wanted to tell you no.

20:49
Becca Wright
I just all, you know, I've been turned down for grants too, don't get me wrong. And when I've been told no, I said, okay, well we're going to try again next year and we're going to just keep figuring it out. So that the grants have been a huge help to just get us off the ground.

21:03
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, definitely. And just a little bit of a cushion. It's nice to have that. I know you were when you were launching this, you were doing your mba, but were you also working at all while you were launching Piedmont or were you like full in on Piedmont pennies the whole time?

21:18
Becca Wright
Yes, I finished my summer internship at Facebook and it was misinformation in like spam operations and it was a crazy time in 2020 with all that was going on with COVID the election, racial injustice, there's. This was wild and I really enjoyed my time there and learned a lot and was with so many smart people. And so I was like in the background at night, you know, like getting the Instagram up with pennies. And I was like, kind of want to start this, like you know, fit with the class and. But then it was my second year of the MBA program that was all online because of COVID And so I was doing class full time so I'd have study group zoom sessions and things like that. But that's why we couldn't go bake until 8pm because I had to walk the dog.

21:58
Becca Wright
And I had dinner with my husband who was working remotely at the time too. And we. It's just, it was a weird, it was a grind for the six months of that.

22:07
Grace Kennedy
Yes, definitely. And I'm sure it was also kind of a, a little bit of a scary decision to say, okay, I'm not gonna go Maybe continue working at Facebook and get that nice, cushy salary. I'm going to go into my own small business.

22:23
Becca Wright
Grace, that was so hard. Like, I got the offer, and I knew I should have been so excited about it. And my husband and I were, like, we had a realtor. We were going to move to Austin. Like, it was full send. Like, this was going to happen. And we're both from North Carolina, and something just didn't feel right. And I think in Covid, we really, like, kind of got back to the core of our being of, like, kind of, like, survival instincts a little bit. Right. Keep up with our family, we would do FaceTimes with our friends. We would just do, like, the bare minimum to, like, get by every day and not go crazy and be listening to the news and not knowing what was going on.

22:56
Becca Wright
But that was helpful because it silenced a lot of the noise of, like, what I think I should do. And it was more like, life is short, not promised tomorrow. What. What do you want to do? And my husband was just so supportive of that. He was like, why don't you try it for three months, and if it doesn't work, like, apply for more jobs? And I was like, you're right. So we tried it for the three months, and then that's when I had to tell Facebook that I wasn't going to be coming. And they. And they were so gracious, and they were like, reach back out, like, if things, you know, don't work out, and we'll be here. And I.

23:25
Becca Wright
I think, too, I think people think, like, the door is going to completely shut if you go try your small business or, you know, you launch your food product. And it's like, you can do it for two or three years and trust your gut again, do another evaluation, Go back to corporate America. That's what you want. Life is not linear. And I. That's, like, the best. That was the best learning experience for me to figure that out.

23:46
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, definitely. Oh, it's, like, filled with so many hard decisions. Being a founder, it's like, every step of the way, I feel like you're making decisions like that one, which is, like, go for the bigger sort of, like, flashy thing that would be what everybody else would see as, like, amazing. Or go for the thing that's, like you said, trusting your gut or the thing that you really want or the thing that you think is best. Best for. For your business. And just a million hard decisions every day, I'm sure. And so that leads me to another question. I Always like to ask, which is kind of what has been one of the hardest parts about being a founder and how did you work through it or how are you still trying to work through it?

24:28
Becca Wright
Yeah, that is, that's a very hard part. There's like one that's more tangible that comes to mind. Bootstrapping. Every year and a half, we're outgrowing our space and hence why a lot of people don't manufacture the house. Because you need more space but you can't afford it. So you know, you're doing what you can afford. But then in a year when you grow and things go well, you're needing more space. So we have had three different commercial kitchens. We've had like herb spaces. We now have a warehouse where we're taking the product packaged, you know, sealed food safe, taking it down to our warehouse down the street. And it is a bane in my existence. But it also is allowing us to operate and to have more capacity, which is great and a blessing and hire more people.

25:14
Becca Wright
I'd say that commercial real estate has been really difficult for me. And I don't think our commercial real estate environment favors small business. And that's been so tough to live in an awesome place like Charlotte. I mean it's no like San Francisco or Austin or whatever, but like it is growing fast and it is such a fun place to be and great, you know, have an airport closed. The brewery scene here is so alive. The sports, I mean it's just a really fun time to be here. But the real estate is so expensive and it's just growing so quickly and so it's hard to find the right amount of square footage. You know, we're bigger than a commissary kitchen. We can't do. We've done that, then they're done that. Now we're in more food production. We're not just making like specialty cakes at night.

25:57
Becca Wright
You know, this is like full on manufacturing and it. We're. But we're in between. We don't need a 40,000 square foot space and we don't need like a 5,000 square foot space. So I think. And I also don't want to sign a five or ten year lease somewhere. So you know, you. That's been really tough for me. Commercial real estate. And the other thing I'll say is I feel like at the beginning you'll take these risks and you're really willing to like go to that demo and go to that pop up, work that market and you're not Overanalyzing it. You're like, we just got to get out there. Like, everything's going to be great experience. And then I think you get a little jaded the couple years in and you start trying to overanalyze everything and say, like, was that risk worth the reward?

26:36
Becca Wright
And it's like, you gotta leave some room for spontaneity and trust your gut. At the end of the day, you know, I might be like, I don't really know if that market's worth it. But I'm like, but that's where our target customers are. And you never know the relationships that can start there. And then I go, and then I meet someone that works in American Airlines and we have the best conversation. And now I'm talking to someone there, you know, so it's just, you really have to be true to yourself and not I overanalyze it. And I have a great board of director or board of advisors. So again, I have 100% of the company, but I think that having a board is so important. So we meet quarterly. They're friends, mentors of mine, people in the food industry, and we meet quarterly.

27:13
Becca Wright
And it gives me accountability. I share a monthly report with them as if they were investors in it. And I do like to try to reimburse them for their time and pay them in pennies. I joke, but that is something I would tell anyone. Especially. So even if you don't have investors, like people that you look up to or that are supportive of your journey, pull them on board, you have five or six people and to be able to have accountability, it's been super helpful. But the commercial real estate has been really tough. That's just a personal.

27:42
Grace Kennedy
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Oh, my God. Yeah. Especially like Charlotte, it's definitely a, a desirable place for people to be. And I can imagine that it's. It's just getting harder and harder, unfortunately. So on the flip side, what has been one of the best moments or one of your proudest moments since founding pennies?

28:02
Becca Wright
I. I know it's not as flashy, but I think it's employing my people and giving bonuses. We just gave our, like holiday bonuses today. And like the texts I'm receiving and the people that they're first generation US citizens and it's so empowering to like, help them get their driver's license and help them just have jobs after high school and to think about long term goals. And I speak pequina, very little Spanish. Okay. But it's pushing me, man. It's pushing me to, like, brush up on it and to help them and, like, look out for them as if they're like my siblings. And that's honestly been the best. And I think that will live, like, long after pennies is. Is gone. It. Fun, tangible things. I mean, gosh, like, we.

28:51
Becca Wright
We were on Good Morning America as, like, a fall food favorite, Tory Johnson, and we met them at the Atlanta Wholesale Market, and that was a super fun, like, crazy process. And that was. It was super cool. And this year, we won Coolest thing made in North Carolina at an award with the North Carolina Chamber. So were the small business award winner beside Honda Jet Engines, which was the largest. So it's so funny. It's cheesecrackers and, like, jet engines, but it's just funny things like that God has just made this, like, really windy, curvy path for pennies. And it's been so fun. And I, this year especially, have started experiencing pennies in my business as part of, like, my life rather than just, like, having them. It just be all about pennies.

29:39
Becca Wright
It's like, I want to go to fancy food because I would like to go to Vegas, and my husband's going to come with me, and we're going to go see a show. And, like, it's cool that I can build a life that is what we want, too, but also what my customers want. Drama headphones.

29:52
Grace Kennedy
Sorry. No worries. Yeah, that's so sweet. I mean, everything you just said. But, you know, speaking about, like, your employees and, like, how you're supporting them and how they're supporting Piedmont, like, that's just really sweet to hear and is, like, making me emotional maybe. It's just.

30:10
Becca Wright
It's like this core thing. It's not what people, like, see. But it's so funny when I think about what has been the best parts. And it's like, you know, even giving a loan to an employee that needs it, and it's just these small things of, like, I don't know, it's kind of goes down to, like, the core of our being just taking care of people. And that's kind of what I want pennies to be an extension of is like, oh, you know, pennies, and you're a penny pal, and this is what we're about, and this is what business can be about. And, yeah, I think that's. It's kind of. It's a little bit old school, but I think we can bring it back.

30:42
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I love it. So sort of on the other side of you supporting people. How can the startup CBG community and our listeners support you and support Piedmont Pennies?

30:53
Becca Wright
Oh, that's so kind. I think.

30:55
Grace Kennedy
Yeah.

30:56
Becca Wright
Following us on Instagram, TikTok Getting better at TikTok, but I'm in the like, what do you call it? Young millennial generation. So I'm working on it. Yeah. Check us out on our website. Feedback's a gift, I think. So like giving us any feedback. We I made a discount code you can use code startup CPG for 15 off@piedmontpennies.com and I think, yeah, just saying, hey, supportive. I mean I love if I just come across a brand and I love it. I'm like messaging them on Instagram. Like I love the vibe. Or hey, this Instagram post really spoke to me. So I think that all those things are like really important. Just little heads up, little high fives. Virtual high fives. Yeah, I think that's the best way.

31:35
Becca Wright
And if anyone recommends any of their retailers that they're like, oh wait, pennies would actually fit well here. Would love that and I'd you and vice versa if I can help people in the Charlotte and North Carolina market especially.

31:47
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that's awesome. And everybody should go check out feed month pennies and order some for themselves. It's like I said a couple times in this interview, I'm such a fan and they're so good and you should really try them yourself. And yeah, they're really cute too. Becca's holding up a box for our listeners. But yeah, thanks so much for coming on the show, Becca. It was so much fun to learn more about Piedmont pennies and your family recipe and just everything you gu are doing. And I can't wait to see where you guys go next.

32:17
Becca Wright
Thanks, Grace. Thanks for having me and fostering this community. I'm excited to meet a lot of new penny pals, so hope everybody stays cheesing.

32:29
Grace Kennedy
All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, it would help us out so much if you left a 5 star review on ratethispodcast.com startupcpg I am Grace Kennedy, the host of the Founder feature series. So feel free to add me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack. I'm always on the hunt for new and exciting brands to feature. And if you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com and finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our community on Slack, you can sign up via our website startupcpg.com.