Kiersten Firquain 3:35
I did. I started a early education center. And that was my first five year plan. And I knew nothing about opening or running a business although I did have a business degree. So yeah, I just got entrenched. I wrote my first business plan. I went to any Women’s Business Center seminar that I could find and I just started learning how to run a business.
John Corcoran 4:01
And was it rough in the beginning? Was it mean? Was it a rough learning period for you? It was like
Kiersten Firquain 4:08
I remember that the roughest part was when the kids wouldn’t take a nap. That is rough for sure. It was rough when you got sick look kids don’t want a nap. But
John Corcoran 4:19
I will tell you’re gonna say something like getting customers but no, no,
Kiersten Firquain 4:23
no, that wasn’t hard. I love you had
John Corcoran 4:27
no kids at this point.
Kiersten Firquain 4:29
No, I was I was getting ready to have a child and I was paying
John Corcoran 4:34
spend years and working for this car company and you would you just go knock on doors and say I got a childcare center you give me your kid
Kiersten Firquain 4:43
I think I did. It was so long ago John not to date myself. But you know I don’t I once I got a few customers then it was word of mouth. Referrals is how
John Corcoran 4:54
we got him. Yeah. And once you started doing this, did you recall Have you like this is for me, I love running my own business or was were there challenges.
Kiersten Firquain 5:06
There’s always challenges, obviously, usually money. But that’s when I tapped into local childcare groups and found out you could apply for grants. And so that was a whole new world that opened up applying for grants to help sustain the business. And that’s that first business led me into my second business, which was called bistro kids.
John Corcoran 5:31
So tell us about that. This is the first Farm to School Lunch Program lunch program in the middle. Okay,
Kiersten Firquain 5:39
that’s right. But we started out doing kids cooking classes. So when I was doing daycare, I would have people come in to entertain the kids, right, the gym bus would come or they take swimming lessons, but they love always love to cook. And so I started doing hands on cooking classes myself, and traveling around to all the other daycare centers and providing that activity. And then that morphed into birthday parties. We did cooking birthday parties. And because of that, then I started doing summer camps at some of the schools in the towns. And then eventually one of those schools said, Hey, our lunches are terrible. Can you do healthy school lunches? And I said, Heck, yeah. And I knew nothing about doing healthy school lunches, I remember trying to figure out how to write a contract, like that I was gonna give to this school to do their lunches and pretty much made it up as I went along.
John Corcoran 6:32
I mean, that’s not easy, especially if you’ve got other businesses at the same time, organizing the food, fresh food distribution challenges, keeping it cold, keeping it hot. I mean, that it’s a it’s a very difficult business to go into.
Kiersten Firquain 6:47
It was and we were a little bit ahead of our time back then. You know, people didn’t really think that school lunches could be healthy. And so what we did is we put a chef in every school, we had a garden in every school, we asked for curriculum time, which is a huge deal to get, and we did hands on cooking classes with those kids. And each class had their own little garden plot. And yeah, it was pretty successful program. Hmm.
John Corcoran 7:15
And what’s happening to the daycare center at the same time, are you running now? Are you running both at this time? Did you don’t people run?
Kiersten Firquain 7:22
Yep. So I closed the daycare center after five years and went full time on bistro kids. And, yeah, just,
John Corcoran 7:30
of course, that’s a very different sale. Now, instead of going and selling to new moms with the baby who needs child care, you’re going around to school boards, school districts, and trying to convince them to sign up for this new healthy lunch program. What was that like changing that type of buyer
Kiersten Firquain 7:48
that we learned real hard, that there’s a lot of bureaucracy and red tape in a school administration system. And so what we did is we focused on small, independent private schools, schools that we knew parents would be willing to pay $5 for lunch, as opposed to the $1 for lunch that the public schools had to were able to spend. But the good thing about learning about grant writing for the for the early education center is we just we started getting grant writing to do funding for after school programs. So we partnered with the YMCA, and we started doing healthy snacks for all of their after school programs, because we’re gonna get some grant grant funding.
John Corcoran 8:35
And but we’ll point does this transition into your next company, which is a Happy Food Company, which is the kind of a meal kit company similar to like Blue Apron. Well,
Kiersten Firquain 8:44
we started taking business away from bigger food service management companies in the area. And so we started getting attention. And eventually, we sold to a bigger food service management company and I had an exit in 2011. I worked for that company for three years, and then knew I wanted to do one more big thing.
John Corcoran 9:06
Pause right there. So so many entrepreneurs I’ve interviewed, sell a company and then they have to go work at that new company that acquired them. And I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear that they would miserable.
Kiersten Firquain 9:20
Awful, oh, my gosh, I learned so much about why you should never go work for the company you sell to.
John Corcoran 9:27
Again, what was it about it? The experience for you?
Kiersten Firquain 9:31
Boy, is it’s really hard to go from being the owner of something that you’ve created from nothing to being an employee with a boss. I literally pretended I didn’t have a boss. When we, when we would go in for performance reviews, I would just ignore everything that he said. So I was not an ideal employee, as many entrepreneurs probably are not and I just for three years, did everything I could to make sure that all the chefs and teammates that I had hired, were going to be Okay, once I exited the company, and that’s the case today, the brand is still functioning and some of the same schools that we signed up.
John Corcoran 10:08
Wow. So this, this is the Bistro Kids Company then. Okay, so what happens to Happy Food Company during this period?
Kiersten Firquain 10:15
So then I once exited that company. I met with a guy who was looking to launch a new concept. And he had a meal kit concept. And he was chopping it around. And somebody said, Well, you’re a tech guy. You don’t know anything about food. Have you talked to Kiersten? And so we met. And he likes to tell the story that when he pitched me, I just laughed in his face and said, Good luck. But eventually, he convinced me to partner with him. And yeah,
John Corcoran 10:44
we must have been pretty persuasive. If that was your first response. And then you ended up partnering with him.
Kiersten Firquain 10:49
I did well, I knew I wanted to do one more thing, right? I keep saying that every company, I’m like, I’m gonna do one more thing. And so yeah, we worked on building a meal kit company that sold to retailers, primarily grocery stores and some small businesses.
John Corcoran 11:05
So again, a different type of buyer. But were you focused on the food preparation side? Or were you involved in other areas, too?
Kiersten Firquain 11:15
Yeah. So by this time, I had gone to culinary school, I was still operating a catering company that I had been operating for quite a while. And yeah, my main job in this company was to build a team to maintain a culture and to recipe tests come up with all new recipes that would work for this meal kit model that people again had never heard of.
John Corcoran 11:43
Yeah, was that a challenge? Since now it is common, but back then explaining the idea to people that difficult or to retailers,
Kiersten Firquain 11:52
was terrible. So we would put a cooler in a grocery store. And then we would just send somebody a demo team to go stand there and explain what a meal kit was. It was all about education. Again, once we got somebody to taste a meal kit or purchasing milk at once, we had about 70% repeat business, but it was about getting that first customer to buy your product.
John Corcoran 12:16
So how did you manage to have your catering company at the same time as you had the Happy Food Company and other companies at the same time? Perhaps even? Maybe you were doing both at the same time while you’re working in the acquiring company? A Bistro Kids?
Kiersten Firquain 12:32
working seven days a week? A lot of hours? Yeah. So no secret there? No. Never not working,
John Corcoran 12:43
never not working. I was hoping for something like Oh, get a great management team and then delegated it all. I was hoping for something like that.
Kiersten Firquain 12:50
Well, no, because when you’re a startup, you can’t afford that you can’t afford, you know, to hire your replacement yet. You’re so well, what’s that?
John Corcoran 12:57
Yeah. So even the caterer so what’s kind of fascinating to me about these different companies is they each have slightly different buyer, even with food, even though food was similar. Firstly, you’re selling to new moms, so taking care of their kids, then you’re selling to school districts, then you’re selling to retailers, and then the catering company is a different buyer altogether.
Kiersten Firquain 13:17
That’s absolutely right. So I’ve always been in the food industry, but always in an outline type of capacity. I would say the one unifying thing is locally sourced farm to table sustainable. Good for you.
John Corcoran 13:32
That’s what that’s kind of the through line that you kind of you found your passion around. Yes. Yeah. Was it? You know, farm to table is a term that we hear all the time, especially here in the San Francisco Bay area. But at the time when you started doing it in, in the Midwest and around Kansas City, was it hard to find the on the supply side? Was it hard to find that type of food?
Kiersten Firquain 13:55
It was and so we found one farmer group who had formed a co-op. So the main struggle in the Midwest with sourcing local food is distribution. Right? All the little local farmers go to the farmers market, but they can’t, they don’t have the time or wherewithal to travel to everybody that may or may not want to buy their products. Yeah. And so they started partnering with a local grocery store chain. And then we partnered with that local grocery store chain. And so we started to figure out the distribution piece of being able to get this amazing, you know, local family farm food into our meal kits. Hmm.
John Corcoran 14:34
So you have your catering company, and then March of 2020, COVID hits. You’ve got all food related companies. I think at this point, you also had legit provisions. What was legit provisions? Not yet. We didn’t have legit Okay, legit provisions. It was your company in Napa. That’s right. Got it. So you had your catering company then
Kiersten Firquain 14:54
you had the catering company called get happy catering had happy food company and you COVID hit, and we obviously stopped all events and had to layoff 24 people, our entire staff. What was that, like? It was one of the worst days that I can recall, in the business. Because as an entrepreneur, your job is not only to come up with all these fun, awesome ideas and implement them, but you’re providing security for the people that you employ. And having to let those people go as often.
John Corcoran 15:35
At the same time, so you have the meal kit company did that suffer as well, because
Kiersten Firquain 15:41
we tried to keep it afloat, but it we couldn’t make it happen. So now we had we had in investors and advisors and they all said, It’s time you’re just gonna have to, you’re gonna have to let it go. And so we did we close that
John Corcoran 15:56
was part of that because of competition that had come in from the larger ones like blue aprons and stuff like
Kiersten Firquain 16:01
that. A little bit, a little bit, and COVID saved those meal kit by meals company, in my opinion. Um, but yeah, it was just we kept we couldn’t sustain it. And so we closed the doors in May. And I moved to Napa Valley a couple weeks later.
John Corcoran 16:21
Wow, big, big life change. Yeah. And for someone who’s crazy about Farm to Table food, that’s kind of the epicenter of that whole move. And isn’t it?
Kiersten Firquain 16:31
That’s right, well, that’s where I had gone to culinary school, Gosh, 30 years ago, 20 years ago, long time ago. And so I knew I always wanted to come back to the Napa area. And I thought, why not? And so I did. And while we had happy food company, we had developed the concept for the concept for legit provisions. And I decided, You know what, I’m gonna go there, and I’m gonna launch this new concept. And everyone said, You can’t do that you can’t move during COVID and open a new business. But I did anyway,
John Corcoran 17:03
you have a really interesting idea. Tell us about I think you had like a club or membership club or something.
Kiersten Firquain 17:11
Yeah. So legit provisions was a grab and go market concept. Completely COVID friendly, though. We classified ourselves as a grocery store, not a restaurant so that we would be deemed essential. And you could do a self checkout on a kiosk. So when they mandated grab and go or delivery only, we already had the model and the technology in place. But yeah, we, again, I moved here and I didn’t know anyone. So how do you build a network? How do you get people to come in the door when you don’t have a community? And so we started a VIP program. And we asked those people, if they would be a VIP in our store and pay us $250 A year you would get a free drink. And they became our most important advocates. Those group of people came in every week, they brought their friends, they brought their kids so they could get their free drink. But then of course, they bought they bought other things.
John Corcoran 18:09
Something tells me you don’t shy away from sales. But I have to point out that yet again, a whole nother different buyer. We went from moms with kids to school districts to retailers to whoever hires a catering company, to now we have you know, John Q shopper just walking off the street coming into a grab and go market.
Kiersten Firquain 18:31
Yeah, direct to consumer retail, which I again knew nothing about.
John Corcoran 18:36
What are what’s the through line behind this any secrets to selling to such a different variety of array of different types of buyers?
Kiersten Firquain 18:51
I think the secret is finding a need in the market. So everything we did, we were just a little bit ahead of the curve like I I felt this people were going to want this before they really realized that they were going to want it. And we also the Grab and Go having a touchscreen kiosk. I mean, we had developed that a year before COVID hit. So yeah, I mean, it’s just really neat to look around and say what is missing in this market? And how can I help provide that?
John Corcoran 19:24
So you said you develop that a year before COVID hit? So was this on the roadmap for you? Is that something you were you were envisioning doing a grab and go market type of thing before? Yes, we were in Napa, or was that something you were going to do in kizi?
Kiersten Firquain 19:40
We talked about doing it in Kansas City, but in the back of my mind now is kind of you at Napa? What was
John Corcoran 19:47
it like for you going from COVID hits in March. So we’re talking March, April, May by May. 60 days later, you’re in a completely new city. You have to close down a couple of businesses layoff a group of people and you’re already, you’re in a new town, starting a new business, that is a phenomenal amount of change in a short period of time.
Kiersten Firquain 20:06
That was it. I’m not gonna lie, it was scary. And people kept saying, Well, who are you doing this with? Who’s helping you? And I was like, Well, what do you mean? I got my dog?
John Corcoran 20:20
Yeah, yeah. Well, in a sense, you’ve done it many times before, not with the Backtrack backdrop of a global pandemic. But, you know, started in new industries started new companies not knowing anything before. So it seems like maybe there’s a comfort to that for you.
Kiersten Firquain 20:35
Yeah, I love creating something from nothing. I get energy. And that’s my passion is developing things that may not already exist.
John Corcoran 20:44
What’s the next excerpt before I get to that? So you joined you were involved? I believe in EO in in Kansas City, right? Yes. So you join you switch to the San Francisco chapter. What was that like for you as you joined a new chapter in a new
Kiersten Firquain 21:01
town? Oh, great. So great. And part of the reason I did that was not only because I love EO and everything that it brings, but I needed to build my community in the Bay Area. I didn’t have that. And so EO has been instrumental in building that community for me.
John Corcoran 21:18
And what does EO give for you more holistically, globally beyond just, you know, new joining the new chapter, but the years that you’ve been a part of it? What would you say to some entrepreneurs out there listening to this who considering being a part of it?
Kiersten Firquain 21:34
Just continual learning? I mean, I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 20 years and every time I go to an event or network with somebody, I always learn something new just their professional and personal development is amazing for me.
John Corcoran 21:50
Here’s a this is a great where can people go to reach out or inquire ask you about some things that you mentioned in this interview?
Kiersten Firquain 21:57
Yeah, legitprovisions.com Our website is still active as we’re waiting to open a new location in Napa. Or you can reach me directly at ChefK@LegitProvisions.com.
John Corcoran 22:09
Chef K, thanks so much.
Kiersten Firquain 22:11
Thank you, John.
Outro 22:12
Thanks for listening to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast. This episode is powered by Rise25. Please subscribe and check out future episodes.