In the dynamic world of entrepreneurship, stories of resilience, determination, and innovation shine bright. Jessica Rolph, a seasoned entrepreneur with 17 years of experience in the early childhood space, has woven an extraordinary tale of building successful ventures from the ground up.
Jessica’s latest venture, Lovevery, has attracted funding from top-tier investors, including TCG, Google Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
In this episode, you will learn:
Jessica Rolph’s journey underscores the importance of resilience, adapting to challenges, and persisting through the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.
Jessica’s initial foray into business was fueled by a desire to create positive societal impact through purpose-driven ventures.
Pivoting from frozen baby foods to iconic squeezy pouches, Happy Family’s success lies in the team’s ability to adapt, innovate, and find product-market fit.
Happy Family’s acquisition by Danone not only brought financial success but positively impacted individual investors, showcasing the broader influence of purpose-driven businesses.
Jessica emphasizes the need to separate emotion from business decisions, maintaining focus on the vision and daily tasks to navigate the entrepreneurial rollercoaster.
Lovevery’s recurring revenue model reflects a commitment to building lasting relationships with parents globally, supporting children’s optimal development from birth to elementary school.
Envisioning Lovevery as a global iconic brand with a $20 billion market cap, Jessica’s future aspirations mirror the success trajectories of renowned brands like Starbucks, Tesla, and Lululemon.
For a winning deck, see the commentary on a pitch deck from an Uber competitor that has raised over $400M (see it here).
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About Jessica Rolph:
Jessica is a serial entrepreneur and category creator. Passionate about the importance of early life, she is the co-founder and CEO of Lovevery, a child development company helping parents feel confident they are making the most of each learning stage.
Jessica also co-founded Happy Family, the #1 organic baby food company in the US.
Before Lovevery, Jessica was the co-founder of Happy Family, where she helped launch, build, and lead the company to become the #1 organic baby, toddler, and kid’s food in the US, with more than 200 SKUs sold in 20,000 stores across 30 countries worldwide.
Groupe Danone acquired HappyFamily in 2013.
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Alejandro Cremades: All righty hello everyone and welcome to the deal maker show. So today. We have a really exciting founder. You know, joining us a founder that has done it before you know? Ah, she’s now on her next rocket ship the last one you know she she had a really fantastic exit. But today we’re going to be talking about product market fit how to really match customer needs with your product. Ah how to go about raisingcing money. How was the experience with both companies. You know that she has built when raising money from outside investors. Also co-founder relationships. How to value them. Why fifty fifty partnerships make sense and also or may not make sense. You know I’m also talking about control and decision making as well as the role and the purpose when building something from the ground up. So again, brace yourself for a very inspiring conversation today. And without further ado. Let’s welcome our guests today. Jessica Rolf welcome to the show.
Jessica Rolf: Um, thank you so much Allah Huntro It’s wonderful being here.
Alejandro Cremades: So originally give us a walkthrough memory lane here. How was live growing up for you I’m not gonna say the the year that you were born in even though you share it with me but but give us a walkth through memory lane. How was life growing up for you.
Jessica Rolf: Yes, well since you mentioned I mean I’m I’m not afraid to share my age I’ve been in the early childhood space for 17 years now. So I was born in 1974 and I was born in Minnesota and my childhood was you know a lot of. Um, sort of a typical childhood except for I think I was given a lot of extra adult attention and love. So my parents divorced when I was 3 and I lived in 2 different households going back and forth and my mom moved in with her parents. So I grew up with my mother. My grandmother my grandfather in one home and I was the only child ah for my parents’ first marriage and then my dad um married a wonderful woman in my stepmother and in that family we had I had a step brotherther a stepsister and then my dad and my step mom gave birth to ah a little boy who’s just. Ah, wonderful light of our life. His name is Rob and he has Angelman syndrome a disability. Um and he taught our family so much about empathy and brought our family closer so we have sort of 2 different very different homes but a lot of adult attention and love.
Alejandro Cremades: That’s incredible now now for you. It sounds like business. You know why say you know going to be your path to follow. And in fact, you ended up doing your and Nba at Cornell. So what? Really what would you say that was that the seed that sparked your your I would say. Desire for the business you know journey or the business path.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah, you know you meet those people and I know you’ve talked to so many of them because I’ve listened to the dealmakerrs podcast and all of your amazing guests so honored to be here I hear so many people who say that they’re just an entrepreneur from birth you know they’re. They’re enterprising on the lemonade stand. They’re building on the lemonade. They’re they’re offering other snacks and charging up for it or they’re coming up with you know they have 20 ideas by the time they’re 20 and for me I never was an an entrepreneur in that sense. So I never was somebody who just had a million business ideas and could never. Um, get enough in terms of enterprising I really have had only 1 business idea that really works um in my life and that is the current business that I’m in and so I was led to business because I was really curious about the positive impact that business can make to society at large. So there’s nonprofits there’s working for government. There’s working in business. We’re sort of the 3 things that I thought about when I was trying to figure out my career and purpose and I was so inspired by people who married purpose and their life reason for you know, giving back with the in the business environment. And I found that their marriage of the two can be so powerful and so I was really drawn to this concept of social socially responsible businesses or businesses with purpose or values-based businesses and that was why I went to business school I wanted to be a founder create something that could add value to society and also.
Jessica Rolf: Um, be in the business world nowadays. Honestly, that was back. You know in 2004 I graduated from business school nowadays people think of business in a much more fluid way. It. It is much more infused with purpose I don’t think there’s 1 entrepreneur that started something that didn’t think that it had a purpose so I would say that it was sort of old thinking of this. Has to be either hard business with no purpose or only purpose driven businesses. It’s very much a marriage of the two now. But at the time I was really drawn to that feeling of um that I could make a difference through the business world.
Alejandro Cremades: So I know that also for you, it was pivotal moving to Austin to Austin because you know there was an opportunity that came knocking for your husband but that ended up you know changing the course of everything you know for you as well. So so walk us through what happened there.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah, so my um husband had become a recent husband. We were both pondering. How could we build a business that could create change in the world in a way that felt meaningful and we were so inspired by Newman’s own you know that Newman’s own salad dressing where you buy the dressing and it. Donates to charity and it just felt so universal and so positive he had the idea of creating a food line focused on cancer prevention that would be Lance Armstrong branded now we all know kind of how things have played out in the food industry. How things have played out with Ls Armstrong and and this sort of. Um, charitable businesses. But I would say at the time it felt really revolutionary. Lance was based in Austin my husband knew the director of fellowship at ah, a fundraising at lance armstrong’s foundation and so we decided to move there and see if we could make the business a go turns out that they. The yellow bracelet campaign happened. Do you remember when they were kind of minting money on those yellow bracelets and they were selling them for a dollar they were they were costing pennies but selling them for dollars and yes, exactly livestrong and so there was no interest from the foundation in creating a food line. It was way too much risk and.
Alejandro Cremades: Oh yeah. It was the one that said like life Strong. No I Remember that? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah there you go.
Jessica Rolf: In the meantime I had found a job at whole foods hoping to kind of build this this vision for Lance and we found out that our business idea wasn’t going to work and so while I was at whole foods working there I Met my partner who I found co-founded happy family with. And that’s the organic baby food company that we built.
Alejandro Cremades: So let’s talk about the the how the the idea comes now how how the idea comes to you how you and your partner start discussing and then how do you go from having this idea to then all of a sudden you’re like okay, let’s go.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah, so my business partner had the idea for happy family. She had a friend who had had twins and was really struggling with what to feed her family and so my partner Shazi had this idea to create a fresh baby food line that would be sold nationally. Would really offer an alternative to those processed jarred baby foods that we’re all so familiar with and so that was the original kernel of the idea my partner Shazi was in New York and so I decided to leave whole foods. Go to New York to join her and co-found the company.
Alejandro Cremades: Wow! So I guess say what ended up being the business model of the of the company of happy family. How are you guys making money there.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah, so soon learned that creating a fresh baby food at scale launching you know peas pure aid peas in grocery stores across the country and the refrigerated section was not going to be viable for us. At the time that just technology wasn’t there and so we decided to pivot to frozen baby Foods. We had these little cubes of frozen baby food that we sold in the freezer section and retailers. Loved It. We got some initial funding. It was really hard. It was a hustle we hustled so many individuals $2500 could buy a piece of our business. We figured it out and we launched it and then unfortunately it was not a hit.
Alejandro Cremades: So Then how do you recover from that. Obviously you have this excitement you go out and then it doesn’t unfold the way that you had hope for I mean many people will be like oh maybe you know like it’s not going to work and how how did you guys you know, go about just keep going when when. You know things were not unfolding the way that you had to hope for what what happened? What? How did you go about it.
Jessica Rolf: I mean you dig into the grit that every entrepreneur that you’ve interviewed has has so we dug into that grit and we had just enough money to kind of get by for a few more months and we spent some of that money buying our own product on shelves and handing it out for free in grocery stores. So. I remember visiting the Midwest we were doing a target test 24 store test in the Midwest we had a map of where the stores were my dad drove me around. We would buy up the baby food. Give it away for free and try and create. Um more knowledge and awareness that there was baby food in the frozen aisle. We found that our data would spike but then it would it would go down again people just it wasn’t a sticky enough product and so we pivoted to dry cereal and we got really lucky the infant dry cereal that we invented was much more healthy than the dry cereal that was on the market. You know that baby cereal it had we included tha and special. Vitamins and made it more nutrients more more more nutritious and it was also organic and at the same time our main competitor in the cereal aisle had a huge supply problem and so we became the only cereal that was on the shelves and that really boosted our. Ability to get to the next pivot which was snacks and then eventually the squeezy pouches that we all know we were one of the pioneers in introducing fruits and vegetable mixes with healthy nutritious additives into the squeezy pouch so that became our success story.
Alejandro Cremades: Ah, and how did you land into the area because it sounds like theerial was you know what was the opening door for you to understand how you could match your product with perhaps you know the customer needs. So did you do testing. Did you do questioning like out of all things. Why Syria was you know the next thing for you all to be like let’s go with this.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah, my my I really credit my business partner Shazi for thinking of the idea for cereal she was thinking. Ok, why don’t we um, we need to add more nutrition to this first food. So how about adding probiotics and. Good fats and some of the added nutrition that babies really need in those early months of life and merz of eating and so we you know really had to push because our first product was not working really had to push the development of being able to make a cereal. There were some technical aspects to adding the. Fish oil and adding the da and probiotics in so that they would have you know ah part parts per per billion of probiotics that would actually stay in your gut over time and we were able to pivot and make that work. Um from a manufacturing perspective was really hard. We had lots of. Hurdles. We made the can way too big because when you fill fluffy light cereal. It starts out light and fluffy but then it settles and the baby cereal really settled and so we ended up with a canister that was only half full. Um, we had to put a sticker on it saying oops. We’re sorry, please forgive us this. You know the can is too big but. Know that the the cereal inside is really nutritious and healthy. So it was a lot of trial by error a lot of mistakes but we had the grit to kind of stick with it until we got to product market fit and I would say that that was the hustle that that got us there was we were lucky. We had a little bit of time we were able to continue to raise money hand to mouth.
Alejandro Cremades: So out.
Jessica Rolf: Through individuals never venture and we were able to to get to that place where we finally had flow with the customer.
Alejandro Cremades: And the whole acquisition because the rest you know obviously was history. You know you you created like this incredible brand and and this company that was you know generating interest and at 1 point obviously 1 thing led to the next and the company ended up getting acquired. So. How did the whole acquisition thing with the danon group come about.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah I mean I think that there’s a lot of you’re obviously so good at this business and I think people should turn to you and advice from people like you that can really help them guide them in our case, it was a little bit more of um, organic process. So we knew Gary Hirschberg the founder of Stonyfield Farm yogurt we had known him through kind of the industry network and had befriended him and he was very interested in in happy family and acquiring us because he had become a part of a company called group denone which is. Danon in the Us we think of it as yogurt, but it’s actually a global infant nutrition company. They do a love infant formula infant foods in other parts of the world and so we developed this ongoing relationship with him and when it came time to sell the company and we kind of felt like it was time in the sense of it was just hard to raise more money we were. You know, having some scaling issues. Um, we also felt like we were at a really good spot in terms of having nailed product market fit and really proved that we felt like having a broader partner especially with infant formula background and expertise could really take us to the next level. So we developed that relationship and that relationship really was the through line for being able to get to the finish line with group denone.
Alejandro Cremades: So what was that experience like of going through that acquisition because this was your first business your first exit which is remarkable and also we’re not going to be disclosing any numbers because we don’t want to get anyone in trouble. But. Can safely say that it was in the hundreds of millions of an acquisition which is incredible. So for the people that are listening and also for myself make us insiders. How was that journey of going through that.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah I mean I’ll tell my side of the story. My my cofounder shaszi really led a lot of the deal back and forth with with we involved a bit like an investment banker from Barclay’s and then we we went through the deal I would say that the due diligence was sweaty because they were uncovering. You know things that around they were. They were so going deep into our claims our marketing claims and making sure that they were all verified. They were putting a legal and regulatory lens in the business that we had never had before and we were looking at all aspects of our contracts and being able to think through. Um you know, just. How we had set up the business and I felt it was very felt like that the things that we hadn’t done in the beginning could really bite us later. We had really good legal counsel in the g newsy group I would you know really recommend Nick Juniorz if you have a food business. They were really helpful in helping us to set up our. Kind of backtrack and figure out how to make sure things were buttoned up but we were really um, didn’t know what we were doing when we started this company and we set it up. You know, with without a much as much structure as we should have so I would say that it was stressful because it felt like the deal could fall apart at any time for a reason that just wasn’t. A deep reason wasn’t a reason like we weren’t destined to sort of be a comma part of denone and that our that our dream would be a good hands with this new company. Um, as far as the moment of selling it. It was really interesting I all of our investors.
Jessica Rolf: Got their payout and it was incredible. We had people who got a 20 x return and they were people who were in my neighborhood and they rode their bike 1 guy rode his bike to toward my house and he was like I can’t believe it. You’ve just put all of my kids through college I can’t believe it you know and they were people who are not sort of um. Typical high net worth typical venture. It was a lot of individuals where we had really made a huge difference in their lives so that was really so exciting Shazi and I sold 60% of the business at the time of acquisition and denone required that both of us stay on for a 3 year earnout and. Really understanding what that meant for how we needed to lead the company while also not having total control of the company was an interesting question of how it would play out all of a sudden I remember feeling like my priorities were my own in the beginning you you just kind of read read emails think through things. And then all of a sudden I was like oh my gosh I need to make sure that I’m really prioritizing my emails from anyone with an at denone. Um, you know, um, email address because I just realized that I needed to build trust with them and so my priorities sort of got shifted and became a little bit more. Building trust a little bit more political in the sense of needing to really engage with the with the denone at large and help them support us in our need to to hit our goals so we did meet our goals and we were able to.
Jessica Rolf: Um, complete the sale three years after the earnout and that was a really exciting moment. We also had all the capital released from escrow. Um, you know there’s oftentimes capital that is held in escrow for any lawsuits or any liabilities that you might have and we were able to get that full release of that capital so it was a really um, exciting. Kind of journey to to get there I would say there is a moment though that it shifts from being all yours to being a shared responsibility to shared company and it’s a natural evolution but it can be kind of emotional to say goodbye to some of the. Ownership and some of the dreams that you had for the business.
Alejandro Cremades: Absolutely now you were there for 3 years doing the earnout. Ah but eventually you know the 3 years come to an end and as they say once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur. So what happened next.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah, you know I was really found myself very hungry for an experience where um I could do it again and Alejandra you have 3 children three girls I I found out in the pre-interview. Maybe maybe the listeners don’t know but it was very fun to find out that you have identical twins and another. Older girl I have 3 as well and in the process of having my children I felt so confident obviously about what I was feeding my my babies they were eating the most nutritious food I had all this background and experience and going deep in nutrition. But I remember finding myself kind of sitting in the living room. Wondering what was happening with my children’s toys I was sort of surrounded with those plastic flashing lights toys I don’t know if you have any of those in your home when the girls were little but I remember reading that a huge amount of brain growth happens in the early years of life and only around half of who we become as our genetics. You know the other half is this environment and I remember wondering is this environment with all these like flashing lights toys and all this kind of distraction kind of feeling is this an intentional environment to help grow my child’s brain capacity and develop and help them reach their potential and so I discovered a. Doctoral thesis written on infant brain development and went really deep into the science just like it went deep and loved going deep into the science and nutrition went really deep in the science of learning and had an idea for creating a company that would be a recurring revenue company. But really what it’s delivering is an early learning program to parents with products that we would invent ourselves.
Jessica Rolf: Based on what science says is helpful. Not what parents but people think of as a toy but really build it up based on what neuroscience says is healthy for each stage of development get parents information and the tools that they need to feel confident so had this idea and really felt like I was so hungry to bring that. to to life um and I think that that’s the thing is I think that that’s that hunger and that purpose that pushes you through all the challenges around fund funder doubt. Even if you started a second company. Oftentimes Investors can be doubtful and you can kind of see it in their eyes and it’s it’s hard. It’s it’s very vulnerable to to raise capital to build a company but but I really felt driven by that by that purpose.
Alejandro Cremades: So let’s talk about that for for a minute on the on the fundraising you know, obviously the second time added the way that you’re viewed by investors is a little bit different because they know that the money is not going for the education so much but more for the execution. So how would you say that the experience. You know what’s differently you know different for you this time around on the team and then also how much capital have you guys raised today.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah, so we’ve raised 132000000 and I would just backtrack and say that I have a co-founder in in love every named Rod Morris and he and I are just an exceptional team. And together we went out to raise capital and we decided to raise from individuals the same way we did with happy family in the in the beginning but then in quickly in the second round really try to bring in institutional capital and really build in those those important pillars of support. From Google Chan Zuckerberg initiative we have reach capital which is a early stage education fund and maveron and then um, ah, you know and then thinking about sort of growth round capital later but the point is is that I think that it was was really a. Different approach I think we were more professional in our approach because we had been there before and rod had experienced building mission driven a mission- driven companies one in particular had gone public. He was on the executive team as that company went public so he really understood the sort of machine. Like nature that you have to approach the fundraising process and we were able to capitalize love every with a little bit with more capital than we had happy family.
Alejandro Cremades: Now Obviously you were you were talking about this say earlier if you know to I mean your co-founder and and also the way that you value cofounder relationships as well. Can you talk to us a little bit about that.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah I mean I would recommend anyone who has a vision for something they wanted to bring to life if if it makes sense and they have someone else in their life that they can attract to cofound the business with I think that co-founder relationships can be so powerful and. I’ve I’ve only experienced building companies from a co-founder perspective I would say that the setup looked almost at the same but felt very different between my first company. My second company. So the first company I was 49% in a forty nine fifty one founding partnership and the second. Ah. Rod and I decided we really wanted to be fifty fifty partners and that I would be the Ceo. He would be the president but we would really approach things um, kind of very clearly from a fifty fifty way I would say the forty nine fifty one relationship really when it comes down to it. You have to have consensus with your co-founder so there was nothing that Shazi and I really ultimately disagreed on it wasn’t like she could pull the 51% card and say we’re not going to launch that product and and it would still be a functional relationship. So I think that she you know she and I really worked well together to kind of find resolution. Um. I would say that the moment that we sold happy family because my co-founder Shazi was the the one out front and I was more behind the scenes that um I did really want to have a little bit more of a balanced I guess.
Jessica Rolf: Co-founding relationship with my next cofounder be more clear about credit and visibility and so I just always want to recognize that that rod is very much my fifty fifty co pound co-founder and we’re really building and scaling love every together.
Alejandro Cremades: So then talking about people here. Um I want to double click on on on the investors and then also I mean more than anything on on vision right? because to those investors also to employees to customers. You’re rallying them to on a vision. Right is a is as you were saying you know a bigger purpose. You know a really touching and moving destination that you’re heading towards so with that being said, if you were to go to sleep tonight. Jessica Rolf: and if you were to wake up in a world where the vision of love every was. Fully realized what does that world look like.
Jessica Rolf: I Think that is so interesting How you just asked that question because I actually do go to sleep at night envisioning the fullest expression of love every and I think that that’s part of the power is visioning the future and I and I’ve found that there’ve been months where I haven’t been doing that. And I’ve just started reignited that vision setting and it is the last thing I think about before I go to bed and what I imagine from a purpose place is that children all over the world are able to reach their highest and best potential and have their most full lives and be their fullest selves. Because they’ve had our early learning experiences important early experiences that have been delivered at the right time and that parents across the world are feeling confident in their child’s Development. You know there’s so many things to be not confident about as a new parent right? The sleep is so exhausting and stressful and you’re constantly wondering am I. Should I be doing sleep training am I doing this right? are they swaddled appropriately. Are they going to make it. You know these little tiny little babies. Um, there’s so much to even as you go through the later stages of parenting. Um, you know some of the discipline areas can be so hard to set boundaries and hard to feel confident and Good. We want to be at love every source of that deep confidence that you’re connected to what your child wants to learn is hungry to learn at each stage. It’s actually very predictable What children want to do and learn especially in the early years and that you’ve given your child The very best start So We want to feel like you know this is this global ambition.
Jessica Rolf: We want to cover from birth I think through we could say through elementary school even beyond in its biggest expression I’d love to someday be supporting parents who the teen years too. Um, right now we’re really focused on that 0 to 5 and starting to bridge into elementary with some new product launches. So. And then from a financial perspective. You know I see us as ah as a um, really global iconic brand that is like the brands that are just legacy that you know will be around like a Starbucks um, that have that have been innovative like a tesla you know that have been really great performance. Um value. Ah, equities like a lulu lemon in the public markets and so I see we see ourselves as $20000000000 market cap or more um, putting out billions in revenue recurring revenue because again we want to partner with parents in an ongoing way in an ongoing relationship. We don’t want to be a 1 ne-off toy company. And we’re really rooted in that purpose of helping children be their biggest kind of best most full potential selves.
Alejandro Cremades: And you are obviously well on your way you know and it’s so impressive I mean just for the people that are listening to give them a sense on how big love ever is today I mean give us a super high level on on metrics.
Jessica Rolf: Yeah I mean I would say that you know if we want to think about think about metrics again, we built a recurring revenue business. We have ah 221000000 in trailing twelve twelve month revenue um 21% year over year growth were sold in 32 markets worldwide. Really proud to say um, roughly 2 wo-thirds of our customers are acquired organically so this is a lot of hearing about you know your um about you want to share with your friends. The favorite things that you love for your children and so this is a very viral marketing group and I feel we feel really proud of. 46% of our customers hear about love every through a friend. Um, so we we broad reach you know, sixty sixty percent of uszipcodes eighty for eighty five percent of our businesses recurring revenue so a lot of metrics that really make sense to the financial industry but they make sense. Because of the business that we’ve built the purpose is is very aligned with how we show up in our metrics and I think that that is what’s going to create this lasting company and this lasting iconic brand is because we have built something that. We need to have an ongoing relationship our so our recurring revenue is because we want to know when your girls turn 7 or 8 we want to know how to help you feel like you can be the best parent. Um, you know as your children age. So.
Alejandro Cremades: That’s incredible and also 300 people you know that are you know they are you know pushing you know every day to really make that happen.
Jessica Rolf: Um, yeah, 375000 acts of active customers right now. Globally um, so that are rolled in our program and then we have many more that have purchased something from us. So it’s been exciting and yeah.
Alejandro Cremades: Yeah, and I was referring to the 300 employees I mean it’s a it’s that’s that’s really remarkable. Obviously you know the the amount of customers is just like out of this world now I want to ask you something Jessica Rolf: I want to ask you, we were talking about the future. Um, you know, kind of like.
Jessica Rolf: Owen. Yes.
Alejandro Cremades: Towards that vision that you guys I have no doubt you’re going to realize because I mean what you’re building here is incredible I’m like super impressed with you Jessica Rolf: as well. Ah, but I want to talk about the past and I want to talk about about the past with a len of reflection. So let’s say I was to put you into a time machine. And I bring you back in time. Let’s say I bring you back in time maybe 2005 early 2005 where you’re you know about to give your notice at whole foods and let’s say you’re walking out the door from whole foods and let’s say you’re able to just stop on the tracks that that younger. Self that younger Jessica Rolf: and you’re able to have a sit down without younger. Jessica Rolf: let’s say for a quick coffee and right there on the spot. You have the opportunity of giving your younger self one piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why given what you know now.
Jessica Rolf: That is such good advice. That’s such a good question sorry that is such a good question I would say that you know there’s a lot that’s emotional about building a company even if you’re. Test is a thinker on the Myers-briggs right? like there’s just feelings that happen when you’re building a company you put yourself in the line. It’s very vulnerable and I would say that the people that I’ve met who’ve been the most successful at building companies have been able to separate the emotion and the rollercoaster. Of building a company and especially being pre prelaunch so having an idea and working on the idea with the acts of doing the daily tasks that get you to launch and it’s so easy to have an exciting call with somebody where they believe in your vision and you think they might invest and you’re feeling. On top of the world somebody like you that just builds people up I can tell you’re somebody that just really makes people feel seen and then it’s so easy to feel like anything’s possible and then it’s also so easy to feel like your idea is a total dud when you talk to somebody who. Who doesn’t like your initial product you’re talking to potential customer you’re testing something in your product. They’re not, they’re they’re dumping on your prototype which is actually good. You should get really raw feedback on your prototypes. Um, or you talk to an investor that isn’t just doesn’t get it I remember 1 conversation that.
Jessica Rolf: We that we had at happy family very early on it was this woman who painted a picture for us and who said your business I can see it happening Now. You’re going to Mortgage. You’re going to put a double mortgage on your house which we actually did you’re going to max out your credit cards which we did. You’re going to. Um. Put everything you can in your whole heart into this business and I’ve seen it over and over Again. It’s going to be a failure you might as well give up now because you’re about to ruin yourself and ruin your financial future and she was trying to do us a favor but it felt so Demoralizing. And how much do you take in that feedback and believe it and how much do you? You know, kind of move on from it and so I remember I Just like ate some ice cream. Let myself feel my feelings but then I just got back to the list and I was like what is the next step that I can do to be productive to move towards this vision. And it might be that It’s exactly the way I’m thinking about it now or could have to morph. But I think separating your motion from your thinking and doing side and putting your motion in your place and knowing there’s gonna be highs. There’s lows but no matter what you are plugging forward every single day to move towards your vision whether you’re feeling excited or not. That is I think the secret sauce to being an entrepreneur and being persistent. Um I’ve seen too many entrepreneurs be really productive at times when they’re feeling excited and they’ve been encouraged and then drop and not be productive when they’re feeling not excited and that’s not a way to build a company.
Alejandro Cremades: Wow. So for the people that are listening Jessica Rolf: that will love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to do so.
Jessica Rolf: Yes, ah, you can reach love every at loveevery.com so that’s L O V E V E R Y. On Instagram or loveevy.com and then I am per say love to hear from you I you can dm me at Jessica Rolf: Rolf so just Jessica Rolf: r j e ss I c a R O L P H on Instagram I respond to a lot of the messages I get.
Alejandro Cremades: That’s incredible. Why hey Jessica Rolf: I want to thank you really for taking the time to come on the show such an honor to have you I want to thank you too on behalf of me as as you know you know I have 3 little girls so I want to thank you on behalf of my little girls because people like you. You know, ah female founders like you are able to really pave. You know the path for the future that they’re living into. So. Thank you so much such an honor to have you today with us. Jessica Rolf: .
Jessica Rolf: Oh Andra How Ajandro thank you so much for having me.
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