Building in Bets
How we signed our first 5/6 figure contract
What if I told you that I made most of my decisions in the past few years based on a feeling?
You’d probably say that’s crazy.
But what if, instead, I told you that this feeling is my intuition. Maybe a little less crazy, huh?
We often think that the “best decision makers” are very “even-keeled” and “driven by logic”. But if we operate entirely from “logic” we lose the power and magic that emotional intuition brings to many parts of building a meaningful and intentional life— relationships and businesses alike. So to anyone telling female CEOs that they shouldn’t be “too emotional”, think again. We can strategize far more holistically by considering our emotional responses during decision making.
This piece is all about how we signed our first 5/6 figure contract as first time founders with no VC money. And more importantly, I’ll be peeling back the layers on every bet I made that led up to this. I’ll go through tangible ways you can build your own intuition in the same way that you would strengthen any muscle.
Bet #1: Choose & Create an environment that aligns with what your “dream life” looks like.
This is extremely personal and no one can take this away from you. Your dream is, well, just that— it’s yours. Which means that you can choose a city that is conducive to a career that brings you joy. You can choose a place that is close to loved ones. You can choose to be a nomad and meet all different kinds of people. The point is, this is one of the most fundamental forms of listening to your intuition.For me, this was moving to New York, despite being on a startup founders’ salary. I had to make this work because the most inspired food scene, restauranteurs and food entrepreneurs (IMO) were all in New York. If I wanted to become one of them, I had to be among them. Walking the same streets, eating at the same places, and of course, giving myself the opportunity to meet my role models. This is easily the biggest and best bet I made.
Bet #2: Intentionally make time for randomness
If we keep walking the same paths and running in the same circles, there’s no way to hope that our lives will drastically change to match our dream life. Walking into new rooms, making a new friend with similar interests/goals, committing to a new sports team or hobby are all ways that we can create more alignment in our lives.I spent a lot of my first year in Manhattan showing up to random stores, cafes, and restaurants. Sometimes, I’d drop off a bottle of syrup without asking for anything in return. I’d just say “hey, I’m building something cool and wanted to share it” while being open to taste feedback. One particular afternoon, I decided to just pop into Counter Culture Coffee on Broome Street while on a walk. I had some extra bottles of Baklava and Gulab Jamun Syrup and knocked on their door asking to drop some off. For context, Counter Culture on Broome isn’t a coffee shop. It’s just a training center and event space for baristas and their wholesale program. No one there would be buying our syrup or really have any “ROI” use for it. I decided to drop it off and just gave them a quick background on it and just let them I know I just wanted to leave it with them in case anyone on the team wanted to try it out. And well, sure enough, something cool came of it.
Bet #3: The most valuable and easy bet you can make in your life is to invest time in reciprocal relationships with an open heart.
This might sound obvious or know-it-all, but make your life and work around meaningful relationships instead of a series of transactions that “look good”. Like a lot of people I’m friends with, the concept of “networking” just seems vain and transactional. I frankly do not care for networking events or doing things for the sake of “building my network”. The intention in your action makes a world of difference. I one day woke up with a completely new network, only to realize that it was built brick-by-brick over the span of 2 years in New York, just organically asking questions, making new friends, being myself, and offering to help other founders wherever I can. Asking questions vs. asking for favors is an important distinction early in your path to build your dream life. And if you have existing friendships that aren’t in alignment with your life, it’s completely okay to let them go. Putting energy into unsupportive or unfulfilling friendships can often take the space of new ones that are waiting to be created with far more alignment.
After Jenna at Counter Culture reached out, we seeded her a ton of free product to use for the US Barista Championship signature beverage. She used our Baklava Syrup and headed to Portland for US Coffee Expo where the championship finals were held.Bet #4: Follow positive signs with high confidence and low expectations.
Intuition can be built by noticing people, places or goals that show signs of positive affirmation in our lives. By taking notice of these signs of affirmation, we can confidently double down on them without necessarily knowing that there will be some permanent, fairytale ending. Maybe you move to a new city or a new job that is amazing for 2 years, but is ultimately not where you want to spend your entire life after those 2 years. Choosing to follow that path, regardless, takes a remarkable amount of strength and courage, which creates a snow ball effect of positivity and alignment in your life. The confidence to make that choice strengthens your ability to follow your intuition, and becomes a positive feedback loop.
When Jenna told me she was heading to Portland, she suggested I come out for a day and just walk the floor at one of the biggest Coffee Trade shows in the country. I told her I’d never been to a trade show nor did we have the budget to exhibit or the ability to produce high volume of product. I told her it just wouldn’t make sense until we were bigger. She insisted that it would be an eye opening experience and that I should just buy a one-day visitor ticket and fly out to walk the floor and meet people. So, on a whim, I flew out to Portland, OR and walked the floor at Coffee EXPO. Jenna did an amazing job at the finals and I met so many people and introduced myself to many new coffee/tea brands. I gave samples and business cards to people I’d hope to stay in touch with (more on this in a different SubStack— an upcoming collaboration that’s even more insane). No “financial success” came of this trip, which is why I strongly believe you should not take on institutional VC money at that stage of a company. It was an amazing way for me to connect with a community of builders, baristas, roasters, and founders. I came back to New York feeling connected and energized. No expectations.
Bet #5: Be patient, be flexible and do not give up. It will work out.
I love Andy Dunn’s notion of this bet— “Somewhere I heard that a startup doesn't fail when it fails. It fails when the founders give up.”
If you have an idea that you’re building, it’s easy in the beginning to let a setback upset you a lot. This part of building intuition is arguably one of the hardest— intuitive resilience. If you are following a north star mission, then the actual product, form factor, sales format, or any other factors can always be adjusted and pivoted to achieve “product market fit”. Once you’ve found these early signs of PMF, that doesn’t mean that the company will be smooth sailing until exit. It now means you have to find many channels to execute on marketing and distribution of your product, while having the patience and grit to see it out. It sounds obvious, but do not give up. That is it.
I say this because, nearly 5 months after pitching a lot of different leads (that are slowly coming to fruition now) and walking the floor of Coffee EXPO, a message popped into our inbox.
We met with the Ole & Steen team, a Danish bakery that I had personally loved going to when I lived near Bryant Park. We connected, which led to a taste test that went amazing. Again, there was patience that we had to practice here. Sales cycles are long in food service and B2B. While they ironed things out, we reconnected 4 months later and finally got a contract in place (an initial high 5-figure contract value that can lead to an ongoing and growing coffee program collaboration). Now, 11 months after we first connected, we are launching our collaboration live at all their cafes and online, along with several fun pop-ups throughout the city.
One of the best tools in my toolkit is strategic thinking. I like to believe that a lot of my strategy is driven by intuitive feelings that I act on. If you make many small bets, you one day find yourself as the CEO of your dream company, in your dream city, building your dream life.
Start small.
Maybe you want to redecorate your room or revamp your wardrobe. Make a vision, and follow-through with what feels right to you. You can then take larger risks without feeling like the world might collapse around you.
Your intuition will strengthen as your ability to build with bets strengthens. Cheers & Happy Monday! ❤️