We’re back with our Female Founders “What Beckons You?” series highlighting friends and fabulous female founders we admire. As a female-led company we are constantly amazed of what women can accomplish and are so excited to share their stories.
Recently, our intern MK took a trip to 88 Acres to meet with Nicole; a CEO, founder, triathaloner, supermom and mentor (to our founders!) to pick her brain about her entrepreneurial journey. MK was left wondering, is there anything she CAN’T do?
Briefly introduce yourself, what is your name, age, where do you live, and what do you like to do for fun?
My name is Nicole Ledoux, I am 29 and holding, I’ve been 29 for a really long time. I am the co-founder and CEO of 88 Acres Foods. [My husband] Rob and I have a 3.5-year-old so most of my fun time is spent chasing him around.
What is your company?
88 Acres is a seed-based snack company, we have our own bakery in the inner-city of Boston where we manufacture seed-based snacks like oat and seed bars, as well as seed butters. Our bakery is free of the top 8 food allergens plus sesame, so that makes us pretty unique.
What “beckoned” or inspired you to start your company?
Rob and I met on Match.com in 2010. He is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts and on our fourth date we were out to dinner and he almost died at the dinner table when his meal was cross-contaminated with nuts. I don’t have any food allergies so this was my first real experience with food allergies and it was really scary. I even met his parents for the first time in the hospital. After that, I realized that, if we were going to spend a significant amount of time together, his food allergy would have to become my eating restriction. When I was looking for safe and healthy foods that I could feed him we couldn’t find a lot out on the market. The few brands that were making nut-free or multi allergen-free snacks were super stigmatizing. There was nothing that he would proudly want to share with his friends and definitely nothing that I would want to eat.
Safety was first and taste and nutrition was a total afterthought. I started making him stuff in our kitchen that he could eat. I tinkered around in the kitchen, he would taste test, and we would tweak. All of those original creations are the exact same recipes that we’re using today. While we were training for a triathalon with a really big group in Boston, Rob would bring 88 Acres bars to our workouts and our friends would say “What’s that? Can I have a bite?” before rides and runs. That turned into us passing our hundreds of bars before workouts. We would stay up all night and make about 500 bars and hand wrap them all in these little wax bags. Triple Berry was our first flavor then people asked for a chocolate one so Chocolate Sea Salt was next. We basically make the bars the exact same way as we did in our kitchen we just make a lot more now.
Tell us about your team, and what is your favorite part of leading them?
Our team is, in my humble opinion, the most impressive team that anyone has ever gathered under one, or I guess two, roofs. They’re super talented and passionate. It doesn’t really feel like work when we come into the office. I’m always impressed with their ability to learn on the job and pick things up because they’re super curious. That curiosity is a common thread between everyone on the team and it spans age, experience, and gender. That’s the number one characteristic we look for when hiring people. The best part of working with a team is the inspiration that comes from our discussions. We have different viewpoints and we often don’t agree with each other. It makes for a really rich conversation.
On a weekly basis we have Thursday night beers and brainstorm, at 4:00 we gather, we used to have a conference table, and as the team grew the conference table became laughably small, but it felt really corporate which is not us. We took the conference table out and replaced it with big leather couches and created a living room. We sit around on the couches and we pull up stools and anyone who is over the age of 21 has a beer or a glass of wine and from 4-5:30. We pick a topic where we need other people’s input or viewpoint. It could be anything from updating packaging on a particular line, or we want to make a limited edition bar lets riff on some flavors, it can really run the gamut. A couple of weeks ago we had a beer and brainstorm about donation requests because we get so many now that we have to turn people away so we just brainstormed who we should be supporting and if our missions align. It is really enjoyable and makes a huge difference in the culture and the atmosphere. We wanted to create a place where people are excited to come into work. Our office is dog-friendly so we always have a dog in here. It’s a cool environment.
What do you think is special and unique about being a female founder?
There are not enough female leaders in general. I think females face unique challenges no matter what the industry is. The vast vast majority of people who are investing in companies are men. The vast majority of dollars that get invested go to male-run companies. Women who want to raise a family at some point are faced with this choice of focusing on running a company or focusing on raising a family. I’ve always looked up to the women who incorporate their family life into their work life. I hate the question about work-life balance because I think when you own your own company you’re all in. I don’t really feel like there is such a thing as work-life balance, especially since I started this company with my husband.
We pick up our son Emmett from daycare and the first thing he asks us is if he can come to the office. So he comes here a few nights a week and takes out the trash, waters the plants, and high fives the team. This is his favorite place. When we read books at night he will see a page and say “mommy likes this one, daddy likes this one”, and he starts naming off our team members, “Hannah likes this one and Blair likes this one.” To me, I don’t feel guilty about working a lot because we can incorporate Emmett into this whole life as well. That’s a luxury we get because we own the business.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Be more confident in your abilities and don’t be afraid to ask more questions. The younger version of myself was worried that I had to have all the answers and I couldn’t ask questions because it would out me that I didn’t know something. The older me realizes that you’re not expected to figure everything out on your own.
What inspires or “beckons” you today in life? In work?
We obviously want to build the best food company in the world. Beyond that, the ability to work side by side with the team every day is the thing that inspires me the most. I have grown exponentially as a person and as a leader since we started this company, and I think it’s due to the people that I get to work with every day. I hope I get to teach them things and I hope they know I learn from them every day.
And of course, what’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Its a tie between mint chocolate chip and a really rich dark chocolate ice cream.
