Founder Series: Sundara Clark, Founder of Vixen Kitchen
Icebreakers:
Coffee/Tea Order: CBD Almond Latte
Currently Listening to on Spotify: Beastie Boys
Currently watching on Netflix: Orange is the New Black
Favorite City: Santa Cruz (and I live here!!)
Current Podcast you're obsessed with?: Armchair Expert
Team Pizza or Team Tacos: Tacos
Interview:
In a few words can you describe what your business does?
We make the yummiest, cleanest frozen dessert on the market! By using tons of cashews we are able to make our gelato super creamy and nutritionally dense. Maple syrup is our sweetener and you can really taste the difference compared to other sweeteners. So many moms and athletes have told me how grateful they are for this product. We all want a treat, but most treats, even in health food stores either are made with tons of sugar, or frankly taste pretty awful-we set out to change that!
We produce a clean, organic, vegan gelato that you can eat and free great about. We are in about 300 stores across the West Coast.
What inspired to you start Vixen Kitchen?
My daughter and people like her who were dairy intolerant.
Did you always know from a young age you wanted to be an entrepreneur?
Not really, I always wanted to work with kids though and now I get to because all kids like ice cream!
How did you find your first customers? Walk us through the process. Was it scary?
We had lovely booth at the farmers market in our little town. It was so welcoming and charming, I never was scared.
What was the most challenging part of creating a healthier dessert?
It is really tough finding ingredient suppliers that will work with a company as small as mine. We want quality and have to shop around for the best prices as well. Balancing being a mom with running my company is really challenging as well. I want to be there always for my girls, but I also strive to make this company something they can be proud of as well.
Scaling up from our small kitchen to where we are now has been seriously challenging too.
What role do you think social media has in starting a company/ building a brand?
Tons! I have so many opportunities to talk directly to my customer via social media. For me its fun to hear that they are enjoying it and see the different types of folks who are indulging!
What is your process or inspiration for coming up with new flavors?
I usually mess around with it for a while in my home kitchen. Usually, it’s flavors I always loved as a kid-or ones my kids really like. Then we take it to our commercial kitchen and see if we can recreate it. It does take longer than I wish it did! I want all the new flavors and I want them NOW!!
What is the best lesson you have learned in business thus far?
Making lessons from your “failures” . There is so many stumbles in business, keep going and you will succeed-corny but true!!
You can shop Vixen Kitchen’s amazing flavors online!
Learn more about Sundara:
“I am a mom first and foremost. My daughter has a dairy allergy and when I couldn’t find a dessert on the freezer shelf that satisfied her tastebuds and my clean label requirements-I created it myself. We started off by selling in farmers markets and eventually landed ourselves in Whole Foods. We also sell online and ship nationwide!”
Keep up with Vixen Kitchen:
Visit https://vixenkitchen.co to shop and learn more!
Thank you for reading! If you would like to nominate an inspiring founder to be featured on our Founder Series please email hello@beemabroker.com
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