It Started With an Allergy: Partake Foods
The Steve Harvey Morning Show
iHeartPodcasts
4.5 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2024
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
When Denise Woodard found out her daughter Vivi had severe food allergies, she went into super mom mode. She looked for food that was nutritious and fun but what she found at the store was disappointing at best. So she took to the kitchen and started making her own snacks for Vivi, laying the foundation for Partake Foods, a Black-owned, female-led company offering allergy-friendly foods. As her snacks started to gain traction, Denise realized she needed more capital—and fast—if she wanted Partake to succeed.
Join Ben and Tanya as they chat with Denise about Partakes-humble beginnings and near failure to launch. Discover her commitment to funding Partake, pawning her engagement ring and emptying her savings in the process, and a chance meeting in a trade show bathroom that unlocked new doors for the company. These are The Unshakeables.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For Denise Woodard, her journey into entrepreneurship started with every parent's worst nightmare. |
| 0:07.0 | It was a Wednesday afternoon, I was on a conference call, our nanny Martha gave Vivi the snack with just two ingredients. |
| 0:15.0 | As soon as she started to eat it, her lips started to swell up, her tongue |
| 0:18.2 | started to swell up, she started to turn blue in our living room. I hear Martha |
| 0:22.4 | scream from my home office and I immediately run out and I |
| 0:26.2 | see she's like swelling up like a balloon right in front of my eyes and clearly couldn't breathe. |
| 0:31.1 | I thought my daughter was going to die. |
| 0:33.6 | This is the unshakable's and I'm Ben Walter, |
| 0:42.2 | CEO of Chase for Business. And I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business. |
| 0:43.7 | And I'm Tanya Nippo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners. |
| 0:47.5 | On the unshakable's, we're sharing the daring stories of small business owners facing |
| 0:51.7 | their crisis points and telling the stories of how they got through it. |
| 0:56.7 | Hi Tanya, hey Ben. Tanya this episode is a special one, especially for anyone interested in raising some serious capital for the company. |
| 1:05.0 | Today we have the story of Denise Woodard, who after receiving 86 knows from investors, |
| 1:10.0 | has raised over $ million dollars in capital. |
| 1:14.0 | 23 million, huh? |
| 1:15.7 | I can't wait to hear this one. |
| 1:18.1 | On today's episode, Partake Foods |
| 1:20.7 | out of Los Angeles, California. |
| 1:29.0 | So many small businesses are family businesses. And for Denise Woodard, founder and CEO of Partake Foods, her family, specifically her daughter Vivi, |
| 1:36.4 | was the whole reason she started a company in the first place. |
| 1:40.0 | When Vivi was around eight months old, her first Thanksgiving, she had a dish that had baked |
... |
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