Taylor and Brennan Clarke Of Amborella Organics: 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand
Vision: When you start moving forward with your company, people will tell you what you should do: it can be as simple as altering packaging or as significant as the overall direction of where you should take your business. It’s important to have a vision. We have a wooden display with turf that looks like a planter box. We offer this to all our wholesale accounts to display the pops. This display did not exist and when bringing this to life, the consensus was to design a cheaper point of purchase display. If we didn’t have the vision, we easily could have gone the easy route but instead, we created something original that is an asset to our retail partners.
As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Taylor + Brennan Clarke. Taylor and Brennan are the Co-Founders of Amborella Organics, the world’s first and only seed-bearing lollipop. The company creates organic, all-natural lollipops that, once eaten, can be planted to grow herbs or flowers, creating a unique connection between food and consumer.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory?
TC: Thank you for featuring us! I studied World Literature and Journalism at Marymount Manhattan College. It was one of the most informative experiences because I had just turned 18, and here I was living in NYC, three thousand miles from home. While in school, I worked in the fashion district running errands for designers and eventually went on to work for NYLON as an editorial assistant. There I published my first byline and became a paid journalist! I continued writing for publications until launching Amborella with Brennan in 2016. I should note that our first date was when we were teenagers. Over those five years of being friends (and eventually falling in love), we talked a lot about music and literature, sharing admiration for words that described a feeling that only existed in certain ways languages. This mutual curiosity for the world around us was a huge part of who we are to each other and ultimately what birthed Amborella.
Can you share with us the story of the “ah-ha” moment that led to the creation of Amborella?
BC: I was in my garden watering tomatoes one day, and the smell of the tomato leaves unlocked a memory of weekends spent in the garden with my grandma as a kid. That memory and feeling made me want to create a way for others to have a similar experience with a loved one that involved gardening and nature. I looked at the flowers and thought about how the bulb and stem look like a lollipop. The next thought was how cool it would be to eat a lollipop and plant the stick to grow something. Years later, I shared this story with Taylor, and together we made it a reality.
Can you share a story about the “funniest” mistake you made when you started, and what lesson you learned from that?
TC: We needed a new spoon for the kitchen, so I ordered one quickly online. A few days later, this humongous package arrived at the door- it was the spoon but looked like a paddle for a canoe! We still have this huge spoon and plan to secure it to the wall in our office as a reminder to slow down and that we are human.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food line? What can be done to avoid those errors?
TC: I would say creating something that isn’t original or “different” enough from the products currently on the shelves. I have so much respect for people who challenge a category. We’ve learned that this is a harder path because you’re educating consumers and buyers, often pushing the boundaries with creative and packaging design, sustainability, etc. Still, when it works, it’s such a triumph. Don’t be so quick to rush to market that you don’t challenge yourself and your team.
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend they take?
BC: Google search and see if that product exists. Maybe it does, but it’s not the way you envision. This helps you understand there’s a market for this product, but you have a way to improve upon it. Do your research on the industry, find a local trade show, and meet people who have done similar things.
Many people have good ideas all the time, but some struggle to take a good idea and translate it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this?
TC: Become an expert to the best of your ability- go to industry trade shows, talk to other makers, talk to family/friends, and try to be all in. Sometimes it takes the right partner to help you translate those ideas into the next steps. If that’s the route you’re taking, be confident in why you need that partner. Be willing to not give up because you will face rejection, it will be a challenging road, and you will have to let that fuel you. Podcasts like How I Built This are great motivation too.
There are many invention development consultants out there. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
BC: Try to strike out on your own. Those consultants take a large percentage of your company. If you hit a roadblock that you can’t get past, then it’s time to hire someone. Exhaust all your options before that.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital, and what is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
BC: It depends on what the barrier of entry is and the cost of your product. Some products are too expensive to try to bring to market without financial help, but if you can bootstrap and keep as much of your company for as long as possible, that’s optimal.
Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?
TC: This also is subjective to how much you’re willing to spend. LegalZoom is a great placeholder until you’re able to pay an attorney. There are trade shows for ingredients; ExpoWest is excellent for food/beverage. A chemist usually has established relationships with suppliers, so that’s another option. We found our first manufacturer online and our second at a trade show, and these were great relationships until we were able to bring all in-house. Large-scale manufacturers rarely prioritize small companies and have huge minimums- we never went this route, but that came down to our disinterest in changing the look of the lollipops, shortening our sticks, and so much more. Don’t lose your vision in your want to make something work! When we first started, I pitched retailers (similarly to how I’d pitch an editor/publication) all day long. We are still a small — but mighty — team conducting sales for the company but share the same attitude towards sales: you never give up and really listen to their “why”.
Now we’ll get to the main question of our discussion — what are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food Brand” and why? (Please share a story or example for each)
1. TC: Curiosity: I think this was an important reason why I referenced curiosity for the world around us being a big part of our relationship. I think this makes us better creators and business owners. How can you create if you don’t consume be it products or experiences? Brennan does the bulk of our grocery shopping and he is excited to tell me the new things he discovers- spicy truffle pasta sauce or a bone he’s never seen for our pup. Be curious even when buying your avocados!
2. BC: Vision: When you start moving forward with your company, people will tell you what you should do: it can be as simple as altering packaging or as significant as the overall direction of where you should take your business. It’s important to have a vision. We have a wooden display with turf that looks like a planter box. We offer this to all our wholesale accounts to display the pops. This display did not exist and when bringing this to life, the consensus was to design a cheaper point of purchase display. If we didn’t have the vision, we easily could have gone the easy route but instead, we created something original that is an asset to our retail partners.
3. BC: Levity: Never taking things too seriously is critical to keep moving forward and not allowing the guaranteed hurdles to take you down. When we went viral in 2016 we weren’t sleeping because we were constantly behind and at an overall stress level we’d never experienced. Taylor and I were eating dinner one night and I have no idea what was said but we started laughing until we were crying. It gave us an outlet and way to move forward in a time when that stress could have crippled us.
4. TC: Grit: Many people think of determination and grit as the same, but to us, grit has more to do with digging in and just getting things done. When we went viral on NowThis news, we had family members making shipper boxes for us; we hardly slept and promised we’d be better prepared for large traffic next time. Then Food Network Magazine published a piece on us a year later, and we were in the middle of a deadline for a huge co-brand with an AUS company. I can go on, but there will always be new challenges, and without grit, you will struggle to continue. We remind ourselves this is a choice, and we keep going regardless of how hard it gets.
5. BC & TC: Malleability: Accept change. Inevitably while growing your business, you’ll need to evolve how you think and how you pivot as you learn more and develop a deeper understanding of the industry you’re in. It’s essential to stay open and understand when you, as a leader, your product, your ingredients, your team, your strategy needs to take on a different shape. Trust vision but do not fight change. We are getting close to launching a botanical vegan gummy line. We sourced 100% compostable packaging, and because of supply chain issues, we are now being told that we can’t get the material. We are fighting to make the impossible possible, but we will not allow this to prevent us from moving forward. There is always another option- 100% recyclable material, while simultaneously working towards that more sustainable 100% compostable option. It can feel frustrating, but this is how it goes when you’re pushing the boundaries.
Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and go crazy over?
BC: First, ask yourself, is this something I’d pay for and why? Next, ask family/friends or the demographic you envision being sold with if they’d buy it. Visualize the product being used in your mind and make it as unique and memorable as possible.
We’re nearly done — how do you think you’ve used your success to make the world a better place?
TC: Anytime someone shares a business idea with us, we are thrilled to talk through it with them. We encourage people to try vs. being someone who lives in regret for something they thought of that now exists or could have existed. Similarly, if someone asks for my help, I do my best to share what I’ve learned and lift them up when they’re struggling. I also share in their joy! Yes- we could say we are making sustainable candy, and we are so proud of what we’ve built, but the human aspect of encouraging people to follow their dreams is so close to our hearts.
You and Amborella are an inspiration to many. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger :)
BC: Look at industries that affect your everyday life and are detrimental to the planet, then create change within them.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
