We were happy to have our fantastic advisors in town recently for our annual strategic meeting to talk about the future of sweetriot! Huge thanks to Peter, Tim, Nancy, Shoba, Fleur, Bonnie, Peter, and David for attending! Carolyn called into the meeting and Cindy was whisked away to work elsewhere. Thanks also to the guys on Wooster St for their beautiful space. Teddy and Geneve cooked them an awesome dinner too. Sweet.
On our way to Expo, we had a team retreat and our first ever team emergency. While cooking dinner for the team, Theo practically cut the tip of his finger off - ouch!!
We rushed him to no other than the Eisenhower Medical Center near Palm Springs. It seems that the former President Bush was there the day before. Luckily, all were safe and sound at the end of the day. How's that for team bonding?
I was sampling at Zabar's today and was happy to see a familiar face - Seth Godin. Seth and I know each other from GEL, Yahoo! and other creative events. (Seth has mentioned sweetriot before too. Thanks, Seth!)
I met Seth's very cute son, and then Seth asked, are you ok here with the crowds? (Zabars can be busy even borderline nuts on a weekend). I said, yes, it's important to be with our customers.
Why, you may ask? How else do we know how people really think, feel, react, to our product, without going out there to talk to them? Hanging out in stores is one of the best ways to find out. Nevertheless, Seth gets it and of course understood.
Kudos to him for being a great advocate of customer relationships and authentic marketing. Business doesn't work without it.
We have a new full-time rioter! It's true - thanks to his rioting niece, Alissa, we found Theo in our own backyard.
First and foremost, Theo is an entrepreneur - he was the co-founder of the infamous Lower East Side Lansky Lounge; he studied at the New England Culinary Institute, and he has showed off his culinary magic at Fore Street and Blue Hill; plus, he's an artist too! We're so lucky to have him. He will be managing business development in the NYC area and more.
HUGE WELCOME to Theo for joining us on the sweetriot cacao dark side.
Chicago was very cold but our new Midwest partners, Presence, were on fire during their recent meeting. They luckily welcomed sweetriot to their meeting to teach the story of cacao. :) Here is the great team here. They will be working to service our stores in the Midwest.
Huge thanks to Craig and Bill for hosting - I even had Chicago Pizza to top off the evening!
Just when you thought the schlepping may be over, it starts again. :) Our partners at Whole Foods are opening a beautiful new store in West Orange, NJ, and we were invited to help with the store preparations.
Nina and I went out late one Monday night and worked on the store from 6 pm - 1 am - no kidding. This included more than a few boxes....when we arrived, the shelves were empty, and when we left, they were starting to look ready to open. Whew. All in a day's work.
Peace through Commerce!? Is it possible? I believe it is. When I joined AIESEC long ago as a student, I started to realize that business had a huge impact on the world. I started to dream of creating an organization, which was a successful business that also created social value...this dream would later become sweetriot.
I have a kindred spirit in FLOW, a new and progressive organization, co-created by Michael Strong and John Mackey. FLOW hosted an event in Washington DC yesterday centered on discussing Peace through Commerce. The entire evening focused on ways we can use business and commerce as a way to support social change within and between countries.
sweetriot was invited to speak to the group about Peace through Commerce 'in action.' I love sharing the sweetriot story, and this was a crowd who fully embraced our concept. With every tin, sweetriot impacts lives in Latin America, promotes emerging artists, and gives back to the community. Every individual can vote for peace by supporting companies like sweetriot that have social values woven into their business.
Here are a few photos above featuring Jeff Klein, our host and an avid sweetriot lover, and The AVA dance group who provided movement.
Do you believe in peace through commerce?
I will be speaking at their NYC event, Women's Economic Power Day, tomorrow with our good sweetriot friend and advisor, Carolyn. Wish us luck!
On the note of cool stuff in Austin, you can't not mention Sweet Leaf Tea. Sweet Leaf was started by Clayton as a passion and has grown into a sweet (no pun intended), values based business.
I stopped by their headquarters during my visit to Austin to catch up with Clayton and to check our their very cool digs. If you're looking for sweet, organic, natural tea, look no further. :)
I had been to some of Google's old offices but never the Googleplex. It's worth a visit. Located in Silicon Valley, it features valet parking, delicious and free lunches, grand pianos, lava lamps, and more. I visited my friends Gokul and Elad there and of course left some cacao behind for Larry Page, a co-founder and fellow Michigan Wolverine. You can see Gokul, Elad, and I rioting at the Googleplex and you'll kindly see Gokul rolling the precious sweetriot cacao cargo through his offices.
Although sweetriot is mainly in the cacao business, it's important to stay up to date on the latest Internet developments. I've attached some photos behind-the-scenes. Let me know if you've been there recently too.
Recent Comments