050 | Kirsten Tobey from Superstore Failure to $130 Million in Revenue
- Author
- Michelle Weinstein - The Pitch Queen, Sales Strategist
- Published
- Wed 09 May 2018
- Episode Link
- https://successunfiltered.libsyn.com/050-kirsten-tobey-from-superstore-failure-to-130-million-in-revenue
050 | Kirsten Tobey from Superstore Failure to $130 Million in Revenue
Kirsten Tobey founded Revolution Foods in 2006 with co-founder and CEO Kristin Groos Richmond while in graduate school at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Revolution Foods, now over $130 million in revenue, today serves nearly 3 million healthy meals per week to students in 30 cities across 15 US states and distributes a line of retail food products to over 3000 grocery stores nationwide. Kirsten continues to steward the mission and drive the vision for the company. Kirsten spearheaded the company’s expansion into the retail/packaged goods space and has led the company’s efforts on thought leadership, nutrition strategy and impact.
Are you afraid of having the tough conversations? Do you have a client that is high-maintenance or an employee who is sucking you dry?
This week’s guest, Kirsten Tobey, shares how she’s taken those difficult conversations and used them to further her and her business. Kirsten quickly learned that when you decide to let the clients go that are sucking you and your business dry, you can actually put your energy and focus into the things that will help you and your company grow.
Kirsten and her company, Revolution Foods, have had the opportunity to be sold in Walmart, but she and her partner found out the hard way, that being in a superstore just wasn’t going to work. Their healthy, top of the line ingredients led their product to cost too much, which is often not what the consumers of Walmart want.
If your ready to learn how having those painful conversations can actually change the trajectory of your business, this episode of Success Unfiltered is a MUST LISTEN!
Enjoy, and thank you for listening and tuning into Success Unfiltered!
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Special thanks goes out to Kirsten Tobey for taking the time to chat with Michelle. Be sure to join us next week for our next new episode!
P.S. What Do Your Clients REALLY want? They aren’t interested in flashy websites or perfect copy. What they want the most is to get rid of their PAIN. Want to know how to get their attention and sell them their dream solution? Click here for my FREE guide, “The Point Of The Pain Point: How To Sell Them What They REALLY Want.”
Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode:
- Michelle introduces Kirsten.
- Kirsten shares a quick synopsis of who she is and what Revolution Foods is.
- Right out of business school, Kirsten and her partner, Kristen heard NO after NO when approaching investors.
- One particular investor spent a great deal of time trying to learn about what Kirsten was doing and what they wanted him to invest in, but in the end it turned into a crushing NO.
- Kirsten took this opportunity to ask the investor questions about what his concerns were and what milestones need to be met.
- Kirsten believes you should always ask investors what other investors they know that would be interested in the opportunity.
- Kirsten and her partner went through 25 to 30 NO’s before they heard any YES’s.
- Revolution Foods was brought into Walmart, but it turned out not to be a good thing, Kirsten shares the full story.
- “As an entrepreneur you have to have a healthy balance of confidence and humility” ~ Kirsten Tobey
- Kirsten shares the 3 biggest things she learned from working with Walmart.
- Revolution Foods lost over a $1 million dollar investment while working with Walmart.
- Revolution Foods became a food supplier for some smaller charter schools, which then led to Kirsten trying to bring them into bigger school districts.
- When trying to get Revolution Foods into bigger school districts Kirsten and Kristen had some serious growing pains to go through. However, it turned out in their favor - listen to hear the full story!
- Kirsten’s had to turn businesses and schools away because the cost benefit wasn’t worth it because of different factors, like the distance to deliver the foods and the sizes of the schools.
- Kirsten shares what she would tell her younger self.
Connect with Kirsten:
P.S. What Do Your Clients REALLY want? They aren’t interested in flashy websites or perfect copy. What they want the most is to get rid of their PAIN. Want to know how to get their attention and sell them their dream solution? Click here for my FREE guide, “The Point Of The Pain Point: How To Sell Them What They REALLY Want.”
Music produced by Deejay-O www.iamdeejayo.com
