Gail Becker was exasperated baking a cauliflower based Pizza crust for her two sons. It had taken her almost 90 minutes to prepare her children’s favourite dish. They had been diagnosed with Celiac disease ( internal inflammation caused due to gluten resistance ), and therefore Gail had been using cauliflower as a gluten free solution. As a single working mom she wanted a much easier and faster option. There were hundreds of recipes available on the net but there wasn’t a ready to eat, packaged cauliflower based pizza in the market. Gail tried her best to find out but there was none available.
An Entrepreneurial Cause is found
A communications strategist with Warner Bros, Gail Becker was in a lucrative job, however a bit of disenchantment was brewing inside her. It had been a long career for Gail and deep within her heart she wanted to do something else. The question as to what she wanted to do was probably troubling her the most. In the interim she lost her father who was an entrepreneur and had established a decent business after migrating to the US post the horrors of the Holocaust. His death further fuelled Gail’s desire to start something afresh. Her search for an entrepreneurial cause eventually zeroed in on the cauliflower based pizza and the existing availability void.
Launch of Caulipower
Gail Becker resigned from her job in Mid 2016 and by early 2017 she had launched her food business ‘Caulipower’ aged 52. It was not a smooth sailing affair for Gail by any stretch of imagination. However it has to be said that she was extremely methodical in her approach to this business. Gail had no idea about the packaged or frozen food industry and had to convince a lot of people to impart their knowledge to her. She also needed expert hands and infrastructure to take her product to the stores and make it available to a large market outside. Seeing her intent and the quality of the recipe a manufacturer decided to make frozen cauliflower Pizza crusts for a fee. Gail paid the manufacturer and thus cleared the first major hurdle of her venture.
Breakthrough with Whole Foods
The manufacturing part taken care of, sales was the next challenge. Whole Foods the supermarket retail chain had 30 stores in Southern California. Whole Foods accepted local brands to showcase in their stores. Gail pitched her product and convinced Whole Foods to shelf her packaged and frozen gluten free cauliflower based ready to eat Pizza. She has stated that she took a pack of Pizzas and placed them at the store. There was no advertising whatsoever. Even she didn’t visit to canvass the product. After a week she got a mail from Whole Foods that her pack had sold off. The consumers had liked it and they were in agreement of selling Caulipower products across all their 30 stores in Southern California. This was a highly encouraging breakthrough for Gail Becker. She and her manufacturer in due course had perfected mass production too and were ready for Whole Foods.
Accelerating Success
The ready to eat, nutritious, tasty and gluten free Pizzas became a success at Whole Foods Stores. However to scale up sales and to have a presence across the country Gail wanted a bigger and much wider exposure to consumers. Her persistence finally paid off when Walmart agreed to carry her brand. This was the trigger Caulipower required. Sales spiralled and Gail had to seek some investment from a Venture Capital firm to keep pace with the rollicking demand. Alongwith her signature pizza brand other products too were added to Caulipower’s repertoire and in just three years the company reached a revenue of $100mn.
Takeaways and lessons from Caulipower
1. It is so imperative to find that little space, that little need and that little market which is niche and untouched to launch an initiative. Gail Becker did just that with aplomb. She identified the ‘ easy availability void ‘ for gluten free cauliflower based pizzas and made that void her own.
2. She created a disruption in the frozen food industry by developing a product which had something different to offer from the rest of the crowd.
3. Another important aspect of Cauliflower is the fact that Gail Becker did not do everything by herself. She associated with people who had deep knowledge of the industry and gave then freedom in her venture. She did her bit with her marketing skills surely. Associating, accommodating and learning from the people who matter, rather than pushing your own ideas, is the correct and mature way as shown by Gail Becker.
4. Starting her Entrepreneurial journey rather late in her life did not dither Gail Becker but in a way helped her fast track her business. Starting late may not be that bad a choice has been proven and exemplified by Gail Becker.
Cauliflower to Caulipower is an inspirational, unprecedented journey of an Entrepreneur driven by a cause and self belief.
Efforts like this are very much needed to spread awareness about the celiac disease, now much more than ever as the society is encountering this allergy very frequently. This was very informative and authentic. An excellent effort to support the cause!
Very true. Thank you