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Trial and Error to Make Things Better with Jessica Rolph

October 27, 2020

Entreprenista
Entreprenista
Trial and Error to Make Things Better with Jessica Rolph
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Jessica Rolph is the Cofounder and CEO of Lovevery, a new child development company helping parents feel confident they are making the most of each learning stage of their babies life experience. Equipped with an MBA in Management from Cornell University, in 2005 she Co-Founded the brand Happy Family, an impactful organic baby food company she, and her friend Shazi Visram, took from concept to mega brand. In 2013 Happy Family was acquired by Danone, allowing the French food group to enter the US baby food market. After reading a doctoral dissertation titled ‘Current Research Findings on the Neurological Development of Infants’, Jessica educated herself on baby experience as well as diet. This paper inspired Jessica, along with her business partner Rod Morris to create a second baby company, this time focused on brain development. The result is Lovevery, bringing academics, researchers, and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines together for a holistic approach to parent choices.

Jessica joins us today to reveal how her interest in child diet and development lead to the creation of one of the most successful organic baby food companies in the country. We discuss the early days of Happy Family and how a failed attempt at frozen organics lead to a successful journey into organic dry foods and baby cereal. We discuss the problems Jessica faced with distribution and product development and how underestimating the customers passion for their products resulted in valuable learned lessons. We also discuss what Jessica and her partner do to keep their working relationship healthy and the things Jessica does for herself so she can be her ‘fullest self’ for Lovevery.

Key Takeaways include:

  • What happened when Jessica spotted a gap in the organic baby food market
  • How trial and error with product design for Happy Baby lead to an explosion in demand for organic baby food products
  • When Jessica passed over the reigns of Happy Family to Danone
  • How being transparent about mistakes can lead to a stronger relationship with your customers
  • Why the timing of your customer feedback is important for product planning
  • The qualities Jessica looks for in prospective work relationships
  • Jessica’s tips on managing co-founder relationships
  • Why you should file your ‘no’ in fundraising under a future possible ‘yes’
  • Jessica’s typical day outside of work
  • What you should prioritize when managing a company and a family

Connect with Jessica Rolph:

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