Launching a Snacks Company at the Onset of the Pandemic

Sometimes I miss the view of what I used to lovingly/obnoxiously call “my Central Park” (it's actually Republic Square in downtown Austin 🙃).

It was this literal and figurative perspective that really jumpstarted things and kept me moving through the worst times, while simultaneously launching the best, most exciting, and successful company I’ve started to date, ATX KIT.

It felt like a bomb went off in March 2020 and I ran toward the fire with my cofounder, Julian, completely horrified and in total shock.

I could easily see through the windows to the downtown Farmer's Market below, (usually between the park and the parking lot there), and the number of vendors and shoppers majorly dwindling. I watched the economy tank in this very real way, right before my eyes every single weekend. Usually these weekend events are full of life, people bring their dogs, families have picnics on the lawn, and Austinites dance and sing to live music.

I’ll always have this memory as the most heartbreaking and soul-crushing thing to witness and experience in my life. But I know that this also symbolizes humanity’s resilience, which ironically at once is also a beautiful thing to witness and experience in life.

It's doing things in spite of overwhelming fear and almost being completely knocked out, but that incredible moment of getting back up again, still over and over again.

Channelling one of my favorite quotes of all time, from Rocky:

“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!”

I knew instantly what needed to be done. I dropped everything I've known in my career/trajectory, and to be real, a "bougie" world of venture capital and tech startup life I was living for the past ten years. I went down to the Farmer’s Market and filled my cart with thousands of dollars of food from those resilient entrepreneurs out there on the cold, rainy, miserable days. Real entrepreneurs. Helping each other out. We can’t do it without each other.

I just wanted to make it easy for Austinites to make one purchase and support 10+ local food entrepreneurs… while getting a box packed full of the best snacks this town has to offer, and curated by yours truly!

I didn’t stop to think about it at the time but I had plunged into the world of "consumer packaged goods"-- my life forever changed. I didn’t know a lick of the CPG industry, but I now know what I'm capable of and I would never have guessed this outcome if it wasn't for COVID-19.

And the biggest thanks to Julian of course, whom I’ll always be indebted and very grateful for. He was hustling with his other company as well. A patient business partner, a shoulder to cry on, and a big supporter. I’m glad to know him and that started this adventure.

A tired but very happy me after packing boxes… and before we had a logo 💚📦

It's a freakin’ wild ride as an entrepreneur. They liken it to jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down. Well I've launched and built startups in the "old world", and now in this “new world” I'd say it's the same, but doing so in the worst, most terrifying, and unpredictable storm that we've known or experienced in our lifetime.

This type of storm will wipe you out seemingly overnight, and leave your head spinning in it’s wake— and we are still seeing the after effects happening all around us. Even as I write this post with updates in the summer of 2021, it still continues to effect our small businesses who've weathered other terrible storms even decades ago.

I have also always wondered what I’d be like if I were to experience catastrophic events, the type of transition I’ve heard about from a few executives I used to work with, switching from peacetime CEO to wartime CEO. I’ve really only built in boom times.

But we’ve also now seen companies emerge out of these ugly times, some of which to me, are like a work of art. Similar to the art painted on the boarded up businesses on 6th Street in downtown Austin. Both dreamed up by people creating something of a sign of the times, and reflecting so much of what we see and feel.

From cotton candy tastings to EMS snack donations, I’ve organized a photo gallery below of some incredibly happy memories made along the way. If you click them, there’s a little story.

Check out more stories, some from the 50+ entrepreneurs we’ve worked with, and the awards and press that helped recognize and enable us to do even more to help Austin small businesses owners: www.atxkit.com/stories

One of the best feelings is when we’re a part of people showing their love and support for one another. For example, I started to realize I was Santa in December 2020! A very important year for Santa to be working. I’ve never felt like that before and I don’t know of a word to describe that.

There is so much more I’d like to share, but how can you summarize a company’s launch story with a year like that into one blog post?

Thanks for all your support, likes, encouragement, thoughts, and snacking with an impact! We couldn’t have done what we needed and wanted to do without the love.

Be well & snack well.