19: From “Naive” Newcomer to 8-Figure Revenue in 4 Years with Barnana Co-Founder Nik Ingersoll

BiggerPockets Business Podcast

BiggerPockets

Business, Careers

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2019

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Prepare yourself for an incredible tale of entrepreneurship. It features a hardscrabble upbringing, relentless optimism, negotiations with Amazonian tribesmen, and some bold guerrilla (“gorilla”?) marketing stunts. Barnana has been making organic banana snacks since 2012. The founders call bananas “Mother Nature’s energy bar”—hence, the name. When they started, they didn’t have much money of their own. So, they had to build a business that appealed to investors. Today, co-founder Nik Ingersoll reveals exactly how they did that. You don’t get into 20,000 stores (including heavyweights like Whole Foods and Costco) without money. But as Nik explains, it doesn’t have to be YOUR money. In fact, one of the most valuable parts of this episode is Nik’s story of how he used “lean startup” principles to raise Barnana’s first round of funding. Also, ever wondered how much it actually costs to make that healthy snack you’re munching on? Well, Nik breaks down Barnana’s supply chain and profit margins in detail—from working with distributors/middlemen, to using brokers to get Barnana’s products into stores, to getting certified as “organic.” And he shares some great ways he’s generated free publicity over the years, including the launch of this farcical new product. This is one of our best episodes yet. Tell us what you think, and subscribe to the show so you won’t miss an episode. In This Episode We Cover: Nik's background and how he has been hustling since he was a kid Starting various businesses and founding Barnana How he taught himself to code Taking on a huge undertaking by starting a massive retail business Barnana's crazy supply chain Working with organic products How he raised capital creatively Figuring things out one part at a time Channel strategy Best advice for anyone who wants to get into the food retail business And SO much more! Links from the Show BiggerPockets Biz Survey Myspace Forbes 30 Under 30 BiggerPockets Business Podcast 09: The Secret to Starting a Risk-Free, Debt-Free Business QUICKLY with Alan Donegan Amazon KraveJerky RXBar Alibaba Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/bizshow19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So, you want to be a marketer. It's easy. You just have to score a ton of leads and figure out a way to turn them all into customers. Plus manage a dozen channels, write a million blogs and launch 100 campaigns all at once. When that's done, simply make your socials go viral and bring in record profits. No sweat. Okay, fine. It's a lot of sweat. But with HubSpot's AI-powered marketing tools,
0:23.2	launching benchmark-breaking campaigns is easier than ever. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers.
0:30.5	Hello, blue skies. Hello moving onwards and upwards. Hello, taking control of your money.
0:37.9	Say hello to tax-free investing.
0:40.7	Open a Stocks and shares, ICER,
0:42.8	and act by the 5th of April to get 100 to 3,000 pounds cash back.
0:47.8	Cargreaves lands down.
0:49.4	Hello Life.
0:51.6	Register and add or transfer £10,000 plus.
0:54.1	You may get back less than you invests and tax benefits vary.
0:56.7	For terms and conditions, see hl.com.uk.org slash ISA.
1:00.9	This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Stressing over cybersecurity, whether you're a startup, growing fast, or already established.
1:08.7	Vanta can help you get ISO-27,001 certified and more.
1:13.7	Plus, it allows your company to centralize security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk to help your team stay compliant.
1:24.4	Head to Vanta.com slash Spotify to learn more.
1:29.0	Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Business Podcast show number 19.
1:35.6	And so by virtue of just literally not having a dollar to my name or to my family's name,
1:41.6	period. There really was no other option, right? Like I didn't have 20 grand to just go spend on a production run's name, period, there really wasn't a other option, right?
1:44.3	Like, I didn't have 20 grand to just go spend on a production run.
1:48.1	Just wasn't an option.
1:53.3	Welcome to a real world MBA from the School of Hard Knocks,
1:57.3	where entrepreneurs reveal what it really takes to make it.
	...

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