PCV interviewed one of the entrepreneurs that we work with, and we are feeling so inspired! Meet Corey Rennell, Founder of CORE Foods. Corey started his business in 2010 with a mission to empower people with fresh foods and honest resources. In addition to creating delicious and nutrition meal bars, CORE Foods is also staying busy creating a movement of health-focused eating. CORE Foods meal bars can be found at your favorite specialty grocery markets.
Tell me about your business and your vision for the future:
We started Core Foods on Earth Day. We saw that a lot of consumer packaged goods were much more focused on profit than they were on peoples’ health. We developed a not-for-profit company business model to refocus the purpose of the health food system on peoples’ health.
Since then, we launched nationally with Whole Foods. We’re carried in just about every Whole Foods across the country. As our next project, in 2014, we will be launching a restaurant in Oakland focused on the same health principles that we used to develop our packaged food. We’ve also developed a robust online community around a concept called the Core Challenge, which is where people eat mainly raw fruits and vegetables and a core meal every day for 30 days and change their lives. People have had incredible results, including a woman who lost 30 pounds and another who stopped feeling aches and pains they felt their entire life.
What roles do your PCV Advisors play in your business?
We have a number of ongoing mentors. One mentor James Hipkin is our all-around marketing advisor and helps when we’re making strategic changes in our packaging and strategy. We have a new relationship with Alex Long, who has been helping us align QuickBooks with our inventory management system. This is vital because our inventory equity has gone up significantly as our business has grown.
How would you describe PCV’s contribution to your business?
PCV enables us to take the risks that we have to take to grow the business.
Can you talk about the culture of Core Foods?
We’re more than a business; we’re leading a movement. We hire people because they’re passionate about these issues. They want to change the world, but sometimes changing the world is a slow process. So we support people in a way that helps them love the work they do every day. A big part of that is making sure we offer really good jobs. The average salary at Core Foods has doubled since 2012. We have instituted company healthcare for everyone who works here. We provide wellness credits, we support each other in living healthier lives, and we have a flexible PTO where we reward everyone for being healthy by allowing them to transfer their sick days into vacation days. Building really good jobs internally has been just as much of a priority for us as growing additional jobs.
What would you say to another small business owner about PCV?
I think PCV is basically a plug-and-play business school where you can reach out to a massive, successful, experienced, wise, ad hoc, board of directors at any moment, and build the critical planning and development team for whatever project or challenge is facing your business at that moment. PCV is like having an older, wiser brother. You can call on him anytime, he’s always got your back, and he at least knows the right way to point you when you reach a major crossroads.
You mentioned that you rely on Social Media. How do you calculate the return on investment?
A big thing that we learned from our business advising has been that metrics are an essential part of the successful business, so we measure absolutely everything in the business — especially things that we invest money in.
We measure 80 different social media indicators every single week from the amount of time that we’re investing in social media, to the amount of sales that result directly from social media, to the amount that the public is talking about us in social media, to our activity on our channels. We measure all of that, and there’s definitely less linear information that we’re getting right now between social media activity and sales growth, but we’re continuing to develop those metrics so we can tie those things closely together.
Are there any final thoughts you would like to share about your relationship with PCV?
I just really can’t thank PCV enough for the support. Our relationship is funny in that we’re running a business, and we are always just focused on doing that. We can go a long time without speaking, and then all of a sudden, I send an email saying, “I really need this today,” and Kendra will make miracles happen overnight. PCV is always appreciated, even when we’re just hustling getting things done.