Success Stories
Souperb
Joanna continues to grow her business while managing four active mentorships!
Joanna Terry is the founder and owner of Souperb, a San Francisco Bay Area-based wholesale soup distribution company. Joanna enrolled into Pacific Community Ventures’ BusinessAdvising.org program seeking guidance on how to acquire funding and improve her supply chain management. Joanna’s taken full advantage of our free advising platform, having partnered with four advisors since she signed up in November 2018!
Joanna’s first priority was to figure out what type of funding would best suit her business. We introduced Joanna to Marshall Lebovits, an Advisor at Asset Based Financing Solutions. Marshall is a seasoned advisor with 30+ years of experience assisting small businesses secure financing in the food industry.
Within the first two months, they laid the foundation for Joanna’s funding initiative and developed her pitch deck. Marshall helped Joanna generate financial forecasts and a company valuation analysis. Joanna was ecstatic to share her progress in her 6 week survey, stating, “We’re working on updating financials with some key components that need revisions, and looking at financial opportunities for adding a new product line.” As their partnership progressed, so did Joanna’s confidence. She said, “Marshall gives me the guidance and confidence to raise money for my company.”
From there, Marshall connected Joanna with a former Senior VP of a large consumer packaged goods company, and reached out to Pacific Community Ventures to get Joanna assistance with creating a capitalization table. We paired Joanna with Ranjit Unnithan, an Advisor at Edge Research. Ranjit’s experience as an equity analyst and investor, as well as skills in recognizing and capitalizing on growth opportunities, proved to be just what Joanna needed to advance her funding efforts.
Joanna was just getting started, though. While Ranjit provided guidance on how to approach potential investors and helped put a valuation on her business, she also asked for help with pricing structures, so we paired her with Barbara Roesner, Vice President, Credit Advisor at California Bank and Trust. She offered solutions to her high cost of goods pricing issues by identifying alternative co-manufacturing options.
Joanna’s most recent request was to help her with budgeting. We introduced Joanna to Sarah Rubio, a Purchasing Manager at EAT Club. Sara’s background in the food industry made for a seamless working relationship in procurement, logistics, and vendor management. Joanna said, “We reviewed payments to our big vendors and looked for room for negotiations.”
Joanna continues to grow her business while managing four active mentorships! She regularly connects with each of her advisors and keeps them updated throughout all her progress. Each advisor is enjoying the work they’re doing with Joanna, and have rated their match satisfaction a perfect 10 out of 10! Joanna has been an exemplary small business owner in our program and has seen significant improvements with the teaching from her advisors. We are excited to follow her success!
Could your small business benefit from free advice or a fair and affordable loan? PCV can help. Learn more about our advising program or our loan program.