Old Greenwich Start-Up Launches Kickstarter
Jacob Maude and his partner are raising funds for Cocoa Loco:
A Sweet Story on Kickstarter!
Jacob Maude and his partner are raising funds for Cocoa Loco:
A Sweet Story on Kickstarter!
This week two young entrepreneurs from Old Greenwich, Mason Amato and Jacob Maude,launched a Kickstarter campaign in order to grow their chocolate business Cocoa Loco. "We need to speed up our production process, so we launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a bar wrapping machine", said Maude. Kickstarter is an online crowdfunding platform through which supporters of companies "back" projects they like and receive "rewards" as compensation. When thinking about what rewards to give people Maude says he and Amato tried to think of the tastiest treats possible; they came up with Belgian chocolate covered marshmallows and chocolate covered all-natural Oreos. They also wanted to offer something personal, so another reward is chocolate bars with personalized wrappers.
Their sweet endeavor began only six months ago. After working for various distribution companies with good success the two decided to start putting their own chocolate bars into stores. Yet first they had to learn the art of chocolate making!
The two began practicing in their kitchens with massive blocks of chocolate, reading countless how-to books and even taking jobs at chocolate factories. "It was quite educational…I never knew chocolate was so complicated!" says Amato of the learning process. Yet by November of 2012 the two felt confident in their abilities and had secured a commercial kitchen in which they could make the chocolates. "The first batch was a crazy 8PM to 8AM shift, since we had to use the shared kitchen space at night when the store owners weren't using it" says Maude. Since December they have sold their chocolates to fifty shops and are hoping to greatly increase that number in 2013.
Their goal is to bring the premium quality and creative chocolate products to counters throughout New England. If you like their story and want to be an important part of it, or want to learn more about Cocoa Loco, you can visit their Kickstarter page "Cocoa Loco: A Sweet Story".
The two began practicing in their kitchens with massive blocks of chocolate, reading countless how-to books and even taking jobs at chocolate factories. "It was quite educational…I never knew chocolate was so complicated!" says Amato of the learning process. Yet by November of 2012 the two felt confident in their abilities and had secured a commercial kitchen in which they could make the chocolates. "The first batch was a crazy 8PM to 8AM shift, since we had to use the shared kitchen space at night when the store owners weren't using it" says Maude. Since December they have sold their chocolates to fifty shops and are hoping to greatly increase that number in 2013.
Their goal is to bring the premium quality and creative chocolate products to counters throughout New England. If you like their story and want to be an important part of it, or want to learn more about Cocoa Loco, you can visit their Kickstarter page "Cocoa Loco: A Sweet Story".
We are upgrading our factory! Savory chocolate rewards: hand-dipped chocolate marshmallows + all-natural oreos, customized logo bars...
Hello! Our names are Mason and Jacob and we started a chocolate company a few months ago. Our goal was to create chocolate so tasty that it sold itself. We got some shared commercial kitchen space (if you've done that before you know how hard that is) and within two weeks we were in fifty stores. We're growing and we want to speed up our chocolate making process. Now we can both get something great! We'll make some delicious treats for you, like chocolate covered Oreos, marshmallows, and Belgian chocolates, and your support will pave the way to purchasing a chocolate bar wrapping machine for Cocoa Loco. Thank you so much for your support!
Story:
Mason and I were working for a distribution company last summer for a while and it was going well. Mason, suggested that we begin own company putting products in stores. Having recently visited Cadbury World and been inspired by its story, I suggested a chocolate brand. The idea of a chocolate company was born. Our goal? To make chocolate that tastes so good it would sell itself. The next stage was a lot of fun, because it's chocolate! We read everything we could find about chocolate, visited factories and shops and I temporarily took a job as a chocolate maker. A few months and countless pounds of chocolate later, we were able to rent some shared kitchen space at a shop in Stamford. The one condition was that we use the kitchen at night, since the business is bustling in the daytime. At 8 PM, we began their first large batch production. Still learning the tricks of the trade, we didn't finish until 8 AM the next day! But we had our first 500 bars. Within three days we had distributed the majority in shops and needed to make more...
We're so excited the Kickstarter community can be a part of this! Your pledge will go towards a machine that will speed up the packaging process. We're also going to work on more professional looking wrappers for the bars.
RISKS AND CHALLENGESLearn about accountability on Kickstarter
As the market changes our products will need to adjust. We prepare for any potential problems by keeping up to date with new trends and speaking with retailers about customer buying habits.
People have asked whether we risk not selling at all. All products sell at different rates in different areas, due to demographic and other factors. We plan on tackling this by diversifying our products in size, chocolate type etc., perhaps even doing private labeling for companies that want customized products. This will give us a broader marketplace that doesn't make us dependent on a niche.
READ MORE HERE:
http://www.kickstarter.
People have asked whether we risk not selling at all. All products sell at different rates in different areas, due to demographic and other factors. We plan on tackling this by diversifying our products in size, chocolate type etc., perhaps even doing private labeling for companies that want customized products. This will give us a broader marketplace that doesn't make us dependent on a niche.
READ MORE HERE:
http://www.kickstarter.
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