How I Built This

A podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the movements they built. Created and hosted by @guyraz💡

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Calling all you entrepreneurs and innovators! The How I Built This shop is now open! Check out this curated collection at:

https://t.co/59F5tv3BfD

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Banza episode is live! Link in bio.

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Hear this guerrilla marketing tactic from @karissabodnar, founder of @ThriveCause

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https://t.co/SBXfDWILQx

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Luck is real, but it isn't everything. Hear it straight from Nicole Bernard Dawes of @latejulyorganic

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At one of @latejulyorganic's hardest moments, Nicole Bernard Dawes cut a quarter of the business while her father’s health declined. Shutting down never crossed her mind. Conviction wasn’t believing everything would go to plan—it was knowing there was always another move.

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For more stories and lessons from the founders I interview, subscribe to my newsletter: https://t.co/IB6t8B4J12

And to hear Nicole Bernard Dawes tell the full story of building Late July, listen to How I Built This: https://t.co/CPq3ovF5aZ

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Maybe that’s the lesson running through her entire story:

Keep going.

Tell the truth about how bad things are.

And trust that the next room you walk into might contain the person, idea, or opportunity that changes everything.

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Nicole acknowledges that luck gave her an extraordinary head start.

But luck didn’t get Late July through a failed launch, a $3.5M loan crisis, or the years when the company’s future was uncertain.

Her word for what did?

Tenacity.

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5. Read the exit clause like your future depends on it

Late July negotiated the right to buy itself back if majority investor Snyder’s-Lance was ever “sold.”

Then Campbell’s acquired Snyder’s-Lance.

But the deal was structured as a merger.

The clause never triggered.

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One word in a contract can be the difference between having leverage and having none.

That’s an expensive lesson.

And one every founder should remember before signing a deal that could determine the future of their company.

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They were naturally gluten-free. Naturally nut-free.

And they were the product Nicole had wanted to make since childhood.

It wasn’t an opportunity discovered on a spreadsheet.

It was a business problem and a deeply personal problem colliding at exactly the right moment.

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4. The best pivot may solve your own problem
Late July’s crackers were struggling.

Then Nicole’s son was diagnosed with a life-threatening peanut allergy—while the company’s top product was a peanut butter cracker.

Her answer?

Tortilla chips.

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There’s a lesson in that:

Founders are often taught to project confidence at all costs.

But Nicole wasn’t pretending everything was fine.

She told the truth to someone who happened to be exactly the right person to hear it.

Sometimes vulnerability creates opportunity.

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Nicole Bernard Dawes watched @latejulyorganic survive a failed launch, a $3.5M loan crisis, and a Hail Mary pivot inspired by her son’s medical emergency.

The company eventually became a $100M+ snack brand.

Here are 5 lessons from the moments that nearly broke it:

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3. Your hardest moment can contain your rescue

With the company in crisis, Nicole spoke candidly about what was going wrong during a trade show panel.

Someone in the audience heard her story and made a call.

That connection eventually helped secure the financing Late July needed to survive.

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2. Insure the people your business depends on

When Nicole’s father died, a clause in Late July’s equipment loan put $3.5M into default.

She had 30 days to repay it.

Her advice now is simple:

If you carry debt and key people create financial risk, insure against it.

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1. A big order isn’t always a good order

Late July launched in 2003 to huge retailer interest.

Then sales collapsed.

The problem? Many stores had no organic customer base.

They’d bought enthusiasm, not demand.
Buyer excitement ≠ product-market fit.

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https://t.co/EO2NugAqqp

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@latejulyorganic was seven years old when one sales meeting helped change everything. After betting the company on organic tortilla chips, Nicole Bernard Dawes landed a crucial deal with Stop & Shop that helped unlock wider distribution. She calls what followed an “overnight success, seven years in the making.”

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https://t.co/EO2NugAqqp