Right now, only 10% of children in the United States consume the recommended amount of vegetables per day. Betsy Fore and Sofia Laurell, co-CEOs and co-founders of Tiny Organics, are on a mission to change that statistic.
By delivering organic, ready-to-eat baby and toddler meals, Tiny Organics makes it possible for busy parents to introduce nutritious foods without all the time and guesswork. The company has recently received $11 million in funding and has had 500% year-over-year growth since its 2020 launch.
Even with this rapid expansion, however, Fore and Laurell have never forgotten the importance of listening to their customer base and understanding their needs, including their needs that aren't yet being met, or "white space," in marketing parlance.
“The best advice we ever received is that no matter how much we scale, the most important thing is to continue to have open conversations with our parents,” they said. “We built this company with them and every decision we made was for them.”
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To this day, Fore and Laurell remain close with their “100 Founding Families” whose feedback has been instrumental in shaping the Tiny Organics line.
“Our advice to other entrepreneurs would be to build a solid foundation with your customers, find your white space and keep the feedback loop going,” they told CO—.
Our advice to other entrepreneurs would be to build a solid foundation with your customers, find your white space and keep the feedback loop going.
Betsy Fore and Sofia Laurell, co-CEOs and co-founders of Tiny Organics
How divergent perspectives and collaboration brought about a unique business idea
Collaborating with others who have different backgrounds and experiences can often lead to the most unique ideas.
Laurell grew up in Finland and has experience in marketing and communications. Her inspiration for Tiny Organics came from the Finnish government’s “Finnish Baby Box,” which provides parents with everything they need for an infant’s first year.
Fore grew up in a food desert in the Midwest “on a constant sugar rollercoaster,” later making a lifestyle change to vegetarianism. With a background in the childhood sector and a knack for building brands, she connected with Laurell and discovered their shared passion for childhood nutrition.
“Betsy and I came together to realize that the biggest impact you can have on a child’s life is through food, and so the idea for Tiny Organics was born,” Laurell explained.
The duo discovered that shelf-stable purees — the primary product on the market for infants and toddlers — often set children’s palates to prefer sweet, smooth textures. This, paired with an increasing interest in baby-led weaning, helped them identify and fill this need for their customers.
By providing savory, healthy whole foods to children as young as six months, “we realized we could shape the palates of a generation to love vegetables from the earliest days, ensuring children grow up to live their healthiest, happiest lives and prevent chronic diseases later in life,” said Fore and Laurell.
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