Podcast #24 : The Frauxmagerie Founder & CEO Marie-Catherine Marsot speaks with Andrew D. Ive from Big Idea Ventures about the story and process behind her delicious plant-based cheeses.
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TRANSCRIPT
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
cheese, products, cheeses, create, dairy, bacterial culture, grew, canada, people, company, ingredients, logistics, based, world, europe, bacteria, production, microbiologist, camembert, moving
SPEAKERS
Marie-Catherine, Andrew D Ive
Andrew D Ive
Hi there, welcome to the Big Idea podcast where we focus on food. Today we’re going to be talking to Marie-Catherine, from Frauxmagerie, a company in Canada focused on plant based cheeses, an amazing product range, great branding, really special company. So let’s get into it. Let’s have a conversation with Mary Katherine and by all means, add your comments likes, and subscribe to us moving forward. Thanks very much.
Andrew D Ive
Very well, you just broke up and disappeared all at the same time. No, don’t worry. Don’t worry, we can we can start again. Let me let me stop the audio track. And I’ll start again. Okay, you ready?
Marie-Catherine
Yes.
Andrew D Ive
Marie-Catherine, how are you?
Marie-Catherine
I’m good. And you?
Andrew D Ive
Very well. Thank you. Really good to meet you. Basically, you’re one of our amazing cheese companies in our portfolio and we’ve been working together now for a few months and I thought it would be a great opportunity for people to learn about Marie-Catherine, and about Frauxmagerie. So why don’t we start there Frauxmagerie, tell us about the company. What is it doing? And why is it special?
Marie-Catherine
Oh, well, first of all, thank you for inviting me, I’m super happy to talk about the company. As always, I can talk forever. The frauxmagerie was created three years ago and since then it’s been a crazy ride, but a good ride. Lots of really good stuff, and a lot of hard work. I went back to school to become a chef and once I was done, they asked me to teach plant-based classes. I really like plant-based food and am myself on a plant-based diet. So I started teaching and the students kept telling me there was no good cheese on the market. So I started looking into it, I just cut out all the dairy from my diet, I didn’t think about an alternative and when I realized that there was no good cheese alternative, I knew exactly how to make cheese and it’s kind of a very strange story.
Marie-Catherine
My dad is a microbiologist, and I grew up in a house where we were making our own cheese on weekends for fun, and also because of the lack of dairy cheese on the market back in the 70s and 80s. So I knew all about the bacterial culture and I thought that was totally normal to have that in your fridge. I grew up with that. My dad has all the bacterial and fungi starter in the fridge and I thought that was totally normal. So when it came time to create a new vegan cheese, well, that was very easy for me, I just called my dad and asked him to send me whatever he had in the fridge for some experiment. And from the experiment, it turned really quick into a real business.
Andrew D Ive
So where are you based now? And where are you experimenting and creating these these amazing cheeses.
Marie-Catherine
We’re based in Meaford, Ontario, which is about two hours north of Toronto on Lake Huron. So it’s a beautiful, peaceful area. 5000 people live in this village so it’s a really nice, quiet area perfect for creating.
Andrew D Ive
And I remember a conversation we had previously where you were talking about having a little stone cottage, on the land that you own and live on, and you were using that sort of environment, that Cold Stone place to be the Center for your cheesemaking correct?
Marie-Catherine
That’s correct. When I moved up here after a long career in Toronto, I bought an old farmhouse that was in a really bad shape and one of the additions to the farmhouse was unfinished, big stone really cold and humid. My plan was to finish it, to finish my house and put in a huge dining room with a slanted ceiling, it’s just gorgeous. And when it came time to do that experiment, it was the spring and the weather was really cold like about five degrees celsius and I decided to try to put the cheese there and see how it grew and to my surprise we created firstly a Camembert.
Marie-Catherine
The camembert started to grow on that plant based recipe, and I was amazed at what that cold humid shed could do for my cheese, I was blown away. It was really a fun experiment and I kept taking pictures and showing my dad sending it to him via internet and he thought it was photoshopped. He couldn’t believe it had happened.
Andrew D Ive
And so now, are you still using that cold unfinished shed? Or are you doing it in a different place?
Marie-Catherine
No, unfortunately, we grew out of the space really, really quick, that was only like a 400 square feet area and with the demand, we had to move, and actually, I thought it would grow and I would have more customers, but it grew so fast that in the first year of operation, we had to move three times. So we rented a little place down in Meaford, a little industrial area that we haveclose by and from there, we had to build the building and continue growing, and we’re still expanding today. So it’s a never ending growth.
Andrew D Ive
And you guys are only doing vegan cheeses at this point?
Marie-Catherine
Yeah, we were making vegan cheese, we have nine products, soon to be 10 and we are working on a new line of products. So that will bring us to a lot more products really soon. Research and development is really key for us, we really love that. That’s what I love about it.
Andrew D Ive
So what was the first cheese and then take us if you would, after you told us about the first cheese, take us through the other kind of eight products that you currently have in the portfolio and what made you design them and create them?
Marie-Catherine
Well, at first my goal was really, once the Camembert was created using Penicillium candidum, which is a fungi starter, I decided to try other bacteria that my dad had in his fridge. So I told him send me the Penicillium rock 40, which is like the bacteria that cause the blue to grow in the cheese. So that was my second baby. My second creation was the blue and it grew well and I was very impressed.
Marie-Catherine
And then I decided to continue with more Fungi starter or other bacterial culture that I could find. Unfortunately, some of the bacterial starter that are well known in the cheese world have some dairy in it, so we can’t use it at this stage. But the good news is, I recently contacted these people that make all these bacterial cultures and Fungi starters and ask them to work with me so we can develop all of these bacterial culture that exists in the world that make all of these famous cheeses around the world. So we can even create more and expand and continue to expand but totally remove the dairy out of the cheese.
Andrew D Ive
So take us through the skews. You’ve got the camembert in the beginning, then the roquefort blue as number two. What else do you have?
Marie-Catherine
Then we created the boka. The Boka was a creation that comes from an idea that is kind of a light cheddar based on the cheese that we found in Quebec Province of Canada. So that’s my third invention. Then we went to the parmesan, which is just shaker style parmesan that you put on pasta, and salad, the popcorn and then after that we went and created the Swiss cheese.
Marie-Catherine
The swiss cheese took a lot of experimentatin because we were trying to recreate the hole in the cheese. So it’s the bacteria that causes these holes to appear and we could not get it to happen. I was trying so hard but I think now it will happen. So the Swiss was created and then we decided to go onto a fresh line and created a mozzarella and a Greek cheese and some curds for Poutine, which is something Canadians really like.
Marie-Catherine
And now we have created a natural cheese that’s coming out, to pour on vegetables or on your nachos and we are now creating a full line. We listened to what the customer was saying about doing a line without nuts and that kept coming back and coming back and I totally understand. The nut side is sometimes not everybody agrees with, especially with allergic reaction. So now we are creating a full new line without nuts. So we’re very excited about that new line. We have to redo all the work we did with all these bacterial culture to see now if it works on that new base and it’s looks really promising right now.
Andrew D Ive
So you’re going through it all over again? You did it with cashew. The nine skews, eight skews, nine skews that you have are cashew based and now you’re going to try it with new ingredients outside of cashew correct?
Marie-Catherine
That’s correct yes, we’re trying with an ingredient that’s really affordable and also sustainable. Cashews are good but there’s a lot of controversy across the world with the culture of cashews. Maybe something that’s really sustainable, and we believe that potatoes are are really sustainable and could create fantastic products.
Andrew D Ive
Rice could also be an interesting ingredient because that’s pretty ubiquitous and can be grown quite readily.
Marie-Catherine
Yes I think the sky’s the limit when it comes to finding other products and seeing what we can do.
Andrew D Ive
So really it’s about what works with the bacteria that have been used for hundreds of years to create the dairy based, and seeing if that bacteria will work effectively and create great products with other ingredients is that is that the approach?
Marie-Catherine
The approach now it’s to convince these companies that make those bacterial cultures, to help us create more that are without any trace of dairy at all. So that’s a big project that I really hold close to my heart so we can have all the gooey nice cheese like cheddar right now. If you look at all of my skews I don’t have any cheddar, and the reason is that the bacterial cultures that are used to create cheddar still have some dairy in them so we need to remove that little bit of dairy in those cultures. Then we can create more and the skies gonna be the limit. I’m in for the long run and it’s a fun project.
Andrew D Ive
So what do you think will be your first product outside of nuts? What do you think? Do you have any kind of predictions about what you’re going to be bringing to market next?
Marie-Catherine
Yes, I really want to bring the oat. Oats are sweet but not too sweet and we can remove some fibers and create something fantastic. I really believe Oats will be my new product. A bit like what happened to milk. It started with soy milk and cashew milk then coconut milk and now oat milk is taking over, so I really believe oat might be a good base of the future for any cheese.
Andrew D Ive
And so now it’s April the 19th. What do you think will be a good time to bring that to the market and wow people with an oat base cheese?
Marie-Catherine
For sure this year. We’re working right now on the marketing, the design of new boxes and all that. I really believe that possibly by early fall, we should be close to releasing it to the market. So we’re very excited.
Andrew D Ive
That is exciting. You’ve mentioned that you’re a couple of hours north of Quebec, Toronto. I know you live off the grid which is kind of cool. What’s your back garden, it’s how many acres?
Marie-Catherine
Yeah living off grid in a house I build myself, well with a builder of course, but designed myself so we’re totally off grid but live really well. I wanted to show people that it’s possible to live a good life and not use any electricity. You we can make it with the sun and we have solar panel and wind panels. So when there’s not enough sun in the winter, the wind picks up here we always have wind. So we have a property that’s 100 acres and we live totally off grid, but we do have a dishwasher washer. People in Canada are unaware that you can live so well with a really small footprint. It’s unbelievable. When I have people over here they can’t believe that we have heat with no fuel, no nothing. So it’s pretty amazing.
Andrew D Ive
So Marie-Catherine, we just had a brief interruption. The irony is I think it was probably on my side. I’m living in a city, which has supposedly got all the electricity it could possibly need and I’m the one who gets disconnected and you’re off grid. You know, in a challenging place from an electrical perspective and your Internet’s working just fine. I don’t know how that happens. But there we are.
Marie-Catherine
Yeah, it is very possible to live a great life and with a very low footprint, even in Canada with her harsh winter,
Andrew D Ive
Obviously not in the middle of a city, though, you know, obviously, in cities, it’s not as predictable as the kind of Northern, you know, northern climates that you’re in. So you’ve mentioned Canada a few times as being where you originally established the fromagerie, where you created the first set of products. The fact that you’ve designed a few of your products based on Canadian cheeses, is this a product that is currently available outside of Canada, and what’s your thinking in terms of making it available outside of Canada,
Marie-Catherine
We started exporting to the United States last year. We were testing the market and there was obviously a demand for the products. So now we are growing really fast. We’re just establishing a good distribution line so we are successful and we have hired a VP of sales in the States. I think she is putting everything in place right now so we will be available through major grocery stores and we are very excited about growing in the states now.
Andrew D Ive
So where are you available in the US? And where will you be in the next let’s say six months, I know these things take a little time.
Marie-Catherine
Yeah, we’re opening in Sprouts, Kroger, Costco, Whole Foods, all these major giant key stores that we have approached and they’re very interested. So now it’s just the logistics side to put in place and get going.
Andrew D Ive
Awesome. So if I wanted to get some Frauxmagerie products in the US today, where would I go to find it?
Marie-Catherine
Today there’s one store that’s online that has our products, it’s called Vegan Essential, and they ship, you know, with COVID. So that’s the store that I would go through today. Within six months, this will have changed to a lot more grocery stores across the state who will stock our products.
Andrew D Ive
Do you ship your products direct to consumers?
Marie-Catherine
We do but because the cheese is so delicate, and it’s refrigerated, it’s pretty hard. We can manage to do it if somebody really wants. We always strive to please our clients Um, but in the States right now it’s a bit hard with the border, and the cheese needs to be there within 24 to 48 hours. So it’s not an easy task sometimes But we can do it.
Andrew D Ive
Got you. Okay, so you’ve taken us through how you started. I wish I could have seen that little stone cottage and seen all the cheese being made there. You’re moving into some new product category, sorry, some new product ingredients, aside from the nuts based, which is amazing. What do you see as the key opportunities and challenges over the next three to five years from your point of view?
Marie-Catherine
I think since the beginning the challenges with the growth, managing the growth has been very challenging. I have a good background in logistics and organization. I’m very good at it. It’s beyond that. It’s moving. It’s growing. It’s the expansion, always looking for a bigger and better installation like right now we’re in the plan. We are automating the whole plan, which is another level and I have no experience with this, so as an enterpreneur I need to be focused on learning every day. Okay, what’s next in how can I accomplish this goal. So learning about new equipment fridge, freezer, bigger and better. So it’s crazy, but it’s good. It’s a good crazy,
Andrew D Ive
it’s a good crazy how many people in the company right now.
Marie-Catherine
We’re eight people in the company right now and our production place started like from 400 square foot to now we’re almost at 8000 square foot and that’s not going to be big enough, I can see it again.
Andrew D Ive
That’s, that’s pretty decent. So can you see yourself being in a 20 to 30,000 square foot unit or production facility at some point? And by the way, that 8000 square foot you just mentioned, you’re not sharing that with lots of other companies are you?
Marie-Catherine
It’s just for us. It’s just testing there.
Andrew D Ive
That’s great. And so that’s all product that you’re selling predominantly, I would guess in Canada right now.
Marie-Catherine
That’s right. It’s only for Canada right now. But we know that the demand from the states is coming fast and we know that we have to be establish and start sending massive production in June or July in the states. So we’re getting ready right now. So we are doubling, tripling our production right now.
Andrew D Ive
Talking about doubling and tripling your growth rate in Canada right now and obviously you’re bringing the US online as well, slowly but surely. What’s your growth rates been…. two times, three times?
Marie-Catherine
At least three times I’d say. We started making about 50 cheeses a month when we first started and now we’re making 15,000. And I can see with the growth to the states, we will have to produce at least 100,000 cheeses a month. So the cheese will be 190 grams. We need to get there ASAP. So right now it’s just yeah, learning to grow and grow successfully. Fast.
Andrew D Ive
Now, I know you mentioned that you’re very good at operations and organization. Is that fundamentally because of your previous careers?
Marie-Catherine
I think so It’s funny how life is sometimes. I have a bachelor in science and I went to do my science degree, mostly for my dad, he wanted me to be a microbiologist. I didn’t like science back then, I just didn’t like the structure of science, I guess the book side of science, but I’m totally a scientist inside of me and I know it and it’s so funny. And yeah, was in the army in a world of logistics. I did many tours and then I joined the police force and was a homicide detective.
Marie-Catherine
It’s so strange but the homicide detective gave me the ability to research and always investigate and dig, dig, dig deep in every issue. So that was very good for me when it comes down to looking at bacterial culture and now all the science came back together and the background of logistics with the army just come with all that math to manage that production. So it’s funny how everything you do in life just bring you to this step. And it’s like now I feel very complete, I feel like I belong where I am.
Andrew D Ive
So if anyone wants to become an innovator in cheese, they should start off with understanding the science, then they should join the army. So they understand that production logistics and finally, they should become a homicide detective, so they know how to investigate and dig deeply into different data sources and pass it through and analyze it. Is that the solution?
Marie-Catherine
I think we can all be cheesemakers, obviously. But I think I’m successful because of all that past and it’s really strange, but it is very helpful. All the skills that I acquired.
Andrew D Ive
It’s true. If you look at some of the most successful business people in history, a lot of them have very varied backgrounds where they tried different things but they couldn’t settle, they couldn’t get focused on one particular thing, and eventually it’s bringing all of those things together in that one company at the right time that sort of gets things to turn into something quite amazing. So talking of amazing what’s next for Frauxmagerie?
Marie-Catherine
Absolutely. We’re gonna start exporting in a massive way to the US. However, in my head already, somewhere else, because I have feet on the ground in the US so it’s just to manage to bring the product so I’m already visioning past the US. I really want to go to Europe, I really want the product to be in Europe. Reason why is that my cheese, because of my background as a French person, I think is something that you eat everyday in Europe and not just for an occasion, like a wine and cheese like we do more in America.
Marie-Catherine
So I really am focusing right now on bringing my line to Europe and I’m very serious about finding a strategic partner that will help me bring my line to Europe because I think this will be great on the European, on the French, table. I see it, I feel it. So I’m already there, I’m already looking for this, this is my next big point in my mind. The US, it’s coming, we’re working on it, we have feet on the ground, the logistic is getting established, it’s working well. So it’s just fine tuning. It’s happening. Now, I need to go beyond that and Europe is my next target. I’m really hoping to bring my cheese to the table there really quickly, we have a lot of people asking for it.
Andrew D Ive
In terms of partner and expanding into Europe, what does the ideal partner look like? What are the kind of characteristics of somebody you’d want to partner with in terms of bringing Frauxmagerie to Europe?
Marie-Catherine
You know, I’m very flexible and I learned early on with the army again, that if you can’t beat the enemy, you have to join them. And I’m just saying, it’s not that there is an enemy but I think we need to have the dairy industry, which are well established, and they have so much distribution channel, I think we need to work with a dairy company that’s willing to be open to a plant based cheese. I think if we team up great things will happen and that’s when we’re going to see big changes. However, I’m very flexible and if a vegan company is started over there and wants to join me, or then we can do great things too. But I’m not against being with a dairy company that can has an open mind.
Andrew D Ive
I think there’s one in particular that obviously I’m very keen on right now, with the Bel group. One of the things I think will be advantagous to you is to move out of cashew, because I’ve seen a lot of dairy come plant based dairy companies, a lot of them use cashew. So to distinguish yourselves from those others, even though your cheeses are actually much, much better generally, by moving outside of cashew, you really start to kind of be a standout differentiator in terms of your products and your company and your go to market. So fingers crossed that the oat based product is incredible. I’m sure it will be otherwise you won’t launch it because you only launch incredible products. Okay, so we’ve talked about Canada, US, Europe, new products, scaling production, what kinds of things are on the horizon?
Marie-Catherine
One of the things that I’m very excited about is recently, through a connection that came to a VC, we have reached out to a group of people that make bacterial culture in the world, mostly for dairy industry, they’re just starting to think about making some for vegan products, but they’re very far behind. So we just signed an agreement to help each other and we just signed an NDA in a joint venture. So it sounds like we will be creating more product that will work on plants to make the best cheese in the world. So this will be just amazing to bring the inventory of really fine cheese, the best cheese in the world, from dairy to non-dairy. So this is on my plate right now and I can wait to exchange with them and try what they made and tell them the results. So for the next couple of months we’ll be working together at seeing what we can create? What we can transform? So this is really good.
Andrew D Ive
I’m really excited about that. Your products are typically at the higher end of cheese. Do you think there’s an opportunity on the plant based side in the more sort of mainstream everyday cheeses in North America? Obviously, the kind of higher end cheeses are more used on a daily basis in France and other parts of Europe but in terms of the US and North America, is there a market? do you think there’s an opportunity for cheeses that are sort of more daily use?
Marie-Catherine
Absolutely and that’s why I really want to create this cheddar. There’s a lot of cheddar and mozzarella right now and they’re very okay. They use a lot of ingredients and preservatives and I really want to keep my ingredients to a minimum exactly like the dairy industry does. It’s milk plus some bacterial culture so I really want to reproduce that same thing. We don’t have to have some unnatural ingredient per se but yes, absolutely this always plays for so much like I’m looking at the dairy industry and everything that is created in real cheese and we can have the same thing in a vegan world.
Marie-Catherine
So there’s going to be placed for everybody. That’s why when I look at my competition I’m super happy they’re doing well, because all together I think it’s a strength to be together and we’re going to recreate a new world without cruelty, without cows being abused and I don’t have a really good image of they’re in my head so if we can replace all these great cheeses from cheddar to mozzarella to parmesan in a non dairy way that would be amazing.
Andrew D Ive
it’s interesting when I speak to you to know other vegans talk about the cruelty and so on but it sounds like you know, you’re recognizing, that the dairy industry has done some amazing things. Has created incredible products and there’s now an opportunity to continue that creativity and do so in a more sort of sustainable, non dairy, way and I think you’ve shown that if you look at the video, behind you you’ve got a whole range of products and I’m seeing the roquefort and the Camembert and so on, these are yours right these are your products these are not regular Camembert or regular roquefort that you’re just sort of putting up behind you, you’ve been able to recreate two very long standing, historic traditional cheeses, using non dairy ingredients.
Marie-Catherine
Exactly and I want to show, the world that it’s possible. It took a while to create these, with a lot of trial and error, but it’s possible. Now that I know more about all that, I think the sky’s the limit and we can create so much more. I’m so excited, every day I get up and I’m like oh my god I can create this I just need the company outside that can help me reate the bacteria without any trace of dairy, because some of them right now still have choice of dairy in them, but it’s coming,we’re working on it, and in 20 years from now this is going to be a totally different world and by using simple ingredients and using bacterial cultures, we can create this.
Marie-Catherine
What you see behind me is so we can be as good as dairy without the dairy and we know this is unsustainable right. The production of cheese is in third place after the production of beef and production of lambs, so we can’t continue like that. We know it’s impossible and something needs to be done and I think we have the solution here for the dairy industry, we do have it
Andrew D Ive
And for the consumers that want great cheese I think.
Marie-Catherine
Well exactly. Because the structure is the same and the taste is close and we’re gonna get even closer and closer as we fine tune our product so yeah.
Andrew D Ive
Frauxmagerie and your journey all started,by the sound of it, with your father being a microbiologist wanting his daughter to be a microbiologist when she grew up. I think maybe the first non-cashew cheese product that you launch should have your father integrated somehow into the packaging and maybe the name of the product your packaging. It’s ncredible by the way… I have tried many different vegan cheeses and I got this package arriving at my door and it managed to get through customs in the timeframe needed so that it would arrive in a good way. I opened up this box and there was these really colorful, really well designed packages, really kind of illuminated the products inside very well. They used kind of a traditional yet modern, is very strange, a traditional kind of approach so that I knew I was getting a Camembert and I knew I was getting a Roquefort etc. But it still seemed fresh and alive and new in terms of design. How are you thinking about the packaging and the positioning of the product? Is that something you’re doing or something somebody else is working with you on?
Marie-Catherine
Well, the first line we designed ourselves but the second line right now I’m hiring a company from Vancouver and they’re going to work with me on this using paper that’s made from straw. So we’re going very sustainable, even our packaging will be even more sustainable so we’re very excited. We are looking at options right now and see how we are going to design that new line. I think the new old line will be wonderful and the packaging is going to really speak for itself. We’re looking at having a new website also that will be more where we are including a picture of my dad obviously and myself. I was a bit shy to put myself out there at first.
Marie-Catherine
I don’t know why, I’m proud of my creation and I’m proud of the story but I think as an entrepreneur I always believe in teamwork and I thought it was just too pompous to put myself out there. But I think knowing the story now and I kind of grew in what I my environment really created what we have in front of us now so I think the new website will explain more and I think people will have a better understanding of where we come from.
Andrew D Ive
So I think you’ve got a lot to bring and advice to give other entrepreneurs especially food entrepreneurs, and even more especially you know, plant based cheese entrepreneurs. But what advice would you give an entrepreneur today in terms of starting and growing a company and I wonder also if you have any advice for women entrepreneurs in terms of starting and growing companies because maybe there’s a different set of feedback for that.
Marie-Catherine
Yeah I’m happy you mentioned that. It’s not easy however work hard and if you work hard it’s going to work. Do not be afraid to ask for help and advice. Also do not be afraid that when somebody says no, to keep on going. When I started I needed some money and I pitched in front of some local businessmen and I got turned down so bad but it just gave me more fuel. I’m like no they’re wrong, they don’t understand me, they don’t understand the product, they don’t understand the whole vision. I knew to trust my gut and keep going and trusting my guts. I think women entrepreneurs have that. Then they need to push and eventually they’ll find the right partner to team up with them. A no means a yes down the road, so that’s what I would say …don’t be afraid of a no, a no is just a yes down the road.
Andrew D Ive
A no, if you ask enough times, eventually the no will become a yes with different investors. Correct? I’m surprised they said no to someone who was Ex-Army and previously a homicide detective. I’m not sure I would have had that courage.
Marie-Catherine
Yeah, right now they’re very upset about the fact that we grew so fast, and they have not invested. So they missed their chance and I would not take them on board because they just showed me they have no vision.
Andrew D Ive
Exactly right. Exactly. Right. I’m glad we invested. So we invested. I’m very happy about that. I’m now thinking oh my goodness, we really helped to bring some amazing cheese’s to the market. Question. Are you still fundraising or are you going to shortly be fundraising? What’s the situation on that? Obviously not from the men who said no before because they had no vision but for those people who are investors, who like seeing a 3x growth, who liked seeing a company that goes from a 400 square foot space to an 8000 square foot space in about two years, I would guess or is it a little bit longer than that?
Marie-Catherine
Two years and a half yeah.
Andrew D Ive
Two and a half years. Amazing. So yeah, what are you doing about fundraising now?
Marie-Catherine
Yeah, we are presently fundraising. We just started fundraising. We’re looking to raise $1.5 million and that $1.5 million will be totally dedicated to a new line reaching Europe, continue our growth in the states to enter in key grocery store and big stores and also marketing you know we went from zero to now without any proper marketing, just word of mouth and social media Instagram. Now we want to push to marketing, having press releases and reaching out and doing more publicity so people can know that we exist and we are here. So the money will be like, spent also to help with the automation of the whole plant so we can produce more and that’s where we are.
Andrew D Ive
Hi. So I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Marie-Catherine and Frauxmagerie. Deep, deep apologies for some of the technical issues we experienced, you probably may be just a little touchy, frustrated by some of those. We actually debated as a team whether we, you know, even put this out, but there was such a great conversation such really good information that some of those sort of technical challenges. We just hoped you would not overlook them, but you know, appreciate the value despite some of the glitches we had. So thanks again for coming along to the Big Idea podcast focused on food. Please do like, subscribe and give us your comments. Love to reach out to you, connect with you, do reach out to us via LinkedIn or bigideaventures.com or to Frauxmagerie in Canada. I’m sure Marie-Catherine would love to hear from you. Okay, many thanks. Please do come along to next week’s big idea podcast focused on food. We’d love to have you have a great day evening, wherever you happen to be. Thanks. Bye