Helping a friend feed her toddler something much healthier than canned green beans turned into a full time job for Jill Litwin, creator and CEO of Peas of Mind.   The energetic and savvy entrepreneur quickly realized that she was creating more than just a product, she was creating a niche, a rare circumstance in today’s crowded marketplace.  There were baby foods and adult foods but nothing for the in-between “growing child” stage as Jill calls it.  Moms had little more than Cheerios and Goldfish for their 1 - 8 year olds to snack on; Jill Litwin soon had a tasty line-up of healthy and tasty Puffets, natural and organic wholesome meals for moms to feed their delighted growing kids.

Jill found out that she would need a licensed commercial kitchen in which to prepare her Puffets.  Luckily she found La Cocina, a non-profit kitchen facility in its infant stage and became their first ‘incubator’ candidate.  After a year and a half of making Puffets non-stop there, she was more than ready to turn the production over to contract packaging but had only found a very pricey company in Southern California.  Jill was also getting worn out making deliveries to the increasing number of markets carrying her products and was desperate to get a distributor so she could focus more on sales and marketing.  And Jill was realizing that she needed another person in her home office to keep up with the day-to-day demands of running a small specialty food company.

Jill learned of Anni Minuzzo, specialty food advisor for the San Francisco Small Business Development Center and engaged her for direction and guidance.  Together they set up a series of scopes of work to expand Peas of Mind.  Soon they had lined up a co-packing facility in Northern California to handle her production, Columbus Distributing Company to handle the warehousing and delivery of her Puffets to her ever-increasing retail base, and hired Kelly to be her ‘right-hand’ and the marketing manager of Peas of Mind.

Being relieved of former production, delivery and administrative duties left Jill with the time she needed to focus on marketing her products to large national accounts.  Additionally she could now promote her business using creative and aggressive public relations efforts.  Jill Litwin was now running her business instead of her business running her.

In less than 3 years Jill has been successful in launching her Puffets in markets around the country with accounts including Whole Foods,  Shaw’s, Target Superstores, and Costco.  She has appeared on the NBC Nightly News, The View From the Bay and YouTube as well as countless appearances on radio talk shows; she has been mentioned in articles in the Wall Street Journal, San Franicsco Chronicle, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Contra Costa Times, and in numerous magazines including Diablo, Wave, Cookie Magazine and the Gourmet Retailer.

Jill’s dream of selling her business within the next 3-5 years is becoming a reality with imminent angel investments of $350,000.  This capital infusion will allow Jill to take Peas of Mind to the next level of expansion, including new product introductions, product line extensions, and international market penetration.

Client:
Peas of Mind
Business Owner(s): Jill Litwin
Phone: 415.407.2578
Email: jill@peasofmind.com
www.peasofmind.com