Allow me to officially introduce the newly registered Broodjes & Bier LLC! It didn’t make sense to undertake an official legal activities until we were funded, but thanks to 100 very awesome people, last night I was able to pop a Yuengling and get down with the online office of the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. Woot!

Obviously the last 14 days have been all about funding. Money is the fuel that will drive this train (was that weird?). That said, with this week devoted to legal and partnership talks, and even more fundraising, I’m starting to wonder when we get back to cooking! Alas, that’s business

One of the biggest decisions we’ll make in the next two weeks is how we choose to package our broodjes. Initially, the consensus was butcher paper. There’s an authentic, nostalgic feel to it, plus it’s practical. BUT, I’ve always taken a bit of an issue with wrapped sandwiches. The ingredients tend to get squished in. Products on the shelf for more than one day are the worst offenders, but it’s nevertheless worth considering. So…I’m thinking boxes.
Specifically, small paper boxes just big enough to fit the sandwich. The logic is that the box will allow the sandwich to breathe. We won’t need to twist it around in paper which means the components will remain springy and fresh. I believe it’ll be much more of an enjoyable experience to open the box and see a fresh, bountiful Broodje staring back.
If you’re not really able to visualize it, no worries. I’ll take some pics tonight and upload ASAP! What do you guys think though?

All,

Firstly, on behalf of the entire Broodjes & Bier team, thank you so much. The outpour of enthusiasm has been incredibly humbling, and because of you we hit our 24 day Kickstarter goal in a little under 4 days.

It’s official: Come early March, we’ll be able to serve you delicious and fresh Broodjes on Capitol Hill. Your pledges have covered one month of ingredients and packaging. It’s a head start we did not have a week ago.

All of this being said, there are 17 days left in this campaign and there’s no reason we can’t accomplish double what we did in those first four. One month of ingredients is great, but with two months squared away we’ll be able to worry less about cash flow, and more about what we’re putting in your belly.

We would also love to serve you broodjes in a sit down environment where you can enjoy good food and beer with the people you care about most. Our prepackaged concept is tight, but we’ve got a few more tricks up our sleeve served best hot.

Come May, we hope to do that through a pop-up dinner series, where you can experience the whole sandwich and beer concept in full swing. With your continued support in the next 17 days of this campaign, we’ll be able to raise the capital to rent a space, buy ingredients, and bring Broodjes & Bier to life for an evening at a restaurant or cafe in Capitol Hill.

To be sure, there are a few new risks associated with us passing our goal and moving the campaign forward. As more and more supporters pledge at numbers for a free Broodje Co. sandwich, we have to think about when those rewards will be claimed. High quality is the foundation of our pitch. As a small team, we’re thinking through ways to control the flow of reward claims to ensure we’re still putting out the best food we can. That said, these our challenges we’re confident we can surmount through a little ingenuity, and of course, your help (send me your thoughts!)

You got us this far, and we’re confident you can help us make it the rest of the way there. In the spirit of full transparency, I’ve outlined our costs below and put in bold our new stretch Kickstarter goal.

Lets do this!

Best,
The Broodjes & Bier Team

$1,200.00 – An additional month of ingredients and packaging
$2,500.00 – Our Very First Pop-up
$300.00 – Fluctuationa in food costs AND to even it all up
-
$7,500.00 – Stretch Kickstarter Goal!

YES!

We launched our Kickstarter campaign bright and early on Friday morning, February 1st. Our numbers guru and all around mathematician, Virginia, calculated the initial amount we needed to cover the costs of launching BROODJE CO., our prepackaged sandwich concept. We still need to raise funds for our pop-up dinner series, which will allow us to serve our food in a sit down fashion, but BROODJE CO. is our priority, and so we set our goal for this endeavor at $3,500.

On Day 1, we absolutely, unequivocally, undeniably did very very well! And we have all of our amazing backers to thank for that. It was beyond humbling to see the outpour of support as the day went on, and by 9pm Friday night, we had raised $2,271 or more than 65% of our goal!

That said, we’re not there yet. The caveat of Kickstarter is that if you don’t hit your goal, you don’t receive a penny of the pledges. This is a hard and fast rule created (I believe) to ensure that if you invest, you’ll be able to see the project succeed. It makes total sense, but it also means that our work is not at all done yet. We still have $826 to go before Broodje Co. truly comes to life.

So, what’s the plan?

We’re going to continue with our Marketing Director’s strategy: using social media to get our message and plea to as many people as possible. We’ve been tweeting, posting on our individual Facebook pages, pinning on Pinterest, and posting on Instagram. Our little venture got a big stamp of approval from the Kickstarter group. We were highlighted in three categories: as a Feature Staff Pick, a Washington DC Staff Pick, and a Foodie Staff Pick! We always believed Broodjes & Bier was a great concept and a necessary addition to the Washington, DC food scene and our remarkable success on Friday reaffirmed the viability of this business idea.

We still need to raise $826. We still need your support and your help. Help us reach and exceed our $3,500. Thank you for your faith in us. We won’t let you down!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/579148457/broodjes-and-bier

So, I don’t know why I waited until 2am the morning of our Kickstarter launch to write this blog post. I guess I thought I would have some major insight to share only available to me at this time of the morning. I’m not sure that I do, but,  here we go!

The last two weeks have been a unique brand of insane! Broodjes & Bier has grown by two team members, built relationships with major brands, and struck a deal with a Washington DC retailer to get our sandwiches on shelves. It’s been tiring, but hugely rewarding. That said, none of it will mean anything if we don’t get past our newest hurdle.

We, ladies and gentlemen, have launched our Kickstarter!

As mentioned above, Silver Spork in Capitol Hill has agreed to sell our sandwiches on our shelves in early Spring. This is a huge opportunity for a bootstrapped operation like our own. If you’re familiar with Capitol Hill, go ahead and skip the next paragraph. If you’re not, allow me a sentence or two to gush about what we’ve lined up for the company.

Eastern Market in Capitol Hill is a hugely popular outdoor market in DC. Tourists and locals alike throng the Eastern Market Hall and outdoor vending areas every weekend to enjoy the best of what DC artisans have to offer. Located right in the center of all this awesome hubbub is Silver Spork, a local cafe and bakery. They serve coffee, pastries, wraps, custom cut fancy cheeses – and Broodjes & Bier sandwiches!

However, none of this will happen without you. While we’ve lined up all the pieces, we’re missing the key ingredient: capital. Today – literally, right now – we need your support to purchase the ingredients and packaging necessary to get us off the ground. I’ll save your hearing the pitch twice and link you here. I can’t ask you enough to support our cause. We’re a passionate team confident we can change the face of sandwiches in Capitol Hill and beyond. Qualities the name of the game and we’re ready to bring it. If you need further incentive, please see our very awesome prizes.

On that note, I’m going to get some sleep. We launch in about 5 hours and I want to make sure I hit all the right ‘send’ buttons.

Thanks in advance, guys. Let’s crush this!

Pop-up, food truck, pedicab, pre-packaged and sold wholesale to stores?

These are a handful of options Janny, Carrie, VA, and I have been throwing around in terms of figuring out
how to get our product out to the masses in this concept testing phase.

In your opinion, which of the above is the stronger choice for a young start-up like our own? We’re all obviously leaning super heavily towards the pop-up space, but i can see the benefits of flexibility the others afford. Maybe the answer is even a combo of two?

Things to take into account: the financial situation of the start-up, the size of the team, the target market. Broodjes is currently low on funding but planning to Kickstart the effort in the very near future, we can roll with anywhere from 3-6 individuals depending on the context, and our target market is the sandwich loving community of DC.

What do you guys think?

It’s been a big week! Cold calls were made, negotiations were undertaken, and broodjes were lovingly crafted and devoured. Right now, the focus is on selling – it’s on communicating the Broodjes & Bier vision to people who have never tasted our food or heard the term ‘Dutch-style sandwich shop’. It’s not a tough sell (I can appreciate I’m probably biased), but it does require a certain finesse I’m beginning to understand can only be mastered through a few failures. For anyone who has spent time in sales, you can attest that this is a rewarding, but exhausting process!

I hit the exhausting piece of the cycle last Thursday following my 20th unanswered cold call. In an effort to break out of my funk, I utilized my roommates new Keurig (awesome) and gave food friend and fellow Broodje fiend, Molly, a call. While our conversation included some Amsterdam reminiscences not appropriate for this blog, it also focused on what I realize is probably the most important piece of the start-up puzzle: the team. Allow me to introduce the six bright minds and hungry bellies behind Broodjes:

Janny -  Marketing: Janny brings to Broodjes 3+ years of marketing expertise. She’s honed her skills at Ogilvy & Mather and most recently, Planned Parenthood. If they trust their billions of marketing dollars with her, frankly, we will too. Plus, she’s my older sister.

Virginia – Finance: Virginia crushes numbers all. day. long. But really. When she’s not at KPMG or Accenture, she’s making fancy cost-benefit formulas for sandwiches. It’s deliciously awesome to watch.

Carrie – Branding: Carrie has a legal background, photography background, living in the south of France background…she’s sort of a jack of all trades and annoyingly awesome at all of them. When she’s not influencing food law, she’s making sure we crush our branding game.

Claire – Bier: A recently certified Cicerone, Claire telecommutes her bier game from the fog of San Fran. She constantly blows ours minds with sandwich and beer pairings over Skype. Yes. She blows our mind over Skype.

Mom: My mother has turned out be an endless encyclopedia of food management and preparation knowledge. She catches us before we fall into legal pitfalls on the daily and we love her for it.

Me: I just love sandwiches. I love eating them, and I love crafting them even more. I feel an indescribable inner warmth when they break at their toasted seams with fresh shavings of kaas and dribble springy baby arugula. I love it when they’re toasted but I’ll still love on them when they’re cold.  I had something of a sandwich awakening during a study abroad stint in Amsterdam. The Dutch take sandwiches to a whole new level. Maybe it’s amalgam of culinary cultures that define their cuisine (French, Belgian, Surinamese). It could also very well be the cheese. Regardless, my contribution to our project is a genuine infatuation with good sammys and two years of honing those skills with friends and family. The time has come to take my affair public.

The team did a late brunch yesterday to touch base and set an agenda for the week. Two overarching goals: close a pop-up location, film our Kickstarter video and launch for funding.

We have a nifty database of cafes and restaurants going, but if you have any thoughts as to Capitol Hill locales where we might peddle our Broodje fare for an afternoon or evening, please let us know!

Until next time, happy Monday!

Frim