Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Lysanne Bourret, CMO, and co-founder of The Pretty Ugly Company, located in Longueuil, QC, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Basically, The Pretty Ugly Company is a vibrant CPG brand with a clear mission: Creating the tastiest products while reducing food waste by doing so. As of now, we have our collection of fresh salsa Roja available. Our salsas are made 100% with fresh vegetables that would have been thrown away (mainly surpluses and funny-looking ones). We always had the idea of creating a brand that shines while upholding our values without compromise. Thus, Pretty Ugly is a frictionless solution for any customer that seeks a fresh salsa packed with flavor that does more for the environment. Effectively, we save 2 lbs of vegetables per jar sold! We're about to disrupt the category of salsa dips and chips by our unique branding and mission that is the true core of the business.

Tell us about yourself

Pierre-Olivier and I(Lysanne), the founders, have been working in the restaurant industry for almost ten years now. It is where we met almost seven years ago. In our time spent working in the business, while also studying at the same time, we noticed the inhumane amount of food being wasted. Not by the restaurant itself but by our suppliers and the entire supply chain. You can roughly count a 10% percent of evitable waste at each stage of the supply chain until it reaches the restaurants or the grocery stores. We couldn't help but start scratching our heads, thinking about a solution. Hence, The Pretty Ugly Company was born. We came up with the idea of creating a delicious range of fresh salsa as the perfect vehicle to reduce food waste in a tasty way. The idea behind it was simple: everybody loves salsa, right? It's the go-to dip at any party or tacos Tuesday.

It has almost been a year now since we launched the brand, and each day that passes, we love what we do more. The customers' feedback has been phenomenal. We love being in contact with so many people (farmers, suppliers, marketing agencies, customers, etc.). Pretty Ugly is a dream that became a reality for us. We have the perfect sustainable business model that allows us to save more and more vegetables as we grow. We have always been party people and bringing all those actors together to do something great while giving customers an eco-friendly alternative on the shelves really keeps us pushing forward.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

As a couple of two young entrepreneurs, who started in this highly competitive business with a lot of naivety, our biggest accomplishment so far is clearly to have managed to bootstrap our business and managed to generate that much traction. From the moment we had the idea to when our first jar of up-cycled salsa landed on the shelves of our local grocery, everything went so fast. We managed to create meaningful relationships with everyone we worked with along the way. For instance, I think the biggest partnership to this date is the one with Loop Mission. For those who don't know them, Loop is the pioneer of the circular economy movement in Quebec and Canada. We managed to do business with them early on, which was, in our mind, unreachable a few weeks before. Although, 2022 is really the year where Pretty Ugly is going to shine and go BIG. It is safe to say that the best is yet to come for us as entrepreneurs and for the brand.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

For us, it is really the ups and downs that come with it. The highs, when you have really good news, for example, your adrenaline is thru the sky. But where you have some bad news like you messed up something in the recipe and your entire 16 hours production day has gone to waste, or you've been waiting for three months for a simple yes. No answer that could define your whole year; it brings you down fast. Of course, we going to have to get used to suffering some blows along the way, but it's part of the game. You just must go all in every single day and create your own success (hopefully). The plan is to keep putting one foot in front of the other, stay aligned with our plan, and one day we're going to look back and appreciate where we came from.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

I think, like in every business, you must start with a good plan. You need to have a clear understanding of where you are right now, where you are going, and stick to that plan. Block the noise around you and focus on your business; nobody can understand it as well as you. Although, you must have done your homework in due diligence beforehand. If you think that you really have a shot with your product/service, then go for it! The second piece of advice is to build yourself a strong circle of people on which you can rely. Starting a business from scratch for the first time, like we are doing with Pretty Ugly, there's a lot of 'fake it 'till you make it in the process. Thus, it is important to have some people around you that you can learn from. A few good key advisors will help you in so many ways, insights, advice, stress management, seeing the big picture, etc. Connections and contacts are everything when you are in business. The third and final piece of advice would be to be yourself. Today more than ever, people are buying the people behind the brand as much as the product/service itself. Customers will smell it if you're faking it or launched a business for the wrong reasons. Thus, find something that represents you, because you are going to be spending a lot, and I mean A LOT of time in that business, so it better be fun.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

The Pretty Ugly Company is a young business with great ambitions. We have a lot to learn, and we hope to be having fun along the way. We also hope that the movement of circular economy and the fight against food waste will pick up steam and diffuse into other businesses. Until now, we are ready to continue our mission thru the expansion of our brand. As young entrepreneurs who started from almost nothing, literally, if we can help any other young entrepreneurs, just contact us! It will be our pleasure to have a quick chat and see what we can to do to help and learn from you as well! Let's do this!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://theprettyuglycompany.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprettyuglycompany
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theprettyuglycompany/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-pretty-ugly-company/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.