This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.   The best taste-testers are kids, says Julie Butcher, Founder and Owner of The Vegan Knife, because they're honest about what they like and dislike. When she won kids over with her recipes, Julie knew she was on the right track.   Bakeries began using The Vegan Knife's mixes and repacking them under their name, but Julie says she didn't mind. On the contrary, she was happy more people were enjoying the treats. Plus, it helped diversity the business.   Julie says she hopes her products change people's lives for the better by allowing them to enjoy treats they couldn't previously eat.   In Part 2, Julie talks about:   * How test-tasting at farmer's markets and grocery stores helped product development. * Her expansion from DTC to retail helped the company survive the COVID pandemic. * When bakeries began using the company's product under their name * Dealing with commercial bakeries was a challenge because of their professional equipment. * Diversification into the B2B side was an accident. * How her teenage son and his friends unknowingly became taste-testers. * Her company's inclusion in Forbes list of top entrepreneurs. * The importance of believing in yourself and your product. It's not a cliche. * Be very insistent on looking at your product run and improving it. * Future plans, including a pancake mix and a chocolate donut recipe.   Join Ramon Vela and Julie Butcher as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.   For more on The Vegan Knife, visit: https://theveganknife.com/    Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.   *   This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.   If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?   They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.   Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.   Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.   Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.   Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story