Rendezvous with Ginger-it-Up (Interviewed by Mani Mukhija) Meet the CEO & the Co-Founder- Colleen Kavanagh of "ZEGO" "The Nature worked on developing a symbiotic relationship between humans and food for millions of years. We should honor and respect that and try to eat as close to the land as possible", says Colleen, CEO & Co-founder of ZEGO in an exclusive interview with Mani Mukhija, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Food Blog/Magazine Ginger-it-Up.
she had been the Colleen Kavanagh co-founded " ZEGO" in response to her own & her kid's food related health issues, from celiac disease to allergies and intolerances. She has been an entrepreneur since her early teens. Colleen enjoyed her childhood entrepreneurial venture wherein she made braided hair barrettes and sold them to raise money for her 8 Executive Director of " A Better Course", a non-profit company founded by Colleen herself to address and improve nutrition for low-income kids through programs & public policy. th grade dance. Before co-founding ZEGO with Jonathan Shambroom,
Colleen has a passion for healthy food and thus enabling a healthy life through her passion. Scouring the grocery store aisles, she found that the few allergy and gluten friendly snacks available were mostly high-carb and without the healthy protein and fats kids need to develop strong minds and bodies. So she decided to solve her problem by starting her own company, ZEGO, to make the product all the parents around her were asking for: nutritious, clean, convenient snacks that kids and adults love to eat AND meet all the common dietary restrictions.
I feel honored to have Kavanagh as my Rendezvous guest. In spite of having a very busy schedule, she agreed to speak with me and answer my questions and share the inspiration with my readers of Ginger-it-Up. A very warm welcome to Kavanagh Colleen on Ginger-it-Up.
Apart from being a successful entrepreneur, Colleen is a very humble person and a super mom too. Let's learn more about this "city-gal" (who loves the hustle-bustle of big cities) through this exclusive interview on "Rendezvous with Ginger-it-Up".
My first entrepreneurial venture was in 7 th and 8 th grade. I made braided hair barrettes and sold them as fundraisers and to local stores. I had my whole class making them to raise money for our 8 th grade dance-we had so much fun! My mother and older sisters ended up taking it over and ran it for about 10 years.
Before ZEGO, I was Executive Director of A Better Course, a nonprofit I started to improve nutrition for low-income kids through programs and public policy. I focused mostly on social justice issues that prevented kids from getting the foods they needed to succeed in their day. For example, we fought for better federal regulations to stop high schools from separating the students by income when they stood in line to get their school lunch (students eligible for free lunches in a separate line than their peers who paid full price).
My inspiration for starting ZEGO came from my family and our school. All my kids have celiac disease or gluten and dairy intolerance. We also try to keep sugar and refined grains low. We were pretty good at providing school snacks that were healthy and met all their dietary needs but then our girls' elementary school adopted a peanut and tree nut free policy campus-wide. Suddenly 250 families had to buy nut free foods that also met any other dietary restrictions of preferences they had. When I started looking for a 10am snack option that was shelf stable and healthy, I couldn't find anything I approved of that they would eat (they weren't big fans of eating straight seeds). Everything was either full of processed ingredients and sugar. All my friends had the same problem, the parents were very frustrated with the lack of options. I started ZEGO to solve this problem for all of us.
Product development is long for us because in addition to not using common allergens, gluten, cane sugar and grains, we also don't use the additives or processed ingredients other companies use to make it easier to develop a flavor profile or get the dough to work well on your machines.
We have to learn about our ingredients and how they behave in different circumstances. For example, we buy "ugly fruit" puree from Oregon and Washington but the puree will have a different mix of pear or apple varieties in it depending on the harvest date. This affects the moisture content and flavor which has dramatic effects on how the dough mixes and runs through the machines. For our sunflower seed bars, we use a proprietary sequencing process for our recipes so we don't have to use additives to correct for oiliness or dryness.
We don't know how tied together allergies and autoimmune diseases are to the chemicals and GMOs in our food system, or the flame retardant on your mattress or couch. We do know that there are so many chemicals in our world now, they are so prevalent they are showing up in babies and mother's milk. Let's clean up the food, water and air and see what happens!
For those who are on the fence about organic or if it's too expensive for them, I always encourage them to focus on their fats. That is where the toxics animals eat collect. Buy organic fats like butter and lard. That will just add a few dollars a week to your bill and the health benefits will be disproportionately high.
I was raised Catholic, and when it comes to tough questions, I'll ask myself, "What would Jesus do?" Insert your own admired person here. It works really well!
Also, your kids are offered plenty of grains and sugar all day long from well-meaning people. Balance that out by making sure your snacks are superfood-based-fruits, seeds, veggies, nuts. There are great options out there being made by smaller companies. No matter where you live, you can feed your kids healthy snacks.
As part of your business planning, ask yourself if you can raise the money you need to become successful. Do you have or can you afford the experience you need to build that success? My advice to others thinking of going into food is that you need more that a recipe everyone loves. You need partners who have food experience building food companies, or the money to hire someone with that experience. And, you should line up investors before you launch, or at least start the conversation before you launch about investing later, after you've put in a couple of years of your own money and sweat equity.
Thank you so much for your valuable time Colleen. It was a pleasure speaking to you and knowing more about you. Team ginger-it-Up is truly honored to have you as our Rendezvous guest and we wish you a lot of success going ahead.
