Starting Out: Wildflower Kombucha, Salida, Colorado
This is the fifth in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. Every kombucha company launched their brand in a unique way, and their story has lessons for us all.
After moving from Boston to a small town in the Rocky Mountains, Kayla Doan first tasted kombucha and six short months later has launched Wildflower Kombucha.
Salida is a town of 10,000 with a strong sense of community. There are plenty of on-again/off-agin home brewers among the residents, so having a year-round supply of mindfully brewed, sustainable kombucha is welcome.
Kayla applied her background in small business consulting and the technology industry to develop a ‘lean’ business that fully engages an environment ‘circular economy’ where all containers are recycled. Having to purchase a supply of glass bottles would have been a deal-breaker as she bootstrapped the business, having the community source them was a big savings, Next, she plans to adopt a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model where people can buy a share in the business to support development.
She currently brews out of a commercial kitchen, ramping up and down as seasonal demand changes.
Generative AI
Kayla first came to my attention when she posted on her Instagram that she used the generative AI program Midjourney to brainstorm her logo. She then posted the options to her Instagram asking for customers to vote on their favorite. This also helped keep costs down in the critical start-up stage.
She describes the process on LinkedIn, stating:
For startups and small businesses, the promise of democratized AI is just that – the opportunity to level up with fewer resources and less time. And, to maybe have some fun along the way.
Looking ahead, I believe the most exciting opportunity here is the website layouts Midjourney generated. Now these are impressively good. A future where all marketing collateral, including visual, is generated for you in a couple of prompts is closer than we think.
Podcast
Listen to the podcast to hear Kayla describe the journey of starting her business.
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