La Petite Américaine

My sweet friend Katherine recently launched her own sweet treat catering company called La Petite Americaine.   I met her originally through the Junior League of London and have had a chance to not only taste her delicious cakes but hear her story.

Katherine is no ordinary baker.  She takes classic and vintage recipes and puts her twist to them.  And, she's got the passion to back up her talent.  I remember sampling one of her cakes that had a jam filling.  Normally, I avoid cakes that have jam in them, but boy howdy, she made me a believer.  I don't remember the exact details, but Katherine provided a copious description of the ingredients she used and why she used them the way she did to make the cake moist.

One of my recent favorite quotes comes from one of my business school professors and goes something like "Great things happen when ordinary people become irrationally obsessed with something."  Katherine has put her heart and soul into her business with attention to the smallest of details.

If you're in London and find yourself needing to cater desserts for a party or event or just want to treat yourself, please check out La Petite Americaine.  Katherine will take good care of you. :)

http://www.lapetiteamericaine.co.uk/

If I Had the Moolah...

I just finished taking a GREAT class called "Managing Sport & Entertainment" this spring.   Great guest speakers, topics, and cases that ran the gammut including Manchester United, Cirque du Soleil, Radiohead, NYC nightclubs, Broadway theater, YouTube, the book publishing industry, and much more.


If I had a couple hundred million dollars lying around, I'd invest in a sports franchise (though be a bit more price conscious than the likes of Magic Johnson recently).   Or an entertainment business (there is convergence). Sports franchises are full of passionate people who tend to make passionate decisions.  Take for example European football (whose revenues top those of the NFL, MLB, and NHL combined).  Even in the economic recession, there is no "revenue problem" for European football.  Fans will pinch pennies elsewhere before giving up on football.  Stadiums are sold out.  Lucrative media deals are struck year after year (plus you have new players like Al Jazeera who are just throwing money at it and driving up prices).  Teams have increasingly learned to monetize the brand with licensing deals.  And while all this money is coming in, there has been a wave of European football clubs going bankrupt (some are publicly listed) and others continuing to struggle financially year after year.   The virtuous cycle should be that money comes in, it's invested wisely on and off the pitch, more tickets sold, etc.  However, it's warped in the opposite direction for some clubs.  My hypothesis is that some of these football clubs (and other sports teams, in general) have passionate people making irrational decisions (record contracts given to players, bigger stadiums, etc.).   I feel there's a positive correlation between the sophistication of the team off the field and the sustainability of teams.    Seems ripe for some turnaround investors (and cash flows are more stable than you'd think).


Another story that stuck with me was that of Guy Lilberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil.  Around each big top touring show Cirque has, there is a white picket fence.  Guy calls this his world when customers walk through this fence.  If you've ever been to a Cirque show, you know that it's an emotional roller coaster where you leave on a high.  Guy's purpose for starting Cirque was so that when people entered his world, they would forget the troubles and torments of their life and let him entertain and educate them on what is possible.  And then maybe, when they walk out of the picket fence, they will take a piece of his world with them.  The best entertainment businesses are driven by something other than profit.  I personally respect them for that and think that applies to most businesses in general.

Bravo Bearded Brothers

Aside from the abundance of burnt orange (t.u.), Austin is a great city to live in.   Friendly people.  Highly educated population.  Beautiful hill country.  Relatively affordable cost of living.  Plenty of musicians coming through.  A plethora of outdoors and fitness-related activities.  Wide variety of restaurants and trendy shopping.
I had a great post-workout conversation yesterday with a fellow Austinite at Pure Austin.  His name is Chris, and he founded Bearded Brothers with his brother Caleb.  In their search for a nutritional, tasty snack on their outdoors adventures, they felt unsatisfied and felt there is room in the market for handmade, 100% organic energy bars.  And that was the impetus for creatiing their own company Bearded Brothers.  I had a taste of four of their products and enjoyed them.  If I come across them again, I'd certainly consider them as substitutes for the Clif Bars I usually buy.  In addition to being organic and packed with good nutrition, their energy bars are mostly raw (to preserve nutrition), gluten free, and vegan.  These aspects are less important to me but could be beneficial to the hoards of people who do look for those qualities (very trendy in Austin). 

Chris was kind and spent ~15 minutes talking to me about his business.  (As a b-school student and aspiring entrepreneur, of course I was going to be nosy!)  He told me about how the idea came about, their business model, what their operations are like, pricing, etc.  I've found that entrepreneurs are very open and willing to share their experiences and lessons learned.  Similar to those in the tech industry.  I asked myself why that is and the commonality is that these are innovators.  And that reminded me of a debate that my entrepreneurship professor, Dr. Gary Dushnitsky participated in recently. 

http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2011/06/outsourcing_is_not_the_answer.html

The other interesting thing I found out from Chris was about Kickstarter.  Think of it as Kiva meets crowd giving.  I question the sustainability of some of this funding and believe they could get greater scale if it was a loan model vs. gift model.  However, I do applaud the idea and think that many aspiring entrepreneurs will and have benefited.

Check out Bearded Brothers and Kickstarter!
http://www.beardedbros.com/
http://www.kickstarter.com/

Funny and true
My b-school classmate Leetal shared this clever comparison of tech company org charts.  Haha!  I think there's some truth behind these...