Kate Miller Spencer Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe Magazine, and each week, I talk to the most interesting women and culinary creatives in and around the world of food.
We're doing things a little differently today and talking about life at Cherry Bombe. My guest is Cherry Bombe's CEO, Kate Miller Spencer. Kate is a mom, a food lover, and a longtime media veteran who has worked at Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Fox Media, and several other places. Kate also had her own media sales company based in Chicago, and she was an entrepreneur before a lot of us even use that term. Before she became our CEO, Kate was our publisher. She left for a few years and I literally begged her to come back. Kate recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with Cherry Bombe. As some of you know, Cherry Bombe is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year, and Kate has been helping us get ready for the next decade of Cherry Bombe.
We have a lot of goals and dreams and plans as you can imagine. As part of that, Cherry Bombe is raising money for the first time ever. For the past decade, we've been bootstrapped, and I did all the classic things a lot of you entrepreneurs did, and built the company on my credit cards, I trashed my 401(k), things that in retrospect probably were not the smartest, but they were my only option at the time. We're fundraising through a platform called Wefunder and doing what's called a community round. I wanted our community to have the opportunity to participate and be angel investors, and I also wanted to fundraise in as transparent a way as possible.
We all know the stats about women and fundraising and how challenging it can be, and hard, and awkward, and all the things, and I think removing some of the secrecy from the process is important. Anyway, Kate and I will talk about our Wefunder campaign in addition to chatting about her amazing career. You can find the link to the Wefunder deck in our show notes or on our website if you want to learn more. This is not a solicitation to invest, just FYI. The Wefunder disclaimer is also in our show notes and on our site, so be sure to read that first. Some of you might be new to the idea of a community round. Another one of the reasons I'm excited to talk about it is because crowdfunding might be an option for those of you looking to fundraise if you feel other avenues are shut to you. Stay tuned for my interview with Kate Miller Spencer. Kate has been such an important part of Cherry Bombe's history and a great friend and advisor to me. I can't wait for all of you to meet the woman I call Kate the great.
Thank you to OpenTable for supporting Radio Cherry Bombe. You can book lots of my favorite restaurants via OpenTable, including Zou Zou's and The Odeon here in Manhattan, and As You Are at Ace Hotel Brooklyn. Cherry Bombe cover story, Camille Becerra, happens to be the new chef at As You Are. Very exciting. Congrats, Camille. Make sure you have the OpenTable app on your phone.
Now, let's check in with today's guest. I am so happy to say these words, but Kate Miller Spencer, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Thank you, Kerry. I am so excited to be here.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's jump right in. Where did you grow up?
Kate Miller Spencer:
I grew up in Minnesota in a town outside of Minneapolis, and I spent the first 18 years of my life in Minnesota. I'm very Minnesota proud. It's one of the most beautiful places that you can visit.
Kerry Diamond:
What foods do you remember from your childhood?
Kate Miller Spencer:
It's funny. We were sort of a big outdoor barbecuing family in the summer, so lots of burgers and brats and steaks and things like that. My parents also loved to dine out and they loved the theater, so we would drive to Chicago and we would eat in restaurants in Chicago, and we would go to New York and eat in restaurants in New York, but when we were home, my mom had four kids and we were all doing different activities. There wasn't really the sit down dinner except Sunday night. I think my mom's signature dish was Steak Diane.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't know that I know what Steak Diane is.
Kate Miller Spencer:
It's like a pounded steak that has almost like a gravy on top of it. It's delicious, but it took a long time to make and it was reserved for Sunday night dinner.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you eat regional things?
Kate Miller Spencer:
My uncle was Scandinavian, so we would have some Scandinavian treats, Swedish meatballs on Christmas Eve.
Kerry Diamond:
And not the Ikea kind.
Kate Miller Spencer:
But lots and lots and lots of hot dish.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, talk to me about hot dish. Molly Yeh has talked to us about hot dish.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I think it was one of those things that we discovered at church basements for bake sales and whatnot. You would go and everyone, we bring a hot dish.
Kerry Diamond:
When I think of hot dish, I'm thinking of the tater tots thing or is that just because that's how Molly does it?
Kate Miller Spencer:
It's basically just what we called casserole.
Kerry Diamond:
What kind of hot dish did your mom make?
Kate Miller Spencer:
Anything that involved cream of mushroom soup.
Kerry Diamond:
So tuna noodle casserole, things like that?
Kate Miller Spencer:
All of that.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you know you wanted to work in media?
Kate Miller Spencer:
Very early on, I was a magazine junkie. I used to ride my bike up to what was a news stand, I can't even remember the name of it, but it was one of those convenience stores that sold the magazines, and I would go up and I would buy all of the magazines that I wanted to read. When I was in college, I started writing letters to the people that were in the mastheads of the magazines and-
Kerry Diamond:
Saying what?
Kate Miller Spencer:
"I want to come work for you." I had a couple of great conversations with people who were very, very lovely, very welcoming. I remember that now when people reach out to me to try to remember that people were thoughtful and shared with me what they thought I should do. Everyone said the same thing, "You have to move to New York."
Kerry Diamond:
Which wasn't necessarily true as we're going to find out. Did you work on the school paper? Did you do things like that?
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes, I was the editor of the yearbook and I wrote for the school paper. Yes, I was a multi hyphen in high school.
Kerry Diamond:
Kate has a column in the magazine now. I don't know if you all saw that in the last issue, but that's going to be an ongoing thing.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I'm excited about that.
Kerry Diamond:
I thought it would be fun for folks to hear from the CEO. Okay, we're going to take another leap forward. Tell me about your first few jobs before you joined Bon Appétit.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Well, I did move to New York. I graduated from Northwestern, and left campus and went to New York City, and actually did an NYU publishing program so I would have a place to live, and got a job at W Magazine. When I got there, I was interviewed for an editorial position. The position was filled and I think the person in the HR department took pity on me and sent me up to meet with the publisher, and that was the first time I realized there were really two sides of the business, the business side and the editorial side. The woman that I was interviewing with who was the publisher of W, her name was Adrian Clear, and she was this amazing effervescent Texan who knew a lot about fashion and she just said to me, "Honey, this is the side of the business you need to be on."
Kerry Diamond:
W? Where next?
Kate Miller Spencer:
I had a friend at W who left to go work for Details, which Condé Nast had just bought Details. It was, at that point, still edited by Annie Flanders and it was this downtown lifestyle magazine, and she said, "You got to come over here. We have a new advertising director. She's coming from South Magazine. She's great. Her name was Julie McGowan." She's no longer with us, but she hired me to be her assistant, and very quickly decided that I should be a salesperson and sent me out with an account list and basically said, "Go sell some advertising."
Kerry Diamond:
Did you know you had that in you?
Kate Miller Spencer:
My dad was a salesperson. It never felt awkward to me to ask people for things and tell them why we had a solution for them. That was my first sales job, Details.
Kerry Diamond:
And then next?
Kate Miller Spencer:
Well, I stayed with Details for a while because it relaunched. That was my Si Newhouse moment. He came down to the offices for Details, we were on the corner of Broadway in Halston, and he announced that we were no longer going to be this downtown lifestyle magazine. We were relaunching as a men's magazine.
Kerry Diamond:
A little different than what you-
Kate Miller Spencer:
A little different.
Kerry Diamond:
... than what you signed on for.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Exactly.
Kerry Diamond:
For those who don't know who Si Newhouse is, he was the legendary owner of Condé Nast.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Correct. We literally walked across the street to the new offices for details, and they relaunched it that fall as a men's magazine.
Kerry Diamond:
Must've been shocking.
Kate Miller Spencer:
It was shocking because people thought, "Why would you launch a men's magazine when you have GQ?", but I think that they had a young editor, James Truman, who really had a vision for what a men's magazine could be. It was a great magazine. It was about style and music, and what it meant to be a young man in America at that moment in time.
Kerry Diamond:
James, another magazine legend.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Exactly.
Kerry Diamond:
Amazing. Okay, then Bon App. How did Bon App come about?
Kate Miller Spencer:
With Details, I moved to Los Angeles, and I was in LA and met my first husband, and he was from the Midwest, and we got married and we were thinking about moving back to the Midwest, and I had left Condé Nast to go work for Wener Media, and they were recruiting me for a job in LA, and I said, "Actually, what I really want to do is go to Chicago," and so they called me and said, "We have an opening at Bon Appétit," and I thought, "I don't know anything about food media." I know men's magazines in style, but it was a beautiful magazine and I knew the Bon Appétit rep in the Los Angeles office, and I interviewed, I got the job, and they moved me to Chicago.
Kerry Diamond:
What was that like?
Kate Miller Spencer:
It was fantastic. I was there right at the point in time that Condé Nast had bought the magazines from Nap. Nap was Arch Digest and Bon Appétit, and I think that Condé really wanted Arch Digest, and Bon Appétit was this little tag along brand that showed up at a point in time that Gourmet was the juggernaut in the industry.
Kerry Diamond:
Condé Nast owned Gourmet, and that was a legendary magazine. Eventually, Ruth Reichl ran it, it was beloved, and for whatever reason, people still don't understand Condé Nast killed the Gourmet.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I think at the time that I got to Bon Appétit, people were thinking, "Oh, Bon Appétit is not going to last. There's no way they're going to let this magazine continue," but I think that Bon Appétit and Gourmet had different lanes, and really it was a moment in time when food media was moving from this women's service category where it was really about entertaining and mostly recipes. Bon Appétit, we used to say, runs more recipes than any other magazine, which was true.
Kerry Diamond:
This is the '90s, so it's before all of the things we enjoy today. A food network was in its infancy. The chef culture hadn't really boomed as a thing. There was no top chef.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Nobody could name the name of a chef. People knew people like Julia Child and anyone who had been on television, but it was a handful of names.
Kerry Diamond:
All the PBS folks, yeah.
Kate Miller Spencer:
All the PBS folks, and honestly, mostly men. I was still on the business side of Bon Appétit. I was the Midwest director, I was responsible for the Midwest territory, so a lot of the CPG brands and bigger food companies, but we had to go meet with the media planners at the advertising agencies, and boy, they just thought the food category was a snooze. They were just like, "This is for older people and it's not very interesting," and it was certainly not the sexy, buzzy core of culture that we know today.
Kerry Diamond:
How did you jazz hands it?
Kate Miller Spencer:
We did jazz hands it. We really did. Actually, we ended up taking a lot of people out for meals and we did a lot of entertaining.
Kerry Diamond:
Chicago was an important restaurant city at the time.
Kate Miller Spencer:
It was. Charlie Trotter had his eponymous restaurant and a lot of white tablecloth lunches. There was not the fast casual that we have today. It was definitely, if you went out to lunch, it was two hours long.
Kerry Diamond:
You're at Bon Appétit, you decide you're going to leave and start your own company at the age of 31. This is the late '90s. Why do you do this?
Kate Miller Spencer:
The senior management team at Bon Appétit left to launch a new company, Dennis Publishing, and they said, "Why don't you come with us? Why don't you open a rep firm?", and I thought, "You mean be independent and run my own company? Okay, well, I'm going to need more than one client." The interesting twist here is my first boss of Details was the then publisher of Food & Wine Magazine, and I called her up and said, "I'm leaving Bon Appétit. I'm opening a rep firm in Chicago. Do you have a rep firm here? What's your business strategy?", and she said, "I'm sending you a contract overnight," and it was American Express Publishing. They sent me a little startup capital, which I thought was such a nice gift. I didn't even ask for it. They just said, "We know you're opening this company. We want to support you. Here's a little startup capital." It allowed me to buy a computer and rent a little office.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell folks what a rep firm is though. People might not know that.
Kate Miller Spencer:
American Express, at that point in time, had this publishing division, and they had staff offices in New York and Los Angeles, but in every other market where there were major advertisers, they didn't want to staff an office, so they would hire an independent rep to basically represent their magazine to advertisers in that territory, and then you would make commission. It was straight commission. There was no medical benefits. You didn't get a regular salary. It was definitely a risky thing for me to do with a baby at home, and at that point, the primary breadwinner in my family, but my dad was an entrepreneur and he encouraged me to do it, and he said, "What's the worst thing that could happen? You just have to go back and get another job," and I thought, "Okay, well, if you think it's a good idea, I think I'm going to do it."
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest. Cherry Bombe is headed to Philadelphia on September 7th for a special networking event celebrating one of our other podcasts, The Future Of Food Is You. We'll be at Ellen Yin's new High Street event space, and tickets are now on sale. I'll be there, Future Of Food host, Abena Anim-Somuah, will be there along with other special guests, and we'll have great food and drink, of course. Visit cherrybombe.com for more details and to snag a ticket. Thank you to Kerrygold for supporting our event.
The Cherry Bombe online shop is temporarily closed because we're switching warehouses. If you are looking for the newest issue of Cherry Bombe, be sure to visit one of our amazing stockists. Cherry Bombe is carried by great bookstores, cafes, magazine shops, and culinary boutiques across the country and abroad. Places like Stella's Fine Market in Beacon, New York, Matriarch in Newport, Rhode Island, and Good Egg in Toronto. Visit cherrybombe.com for a stockist near you. Food media really became your specialty. Was it because it was of interest to you or you were just good at pitching food magazines?
Kate Miller Spencer:
Through osmosis and just the reality of talking about it all the time, and reading the magazine, and going to events, and hosting wine tastings and dinners, and traveling for work, and eating in different restaurants. I loved it so much it was energizing. Then simultaneously, culture came around too. Food was important. The Food Network launched. Food & Wine definitely took some risks. I mean it's hard to say now that “Top Chef” was a risk, but at the moment in time that Bravo was talking to Food & Wine about that, they were pondering whether or not this was even a good idea.
Kerry Diamond:
Right. Food & Wine is the media partner of “Top Chef.”
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes, and Gail Simmons was working for Food & Wine when she became one of the very successful talent.
Kerry Diamond:
You loved being part of Food & Wine.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I did.
Kerry Diamond:
You loved being part of that team.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I loved Food & Wine. Chris Grdovic was our publisher, and she used to say at the beginning of every meeting, "Love this job. Love this team." We knew it. We knew in that moment that it was a special moment, it was a special brand, and the people working on that brand are still, to this day, some of the most talented, thoughtful humans that I've ever known, that I'm friends with still. I think that that kind of team and culture is something that you really have to take care of, and we took care of it, and I think it's informed everything I've done since, that the people around you matter as much as the brand.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us some of the highlights. You had a lot of fun moments at Food & Wine.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Well, I met Julia Child. She-
Kerry Diamond:
I mean, come on.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I know.
Kerry Diamond:
How did that even happen?
Kate Miller Spencer:
She would come to the Food & Wine Magazine Classic in Aspen. One of her last years was one of my first years at the magazine, and I have a couple of signed cookbooks. She was very tall, very effervescent. At that point in time, she was older so she had people there to help her, but she loved being in Aspen. She loved hanging out with people. I just remember the cookbook sign that I stood in line for was Jacques Pépin and Julia Child, and I thought, "I know this is important. I need to stand in line."
Kerry Diamond:
Do you still have the book?
Kate Miller Spencer:
I do.
Kerry Diamond:
Around the same time, Cherry Bombe was taking shape, you were launching your own organization called CookGirl, which was about supporting women in the food world. How did this come about? What was CookGirl all about?
Kate Miller Spencer:
I left Food & Wine, at that point in time, it was American Express Publishing, and they were taking some of the properties that I was responsible for, in-house back to staff jobs, and I made sure that my team, when I was at my rep firm, everyone got tucked in and I thought, "Where do I see some white space?" For me, the one thing that was so obvious to me, and this had a lot to do with just women's studies at Northwestern, but I kept thinking this industry is really broey. I think I saw a lot of the things that you saw, Kerry, but from a different lens. You were in a restaurant looking at the community around you thinking, "Where are all of the women?", but I was looking at the coverage that people were getting and who was being celebrated, and it was never the women.
I met Naomi Pomeroy at an event in Beaver Creek, and I thought, "This is someone who should have a TV show and a product line," and for whatever reason, some of the male chefs at this event all had those things and she did not. There was just something, a light bulb that went off, and my husband George said, "I mean maybe you should do something for women in food," and I thought, "You know what? I'm going to," so I launched a foundation called CookGirl, and it was all about celebrating women in the culinary arts, and I did a series of events across the country just to meet women and chat with them.
Kerry Diamond:
And fundraise for some of them?
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yeah. Well, the whole point was to help women get access to capital, which is something that's a challenge for any category of female entrepreneurs, but especially women in food. I was about six months into it, and Phil Baltz, he said, "Have you met Kerry Diamond? She has a brand called Cherry Bombe," and so I went out and got the magazine, or I ordered it online, I think, and I thought, "Here's this beautiful content that's basically telling these stories in a completely interesting way," and I remember I reached out to you, Kerry, to basically say, "My background is in food media. You have this beautiful product. I can help you with sponsors. I'm going to reopen my rep firm." The CookGirl Foundation still exists, but it was definitely one of those things where I decided to leave my job, so to speak, to go do this hobby and then realized I actually should go back and do my job.
Kerry Diamond:
So you send us the email and I remember just thinking, "Who is this person and why does she want to do this?", and you might have even said something like, "You've such a beautiful magazine. Have you ever thought of having ads in it?", because we really didn't have many ads, not by choice. There was one point where I sat down and I said, "I'm going to send 100 copies and 100 letters to all the different companies out there and see if they want to advertise in the magazine," and I did. You know how many responses we got from the 100 letters and 100 magazines-
Kate Miller Spencer:
How many?
Kerry Diamond:
... that cost us a fortune to send out? Zero.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Oh, Kerry.
Kerry Diamond:
It was very demoralizing.
Kate Miller Spencer:
The advertising industry, there's a lot of gatekeeping, and so what I was bringing to the table was contacts and access, and I think that we started on a little bit of a trial basis. I did reopen my rep firm and it was Cherry Bombe and New York Media, and those were my two clients, and had a blast, really.
Kerry Diamond:
So you kind of dissolved CookGirl?
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Join us. In your words, what was your initial role with us?
Kate Miller Spencer:
I would say I was the contract publisher, so I was representing Cherry Bombe with advertising partners and marketers who wanted to either do something in food that was targeted at women, or they wanted to take their brand and make it a little bit more relevant. Cherry Bombe has this intersection of food and fashion and design.
Kerry Diamond:
You're doing that for us. You really are helping turn us into a real company. I'm not going to say that I didn't think of us as a real company, but in a weird way, I was so focused on the mission of celebrating women and food, it didn't even cross my mind that we were a business. I know that's so strange to say, and I'm guessing there are some of you out there who can relate, but you can't have this mission-based organization that isn't paying any attention to business because you will just cease to exist, and then what's the point of the whole thing? So, you did come in and impose some discipline on us and make things possible, and that was part of the role you played. It wasn't just selling sponsorships.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I think that we put some structure around what was a beautiful product and a great idea and just consistently high quality content. We did a lot together.
Kerry Diamond:
And then she leaves. No, it wasn't like that. We had a long conversation about it.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
But you had an amazing opportunity that was presented to you that we all agreed was an amazing opportunity. What was that?
Kate Miller Spencer:
It was the moment that Vox Media came in and bought New York Media, and they recruited me to come in-house. The Chief Revenue Officer, Ryan Polly, said... I thought, honestly, I was meeting with him to have him tell me that my contract was ending, and I thought it was so just lovely and elegant that he was going to tell me in person, but no, he basically said, "I'm cutting to the chase. I want you to come on board," and so I came on board. My job was head of industry for CPG and retail, and then I took over the fashion and beauty team, and it was right before the pandemic.
It was a front row seat to a company that was growing very quickly. Vox is a company that was born in the digital age and they acquired other sites including Eater, and when I came on board, they had just acquired New York Media. I got to have this incredible team of very, very talented people. At a point in time when we were constrained in the industry because of the pandemic and a lot of people pulled back on advertising, but Vox, I think, structurally was set up for exactly that moment. It was a digital first company. It was a remote work first company. We were a Zoom culture. I was marveled that everybody was always camera on. We were camera ready all the time.
I stayed for two and a half years, and learned a lot about the importance of culture, and how to build a team, and how to basically be the boss that you always... I felt that way at my rep firm too is like, how do I be the person to these young women who were having families? How do I help support them the way I wish I had been supported earlier in my career when I had small kids? It was really, really a great experience. Like I said, it was a company that embraced entrepreneurial spirit and they really let you run your team, and I got to do very exciting things. I was there when Eater acquired Punch. That was a really great experience. It was like going back to business school for two and a half years. It was a great experience.
Kerry Diamond:
Listeners are probably wondering, "Why did you leave, Kate?" Kate left because I begged her. I begged Kate to come back.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Well, it's very hard to be an entrepreneur and then to suddenly not be in charge of everything. Well, Cherry Bombe, for me, is just my heart. It was such an amazing opportunity, and you and I talked about it for about six months. What does this look like? What do you want this to be? What can the next 10 years be? I think that you also, through the pandemic, really recognized the power of the community and how much the community needed each other and the brand.
Kerry Diamond:
The pandemic was a big wake-up call for me because, like I said, I had never really thought about Cherry Bombe as a business. Again, sounds so weird coming out of my mouth, but I really just never did. When people would come to us over the years for different things, acquisitions or investing or whatnot, and I was always like, "Really?" I didn't understand it, which is so crazy because I come from a corporate background, but it was during the pandemic when I really realized how much this brand means to people and just how important the Bombesquad is and just how important community is. I think that was the biggest thing, just how important community is. It was important to keep the brands alive because you can love community a lot, but you have to do certain things to keep it alive. We were also approaching our 10-year anniversary, and I knew I wanted to be around for another 10 years.
Kate Miller Spencer:
That was all you had to say to me was, "I see what this brand can be and I would love you to come back and help me take it there," and I thought, "Sign me up."
Kerry Diamond:
And she said yes. Thank God.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I said, "Yes, let's do it. Let's do this."
Kerry Diamond:
Thank goodness Kate Miller Spencer said yes. Kate comes back and you just celebrated your one-year anniversary.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I did.
Kerry Diamond:
Happy anniversary.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
As part of Kate coming back, a big part of it is fundraising. We spent a lot of time talking about this because we were bootstrapped for the first 10 years. I know a lot of you out there have bootstrapped your own businesses and are continuing to bootstrap them. A lot of women have come on the show and told their stories about building their business on their credit cards, breaking into their 401(k)s. I want to share with everybody what Cherry Bombe is doing specifically because I think there are lessons that... First off, I'm super proud of this moment and I want people to know that and I want our community to know what we're doing, but I also want people to know what we're doing because I think it's going to be a good vehicle for others in our community to raise money. Then the other reason is fundraising is so emotional.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I think it's very hard to take something that you do that's so personal, which is Cherry Bombe. The content is so personal, it's so important to you, it's important to a lot of people, but you create it. For you to go out and try to ask people to support you in that, it's very hard to monetize your own content. I'll just tell you that. It's so much easier for me. Even if you and I are in a meeting together with a prospective sponsor, I talk about you, and you sort of blush because I just wax poetic about how beautiful this brand is and how powerful and engaged this audience is, affectionately known as the Bombesquad. We love you and you have made this brand what it is. For women, it's really hard to ask for what you need. It's really hard to ask for what you want.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, that's what I want to talk about. I think fundraising is hard for everyone across the board, but historically, it has been so hard for women. I do think women have a harder time asking for money, but at the same time, the avenues have been so restricted to women and the numbers are terrible. You look at the amount of VC capital that's gone to women, it's actually declined over the years. It's such a pittance to begin with. It was 3%, I think, and now it's below 3%. It's hard for us to ask for money, but at the same time, so many doors have been shut to us. I wonder if that's part of the wall that we've put up in front of us.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Well, I think fundraising is a full-time job. I think if you are actually going out and you're meeting with people and you're explaining what your company does, what the value is, what the market is, and what the opportunity is, that can be your whole day every day, but then you still have to keep the brand going, so I think it's very hard to do both simultaneously. If you can find somebody, or I think the walls are breaking down and the gatekeeping around venture capital is breaking down, and there are a lot of people who recognize that most of the businesses being started post pandemic are being founded by women. It's just a fact, and so if we can just help people understand how to be confident in talking about what your opportunity is for the investors without hubris. Men are very good at hubris and maybe we tend to downplay our achievements.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, so we're going to talk specifically about what we're doing, so I'm going to use this moment to say that we're not asking anyone to invest. We have a disclaimer in our show notes, so I hope you all take a look at that. Tell everybody what we're doing.
Kate Miller Spencer:
We are fundraising on a platform called Wefunder. It's a crowdfunding service that connects startups to investors online. It's interesting because I think people don't even understand how much the entire investment community has been unless you were an accredited investor, which is a defined term, which basically means you're already wealthy. You did not have access to investing in any startups, full stop. Wefunder was early in this whole thing. They have helped formulate the plan that finally, finally got approved in March of 2021.
Relatively new that regulation crowdfunding is actually a thing, and what it basically means is unaccredited investors, meaning people who aren't already wealthy, can invest in brands that they love or people that they love and know for products that are either launched or products that are about to be launched. Kerry, I think that you said to me a year ago, "I think we should do Wefunder," and we took the time to create the architecture, and we refiled the company in Delaware, and we did all the things you're supposed to do behind the scenes to be ready to take on any kind of capital investment, and we finally came around to realize that our community should get first crack at any opportunity to be a part of Cherry Bombe.
Kerry Diamond:
I knew about Wefunder because I had invested in a friend's company, and that was my first exposure to it, and I just loved the idea. It did away with the gatekeeping. It demystified the process. I don't know. I loved it. I loved the opportunity to be an angel investor. You hear about all these other people doing it and it's like, "Well, why can't I do that?" Also, because we have such a strong community, I just felt like why would we not involve our community? Why wouldn't we be honest with them about what we're doing, how much money we're raising, what we want to do with the money? It's a process that has been so shrouded in secrecy, and I think that's problematic. I think that's why it's hard for a lot of women to raise money.
Kate Miller Spencer:
That is absolutely true. If you want a little quip, it is Kickstarter for investing. Even Wefunder describes, "You can think of us that way," is what they say on their website. If you have questions about Wefunder, their page, their site has so much information, FAQs for investors, but they also have FAQs for founders and companies that want to raise, and they have been lovely to work with, and they've made it very easy to put together what we put on the website, which is basically a pitch describing what Cherry Bombe is, what we've achieved thus far, and where we want to go next.
Kerry Diamond:
We should say this is not an ad for Wefunder. There are other organizations like Wefunder that, maybe Wefunder's right for you, but you should definitely look into the other crowdfunding platforms that exist. Let's talk about what our plans are because we're hoping to raise some money. We have certain things we want to do with this money because we have big plans for what we want to do over the next decade.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes, we want to do more events.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about events. We love events.
Kate Miller Spencer:
We love events. The world has come back to events. I think, Kerry, you said it recently with the birth of AI that the idea of what is an authentic human connection may end up being just things in person.
Kerry Diamond:
There are so many cities we want to come to and countries.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes, every city that we've been to, what you recognize immediately is there is a community there, and in many cases, they haven't met each other. We did a dinner in Austin, we hosted Sit With Us Dinner where people could come and basically come solo and meet new people, and half of the people in the room had come as solo diners and they all left as friends, which is one of the legacies of Cherry Bombe events. I think going to a market and tapping into that community, showcasing the local talent, which is also, I think, our secret sauce.
Kerry Diamond:
There is so much amazing talent out there today in every city, literally. I should say if you're listening to this and you are in a city that we have never come to, DM us.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Because we are back on the road. We're going to be coming the Philly soon.
Kate Miller Spencer:
We are. We're going to Philadelphia on September 7th. We'll be in Miami at the beginning of October. We're going to Ann Arbor. We will be in Los Angeles again this year.
Kerry Diamond:
Seattle.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Seattle.
Kerry Diamond:
We used to go to Seattle all the time before the pandemic.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I mean we lost a couple of years here, so it's time to get back out on the road.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, we do.
Kate Miller Spencer:
We have a slate of about 12 events that will be slowly released on our website and promoted on our social handles.
Kerry Diamond:
Events. Definitely more content.
Kate Miller Spencer:
More content. I think the thing that's interesting is to realize that people really want to support female fueled and founded businesses, and part of what they're always asking you for is, "What's the list when I go here? Where should I eat when I'm in New York? Where should I go?", so travel guides is a no-brainer for us.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, travel guides and city guides. I apologize to everybody who has asked me for a decade for those. I've wanted to do them right. We're finally going to do those. Video content is something we have never done. We're dying to do some fun video with everybody. Finally, launched our TikTok channel, which we've been talking about forever. Look for some fun content, but thoughtful. I know there's a lot of content out there in the world already. We're looking for a space-
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
... here in New York if anybody knows of one.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I think if Cherry Bombe is a place that you can go, what is that? We want to have a place that is both our HQ, it's office space, it's event space, maybe there's a podcast studio, maybe there's a test kitchen, a demo kitchen where we can do video.
Kerry Diamond:
And I really want a cookbook library.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes, the definitive cookbook library where you can come and do research and just picture a wall of books.
Kerry Diamond:
We've got so many cool cookbooks-
Kate Miller Spencer:
We got so many.
Kerry Diamond:
... by so many of you out there. We've even got Ruth Reichl's first cookbook that she wrote when she was like 22 or something.
Kate Miller Spencer:
I think that we will end up with the definitive cookbook library, and again, having a place where people can come experience the brand because when people come to a Cherry Bombe event, they always say the same thing, that they knew a little bit of what to expect, they love to meet other people who love the brand, and they want to immerse themselves in what we're doing.
Kerry Diamond:
We also want to do more Jubilees.
Kate Miller Spencer:
We definitely want to do more Jubilees.
Kerry Diamond:
I would love to do international Jubilees.
Kate Miller Spencer:
We want to go to Sydney, Australia.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, let's manifest that.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Let's manifest that. Just think about places you can go where, again, there's a strong community and there's a food culture that's just having a moment.
Kerry Diamond:
I'd love to do some scripted and unscripted content.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
TV.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
I think that would be really fun. Like I said, look at the disclaimer in our show notes.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
We also have a link to our Wefunder.
Kate Miller Spencer:
wefunder.com/cherry.bombe.
Kerry Diamond:
Kate, again, thank you for keeping Cherry Bombe alive.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Thank you so much for everything that you do, and thank you to our audience because without all of the Bombesquad, Cherry Bombe would actually not exist.
Kerry Diamond:
Cherry Bombe takes a village.
Kate Miller Spencer:
It's so true.
Kerry Diamond:
I just hope you all know who's listening, and I know we've got some longtime listeners out there because the show's almost a decade old.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Almost 500 shows, Kerry.
Kerry Diamond:
Which blows my mind. Yeah, the 500th is coming up soon. Thank you to all the loyal listeners out there. It means the world to me, and I love hearing from you, and I love the incredible people that I get to interview like Kate, so thank you all for making that possible.
Kate Miller Spencer:
Thank you, Kerry.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Want to stay on top of all things Cherry Bombe? Sign up for our free newsletter at cherrybombe.com. Learn about the week's podcast guests, upcoming events, and fun news from the world of restaurants, cookbooks, chefs, and more. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Joseph Hazan is the studio engineer for Newsstand Studios. Our producer is Catherine Baker, our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu, and our editorial assistant is London Crenshaw. Thanks for listening. You are the Bombe.