Sarah Michelle Gellar of “Buffy” fame launched Foodstirs with two partners in 2015. Now, their baking goods brand is poised to disrupt the industry.
You’re used to seeing Sarah Michelle Gellar fighting vampires on the small screen, but now she’s slaying in a completely different arena – the kitchen.
Geller launched Foodstirs, a baking crafts subscription box service and line of organic baking mixes, with two partners in 2015.
Geller’s co-founder and longtime friend Galit Laibow hatched the business vision for Foodstirs during a fated play date between their daughters, who love to bake.
“We knew that starting from complete scratch was way past our capabilities and went to the store to buy a mix,” says Gellar. “But there were either these legacy brands filled with chemicals and stuff that I would never consider feeding my children, or the other end there were these maybe higher-quality ingredients but certainly lacking in taste.”
Getting the Right Celebrity Endorsement
Laibow was confident they were on to something big. She believed that there had to be a huge market for baking brands that were committed to sourcing organic, ethically produced ingredients for their mixes. However, she wasn’t that confident that Gellar would be the right person to partner with. She felt that celebrity partnerships were not always as collaborative as they could be.
“You know, a celebrity gets excited they want to go put their name on something, they’ll go do some press and then they’re out,” says Laibow. “We had a lot of heart-to-hearts and said, ‘You know, if we really want to do this we have to do this together and you have to be fully committed.'”
Finding Another Business Partner
When the budding mompreneurs finally decided to team up, they knew they needed an expert to come on board to help them assess their opportunities for practical scalability and business development.
When Gellar and Laibow met natural food brand guru, Greg Fleishman, they knew he was their guy. Fleishman had already helped build out brands like Kashi and Suja.
Foodstirs Perfects Its Go-To Market Strategy
The trio complete, Foodstirs officially launched with a monthly baking subscription service in October 2015. Their branded boxes of goodies incorporated some of the organic baking mixes at the center of their brand. The company’s nascent customer relationship strategy gave the Foodstirs team a way to get feedback on their product before taking their mixes into retailers nationwide.
Today, Gellar, Laibow, and Fleishman continue to use technology to promote their Foodstirs products in fun ways. In addition to being sold at retail stores across the country, buyers can now get quick-scratch Foodstirs mixes online. The company also posts fun and Insta-worthy recipes on social media regularly to help their customers find ways to make the mixes their own, and to keep them coming back for more. – This content was originally published in NBC News.