How Partake Foods Founder Learned the Hard Way That Rapid Growth Can Break a Brand

How Partake Foods Founder Learned the Hard Way That Rapid Growth Can Break a Brand

Denise Woodard scaled Partake Foods from car trunk sales to 11,000 stores but learned rapid expansion strained capital and operations. The allergy-friendly snack maker now resets with targeted innovation and high-profile partnerships like Girl Scouts. Woodard's candor offers hard-won lessons for CPG founders.

I started a cookie business and scaled too quickly. We got caught up in a growth-at-all-costs mentality — here's how I turned it around.

Inspired by her daughter's allergies, Partake Foods founder, Denise Woodard raised millions, overcoming growth challenges with storytelling skills.

Partake Foods Founder Shares Her Biggest Small Business Lessons - Dining and Cooking

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Denise Woodard, founder and CEO of Partake Foods. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I spent my career in consumer packaged goods and spent significant time at The Coca-Cola Company. Then my daughter Vivienne came along. She’s 11 now, but right around her [...]

I started a cookie business and scaled too quickly. We got caught up in a growth-at-all-costs mentality — here's how I turned it around

Partake Foods founder, Denise Woodard, says storytelling has been a big part of her company's success. Denise Woodard Denise Woodard founded Partake Foods after her daughter's life-threatening food allergies. She says expanding too far, too wide, too fast in 2020 was almost deadly to the…