S7 Ep9: Twice-Baked Nostalgia— How to Reimagine a Family Recipe to Conquer New Markets with Stephanie Berlin
“Food is a unifier. We are more similar than different and that cultural aspect is really important.” —Stephanie Berlin
An entrepreneurial journey with cultural flair!
Once upon a time, biscotti and cookie had a serendipitous encounter, and they birthed a magical creation called Wandel. Baked by Stephanie Berlin, this delightful treat with its adventurous spirit, ignites a love affair with taste buds worldwide. Crafted with utmost care and using natural ingredients, Wandel transports its customers to a nostalgic paradise with every crumble. The mere sight of this baked beauty is enough to make hearts flutter and mouths water. Truly, baked goods are the universal love language, and Wandel is the whimsical ambassador that keeps the world craving for more fearless flavors and sweet memories.
Tune in as Stephanie gets real about the highs and lows of starting a business from scratch, details on exciting new collaborations just in time for the holidays, plus insider tips for nurturing retail partnerships from day one. Press play to join the adventure of building community and culture through food!
Connect with Stephanie:
Stephanie Berlin is the CEO and Founder of Wandel, a twice-baked cookie company based in New York. She launched Wandel in 2021 after being inspired by her mother's mandel bread recipe. Prior to starting Wandel, Stephanie worked in the film industry for over 10 years in roles such as film marketing and development. As the head of her own company, Stephanie has learned about various aspects of running a business from operations to finances. Under her leadership, Wandel's classic recipes are available online and in select stores in New York. Stephanie continues to grow the business while staying true to its roots in Jewish culture and tradition.
Episode Highlights:
01:35 A Modern Take On Traditional Cookies
06:39 Cultural Food Branding and Integration
12:57 Starting a Business Without a Plan
17:44 Starting a Business with Limited Funds
22:44 A Focus on Cultural Relevance
Tweets:
Hitting the open road in search of your next snack inspiration? Strap in for a tasty tale as @jreichman and Wandel’s CEO Stephanie Berlin shares how tenacity and cultural curiosity can take a food brand places. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #Season7 #Wandel #foodentrepreneur #smallbusiness #baking #culture #nostalgia #selffunding #leapoffaith #collaboration #womenfounders
Inspirational Quotes:
03:40 “In any business, you identify what's working and what's not, and how do you solve it.” —Stephanie Berlin
09:42 “Culture often gets lost in these newer brands. It's important for people to be able to have the foods that they grew up with available in a better way.” —Justine Reichman
12:28 “Food is a unifier. We are more similar than different and that cultural aspect is really important.” —Stephanie Berlin
13:42 “Culture really does inspire our innovations.” —Justine Reichman
14:01 “Nostalgia is very important. It allows us to be creative. It allows us to be vulnerable. It allows us to give people a chance.” —Stephanie Berlin
17:05 “Jump in and you figure it out.” —Stephanie Berlin
21:33 “Every situation for every person is unique to their own.” —Stephanie Berlin
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. With me today is Stephanie Berlin, CEO and Founder of Wandel.
Welcome, Stephanie.
Stephanie Berlin: Hello, how are you?
Justine Reichman: Good. How are you?
Stephanie Berlin: Good. I'm excited to be here.
Justine Reichman: I'm excited to have you here. Right before we got on, we got to catch up a little bit, which always, I think, makes everything so much more comfortable and you can connect with one another so it really impacts and changes how we get to have these conversations. I was grateful to have those three minutes with you.
Stephanie Berlin: I agree. I could have turned those few minutes into 20 minutes.
Justine Reichman: Me too. So Stephanie, for those not familiar with Wandel because not everybody's familiar with it, even though I am now and I've tasted it, and really liked it, can you share with everybody what Wandel is?
Stephanie Berlin: So Wandel, first and foremost, is my mom's Mandel bread recipe. And mandel bread, for those who are not familiar with Mandel bread, mandel bread is a traditional Jewish treat that is twice baked. It's traditionally hard and crunchy. It originated in Middle Eastern Europe. And just like mandel bread, some people aren't familiar with mandel bread, its first cousin is the biscotti that's based in Italy. So universally, this twice baked cookie reappears all over the world in different varying cultures. Wandel, which is my recipe that my mom has been making me for 30 plus years, is one spake. So it's like a modern, not a very traditional universal treat. And I dropped the M and mandel and replaced it with the W because that twice baked cookie is so worldly and reappears, we've said throughout history and culture, so the W stands for worldly, and here we are with Wandel. I know it's a long explanation of where it's based from and how we got to Wandel, but there you go.
Justine Reichman: I was curious why Wandel really was. And now that you're saying mandel bread, I'm thinking about the mandel bread my grandmother used to bake. I loved it. And then I was thinking about the pinwheel cookies.
Stephanie Berlin: Was your grandmother's mandel bread hard and crunchy? Which is amazing. It makes it a little softer when you dunk it in coffee, but there is that texture difference between my modern take Wandel versus traditional mandel bread.
Justine Reichman: Have you marketed it for the holidays?
“In any business, you identify what's working and what's not, and how do you solve it.” —Stephanie Berlin
Stephanie Berlin: We're working on it. So this business I call Wandel, my professional and personal journey professionally, if Wandel were to have close tomorrow, I would literally say to myself, I've just got the best education in business school, it has transformed my mind in terms of how I look at numbers, and business development, and operation operations. And then personally, it forced me to really take a look in the mirror and face this imposter syndrome competence like, can I do this? I have a business, I gotta keep it going. I am on such a journey, and it has truly changed my life. And with that being said, I think in any business, you identify what's working and what's not? What is not working turns into a problem, and how do you solve it? So there's a few things we are doing behind the scenes and pivoting to make this, to build in for the longevity of Wandel. And with that being said, we should be ready to go with some changes by the holidays. I actually have a really fun Hanukkah colab that I'm doing with a fellow Baker, although I'm not supposed to talk about it yet, but I'm super excited.
Justine Reichman: I know that you mentioned that you have some exciting new collaborations for the holidays, can you share some of those with us?
Stephanie Berlin: Yes, I can. So while we're working on some R&D for the long term, I am partnering with a dear pal of mine who I respect as a woman, as founder. Her name's Allie Chernick. Her company is called Allie's Banana Bread. She is also based out in New York. Her banana bread is divine, and we will be partnering together for the holidays, specifically Hanukkah. We're figuring out what that collab will look like, are we going to do a joint product? We're figuring all that out. But the exciting thing is we'll be doing an event at this female owned brewery called (inaudible), and that's exciting in itself since the beer industry is so male dominated. It's an exciting collaboration on many levels that I get to work with Allie, who was able to do this event. So a little sneak peek of what's to come, but it's going to be good. It's going to be good, yummy and fun.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, yes. And then from New York, we're gonna have to come.
Stephanie Berlin: Please. It's December 9.
Justine Reichman: Okay. Well, that's good. Let's go back a little bit, how long were you pondering the idea of Wandel?
Stephanie Berlin: Wandel actually came to me pretty quickly. The idea of taking my mom's recipe and turning it into a product that I could get into as many people's hands, that decision really happened overnight. I'm the person that if I don't jump into the deep end and figure it out, I will procrastinate and procrastinate. I think the idea is of me working for myself and doing something, whether it's selling a yummy product for the greater good. Wandel is a delicious product. The brand itself is all about community. I knew I wanted to do something, whether it was building communities or selling something for the greater good. I think that idea I've been manifesting forever, I just never knew what it was, and then Wandel fell into my lap. I knew some other people that were selling baked goods during the pandemic. Some would drop, some would sell through Instagram. And so I was looking at a few different business models, and then I launched Wandel. And the way I launched it looked nothing like these other people's businesses. But the idea to launch came pretty quickly for me.
Justine Reichman: Something you said since you were a kid eating this mandel bread saying, one day, I'm going to figure out how I can make that. What are you working on at the time?
Stephanie Berlin: I was working until last May since graduating college, so 10 plus years I had worked in film. So I had taken posts in film publicity, film marketing where I would oversee an entire movie rollout. We did a lot of Oscar campaigning. There was a small stint that I took where I worked in film development where we were packaging movies from the ground up. But the interesting correlation, selling Wandel has anything to do with the film industry. Whatever project I was working on, whether it was developing a film or thinking about how can we roll this picture out, most of the films I worked on brought characters to the screen that were going through issues that could allow other people to look up and be like, oh, wow, I'm struggling with something similar. Bringing this idea to the forefront, maybe lessening stigma and that idea there, how can I build something and create a safe place for people to authentically connect that lens to what I didn't film and also lens to the brand of Wandel itself, if that makes sense.
Justine Reichman: It totally makes sense. I guess one thing that came up since you started this conversation was, and so cultural, right? I mean, this is a cultural food. I think that oftentimes, I mean, I live in Northern California now where a restaurant comes along. I'm like, I don't know how to put that together because the advertising here just doesn't exist the same way it does in the Northeast. And I saw during COVID, one of my college friends, he's married to this woman who we became friendly with years ago and she started a company called (inaudible). Have you heard of it?
Stephanie Berlin: I haven't, but I know it very well. It's a very similar product to Wandel. It's delicious.
“Culture often gets lost in these newer brands. It's important for people to be able to have the foods that they grew up with available in a better way.” —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman: My point is that I love talking about this intersection of culture and food. Because I can't find what I want (inaudible), I can't even find a place that slices the salmon or knows what Nova is. They're like, we have salmon. I'm like, do you have nova? We have locks. Is it salty? they're like, no, it's not. It's not locked. And I feel like it's culturally, A, it's a different language. B, I don't feel like, I think it's important to integrate these cultures into all the different communities. And I think that by visiting these, like you're doing with Wandel, you bring a new modern approach to it where it becomes more mainstream, but also built off of your community, your experiences and your culture. And I don't know if that was important to you, but when you're telling me this story, I was excited because I feel like culture often gets lost in these newer brands. I think it's a great conversation to have, and I think it's really innovative and it's important for people to be able to have the foods that they grew up with, that experienced and available in a better way in today's way because how they made it back then it's different than how you make it today. And people are more geared towards what are the ingredients. Let's be transparent about this. Wondering what integrates into your thought process and what you were doing?
Stephanie Berlin: It's interesting that you bring that up, because Wandel, I've been selling Wandel since the end of 2021. When I started, it was a very minimal capacity. I was selling once a week at a Farmers Market. And then from there, slowly, I built a website that I've since upgraded, but I was shipping online out of my apartment. I started Wandel with no dishwasher, and then I would drop at some retailers. And so I've looked at the past year and a half in a way of market research from the repeat customers who really love the product to people who love the brand. And from there, you can identify what's working and what we have to change. And so when I launched Wandel, initially, I wasn't sure if I wanted to launch a Jewish treat, per se. I love being Jewish. I love the tradition of being Jewish, I just wasn't sure. And part of the uncertainty was like, well, I want everyone to feel like they can eat it or to be included. And the more research I've done, the more conversations I've had with customers as I re-pivot certain things on the back end that I mentioned, I am updating some of the branding, for example. Right now, we sell resealable bags. We'll be shifting to boxes. I just think boxes are prettier.
But not only are we shifting to boxes, but I would like to identify the history of the treat and lean in to the Jewishness more so than I was doing without necessarily saying, oh, this is a Jewish treat. But the people that know will know. And then the people that don't know, I'm hoping that their curiosity will be piqued. I'm hoping that we can educate them a little bit and then they can say, wow, this is really different from what I'm used to, what my grandma made me. But there's some similarities. There's some crossover. I would like to know more about this and the history. And then hopefully, that can bridge the gap of this idea of two people from two completely different places, two different beliefs can find some common denominator whether it's eating a piece of Wandel. Oh, well, I'm throwing up there that food is a unifier. If everyone's munching on this twice baked cookie, if you read about where it appears in history, I like to say that each byte of Wandel reminds us that we are more similar than different. And so with that being said, I am leaning more into Jewishness because I think that cultural aspect is really, really important. And it took me a year and a half to really understand why it's important. But based on the research, it's there. So it's very important to me.
Justine Reichman: And I think that also, I don't know about you, but I love checking out other kinds of foods when you travel around the world, when you go to new places. I don't think I'm the only person. I think people are curious about what is the food of Singapore, what is the food of these people, those people, those communities, these communities and being able to make that accessible and have it be good. Not something that's in particular made for a holiday, but that was inspired by something that you grew up with, I think, is super special and allows people to learn a little bit more, be open. Culture really does inspire our innovations.
“Food is a unifier. We are more similar than different and that cultural aspect is really important.” —Stephanie Berlin
Stephanie Berlin: I'm also hoping that not only culture inspires, but even when you think about history, or you think about traditions, there's a certain note of nostalgia that's also incorporated in that. And I think nostalgia is very important. I think it allows us to be creative. I think it allows us to be vulnerable. I think it allows us to give people a chance. I'm hoping that resonates with people too.
Justine Reichman: Yeah. I'm curious, you went from being in film. You started Wandel, when you plan to start this and you took that leap of faith, did you go, I'm gonna just sell this fund for x period of time. Did you say, I'm gonna then raise money. Did you have a plan in mind?
Stephanie Berlin: I had no plan until a handful of months ago. I was looking at it, I knew nothing about anything. I had no plan, numbers in general. I always excelled at writing in history, and school numbers, and science has never come naturally to me. Now I can confidently tell you that I understand the numbers of my business, but I was flying by the seat of my pants to a degree because there was demand for the product and people really liked the energy that I was putting out there. I didn't even realize what a shelf stable product meant. There were so many components that I didn't realize, but I was forced to learn it because I wanted to see the business through. So I have been self funding. It's pretty, pretty scary and pretty invigorating that I can go sell something I created. And as I look at the next few years of the business and understand what my sales strategy looks like, what my cogs are going to look like the more I scale, there is more of a business plan in place, it took a lot of learning, a lot of growing pains. So now, there is something in place. I will eventually have to fundraise, which is scary to me, and I'll do it. I've never done anything like this before so I'm really learning as I go, and asking questions along the way and just making it work.
Justine Reichman: So out of curiosity, I asked you this because there're so many founders that fall into it. It's from passion, it's from all sorts of things and it wasn't planned. And from your experience, what would you say to a new founder wanting to start a business, the experience that you have now doing this.
Stephanie Berlin: I would say, do it. I would advise, and I can't even believe I'm saying this because I really am so forward thinking in terms of self expression. There's nothing too big or too small people can't share with me. I think I was so ready to work for myself and build something for myself because of this mentality of sink or swim. I definitely jumped in a little prematurely because I really think that there's something to be said with just putting it out there and seeing what works, and then pivoting when something doesn't work. I jumped in so fast without even, maybe there was a little more research I could have done about it CPG or the different aisles and grocery. But then again, I don't know. I also just say to jump in and you figure it out. And I do give that advice a lot. And then I caution being like, well, if there's any little things you can research just to educate yourself, maybe that's not the worst idea. But I'm a sink or swim mentality. That's my mentality, and it doesn't work for everyone. But in general, even the business as I go back to my personal journey, it's allowed me to hone in on my detail skills. Since I started, I have all these little systems and processes that I've implemented to just streamline communication and streamline R&D. So you learn as you go. I really do a larger team now. Well, it's just me. I have this woman named Jezebel baking with me. She is a trained pastry shop and like family to me at this point. And then I have someone that I consult from time to time who is a strategist to a degree, but I just pick his brain for little questions, and then I just run with it. So it's just me, essentially, right now.
Justine Reichman: I totally get it. So I'm curious, though, when you decided to sell fun, did you say I wanted to have this much money before I did it? Or was it totally not even a thought because you just come up with the idea and you're like, okay, I'm gonna go do this. How did money play a role for you in helping you make your decision? Money is basically in your decision making process.
Stephanie Berlin: So when I started Wandel, there were a few things I knew I needed to spend money on. I wanted to trademark the name. So that's not only paying a trademark fee, which isn't crazy, but then there were lawyer fees. I tried to account for the cost of trademarking all around, then I brought someone on to help me design the logo and build a very simple website. That was a little bit of money. Then there's the trial and error of ordering packaging. From where I was, I ordered it off Amazon. In my mind I'm like, it's going to cost me this much to get it off the ground. Every week, I'd sell at the Farmers Market, I'd make it back, but it was at least $60 to get a table and everything at the farmers market. So there was a lump sum that I knew I was going to commit to that was fine. And this is something that's also helping me in my personal life, there's so many ancillary fees that add up to so much. So I knew what I could spend out of my savings. And then I kind of drained most of my savings because I was like, I gotta keep going. And so in truth, my family will be stepping in to help me with a mini infusion for some equity of the company. They believe in it. I couldn't do it without them. My mom has some equity in the company. I'm doing this with my mom to a degree because I call her 20 times a day. So yeah, and that is the truth of it. I actually drained my savings. It drained my savings.
Justine Reichman: I was just gonna ask you, if you're not gonna believe in it, but there are a lot of people who say, don't invest your own money, what do you say to that?
Stephanie Berlin: I say, make the most educated decision you can.. Some people could look at me and be like, wow, that girl has grit. And she really believes in herself. But is that the smartest thing to go drink? Probably not. I would say to do it. And I would also say like, it depends on every circumstance. I would promote being financially responsible, and the business is also teaching you that. I monitor everything that goes in and everything that comes out. And I also believe in this to the point where it's like, I gotta do this. I gotta make it happen.
Justine Reichman: Well, I also think, I don't know personally if you're married or have kids, but I think that people have different circumstances that allow them the flexibility to do things like that. If you don't have anybody depending on you and you're the only one, you may have more flexibility to do that.
Stephanie Berlin: Actually, yes. And that's why I say that it's different for everyone. I don't have kids, I'm single right now. I mean, I have my baby guy, but that's what's working for me. And I think every situation for every person is unique to their own.
Justine Reichman: So this is super exciting. I really appreciate you sharing your story, both personally and professionally. And just as we come to close everything, I'm wondering, in addition to the collaboration you have with the banana bread folks that I'm super excited to taste, what else we can expect to see from Wandel, and where people might be able to find it?
Stephanie Berlin: I'm selling on my website. And if you subscribe to my newsletter, you can just go to eatwandel.com. We send newsletters out periodically with different coupon codes. So we're selling through my site. And then right now, while we switch things up, I'm moving out of my kitchen to a facility. The two stores we're in, we'll be back at all the other stores that I had previously gotten into, but you can find us in Butterfield, in Manhattan. And then hopefully by the end of the year, you can see us back at West Side market back in Brooklyn fair and more predominantly in the Northeast. But hopefully, we'll be amplifying our doors. Maybe one day you'll see us in markets. We're looking to scale in a nice way, but in the Northeast. And then from there, hopefully, we can infiltrate the Midwest. But I believe in going slow, staying lean and narrow. I think when you cast too wide of a net, you might get lost. Those are my learnings, everyone's different. But hopefully, you'll see Wandel in expanded stores in New York and Brooklyn by the end of the year. Definitely early next year.
Justine Reichman: And for those that are not in the area, don't forget to go to eatwandell.com. And don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter to get her coupons because everyone loves a coupon. I mean, I'd love a coupon code. So thank you so much for joining us and for sharing your story. Thank you for sending me the Wandel because my household tried it and it was real fun. It was very reminiscent of things that my grandmother raised. Brought back some lovely memories. One of the reasons I asked you about culture and the holidays is because while it's not necessarily something that's it's meant for everyone, and it's not going to be in the aisle just for the holidays, there's also an opportunity, I think, when you go into Butterfield and you talk to Joelle, and you say to her, can we can we do something for Hanukkah or something. And I think that in those small stores where people in New York in particular, I think there's another opportunity to tap into that specific market so that people are not just going to Greenberg's for the (inaudible), but they're going to go get your Wandel becomes something that people look for, and recommend, and get shifted from wherever they are so that it's on their table for those holidays to share.
Stephanie Berlin: I want to just add this last note because I think it's helpful. Yesterday I spoke to someone who's starting out, and this is the advice I gave. Butterfield has been such a great retail partner for me not only because the product moves there, but I have been through iterations of packaging with them. They've given me their insight from the retailer's perspective and have been patient with me. And I think maintaining and nurturing those relationships with the retailers is really, really important.
Justine Reichman: They have a lot of experience. They know what works, what doesn't work, how's this gonna pop off the shelf or something else. They lend a lot of experience. And again, so excited for you. Congratulations. Keep me posted on how things progress. I definitely want to at least taste the collaboration.
Stephanie Berlin: You will taste it the minute we have something. You will taste it. And if you're in New York on December 9, you will be our VIP guest.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. You're so sweet. Well, I look forward to continuing to hear how things progressed. And if there's anything at all that we can do to support you, let us know. Thank you so much, Stephanie. Great to chat.
