Rodney Morris
Good afternoon and welcome to the Atlanta Startup Podcast. My name is Rodney Morris. I’m an Associate at Valor Ventures. I’m very happy today that we have Evodie Epane from Vegan Tiger with us and also Austin Meacham, a fellow associate at Valor as well. We want to say congratulations to you Evodie, first of all, for beating out hundreds of other applicants and becoming a finalist on the Startup Runway cohort. We’d like to have a conversation with you today to learn more about what you’re building and your experience for Startup Runway. So firstly, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about Vegan Tiger?
Evodie Epane
Thank you so much for having me. My name is Evodie, founder of Vegan Tiger. It’s pretty much a company that makes Tiger nut-based products. And a lot of people when I talk about Tiger nut, they ask, “What is Tiger nut? I’ve never heard of that?” Well, Tiger nut, the name is a little different. It’s not a nut. It’s a root vegetable. That’s the name that it was given. It’s also known as chufa. We’re a company that makes Tiger nut-based products, and we have four different types of products that we make. Tiger nuts smoothie mix, Tiger nut butter, also Tiger nut granola, and Tiger nut salad dressing. We make those with high quality and simple ingredients. That’s a little bit of what we do.
Austin Meacham
That’s amazing. Could you walk us through how you started your company? What was your inspiration for Vegan Tiger?
Evodie Epane
Yes, actually, it’s a childhood memory. I grew up in my home country, Cameroon, eating Tiger nut. When I moved here, in 2005, I was about 14 years old. I really missed having Tiger nut. It was in 2019 that I decided the craving was just so bad, I decided to go to an African market to check to see if they have Tiger nut. When I purchased it I finally found it after months, searching for it, I found it and I ate it. It just brought back childhood memories. I have an entrepreneurial spirit so one day, I just decided to study more about Tiger nuts. The more I studied about it, I saw the great health benefits they have, especially the high amount of prebiotics, which is the fertilizer to the good bacteria already in your gut. I tried out a couple of recipes, and it was tasting okay. The first time it was just a disaster. But after perseverance, I was able to get into something. So I said, “Well if I can enjoy them, I’m pretty sure someone will also enjoy it.” So that’s when I started my customer discoveries or interviews and I ended up here now.
Austin Meacham
That’s awesome. How did you figure out what products to put forward with Vegan Tiger?
Evodie Epane
That was very challenging. The first thing that I tried with Tiger nut was Tiger nut milk because it has a cream white consistency. It was in an era where all those plant-based milk were so popular, and I worked just on the milk for a year. After doing customer discovery interviews, I quickly discovered that my target audience already has milk in stores for them. Why don’t I just look out for other avenues? I did a program, an entrepreneur program at Georgia Tech called CREATE-X. I’m so thankful that I was able to attend that program. It taught me a lot. My mentors were great and I’ve learned so much. So that’s when I left the program, I was well equipped to find out what is the need of my target audience. What do they want? What will they enjoy? That’s how I was able to make those products.
Austin Meacham
That’s great to hear. I love what you said about mentors. It’s definitely really important when you’re going on your entrepreneurial journey. So that’s awesome.
Rodney Morris
Absolutely. Thank you so much for that information. I’m switching gears here to Startup Runway. How was your overall experience, would you recommend it to others and why?
Evodie Epane
I will recommend it to everyone. For my experience, it was a great experience. I was very surprised, to be honest. When you’re an entrepreneur, one thing I can do great is to come up with new products and conduct customer discovery interviews, but to pitch in front of people, that’s not one thing that I’m very good at. So it was a surprising experience but ended up being just wonderful. With the help of the mentors, I was able to do a great pitch. I think the application process was also great. It was not overwhelming for me that I felt like, “Well, I have a lot of things to do.” It was simple, straightforward, and I’m very thankful once again.
Austin Meacham
It’s really cool how Startup Runway sort of helped you feel better about your pitch, I’m curious. Was the virtual pitch event better for you or a worse experience for you?
Evodie Epane
It was a great experience. Because when I watch other videos, I spend maybe four hours on the website on the Startup Runway. Watching others, reading about everything because remember, I’ve not done this before. I did something virtual, but it was for about two minutes. But this pitch, this was about five minutes. When I watched everything I was like, “Okay, maybe I’m a little confident in doing this.” So it ended up being great actually doing it virtually because, in the comfort of your living room or dining room, you don’t have that stress, that stage fright. So it was a great event.
Austin Meacham
It’s awesome to hear.
Rodney Morris
Absolutely. You mentioned the mentors, and about the boardroom scenario, talking to those different VCs and operators, what could you share with us that landed with you or that stuck with you that you thought was valuable and that you will take with you to your product and your business?
Evodie Epane
The mentors were so encouraging. I perform better when I’m encouraged. A lot of times as an entrepreneur, you ask yourself, “Is it even worth it? Who wants this product that I’m making?” It’s something internal, this internal matter that you have to find with. However, the mentors were great. When they asked me a question about one thing that I’m doing, they always felt like they always found a way to encourage me onto, “Oh, you’re doing great. But you can even do better if you do this. What do you think?” That encouragement meant the world to me.
Austin Meacham
It definitely makes sense. I would say encouragement is one of the most important things just intuitively on an entrepreneurial journey. It’s a tough road, right? You need all the encouragement and support you can get. My next question is how do you sort of practice self-care and then sort of taking care of yourself and your mental health throughout your journey?
Evodie Epane
It’s been a tough journey considering this pandemic. I don’t think anyone was ready for that. Being a mother, a wife, and I have a full-time nine-five job. I’ve been understanding that my program can be overwhelming. It’s something that is important for me because I have to be aware of what’s coming my way. I know I have a busy schedule so to practice self-care, every little opportunity that I get, either it could be time alone to myself or time with family, it’s so important to me. During that time that I designated for my family, I made sure that nothing interfered with that. And if it happens, something happens, I will just report it. Okay, well, I’m gonna have this next time for myself maybe this day or a later time. It helps me get better, so I get some rest and then I can move on to other activities.
Austin Meacham
That makes sense. That’s so important. It’s really great to hear you’re taking care of yourself during this journey.
Rodney Morris
Absolutely. I think that’s very important, especially the mental health component. I’m interested to hear how you balance your schedule, it seems as though building a business and working a full-time job is definitely something that could be very, very pressing on you. I’m interested to hear and I’m pretty sure the audience would love to hear how you balanced that and how you’re doing that and able to move forward and become a finalist on Startup Runway and progress.
Evodie Epane
Yes, thank you. As I said, it was not easy. But you just make sure you do your best at the end of the day. You may not do everything perfectly, right? Or you may forget to do things but just remember that another day, another beginning, and that it’s going to happen no matter what.
Austin Meacham
That’s an awesome mindset and a really important one in terms of just obtaining the level of success you want. What so far has been, in your opinion, your greatest success with Vegan Tiger?
Evodie Epane
My target customers. When I get a purchase, whether online, whether at the store where I am. I sell my product at Sevananda health food store here in Atlanta, Georgia. Especially online, that’s where I feel like I have this direct connection, though we’re in separate places, with my customers. When you read that review, and we’re when the person sent you a message and said, “Oh, this product was great.” “Oh, that was the answer.” “I was tired of eating the same food over and over, but having this it’s a new opportunity for me to enjoy your food and to enjoy my diet.” It makes me so happy at this point of time. Before it was the little success of coming up with a new product but mainly right now, I’m so focused on my clientele or my target audience that everything around them makes me so happy.
Austin Meacham
I completely agree with that sentiment. I mean, the customer is everything, right? It is so important to have that absolute focus on your customers. If you were to describe your perfect archetype for a customer, what exact kind of customers are you looking for at the moment?
Evodie Epane
Customers that are on the Paleo diet and in an autoimmune protocol diet. I’m going to explain a little bit about those two diets because they’re not too common. I will call them patients that have an autoimmune disease, Hashimoto, diabetes. The disease that they have is a life sentence. They struggle just to get by every day. They have digestive health issues, they want something to make them feel better. Just imagine yourself eating maybe a piece of vegetable and then you don’t feel good afterward. Or everything you eat, you don’t feel good, or you have chronic fatigue. Oftentimes, they change their lifestyle and their way of eating. They start with an anti-inflammatory diet called the Autoimmune Protocol. They will switch to a paleo diet, which is an ancient way of eating, so they will exclude all the processed food in the diet. Oftentimes, they get stuck because they do not have enough options in their diet. Some will get discouraged and they will not continue to diet but the consequences will be they’re not feeling well or still have that chronic fatigue. However, in that diet, they find relief. The problem is there, they don’t have enough food choices. That’s where Vegan Tigers come in with our Tiger nut-based products. We have a variety of food for breakfast, snacks, and also a dessert that they can incorporate into their diet. We have different flavors to take it to another level to show them that the Paleo diet or the Autoimmune Protocol diet is not bland. I consider my company as an athletic supporter. When someone is running, they need water. They may not have water in their hand. So we’re there to kind of, “Hey, this is the water, continue your race.” We’re sharing them so that’s basically what our company is.
Austin Meacham
That’s awesome. So for you to be providing a great tasting product is incredibly valuable to a wide range of different people, so that’s awesome.
Rodney Morris
We’re already interested to hear about some of the goals that you set for yourself and the milestones that you want to achieve. Heading into Q1, what are you looking to achieve this next upcoming year for your business?
Evodie Epane
To get into Trader Joe’s or a local store. Whether it’s a Trader Joe’s market, or Costco, that’s one thing I consider a credit achievement for right now. We want to be more accessible to those patients because, in the United States, it’s estimated that 23.5 million people suffer from autoimmune disease. However, they may not be aware of us. “Oh, she’s on a website. She’s still on this platform.” Because not everyone is tech-savvy nowadays, not everyone has Facebook to know about my business. But if they have a store near them, there will be a chance that they will pick it up at that store, and then enjoy the product.
Austin Meacham
I guess as a follow-up question on goals, what is your absolute grand, ridiculous vision for Vegan Tiger? If you can take it anywhere, where do you want it to go?
Evodie Epane
The question, all of a sudden sounds just overwhelming. Oh, where do I go? I honestly don’t mind going internationally. I thought about that. Selling internationally and having this big brand. But it will require your help, or have investors in the company. I think that’s also in my dream.
Austin Meacham
That’s awesome. I really love that.
Rodney Morris
Evodie, that’s all the questions I had on my end. Austin do you have any follow-up questions or any last-minute questions as we wrap up?
Austin Meacham
How do people contact you? How can people reach out to you in order to be customers for Vegan Tiger?
Evodie Epane
Our website www.vegantiger.co and I also want to mention that to satisfy the demand of our target audience we are transitioning. It’s going to be Paleo Tiger and we are going to www.paleotiger.com by January of next year so that’s very soon. Also on Facebook, we are Vegan Tiger, and also on Instagram.
Austin Meacham
Sounds great. Thank you so much for that information. Thank you so much for joining us here today on the podcast. We want to thank you again for applying for Startup Runway and congratulations again for being a finalist. We look forward to hearing about your success, and we wish you the best. Thank you so much.
Evodie Epane
Thank you so much for having me.
Lisa
Thank you for listening to the Atlanta Startup Podcast. You know, we’re not just a podcast, we’re a community, and we’d love to see you at one of our digital or physical events, go to valor.VC and sign up for an event that makes sense for you. We have events for founders and the investors who back them. Another event you might enjoy is Startup Runway. The Startup Runway Foundation is a Valor organization that provides $10,000 grants to founders who are women or people of color building next-generation software products. Applications are free and we’d love to hear from you at startuprunway.org. And as always, thank you so much to the organizations that make this podcast possible. Not only Valor Ventures, but also Write2Market, a tech marketing and PR agency in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Startup Runway Foundation and Atlanta Tech Park Valley’s headquarters, and also headquarters for over 100 local entrepreneurs, building global businesses. See you next week. Please bookmark the podcast and join us.
