WHO: Rachel Kruse
WHAT: Organicville Foods
WHERE: Emeryville, Calif.
WHEN: 2004
HOW: While most five-year-olds dream of being astronauts or ballerinas, Rachel Kruse, president of Organicville Foods, dreamed of bottling salad dressings. (Really!) A third-generation vegetarian and entrepreneur, Kruse knew that her grandmother’s homemade, vegan dressings were delicious. She also knew she couldn’t buy anything like them. “When you go to the grocery store, you can buy lots of organic vegetables to make nutritious salads, but when you get to the dressings aisle, you’re out of luck,” Kruse says. “Most salad dressings are made with eggs, and when you can find a vegan dressing, it isn’t organic, or it’s made with low quality oils and lots of added sugars, which defeats the purpose of buying the organic produce.”
It was a niche Kruse knew she could fill, and thus, Organicville was born. “I knew from a young age that I wanted to own my own business,” Kruse says, “and I didn’t want to wait until I was older, when it’s more difficult to make the decision to give up health care and a steady salary.” So, at 27, Kruse quit her corporate job, used some of her savings for startup and applied for a small business loan with her bank, putting her loft up as collateral. She launched the brand at the 2004 “All Things Organic” food show in Chicago, Ill. Within two months, Organicville went national – and in that time, Kruse also met the man she would eventually marry. “I told him I didn’t have any time to date because I was starting a company,” says Kruse. Other men might have walked, but “he was so supportive and respectful, and understood that I needed to put all of my time into this,” that she decided he was a keeper.
Within the following year, Organicville turned a profit, Kruse and her fiancé tied the knot, and acclaim for the products poured in from consumers and reviewers alike. Since then, it has become the second largest organic foods manufacturer in the United States, with a presence in Whole Foods stores, and is also distributed abroad. More recently, the company added ketchup, salsas, and barbecue sauces to its lineup.
Today, Organicville is the only USDA-certified manufacturer of vegan, organic, gluten free, and dairy-free dressings. Kruse now has a multi-million-dollar company, a supportive, stay-at-home husband, and an 18-month-old daughter (who, Kruse says, “loves being a vegetarian!”). “Traveling and being away from my family is difficult,” Kruse says, “but it’s gratifying to know how thankful our customers are to have products that fit their family’s needs. That’s part of what makes every day enjoyable.”
HER ADVICE: “Dream big – and then do it,” Kruse says. “Write up what you want to accomplish, and then research it. I called anyone I thought could help to ask questions about what problems I might run into and where I could get myself in trouble. Collecting as much information as I could has helped me not get in over my head thus far,” advises Kruse. “If you give it all of your time and effort, you’ll know when you’re going down the right path.”
