Photo courtesy of Alexander Dita of Nicholas Kelley

Please describe kaia foods, and explain your personal mission: Kaia foods is concerned primarily with people’s health and well being as impacted by nutrition. We create delicious, raw, organic products that are more supportive of one’s health than conventionally processed foods. We also donate a portion of sales to food aid programs to help those suffering from a lack of adequate nutrition worldwide.

What is your background and what lead you to creating kaia foods? As an undergraduate, I studied biology and I took a nutrition course that fascinated me. It led me to think more and more about proper nutrition and I realized that much of the ‘health food’ being marketed wasn’t really that healthy at all. Usually it was processed to death, claimed to have some kind of magic bullet ingredient that would cure you of anything, and was inundated with unpronounceable additives and sugars.

All this was stirring at the back of my head while I worked at a hedge fund for a few years and while I was in business school. Shortly after graduating from business school in 2006 I had an A-HA! moment, while backpacking in the wilderness of Colorado and I decided to create a brand that represented minimally processed whole foods without all the funny additives and heavily processed stuff in it. I had been a longtime vegetarian and I had been eating more and more raw over time so I decided to build the brand making only raw, organic foods.

What makes kaia foods unique and sets you apart from your competition? As far as I know, kaia foods is the only raw food company that gives back to support a social mission. I have been donating 1% of sales to food aid programs since before the company was even profitable. I have also created a beginners recipe booklet for raw foods that you can download for free on our website, consistent with my desire to nurture people’s health, not always for the sake of profit.

Kaia Foods Buckwheat Granola (Flavors: Cocoa Bliss, Raisin Cinnamon, Dates & Spice)

Also, kaia foods products offer the best value among raw food companies. I spent lots of time designing efficient production methods so that people can more easily afford high quality raw, organic foods.

What are the advantages of purchasing your Buckwheat Granola and Sprouted Sunflower Seeds over another? As I mentioned, for raw granolas, you can’t get a better value anywhere else. The taste is amazing and many non-raw-foodists love our Buckwheat Granolas, especially the Cocoa Bliss flavor, as well as our Sprouted Sunflower Seeds. Compared to conventional cereals and granolas, our raw granolas have a lower glycemic index and are much less processed – our buckwheat looks like buckwheat and hasn’t been smashed and reconstituted into an “O” or a flake. The Sprouted Sunflower Seeds are also more nutritious than roasted sunflower seed alternatives because the nutrients are denatured during roasting.

Has the recession impacted your business, and if so, how have you adapted? The recession made it much harder to get into new stores. At first it was fairly easy to get my products into new stores, but as the meltdown struck, grocery buyers were more interested in carrying steady-selling familiar products than unproven, pricier raw foods. That said, I’m very proud of the progress I have made growing the company over the last 2 years. The recession also led me to focus on developing foods representing a great value. So I just launched a line of Sprouted Sunflower Seeds six weeks ago and they are already proving to be a huge hit, due in part to their affordability.

kaia foods Sprouted Sunflower Seeds (Flavors: Sweet Curry, Teriyaki, Cocoa Mole, Garlic & Sea Salt)

Is there anything you wish people knew about your business that they probably don’t know? People often ask about the origin of the name ‘kaia foods.’ Kaia is a combination of the Sanskrit word for body, ‘kaya,’ and the Greek Earth Goddess, ‘Gaia.’ By fusing the two words together, kaia means ‘body and earth.’ And the logo, which I call the ‘sprout,’ is an ancient Celtic symbol that connotes balance and harmony to me. So, at a deeper level, the company’s name means ‘balanced body and earth foods,’ which is consistent with my goal to support people’s well being through proper nutrition, while also minimizing our impact on the environment by using only organic foods.

What is one of your favorite stories about a customer experience with your products? There have been many great stories along the way, like the one about the woman who feeds my granola to her horse(!). But my favorite is probably that my 18 month-old nephew, who is just learning to talk, very quickly became addicted to my Raisin Cinnamon granola after my sister first fed it to him. Now, oftentimes when he is hungry, he asks for his ‘nola.’ So I like to think it is indicative that there could be a whole new generation of raw foodies on the horizon.

Photo courtesy of Colin Vincent

Please describe Fernseed, and explain your personal mission: Fernseed is located in the Dimond District of Oakland. We offer stylish and affordable refab home furnishings, decor and gifts. As an eco-friendly home furnishing provider, we will also offer a selection of sustainable products that will help reduce consumption of virgin materials and waste. The eco-goal is to extend a product’s life cycle, which naturally contributes to reducing waste. The use of non-virgin materials and products lowers the need for cutting new trees, mining, raw materials production and energy consumption. Our purpose is to retain, reuse, and regain. Our goal is 50% reclamation in any product we sell, including “as-is,” second-hand items and recycled products.

What is your background and what lead you to open a retail store? I was a consultant for Web 2.0 companies and specialty retailers. Prior to consulting, I was the founding merchant, creator of the name RedEnvelope, and Executive Vice President of Merchandising, Design and Creative Services. Over the 8 years at RedEnvelope, I had launched and managed merchandising, product design, sourcing, print creative services, web production, web management and corporate sales. Before RedEnvelope, I was a merchant for Williams-Sonoma, Macy’s, Sony and other specialty retailers based in the Bay Area.

Inside of Fernseed

What makes your business unique and sets you apart from your competition? We are one of a few businesses branding second hand products. We source our products from popular resources such as garage sales, junk shops, dump piles, estate sales, family and friends, used goods sales, flea markets, and fund raisers. At present, the local community of Oakland, which we are so thankful for the generosity, has donated most of our paint supplies.

What are the advantages of going to Fernseed instead of a thrift shop? Our products have been refurbished (we call it refab) or re-purposed. Many of our customers call our store “the land of sustainable imagination.” Our team does all the creative thinking and problem solving, designing these products especially for the consumer. In addition, we invest in professional upholstery services to provide beautiful furniture ready for immediate use. Thrift shops offer only as-is products, which most are not stylish, and discarding furniture that require refurbishing while we do not. We can see beauty in the simplest thing from a teacup, jar, poster and more, transforming the ridiculed to refab[ulous]!

Has the recession impacted your business, and if so, how have you adapted? I believe Fernseed is a great alternative for shoppers affected by the recession. Our products can be up to 80% below market price, because we reclaim our products and use local services to refurbish. We work hard to keep our costs down. Where we can, we do the minor refurbishing in-house, minimizing the cost by reducing transportation costs and other service fees.

Is there anything you wish people knew about your business that they probably don’t know?

Re-purposed glass terrariums

I think at our early stage, having people know we are present would be fabulous (laugher). We truly care about our customers and provide a wish list, which is simply a book where people can list what they are looking for. If we come across that item, we connect the desire and the fulfillment. If the option is there, we will let them choose their item before we refurbish them. For example, if a consumer wants a red lamp and we have three new lamps available, we will let them select the lamp they would like painted to fulfill their wish. Secondly, I would like people to know that we support local artists. Jeremiah Bal, our artist in residence, was the first person to give me a gift that was made of reclaimed material. Reclamation was his way of life, not a retail concept. I was lucky enough to receive that first seed of influence and I am fortunate to have him part of the start-up team. Lastly, we are launching an events calendar to feature new sustainable artists and to promote free workshops with local artisans showing customers how to refab their own things. We heavily promote reuse before recycle, and definitely to rethink before throwing things away.

What is one of your favorite stories about a customer experience in your store? We have been very fortunate. All of our stories have been our favorite stories. We have experienced unbelievable support, praise and appreciation from every individual who has walked into our store. One of the most memorable was when a customer said out loud, “What is this? Oh, you sell pretty things.” Only to drop her jaw in shock when we explained that we offered mostly reclaimed products. Products that were considered trash that we’ve made functional and beautiful again. She couldn’t believe we were a second-hand store.

For more info: Visit Fernseed website