YouSaid · the spoken record

Cynthia Tice

lines on the record: 78
first: 2024-09-30
most recent: 2024-09-30
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I mean, I think 50 50 Think my experience was instrumental, but I think there was a big aspect of luck with regards to timing that I didn't really understand at the time. Took advantage of it, but I didn't, you know, I did not know that there would be this much interest in curbing sugar. So that was the giant luck factor. And it was giant.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the truth is, your experience brings you a depth of wisdom and don't underestimate that power. I do not think that I would have been able to successfully launch Lily's the way I did without having had the breath of experience that comes from years of practicing your craft.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It wasn't on my radar at all. It's sometimes even hard for me to believe it, if that makes sense. And honestly, I would say don't ever think it's too late if you have passion for what you're doing and you love it and you understand how much work it's going to be. Like one of the things that was painful with the new team of Lily's was that I felt out of place with younger. Everybody on the staff was like 40 and below. I was like”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was, and I was really ready at that point. I was, you know, really ready. And I was so pleased and honored that Hershey's acquired Lily's. It was very synchronistic for me because Hershey's has this commitment to female leadership. And by then, I had enough experience with bigger businesses that I knew that there was no fit for me at a massive enterprise like Hershey's. So, you know, I was really, you know, I was ready to end that journey.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it wasn't that I didn't want to do it as much as I knew that I wasn't capable of it. I mean, Lily's was a category disruptor and it was growing beyond, you know, we, you know, it was, we hit the marketplace at the right time when there was this growing awareness of sugar. And that was the lucky part. And Lily's grew. At a speed that no one really, including myself, ever imagined.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, we stayed in Philly, but we talked about it, and she gave me jobs that were very I became sort of like the head of our charitable committee, which was an ongoing thing that we did. So we gave, you know, we continued to give money to nonprofits. And that was really amazing.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, I wanted to work in some capacity. And I really, really encourage any founder to Spend some time developing your own thoughts and communicating that effectively to your next set of partners. You know, the old paradigm is that you have to sort of wipe out the old team. But that's an old paradigm. It doesn't have to be the new paradigm. And as soon as Jane and I understood that, we created a new paradigm and our relationship was really successful and we're really, really, really good friends.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I didn't want to do operations, and I did not want to rack reports, but I did want a job. And I was not effective at communicating that. So initially, when Jane and I started together, there was this big misunderstanding of like she thought I wanted no role. And I was like, what do you mean I want no role? I want a role. We had to work through that. It was pretty painful. It was more painful than sending my kids to college. Really?”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, that's like another topic which I actually think is a big topic and it's something that's like near and dear to my heart is like. The topic of how to utilize a founder after an acquisition? Yeah.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Made a majority investment They hired a woman, Jane Miller, to be the CEO. Background is big CPG, and her real expertise was building a team and managing a team and scaling Within a month she had found us as space for as an office”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because there were times where I was like, oh, it was so much information. And for people who have never been through the process, they sort of ask you to declare anything that you ever think could ever be a problem in the future forever.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do a lot of innovative CPG And the reason that I was so interested in speaking to them was that they tout themselves as very founder-friendly. And that was really important to me. So I emailed Wayne and we started talking. And like in January of 2018, they sent me a letter of intent. And it basically was like, we are super interested in you. You know, we'd like to make an offer. They made an offer. And it was like, it was like one of those magic things of like the figure that I was envisioning is what they offered. So we started to do the whole diligence process, which was equally as stressful as the lawsuit, I have to say. It was so, it is so hard, and it was a tremendous amount of work. VMG was thankfully very patient and very nice.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. And so, you know, the other thing that I understood was, you know, I said to my kids, do you really want to like get involved in a bigger way? And they were like, no, mom, this is your dream. We don't want this. So, you know, I saw no succession plan for Lily's, even if I continued to try to grow it and build a team. I spent like the whole 2017 doing due diligence and contacting different investors and different bankers and different founders and just really, really to try to figure out what my options would be. I ended up talking to a founder and she advised me to contact VMG. She's like, just give Wayne a here's Wayne's email address. Just email. Wayne”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's not only that, I just don't have the time to train you. My kids would call me up and go, Mom, how do we do this? And I'm like. Know what? I don't have time for this. I figured it out. You should too. That's my delegation. Not good.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Our run rate by 2018 when we partnered with our equity partners, VMG, our run rate was 40. So beginning in 2017, once the lawsuit was finalized. Know, I really started to focus on okay, what's the next step? Probably, like, if I had to identify my greatest skill, it's probably self-awareness. And I knew what I was good at, but I also knew what I wasn't good at. Building a team”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I was not really thinking that exactly what I was thinking was oh my God, this surpassed my wildest dreams because at that point I was in my sixties.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, because it was the very early days and at a certain point her attorney offered a settlement sum that I would never have been able to, like I couldn't have come up with it.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Did not make me feel that it was an open inshape case. They believed in me and they believed in me and they believed that I was not guilty of lack of fiduciary responsibility, which is what the case said.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Don't know. I just did it. You know, I had to do it, so I did it. You know, I was really busy, you know, I think the fact that I was so busy working and the company was doing so well was really kind of counterbalanced the heartbreak and stress of the lawsuit. But there was a lot of nights that I didn't sleep. That was where the stress sort of came in. But, you know, I was stressing about other things as well. Where are my chocolate chips going to be able to get produced? Yeah.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was enough to sustain it? It was not only enough to sustain it, it was enough to sustain it in the midst of a law battle that cost a lot of money.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He wanted out. He wanted to enjoy his family and he really wanted his loans repaid. So we paid back his loans. He retained some ownership. And he actually found his replacement, a wonderful woman named Laura Fraga. And we continued to run the company virtually. My two kids came in and joined. And we were from that point forward a team of four.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know, but interestingly enough, when we analyzed the effectiveness of our promotions later on, when I had a new team involved and we were capable of doing that type of analysis, it was determined that price was not really as important to Lily's as to other brands. And I believe primarily because our attributes were what people were really looking for. You know, this low sugar attribute, especially in a great tasting product Was really innovative and disruptive and desirable.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The business is a small business that is kicking butt. I mean, it's growing. I don't think there was ever a year that we grew less than 40%.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. So we lost money the first year. We lost a little bit of money, not a lot. And every year subsequently we were profitable.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Correct. Like, I had no understanding that brands frequently have a pathway to profitability. Like that was not in my vocabulary back in those days”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wasn't actually. I wasn't. You were. You weren't. No, I wasn't because we didn't have infrastructure that commanded expense. So we had no employees. It was me and Chuck. We were not drawing a salary. We had no physical structure.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of skepticism around that. Well, there was, but I knew what to do, which was I demoed it like crazy. So I hired demo teams all over the country. And I did frequent promotions. So I did like six promotions a year. So basically half of the time it was on sale. And, you know, it's pretty well known that promotional activity stimulates consumer trial. So consumers were trying it because, you know, there was a sale sign in front of it”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I thought this is delicious chocolate that has no sugar. There's no reason not to buy it. I mean, why not have less sugar and less calories if you can still have the same delicious taste?”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was the first devious sweetened chocolate bar because remember there were some multitol chocolates. At Whole Foods, but they were not performing well. And, you know,”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, which were not signed until after we had procured the launch at Whole Foods, we decided that we would not Take salaries until Chuck's money was paid back. So that meant that I had to work another job, like I had to continue to do my consulting career.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that's when Chuck was able to loan the business money. But again, me being green, I was just super unclear about that. So he did. And we were, you know, we were very diligent at producing what we needed. We met all the deadlines. We never had an out-of-stock. I knew how to do this part. I knew how to execute this launch. It was seamless.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I was like, you know, this is so risky. You know, I don't know that I'm going to, you know, I don't think that I'm going to push for it if Whole Foods doesn't say yes. In November of that year, I get an email from Earl and it says, congratulations you've been chosen as a national brand for Whole Foods and your launch is going to be March of 2012.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Chuck and I go home We wait. And in the meantime, you know, so up until that point, just to kind of give you a sense, we've probably spent 50 grand in developing the packaging and getting the samples produced in everything that that took. So hadn't been an enormous layout of cash at that point And I had decided that if Whole Foods didn't say yes, we weren't going to move forward. Chuck didn't know that.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we're sitting down in front of them, and in walks Earl, Schweitzer. And he sits down, and they're sort of, they're tasting it, and they're like, okay. And somehow I have the wherewithal to look at or all and say, well, what do you think? And he says, I think it's good. He said, I think it's good. He's like, it's not green and blacks, you know, but it's a good, solid chocolate that it'll appeal to special diet customers, which is one of our focuses. And the whole meeting changes, you know, the whole, everything changes.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, we developed four SKUs My belief is that when you have an innovation, the innovation should stand on its own and you shouldn't innovate with flavors outside of the innovation itself. So I picked original or plain. Almond, crispy rice. And at that point, I did sort of veer a little bit because coconut, there was a giant halo around coconut at that particular time. So we chose coconut as our fourth item. And we take them to the meeting and we go walking in the door. And the two buyers are there. And we sit down in front of them. And they're kind of, you know, I'm like, this is the next best thing to, you know, whatever the best thing in the world is.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I knew him from my consulting work, and he was their boss. So I was like on the plane with our prototypes and I emailed him. And I just said, you know, I want you to know that we're coming in and I really hope that you can come to this meeting. It would be so great to see you. I would just love it”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But Chuck deferred to me a lot about business strategy Truth was, I had more experience than he did with, you know, with doing this. And it was also my idea and I had found the recipe. So, you know, honestly, I was kind of bringing a lot to the table at that point. We worked really well together and he is, you know, he's still honestly one of my best friends. So we put together the packaging and we found the co-man and the pricing and did all of that. And then we took it to Whole Foods for their category review, their candid category review in August of 2011. And I knew that I was presenting to the grocery buyers, but I had a relationship with, I believe he was the vice president at that point of merchandising, a guy named Earl Schweitzer.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So actually, Chuck was the CEO, but that was honestly because I was so green at business that I didn't know that the CEO was higher than the president.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. And exactly for that reason, I mean, we had large discussions that we did not want to be Alex's lemonade. We wanted to be a delicious chocolate bar that had a charitable give back.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And to name nonprofits that support children with brain cancer or other serious illnesses as the recipients of our charitable donations.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And she's in the hospital for a really long time, and she finally gets out of the hospital, and she says to her mother, mommy, I want to raise money. And her mother says, what do you mean? And she said, well, in the hospital, she's like, the kids get really sad because they're not able to eat together because there's not enough wheelchairs to wheel all of the children into the dining room in order to eat at the same time. So I want to do a fundraiser to buy a wheelchair for the hospital. So, the family has throes a fundraiser, and I'm invited to it because I'm friends with Chuck and friends with the family. And they raise the money. As we're conceiving of what to call this brand, we knew that we wanted to have a charitable component to it. And we decided to call it Lily's in honor of Lily.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so she goes for treatment at children's hospital of Philadelphia, and she has surgery and she has chemotherapy and she has radiation. I mean, she really just goes through it.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, so when we started to really put together the packaging and stuff like that, so Chuck has a niece and she's 21 and doing really well.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I found a manufacturer that could make the bars here on the East Coast. And, you know, then I started to do the work that I was really good at, which was price architecture and a sales strategy. And we developed samples and I decided that I wanted to take this product first to Whole Foods.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you know, initially, Chuck came in with a small amount of money and we developed the packaging. And we had the recipe for the chocolate.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And honestly, if I have advice to founders, it would be to fully investigate that better than I did because it turned out that the money was a loan, which I didn't truly, truly understand at the time.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Money ended up, which I didn't 100% understand this in the beginning because I just was so green at the financials of business. I was completely green.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, originally, I believe he invested $125,000. I didn't have that much to invest. My dad invested $25,000. And Know we split the company 50 50. Because I felt like that was fair”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were better matched. We had been friends for a long time. And so Chuck says to me, let's do it, let's do it. It's really exciting. Let's do it. I have the money. I have the money to do it.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. And I, so actually he brought a few projects to me and none of them panned out. And finally, I'm like, you know, well, I do actually have this other idea that I've been like sitting on. So I told him about Stevia chocolate and he was like, let's do it. But I also told him that I was terrified to do it because I knew everything that went into. that went into producing a brand.”
2024-09-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Lily’s Sweets: Cynthia Tice · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT