I first met this month’s escape story 13 years ago when we were at
university and members of an international student organisation.
Already back then it was clear that she was going to do
extraordinary things with her life, and I feel fortunate to share
her inspiring story with all of you this month. Meet Sarah
Endline, Mastermind and Chief Rioter of
sweetriot .
How would you describe yourself? Who is Sarah?
I guess I would say I’m a globally minded entrepreneur. I’m driven
to create something special in the world. And I have a sense of
adventure and always want to explore new things.
What are you working on now?
I’m building my company,
sweetriot, a start-up based in New York City. It was launched
14 months ago and it’s really about creating the next Ben &
Jerry’s. Not an ice cream company, but one that has strong social
values and that creates whimsical products that consumers love.
Our sector is candy, and our first product is chocolate-covered
cacao (the bean that chocolate is made from). We source all our
fairly traded ingredients from Latin America and we use recyclable
packaging with artwork from emerging artists. We want our social
mission and our values to be alive in our products.
My daily work includes working with distribution partners (of
which Whole Foods is the largest). We work on engaging their
customers and we also work on getting sweetriot into other great
stores. We also talk to the media as much as possible to get the
story out about sweetriot. So far we’ve been featured in Vanity
Fair, CNN, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, among other big publications.
We’re also constantly doing events. This is important when you
have products that have a story. You want current and future
customers to experience your product first-hand.
We are a small nimble company but growing very quickly. We are
currently three full-time and five part- time staff members, and
we’re currently hiring in case anyone is interested in escaping in
NYC.
What has been your journey to what you are doing now?
By the time college rolled around, I got involved in AIESEC, an
international student organisation. I started to get curious about
international travel, and to learn about what was going on outside
my city, state, country. I grew up in small farm town in Michigan,
so even going to New York was a very different experience for me.
As I got involved in more international activities, I got very
intrigued about models of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Companies like Ben & Jerry’s and the Body Shop interested me, and
I was fascinated by how they took an economic model and wove
social values into it.
After graduation I worked for AIESEC, the World Bank and the
National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), all
organisations that dealt with public-private partnerships. I then
decided to go to grad school (to do my MBA), and in my application
essays I started to explore creating something special in the
world that used a for-profit model for social impact. So I guess
that was sweetriot in its infancy. Throughout grad school I worked
on different business plans, but I couldn’t find the right idea.
So once I finished, I headed off for the West Coast. The whole
internet world was calling me, and I worked for Yahoo for four
years, doing product design and marketing. Very early on in my
time there I realised that whilst it was a great company and a
wonderful place to work, I wasn’t going to develop a career there,
because I knew I wanted to build my own thing. I started to work
on ideas on the side, trying to explore what else I could do, what
were other ideas that I could pursue.
I think an important part of the formula to starting something
is to be in the right city for you, so I got myself back to New
York City with Yahoo, and shortly after my move I started working
on the sweetriot business plan. That was spring/summer 2004. By
summer 2005 I’d raised the money to launch the company, and we’ve
been in stores and thus in business for 14 months now.
What was the turning point?
My definite turning points were my college years and AIESEC.
That’s when my sense of wanting to create an impact started to
emerge. 9/11 was also a turning point for me. It happened early on
in my time at Yahoo, and I got a real strong sense that NYC is my
home, and that I had got get back.
I think there’s a difference between when you decide to leave
and when you actually leave. The bigger emotional deal is the
former, getting your self on that path. I needed the right
business idea. So I set myself a goal that I must work at least 10
hours a week on different ideas; meeting people, reading books on
starting a business, etc. This was all part of my exit plan, so by
the time I left I was ready because I had already decided to
leave, and had been on that path for a while. So the final
departure actually felt like liberation.
Also, it might feel like leaving your job is the jump off a
cliff, but the real crux for me was the day we started selling,
the day business was truly in motion. It’s one thing to talk about
a business and plan it, it’s a whole other thing to start talking
to actual customers, delivering orders and sorting out invoices.
I had a lot of conviction about what I was going to do. Moving
cities was part of the plan, and yes, there was some sadness about
leaving my friends behind. But I felt like I needed to do this,
and if I didn’t do this now, when I’m 30-something, I wouldn’t do
it when I’m 40-something.
How are you feeling now? How do you see the future?
It has been amazing. Starting your own thing is really really
challenging. It’s an adventure, not a job. It takes so much
energy. We’ve had a wondeful first year, and we’re excited about
2007, to see how sweetriot will continue to grow and reach even
more people. When you run something you get so caught up in it,
and my central focus is definitely this start-up, but I want to
make sure I also prioritise other things outside of work this
year. I love culture and the theatre, so these will play a
stronger role for me.
Would you do anything differently?
I guess you could say I should have done this sooner. But some of
these things unfold in front of you the way they are supposed to.
I certainly wouldn’t look back and say I shouldn’t have done this,
it’s the right path. I believe sometimes it takes a series of
events and experiences to lead you to the right answers. The work
I did at grad school, living in San Francisco and working at Yahoo
helped me to make my decision. And everything I’ve done before all
that have also turned out to be relevant experiences that I can
apply to my work at sweetriot.
As a kid - what did you want to be when you grew up? What
was work for you?
At some point I was running a business, and at one point I wanted
to be a librarian. My parents were small business owners, so I
grew up around that. There’s even a photo of me standing behind a
life-size storefront that I got as a Christmas gift when I was a
kid.
Our parents’ business was in the front of our house, so from
early on I saw my parents’ commitment to customers – if they were
around, we had to be on our best behaviour. This still has an
impact on me now. Being there for the customer is a key value at
sweetriot.
What advice would you give to other people in similar
situations as you were in?
Follow your gut (I know, it sounds so cliché) – if you are having
that feeling inside that you should be doing your own thing, start
to create an exit plan. It doesn’t mean that you quit your job
today. Get yourself in a comfortable situation so you can move on
easily. Read books, set up your business plan, find a partner,
save money, do whatever you need to do to set up the tactical
things. These are really important steps as they help you to get
emotionally and mentally ready to do what you need to do
