topping the charts across the country
as the best-selling organic/natural
cracker. Mary’s Gone Crackers has
been featured in media ranging from
Prevention Magazine to Good Morning
America, and received the Gold Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation
(sofi) Award at the 2008 Fancy Foods
Show in New York City. This past November, the company hit a record $1
million in sales in one month, and
over 2009 it grew its top line sales
more than 42 percent. Besides five flavors of crackers, Mary’s Gone Crackers has also introduced three flavors
of “Sticks and Twigs,” a pretzel-stick alternative. And fresh out of the oven
this January are Waldner’s innovative
new “love Cookies,” a vegan, whole
food treat. With a host of other new
gluten-free product formulations just
waiting for the right time to come
out—and an estimated 2 million people in the United States with celiac
disease (about 1 in 133 people)—
Mary’s Gone Crackers is sure to see
continued growth.
But the road to the success was not
easy. Waldner and Rodrigues almost
lost control of their company twice
due to investors who had their own
agendas, were on the edge of being
bankrupted by a consultant, and over
and over again people who supposedly knew what they were doing—
seasoned business and manufacturing
professionals—would tell them they
were going to fail unless they compromised their ideals. They faced all of
this on top of having to figure out
how to manufacture a product that
had never been manufactured before.
Throughout the arduous process,
survival and success came down to following their vision, trusting their instincts and not letting themselves fall
prey to conventional wisdom. With
each crook in the road, they gained
new insight and inspiration.
“We risked everything after the
age of 50 to start a business we knew
nothing about,” says Rodrigues. “But whenever we thought things could not get
worse, we would find a way to miraculously pull through. After these 11th hour
saves, we always would say, ‘the universe must really want these crackers.’”
Insight No. 1:
Don’t Be Afraid to Do Things Differently from Everyone Else. Nothing
Innovative Came from Following Conventional Wisdom.
Ask anyone who has tried to create a gluten-free product and they will tell
you it’s no piece of gluten-free cake. Gluten is responsible for the elasticity and
