We recently connected with Jamie Poe and have shared our conversation below.

Jamie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

When we started the R&D process, we thought “piece of cake- SO WRONG. The journey of creating great tasting, vegan shelf stable, just-add-boiling-water dehydrated meals that are free of artificial flavors and preservatives proved to be a bigger challenge than we thought. We must have iterated 50+ times, and even the first ones we launched with were not what we intended to put out to the world. We learned a lot of lessons about supply chain and receiving ingredients that weren’t consistent with their samples, being super particular about quality, and revising our technique on the fly.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Jamie Poe and I own Poe & Co. Folk Foods along with my husband Jayson. We’ve both longtime chefs, with 50+ years cooking experience between the two of us. We both have worked in fine dining in Michelin-starred restaurants, and currently own a Santa Barbara, CA based Catering and Meal Delivery company, established in 2018.

We met in Napa Valley, where we were both living; the west coast hub of amazing food, wine, and natural beauty. As you can imagine, we’re both big outdoor enthusiasts and spent a lot of time camping together. We’d go on these trips, and be so disappointed with how low of a bar our meals were. Since you have limited cooler space, you can only pack so much and we wanted options that were easy, delicious, and nutritious. It was also important to me to have hot meals, especially for breakfast and dinner. Dried meals are great for this because they’re shelf-stable and all you need is boiling water. We saw a white space in the dehydrated / freeze-dried food space for casual campers who want plant-based, better-for-you meals without the crazy high calorie counts that thru hikers need. As chefs, we also wanted to create dishes conducive to just adding water- some things just aren’t meant in that format!

What sets Poe & Co. apart are that our meals are all vegan, free of artificial flavors or preservatives, contain no silica gel packs, and filling without feeling stuffed up (literally). Two of three are gluten free and they’re responsibly crafted in-house in small batches, women-led, and family-owned.

We’ve been thinking about this business for years and between our day jobs and two small kids, it seemed nearly impossible to bring to life. It goes to show that if there’s a will, there’s a way.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We are self-funded and used capital from our catering business to fund the CPG business. Whenever I listed to business podcasts, I’m super drawn to stories from wife and husband teams who choose to bootstrap their business. Bonus points if they’re in the food industry and have children.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I’m a big podcast junkie- I joke that they’re my MBA! I listen to them on morning jogs about 4-5 times a week and anytime I have some time in the car. There are so many amazing business stories and lessons out there. Some of my favorites are: How I Built This, Female Founder World, Female Startup Club, Founders, Shopify Masters, and Startup CPG.

Contact Info:

• Website: folk-foods.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/poeandcofolkfoods
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/poeandco/
• Other: tiktok.com/@poeandcofolkfoods

Image Credits
Meg Sandu