We recently connected with Jovani Prince and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jovani, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our mission is to bring people together with healthy gluten free food. In this day in age of artificial flavors, preservatives and pesticides we believe that healthy clean food can help heal our world. This is meaningful to me because we feel that healthy food creates healthy minds, healthy bodies and healthy souls. In a world full of hatred and violence we believe clean food can be one of the keys that unite all of us by bringing all of us together as one.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Meet The Cracker King

The Cracker King is a Black Owned and operated Gluten Free snack food company located in Portland Oregon. Our founder Jovani Prince raised his children during the day while his wife worked, then went to a shared kitchen to make crackers, and drove Lyft and UBER all night long to help provide for his family. Jovani is a self-taught baker and entrepreneur with a passion for healthy food alternatives. Through Jovani’s hustle and commitment, The Cracker King was born in 2016.

Coming from humble beginnings and hard work, The Cracker King is now in over 650 stores throughout the Nation and growing. Our Gluten Free Crackers have won prestigious Awards. In 2020 The Cracker King won The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Tasters Choice Award. In 2021 The Cracker King won the Good Food Award for Best Snack Food for their Cheddar N’ Pepper Cracker. In 2022 The Cracker won the Good Food Award for Best Snack Food with the Rosemary and Sea Salt Cracker.

We are proud to be the only black owned
Gluten-Free Cracker company in the nation!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I started this business having an 8-month year old girl and newly born twins. To be honest I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I did it out of necessity. You see being an African American man has its challenges, and finding a job is one of them. I had lost another job and was not sure how I was going to be able to provide for my family. So, I decided to start a business, but was not sure what type of business to start. I told my wife I was going to start a business and asked her what kind of business should do. She told me I should start a food business because all I do is talk about food. She was right, all I do is talk about food, but now I don’t know what type of food business. One day we took a road trip to visit my mother. On the way out the door leaving for our drive back home she handed us this bag of delicious homemade crackers. We couldn’t stop eating them, then my wife turned to me and said you should make these crackers and sell them. My mom, Juanita Prince, flew up to see us and help me put together the first Cracker King recipe. That is how The Cracker king was born. My mom passed away last month and to say the least this has been really hard for me. She was my inspiration! She started The Cracker King with me and has been my cheerleader, but I am continuing this journey because she would of wanted me too.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

We have had to unlearn what it takes to start a business. I started this business with a dream thinking that it was going to be so easy. Just make delicious crackers and every else will fall into place. Well, to say the least I was so wrong. To become a profitable business within the food industry it takes a lot of calculating because the margins are so small. Not to mention when you partner with distribution companies the kickbacks on P.O.’s is astonishing. Making it so hard for a small business to make a profit. Within the food industry we call the distribution companies the food mafia. Diversifying is the only way to stay alive. Like selling straight to your consumer base or selling on platforms that cut out distribution.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thecrackerking.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrackerking/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecrackerking/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

Image Credits
Property of The Cracker king