We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melissa Finestone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melissa below.
Alright, Melissa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
I struggled for months deciding on a name for my company. I kept adding to the list and asked just about anybody and everybody`s opinion. One evening over dinner my husband was teasing me about how I was pronouncing “milk” with my South African accent. He thought it was the funniest thing and in that moment it hit me, I was gonna call my company “Mulk,” with a “u” because not only does it sound this way when I say it, but also because it acts as a reference to my product being a dairy-alt product. Customers get a chuckle out of the story and try to get me to say “mulk” all the time–which makes the name memorable.
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
What began as a love for dairy milk as a kiddo, turned into a love for nut milks as a college student. Fueled by entrepreneurial dreams, I turned to the Farmers Markets of San Diego to test out my business plan that I`d just presented in a marketing class at CSU San Marcos. Originally, Mulk was sold as “Mulk + Cookies,” but soon the cookies were scrapped to make way for more flavors of Almond Mulk as I realized how many people were looking for a healthier dairy-alt beverage. Being able to connect as many people as possible to the benefits of consuming a natural product – that has a smaller footprint on the planet – is truly what motivates me.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Of course the shutdowns of 2020! As a farmers market business, selling solely at four markets at the time, when we got word that the markets would be closed indefinitely, I literally did not know what I was to do. Suddenly, I started receiving texts, DMs and emails from my customers asking how they could continue to get their mulk as well as continue to support me and my business. And thats when we launched our online store for local delivery. We now have a beautiful website that offers the convenience of weekly home delivery as well as subscriptions for customers that use mulk regularly.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Showing up every week at the markets, with the same consistent product and taking ownership if there were any issues with a batch by replacing what they had bought.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.themulkco.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/themulkco/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/themulkco
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-mulk-co/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/themulkco
- Yelp: https://tinyurl.com/54uz28xy