We recently connected with Tracy Luckow and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tracy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

In 2020, the world became an even more serious, stressful, divided place. As the world grew gray from fear, my sister and I were determined to be courageous. We left our safe corporate jobs behind to invent something that would break the mold, bring joy, glee and magic to every household we possibly could.

At Whipnotic, our mission is to create delicious, extraordinary innovations and inventions that bring togetherness and joy.

We started with whipped cream – a category we’ve loved since childhood, that inherently brings smiles to faces of all ages. We quickly realized that most sections of the grocery store had modernized and changed since we were kids, but whipped cream hadn’t seen much renovation in over 75 years since it’s debut in the United States.

Determined to change that, we invented a new nozzle technology and launched a brand that took inspiration from the best baristas in coffee shops and milkshake parlors. Through a simple press of Whipnotic’s innovative patented nozzle technology, a swirl of all-natural fruit juices and flavor essences infuses into the rich whipped cream. The result is a magical, fun experience that brings joy to every dessert.

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.

As young kids, many might play with dolls or legos. But my sister Lori and I spent a great deal of our youth creating mini businesses. Whether it was a floral arrangement business or a neighborhood newspaper or an ice cream shop, Lori was the one who identified an untapped need and would sell it door to door and collect the money and I was the inventor and the creator who never ultimately got paid!

It’s no surprise that as adults, Lori went into sales working at large prestigious companies like Viacom, NBC and CAA while I went on to get a PhD in food science and nutrition and spent 25 years creating wildly successful innovations for PepsiCo, Dannon and Sabra.

My sister and I have such opposite but complimentary skills. We work really well together, we trust each other completely and we have always rooted for one another. So joining forces as adults to start an entrepreneurial business just made sense for us.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Making whipped cream is harder that it looks. Because of the pressurized aerosol packaging that requires a lot of skill, machinery and legal permits to handle safely, there are only 3 manufacturing sites in the entire USA. We needed to convince one of them to give us a shot and work with us – helping us to scale our invention to the level required to service grocery stores.

One of the sites was highly unlikely to partner with us because they were owned by the giant competitor in the industry and weren’t likely to co-manufacture for a small start-up. The second site only had machines that were built to run giant batches at hundreds of cans per minute and weren’t too keen on taking risks and trying new things. So that only left one real opportunity and we had to make that work.

After some LinkedIn stalking, I was able to secure a meeting with a manager at the third facility via zoom. I shared our idea, showed drawings and sketches and painted a picture of the size of the opportunity. He seemed intrigued but immediately after the meeting was over, he sent an email that essentially said “thanks but no thanks”.

Our team refused to give up. We asked him for more specific feedback about what his reservations were about our idea and through those questions, we began to understand the manufacturing hurdles in new ways. We spent an additional 4 months addressing those hurdles, making it easier and more seamless for the manufacturer and booked another meeting in his offices to speak face-to-face.

Having a better understanding of their needs and pain points, we re-pitched our idea but more from their perspective. This time, we got the go-ahead. That company is still our best partner to this day and has truly supported and enabled our growth.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

In my opinion, the most important thing an entrepreneur can do is to meet, observe and listen to their customers. We go through unusual lengths to do so each week.

On every single can of Whipnotic sold in grocery stores throughout America, there is a customer service phone number printed on the label that a customer can call if they have questions or concerns. While it is probably not a typical or recommended practice in the industry…that phone number goes directly to my sister/my phones! We have insisted on fielding all calls ourselves for the first few years of operation, so we can meet our customers, hear their feedback and truly ensure they understand the technology and have a good experience with our product. We often wind up FaceTiming with them so we can see them, and truly meet them more formally. This has brought us so much insight and has led us to making tweaks to our instructions, and enhancements to the technology itself. It has also created a more loyal bond and relationship with our customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: Whipnotic.com
• Instagram: @whipnotic
• Facebook: @whipnotic
• Linkedin: @whipnotic
• Twitter: @eatwhipnotic
• TikTok: @whipnotic