We were lucky to catch up with Zachary Weiss recently and have shared our conversation below.

Zachary, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think to be successful it’s a mixture of a few different things. First of overall, you need to find a product that customers say “yes” to. Once that’s been proven you can really start to build. You also need luck/good timing that your product fits into the market and a little capital helps with most businesses. Ours, luckily enough, didn’t require too much.
Lastly you definitely need to have the space in your life to put forth the necessary effort and sacrifice it takes to push your business forward. Most businesses, especially ones starting from scratch, require a tremendous amount of time and energy. You have to willing to put the business first in your life for a certain amount of years.

Zachary, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I always wanted to work for myself ever since I can remember. I like having that type of control over my life. I was never completely sure what I wanted to do, but I wanted it to be something that I understood how to make and its effect on society. The brand for Gnarly Mountain Cookies was actually created before the product. I wanted something fun that would make people happy and also show my love for the mountains. I saw all of these cookie companies going up around the country and thought that I could take something like a cookie and be super creative with it and also somewhat localize the product, which I believed would differentiate us a bit.
I think people now, especially in Denver, feel good about themselves when they connect to the food that they consume, whether it be from the branding or knowing its being made locally.
It is incredibly satisfying to be out sampling around the state and speaking with customers about certain flavors that they love and then being able to provide that in some way.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Something I had to unlearn as my business progressed was that the general public doesn’t necessarily love exactly what you, yourself do. That’s tougher to understand than you think just reading this. You really have to let people try different products and listen, listen, listen!!
I would come up with some flavors that I was 100% sure, that everyone that saw and tried the cookie would gravitate to and I was completely wrong.
One of the best, and what I thought most attractive flavors, that we ever came up with, was our Margarita Cookie. It bombed!
You really have to sample new ideas over and over again to see what other people want.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Since we are mainly a wholesale cookie company, meaning that most of our sales come from our cookies being bought and sold by other businesses, you have to connect to the small and big businesses that are displaying your product. You really can’t just sell and forget about the account. You have to connect to the employees of the pizzerias, cafes, supermarkets and converse with them about your product and message. If those employees and owners of your accounts don’t connect to your product, then their customers won’t either. It’s important to learn about their businesses and lives to grow your own company. Relating to everyone that is a part of the sale of the cookie is as crucial as anything else you do that day.

Contact Info:

• Website: GnarlyMtn.com
• Instagram: @GnarlyMountainCookies
• Facebook: Gnarly Mountain
• Linkedin: Gnarly Mountain Cookies

Image Credits
Photo Cred: Geoffrey Worcester