“Mentally prioritize your relationships over your business” with p.o.p candy co. — Fem Founder™
By: Kristin Marquet
Tags: Founders, Founder Stories

p.o.p. candy co. is an LA-based business that was created because of affection and nostalgia for childhood. The company got its name from the Santa Monica Amusement Park, Pacific Ocean Park, which is no longer around. The amusement park inspired Bill Waiste and Rachel Flores to create a product that brought a smile to people’s faces and gave them the heart-warming feeling of innocence. Today Pop Candy Co.’s buttercrunch continues to be handmade in small batches and is proud to use clean ingredients like farmers’ market herbs, fine spices, and all-natural extracts.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

RACHEL: Years in nonprofit world-building projects and programs, with enthusiasm and focus, but always for others. p.o.p. gave me the opportunity to create and build something of my own … my voice and no boundaries set by others. p.o.p. would be all mine!

BILL: Years of expertise and distinction in the food and restaurant business. Being able to map his skills onto p.o.p. allowed us to instantly operationalize p.o.p. in a way that allowed us to hit the ground running and with sure footing.

What inspired you to start your business?

Rachel: A very successful female entrepreneur hairdresser who loved my product encouraged me to start selling butter crunch, which used to be my go-to holiday gift. She made me realize that I could take my ideas seriously and jump right into the possibilities.

Where is your business based?

West Los Angeles. We’re a Santa Monica business. Last year, we grew out of our SaMo kitchen and moved into a (big) commercial kitchen in Culver City, CA.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

A friend who sold her products at a local farmers market let me set up a small table at her booth. We started with four flavors — our “p.o.p classics” — and sold out of everything. That same day we were offered a booth of our own and that same day we officially launched our business.

At that time Bill, my not-yet-husband — a pro in the restaurant world agreed to help me roll out the product. We found a commercial kitchen, scaled up the cooking, created more flavors, and developed our packaging and branding.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

For 10+ years, it was all about live events — cool indie shopping shows at Renegade Craft Fair, Unique, Urban Craft Uprising, and One of a Kind Chicago. People looking for something new would find us, grab us, and then share us with others, who then also become our customers. That word-of-mouth grew our business for years. Then COVID happened. Now the focus is reaching customers where they are at online, and bringing the aspect of what we enjoyed at live shows to our online customers.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Learning to manage our time and efforts wisely has been the biggest challenge. I’m proud of my growing business and it’s clearly an extension of who I am. But, I’ve learned the hard way that I cannot let it be all I am. This year with the pandemic we also faced an obstacle that we never saw coming. We went from our most successful quarter to create a survival plan, but we managed to take this opportunity in stride. Our original plan for the year was to be a part of various live events to showcase our product but that strategy quickly changed as shelter in place orders started. By reassessing the situation we decided it was time to start building our online presence to connect with current customers and introduce ourselves to a new audience, which is what we have been doing for the past few months now.

How do you stay focused?

Keeping busy and staying in touch with customers, who always remind you of why we’re doing it. Through social media, I have been able to connect more with customers, and hearing what they have to say always helps me concentrate on the bigger picture.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

● We prioritize freshness. We tell customers to think about us like a baked good instead of a back-of-the-shelf treat. We encourage them to buy us in small quantities and more often. Fresh is best!

● Our cooking process is distinct, resulting in a buttery toasty crunchy experience that’s different than other toffees and brittles. Customers comment on our flavor and texture distinctions all the time.

● We don’t use corn syrup. That’s big for our type of product.

● We’ve got classics, but we also go big and bold with unexpected flavors … c-c-c-curry, rum y vanilla to name a few. Look under SHOP at https://popcandyco.com to see all our flavor categories. Even our truffle crunch bar flavor mash-ups are taking people by surprise!

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Taking the time to personalize your business and to enjoy one-on-one time with customers as much as possible. A personal experience really resonates with us AND with our customers. It’s something we believe in, so it’s natural for us to do.

What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

The best advice I can give anyone is to mentally prioritize your relationships over your business. Then, with that clarity, work on giving your business 120%. The bonds you create with others are your biggest motivators so never leave them for granted.

What’s your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

Am breaking into The Flavor Bible for flavor R+D and already know I’m going to love it!

What’s your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Love how easy the Shopify app lets me update my site AND monitor sales … on my cell. Who knew?!

How do you balance work and life?

A small business will drain every resource you have, if you allow it to. Your time, your money, your energy and it always seems to need more.

I’ve learned the importance of being able to shut off work, no matter how much I want to get done and to VALUE whatever else it is that I’m enjoying during my time away. Then when I flip back to work, I feel like I’ve taken the break that I needed.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Jumping on a bike and riding out to the ocean to quickly regain perspective and be reminded that the world is MUCH BIGGER than whatever I’ve got going on.

And late-night puzzle making after hours in the kitchen.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

In addition to staffing up and expanding our operations to meet growing and holiday demand??

LOTS(!), starting with a “5-flavor Toss Up” campaign for our new flavors in development (we call them FIDs) and rolling out p.o.p. sample kits for new online customers. We’re also discussing a virtual fall market of our own, and developing a commissioned holiday gift item for an upscale retail partner which is really exciting.

How can our readers connect with you?

We’re just a shout away at pop@popandyco.com.