Ep 354 | Angela Vranich

Written By Yasmin Nouri

Why You’re More Ready Than You Think: From 'I Have No Idea' to 35 Million Meals Delivered

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Angela Vranich is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Little Spoon, a company that’s become the go-to destination for fresh, healthy meals for kids.

Angela’s journey to transforming kids’ food was anything but traditional. While still in college, she was cold-calling brands and building a grassroots food marketing startup out of her dorm room, eventually growing it to over 100 team members nationwide. After graduating, she landed a job in food television, thinking that was her dream, until she realized she didn’t just want to talk about food, she wanted to change it. That spark came when she walked down the baby food aisle and saw how outdated it all felt. The idea for Little Spoon was born, but turning it into a real product was far from easy. Angela had zero experience bringing a physical product to life, had to shut down her first business, and was constantly figuring things out as she went. Still, she launched Little Spoon in 2017, and it took off, selling over a million meals in its first year. Since then, it’s become a go-to for parents across the country, delivering over 35 million fresh meals for babies, toddlers, and big kids.

In this episode, Angela gets real about the emotional rollercoaster of building a company from scratch, the pivots, the rejections, and the moments she questioned it all. We talk about the power of what she calls “healthy naiveté” and how sometimes not knowing what you’re up against is what gives you the courage to take the leap anyway. She opens up about shutting down her first venture after college and the biggest lessons she learned there about what to do and not to do in business. We also dive into what it actually takes to scale fresh food at a national level, why going direct-to-consumer gave Little Spoon a major advantage, and how Angela learned to surround herself with the right people, ask for help, and celebrate the small wins.

Show Notes:

  • Surrounding yourself with experts can guide your journey. [03:00]

  • How healthy naivete fuels bold decisions. [04:04]

  • Angela’s early vision of becoming her own boss. [05:24]

  • Lessons from launching a business in college. [07:28]

  • Managing people as a first-time student founder. [11:52]

  • Shutting down her first venture and pivoting. [14:03]

  • Spotting a gap in the baby food market. [17:54]

  • The first steps in building Little Spoon. [20:28]

  • Figuring it out: cold calls and scrappiness. [23:49]

  • Product challenges in fresh baby food. [26:53]

  • Retail hurdles and going DTC instead. [30:48]

  • Building brand awareness from scratch. [34:51]

  • Why a strong team makes all the difference. [36:19]

  • Staying grounded through business highs and lows. [40:24]

  • Delegating and making the most of your time. [42:38]

  • The power of celebrating small wins. [43:40]

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Ep 353 | Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple