Ree Dolnick did not set out to leave science. She was a cancer researcher who got handed lab bars she would not eat: chalky, too sweet, and a label she could actually read. She had worked her way through school as a sous chef, so she treated the kitchen like a lab and started writing recipes in a notebook. The company name came from her daughter. Kids at daycare could not say Jessica. They called her Jekka. Ree trademarked JECA, registered the company, and then did nothing with it for six or seven months. Someone finally asked if she was going to use the trademark she had paid for. What followed is the part founders usually skip. A bad pitch at Ignite Buffalo that still won, because the judges liked the bar. A website with zero hits. A winter farmer’s market where the limit on sales was how many bars she could make after a full-time job. Customer discovery at UB Cultivator that proved the buyer was not the person she had pictured. And a co-man search that died because they could not make the recipe, wanted it changed, and needed huge runs to make the math work. She kept the recipe. With an engineer out of medical-device manufacturing and the team at RIT, JECA built its own equipment, owns the IP, and controls quality and minimums. Buyers like the short turns. She works more. The packaging lesson is the one this show is for. The first design could not run on the machine. Plain film, then a digital printer, then ePac, then a color change after John Lawson said he could not read yellow on white and the message was not clear. A wrapper is a billboard with nanoseconds of attention. The window on the pouch does some of the talking the words cannot. JECA bars are at Whole Foods, Wegmans, Big Y, and Tops, plus Amazon and jecabar.com. If you can buy direct, that is the margin that keeps a self-manufacturer alive. Then put one in the cart at the store so the retailer keeps the shelf. * 00:02 Open, Tom Seymour and Ree Dolnick * 02:19 Before CPG: cancer research, not a planned career * 05:00 Lab bars she would not eat, sous-chef pantry, kitchen as a lab * 08:28 The name JECA, from Jessica * 09:32 Trademark sat unused, then Share Workspace * 13:01 Ignite Buffalo: awful pitch, they liked the bar * 15:14 Website crickets, winter farmer’s market * 21:50 Lifestyle, boutique, or scale, and defending margin * 26:01 Friends will not tell you the truth * 26:44 UB Cultivator and six months of customer discovery * 38:21 Six a.m. to eleven p.m., seven days * 39:32 Why co-man failed, and building the line with RIT * 45:08 “There shouldn’t be any aftertaste” * 53:29 Packaging: film, digital print, ePac, John Lawson * 1:02:08 Where to buy, and why direct matters Guest: Ree Dolnick, JECA Energy Bars, jecabar.com. Host: Tom Seymour, Beyond the Die Line. Thanks for reading People of Packaging Podcast with Adam Peek! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit encase.substack.com
