Seasonal and Fermented Sweets

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Caylie See, Founder of Flora + Fauna, located in Brattleboro, VT, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Flora + Fauna is a flourishing (I mean that in the literal sense of flora) sweets business. It's craft chocolate with a thorough line of fermentation. We make confections for people who like delicious things that happen to lean into health and sustainability. It's also noteworthy that my business partner and I had fathers who were both sea captains and psychologists. This unlikely pairing is a lot like the tone of our business—bringing together unexpected things in forms that work and inspire. Essentially, we're like the jackalope of the small-batch chocolate world.

Tell us about yourself

My great-grandmother started a chocolate company that's still around, and although I've diverged in some of the principles, we both scrapped it together—her from a warehouse of molasses she didn't know what to do with and me from building on the zero-waste movement (essentially the transformation of would-be scraps with koji fermentation). I love giving the nod to what's in my blood while mixing in a take on old-world processes that will hopefully also sustain themselves for many generations to come. I'm enlivened by a regular dose of the koji-based fermentation community. It's an ecosystem that includes some pretty collaborative folks that help each other build on ideas and all things yummy. This keeps me inspired and on the continuum of balanced growth (yes, again, literally).

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Flora + Fauna aims to accentuate chocolate's roots — fermentation, and I'm delighted to have created innovation in a somewhat saturated chocolate market.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

You can do just about everything yourself, but is it better to have someone who can do it better sometimes?

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

To thrive, I'd say Steel yourself to your vision in order to forge through inevitable obstacles. Take as much time as you reasonably can to clearly define your goals, alongside a very creative plan for reaching them. Be unwaveringly authentic to yourself.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://floraandfaunaworkshop.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/floraandfaunaworkshop/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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