Late July Snacks: Nicole Bernard Dawes. Crackers and Cookies were Failing… Tortilla Chips Saved Them
Nicole Bernard-Dawes, daughter of Cape Cod Potato Chips founder Steve Bernard, built Late July Snacks from scratch in 2003, struggling for years until pivoting to organic tortilla chips in 2010, which became a breakthrough hit product. After selling to Campbell's in 2018, she launched Nixie Beverage Company, a mission-driven organic sparkling water and soda brand.
Summary
Nicole Bernard-Dawes grew up in Chatham, Massachusetts with an entrepreneurial heritage—her mother ran a natural food store and her father Steve founded Cape Cod Potato Chips in the early 1980s, which became hugely successful. After her father sold Cape Cod to Anheuser-Busch in 1985, he later bought it back for under $3 million in 1996 with Nicole's involvement, eventually selling it again to Lance for $30 million in 1999. Nicole remained determined to start her own food company despite these exits. Initially contemplating an organic snack mix company called Mulberry, she pivoted to organic crackers in 2003 after becoming pregnant and discovering the organic snack section in health food stores remained underdeveloped. Late July launched with the newly created USDA organic seal at the Natural Products Expo in Baltimore in 2003, immediately securing national distribution through Whole Foods and major distributors. However, after just two months, sales mysteriously disappeared—retailers had ordered enthusiastically but their customers weren't yet embracing organic products. For several years, Late July struggled as a cracker and sandwich cookie company, hampered by poor product velocity and unsustainable ingredient costs, particularly for the gourmet chocolate cookies. In 2007, Snyder-Lance (which had purchased Cape Cod) bought a 20% stake and offered manufacturing capacity in Georgia. In 2008, the financial crisis hit simultaneously with Nicole's father's pancreatic cancer diagnosis. After his death in March 2009, the bank called in a $3.5 million equipment loan using a death-of-member clause, giving Nicole only 30-60 days to cure the default. This crisis proved transformative. At a trade show, Nicole met Meg Hirschberg, wife of Stonyfield Farms founder Gary Hirschberg, and shared her story. This led to Gary investing in the company and introducing her to RSF Finance, a San Francisco-based bank funding mission-driven businesses, which refinanced the debt. Gary also gave crucial advice: hiring a manufacturing person so Nicole's husband Peter could return to focus on operations. Simultaneously, Nicole discontinued the unprofitable $2 million cookie line and pivoted to tortilla chips—a naturally gluten-free, nut-free product that aligned with her newly discovered personal mission after her son developed a severe peanut allergy. Tortilla chips also represented Nicole's lifelong vision of creating healthier versions of popular conventional snacks. The tortilla chip line launched in 2010, but initial shelf-space competition with Kettle's Tia's brand proved fierce. Nicole's first major sales call as a distributor requirement was with Stop & Shop, where, despite her nervousness causing her to read her presentation rigidly, she made an emotional appeal asking if the buyer could say yes immediately because it would change their business fundamentally. Remarkably, he agreed, which then secured distributor commitment. This became the watershed moment—seven years after launch—that transformed Late July into an overnight success. By 2014-2015, revenue had grown to $100 million with only 27 employees, validating Nicole's asset-light, brand-focused strategy using co-manufacturers. In 2014, Snyder-Lance increased ownership to 80%, allowing early investors including Nicole's mother to realize returns from their years of support through the company's struggles. When Snyder-Lance merged (not sold) with Campbell's in 2018, a buyback clause in Nicole's agreement became contractually invalid, and Late July joined Campbell's portfolio. Though saddened by losing control after 15 years, Nicole recognized fighting would waste resources and potentially harm the brand she'd built. Late July has remained successful under Campbell's stewardship. Post-Late July, Nicole launched Nixie Beverage Company in 2019, self-funding initially to deeply understand product-market fit before seeking investors. Nixie uses organic flavors extracted through organically approved methods rather than chemical extraction, positioning itself in the highly competitive sparkling water and soda category dominated by LaCroix, Spindrift, and major corporations. Despite launching just before COVID-19 in early 2020, Nixie found unexpected success because competitors faced simultaneous challenges, removing Nicole's competitive disadvantage. Nicole attributes her success to a combination of inherited entrepreneurial culture, resilience through near-fatal business crises, relentless focus on taste and product quality, strategic pivots based on market feedback, and unwavering belief in the business even during darkest moments. She remains motivated by the impact of her products in people's daily lives, creating a quality workplace where employees can build careers, and maintaining the mission of making organic products that taste as good as conventional alternatives.
About this episode
<p>Nicole Bernard Dawes spent much of her childhood hanging out in her dad’s potato chip factory on Cape Cod. </p><p><br /></p><p>She liked his kettle-cooked chips a lot more than the flavorless snacks in her mom’s health food store. But when she started her own business, she wanted the best of both worlds: a snack made with natural, organic ingredients…that still tasted good. </p><p><br /></p><p>Nicole launched Late July Snacks in 2003, when most consumers barely knew what “organic” meant. For years, sales limped along. Then, in a moment of crisis, she made a company-saving pivot by launching a brand new product – organic tortilla chips. Within just a few years, Late July grew to over $100M in sales, and Nicole decided to launch a new brand in an even more challenging category: soda. </p><p><br /></p><p><strong>You Will Learn:</strong></p><ul><li>How growing up in a family business can help–and hurt–when you launch your own</li><li>The pros and cons of financial vs. strategic investors</li><li>When to cut a product that isn’t working</li><li>Why the fine print in a contract is so important</li><li>How the hardest decision might be the best one for your family and the business</li></ul><p><br /></p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><p>07:22 - The car crash that launched a potato chip company</p><p>21:00 - Pregnant and craving crackers: The birth of Late July Snacks</p><p>36:54 - The organic cookies that tasted great but nearly sunk the business</p><p>40:49 - Tragedy and crisis: a father’s death and a $3 million loan in default</p><p>50:31 - A tortilla chip Hail Mary</p><p>57:29 - Nicole’s first big<strong> </strong>sales call… and her last chance to save the company</p><p>1:08:49 - “The big fish eats the small fish.” A food giant acquisition</p><p>1:13:36 - Nicole launches a new brand, moving from a hard category–to an even harder one </p><p><br /></p><p>This episode was researched and produced by Chris Maccini with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant. Our engineer was Robert Rodriguez. </p><p><br /></p><p><strong>Follow How I Built This:</strong></p><p>Instagram → <a href="https://www.instagram.com/howibuiltthis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@howibuiltthis</a></p><p>X → <a href="https://x.com/howibuiltthis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@HowIBuiltThis</a></p><p>Facebook → <a href="https://www.facebook.com/howibuiltthis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">How I Built This</a></p><p><br /></p><p><strong>Follow Guy Raz:</strong></p><p>Instagram → <a href="https://www.instagram.com/guy.raz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@guy.raz</a></p><p>Youtube →<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNSfrxNEmCruNtjIzxCBHjg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> guy_raz</a></p><p>X → <a href="https://x.com/guyraz" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@guyraz</a></p><p>Substack →<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/guyraz.substack.com__;!!Iwwt!RZoD751oWzUzoqqdJiqaoL6HdJfRHDUO1TKvYJ424d3Udn7-Pw9Nj6nEsauh9zcgEvLjUEc$" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://guyraz.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guyraz.substack.com</a></p><p>Website →<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/guyraz.substack.com__;!!Iwwt!RZoD751oWzUzoqqdJiqaoL6HdJfRHDUO1TKvYJ424d3Udn7-Pw9Nj6nEsauh9zcgEvLjUEc$" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://guyraz.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guyraz.com</a></p><p><br /></p><p>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.</p>
Key Insights
- Nicole Bernard-Dawes argues that her father's sale of Cape Cod Chips when she was young created lasting disappointment that shaped her emotional connection to building businesses, making her reluctant to repeat that pattern even when it became financially advantageous.
- Nicole contends that crackers as a product category have fundamentally slower velocity than potato chips, creating cash flow and profitability challenges that consumer demand alone could not overcome regardless of product quality.
- Nicole claims that the timing of the Organic Food Production Act and USDA organic seal creation in 2002 created a unique competitive advantage by establishing strict federal rules that competitors couldn't easily replicate, unlike conventional products governed only by truth-in-advertising standards.
- Nicole asserts that her father's death-of-founder clause in the equipment loan agreement was weaponized by the bank during the 2008 crisis to force default, demonstrating how contractual language around contingencies can threaten business survival.
- Nicole states that her emotional appeal during the Stop & Shop sales call—asking directly if they could say yes because it would transform the business—worked despite violating conventional sales wisdom, suggesting authenticity can overcome tactical presentation failures.
- Nicole argues that attracting national retail distribution (Whole Foods, major chains) at launch doesn't guarantee success if store-level customers lack awareness or interest in the product category, leading to rapid sales collapse despite prestigious placement.
- Nicole contends that strategic investors from snack companies offer different value propositions than venture capital investors—providing manufacturing solutions and longer time horizons but requiring expectation-setting about eventual acquisition outcomes.
- Nicole claims that her refusal to retire after Late July's sale, despite being financially secure, stems from intrinsic motivation rooted in witnessing her products' role in people's daily lives rather than financial accumulation or legacy concerns.
- Nicole asserts that the 2010 pivot to tortilla chips succeeded specifically because the product addressed multiple consumer needs simultaneously—gluten-free, nut-free, allergen-free, organic, and better-tasting than competitors—creating compound market appeal.
- Nicole argues that maintaining psychological belief in business viability even during existential crises (like the $3.5 million loan default) differs fundamentally from optimism, requiring deliberate mental discipline to avoid contemplating failure.
- Nicole contends that beverage distribution represents a more complex challenge than snack distribution despite similar sales methodologies, suggesting category-specific infrastructure barriers matter more than sales skill.
- Nicole claims that COVID-19 paradoxically benefited Nixie's launch by creating synchronized competitive disadvantages across all brands, eliminating her temporary disadvantage as an unknown brand entering an established market.
Topics
Transcript
If you think about it, we track almost everything these days, our steps, our screen time, our sleep. But when it comes to what's actually happening inside our own bodies, most of us are just guessing. I've been using function for about three years now, and it's genuinely changed the way I think about my health. Instead of relying on how I feel, I actually have data. One of the biggest changes I've made is to my diet. By following my results over time, I've managed to dramatically lower my glucose levels. And that's had a real impact on how I eat every day. Function gives you access to more than 160 lab tests that measure everything from inflammation and…
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