Sometimes popping a hot, buttery bag of popcorn is all you need to complete the perfect night in. But what if your favorite snack is hard on your stomach?
For Jen Martin, finding alternative heirloom popcorn kernels was her saving grace. Not only were they easier to digest, but they tasted better too.
Jen, her brother Jeff, and Jeff’s wife, Teresa, launched Pipcorn in 2012 and found immediate success. The brand was included in Oprah’s Favorite Things, the founders pitched on Shark Tank, and in 2019, they raised more than $6 million in VC funding.
Jen sat down on the Shopify Masters podcast to explain how Pipcorn established meaningful relationships with suppliers in order to grow the brand and create opportunities for the business.
Forging family-like bonds with suppliers
Establishing deeper relationships with the farmers who supplied Pipcorn’s raw ingredients was important for the founders. “We flew out to our farm really early on, played basketball with the kids, and had lunch and dinner with the whole family,” Jen says.
Jen has always chosen to work with family farms, because they can deeply relate to her experiences of being in business with family. These bonding moments helped Pipcorn establish strong relationships and get to a place where their partners wanted to help them early on.
Communicating expectations every step of the way
Once Jen and her co-founders saw the traction Pipcorn was having, they went back to the farm to order larger quantities to keep up with demand. They were always upfront and honest about their needs, which made it easier for the farm to plan and support the demand.
“We could ask to buy a lot [of heirloom kernels] and scale really, really quickly,” Jen says. Having open communication helped the farming team plan for future orders. And, the Pipcorn team was…
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