Startup Spotlight #57: Kured

Kured is a U.S-based gift-giving business specializing in charcuterie bouquet production.

Nov 21, 2020

Author’s Note: My apologies for the delay in the Friday edition of the Startup Spotlight series this week. I’ve been extremely busy with both a high-priority Forbes story assigned to me by my editor, as well as my full-time engineering job. I will do better in giving you all a heads up.

Latest F2F Case Study - Case Study: The Index Cofounders Focused On Creating A "Minimum Loveable Product" In Their Product-Market Fit Journey

I got the chance to speak with Gillian Rozynek, founder and CEO of Kured, about what she's working on at her startup, and any advice she has for emerging entrepreneurs.

Gillian is a 2020 graduate from Boston College. Gillian’s idea for her company – Kured – stemmed from her experience studying in Madrid, Spain while a junior at BC.

Kured is the Edible Arrangements for charcuterie. It is a charcuterie business bringing a fresh perspective and business model to a tried and true, globally loved food. Kured’s mission is to bring convenience, accessibility, and innovation to re-invent the charcuterie landscape and more importantly, popularize the social experience of sharing a meal in the US.

Startup Spotlight: Kured

Problem: Charcuterie is a growing industry as home entertainment and gifting trend upward, yet going to the store to build your own board is expensive, time-consuming, overwhelming, and confusing for consumers. There is no clear-cut market leader who is providing high-quality, on-demand, ready-to-eat charcuterie products in an accessible and convenient way

Market: Our total addressable market (TAM) is based on the consumer profile who is likely to have an interest in consuming charcuterie and engaging in experiences: male and female working professionals with middle-to-upper household income as well as millennials who are driving the experience economy. This specific customer profile gives us the opportunity to engage with 92 million US individuals.

Solution: Kured is bringing accessibility, convenience, and innovation to drive a new market segment: fast-casual, on-demand, ready-to-eat charcuterie.

Team: My COO is Elizabeth Waring. I roomed with her my sophomore year at Boston College and we both reside on Cape Cod.

Recent Success:

Rozynek: We’ve been quite successful despite the fact we’re a very early-stage company. This summer (since our launch at the beginning of June) we’ve sold $6000 worth of charcuterie bouquets (over 200 bouquets) to 24 MA towns and 3 states (CT, MA, and PA.) Our weekly sales right now look like $1100 with a 7% week over week growth rate. We’re glad to be driving sales as this allows us to gain valuable customer feedback and iterate our product to its greatest potential.

Recent Struggle:

Rozynek: The most difficult part of managing a business of this nature is balancing the front-end of the business (actually making and delivering these charcuterie products) with the back-end of the business (working on strategy, marketing, scaling, etc…). As we scale, I know it is going to be necessary to onboard a larger team of assemblers and delivery personnel, or partnering with well-established delivery companies already in the Boston area (i.e GrubHub, Drizly, etc…).

Founder Advice:

Rozynek: Don’t be afraid to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. As a 2020 BC grad, I had a stable job lined up and was set to move to New York at the end of August. However, after participating in the SSC Venture Partners Summer Accelerator Program, I was ready to pursue my startup full time. Quitting my stable job in the midst of a global pandemic to launch a meat business was not even a thought that crossed my mind. However, through the very early months of launching the company, I saw immense growth in myself – not only from a business standpoint but a personal standpoint. I know this growth would not be attainable if I had not pushed myself outside my comfort zone from the way beginning of the summer.

Three Cool Founders You Should Know About:

Rozynek: Here are three founders you should check out next!

Lurein Perera, Founder of GiveCard: a non-profit giving special debit cards and financial services to the homeless
Katie Diasti, Founder of Viv for your V: an earth-friendly, D2C period care brand innovating in the sustainable consumer goods space
Brendan Guerin, Cofounders of Prism: a venture-backed company changing the way the biomedical ecosystem interacts with data and analytics.

Who should I profile next? Leave your suggestion in the comments:

Why you should become a paid subscriber to Founder to Founder:

Get connected to elite tech entrepreneurs through in-depth Founder Case Studies
Receive exclusive documents crafted by top founders on how to build your company
Access a growing audience of venture capitalists, product managers, software engineers, and people passionate about technology
Hear real, raw experiences from entrepreneurs that you won’t see anywhere else

Previous F2F Case Studies:

Latest Forbes Articles:

If you enjoyed this article, feel free to check out my other work on LinkedIn. Follow me on Twitter @fredsoda, on Medium @fredsoda, and on Instagram @fred_soda.