Valerie Gordon: Founder of Valerie Confections

Episode 575

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we welcome Valerie Gordon, founder of Valerie Confections and Author of Sweet. Since 2004, Valerie and her partner Stan Weightman Jr. have turned their passion for luxury sweets into a top destination for fine chocolates, truffles, and more. Starting with exquisite hand-dipped toffees, Valerie quickly established her brand as a beacon of luxury in the confectionery industry. Today, Valerie shares insights from her entrepreneurial journey and the creative process behind her famous desserts. We'll explore how her experiences have shaped her approach to business and confectionery. Join us for a conversation filled with actionable advice for anyone interested in dessert-making or entrepreneurship. Tune in for a sweet and inspiring discussion! Now on The Kara Goldin Show.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. Super excited to have our next guest. Here. We have Valerie Gordon, who is the founder of an incredible, incredible company called Valerie Confections, and she’s also an author, by the way, of an incredible, celebrated cookbook called Sweet. But since launching her la based bakery and confectionery in 2004 alongside her partner and husband, Stan Valerie, has transformed her passion for luxurious sweets into a premier destination for high quality chocolates, truffles, petite fours and so much more. And they are so delicious you absolutely have to try them, for sure. But her lineup of exquisite hand dipped toffees as well, it just she’s gone beyond what a normal small business really sets out to do and achieves, and I love the fact that she has maintained the integrity of the products that she started out with, and the reputation as one of the top luxury confectioners in the country. And I’m so excited to talk to her about the creative process behind her famous desserts and her company and and just overall, how she’s grown this business to what it is today. So welcome, Valerie,

Valerie Gordon 2:12
thank you so much. I’m

Kara Goldin 2:13
so excited to be here. Really, really excited to have you here and finally meet you that the brains behind this incredible brand and the creativity behind it is just is super, super great. So let’s talk about what inspired you to start Valerie Confections and enter into the luxury confectionary market.

Valerie Gordon 2:35
Well, we are going back, lady, because we launched 20 years ago, as you can tell from the 2004 start date. And I do feel like it was just a completely different world then. And the way you started a company was different. How you promoted a company was different. And at the time, I had been working in food for quite some time, and also around design and fashion and all these different sort of ways of life, I guess is the best way to put it. There’s a lot of influence for me, for sure, just by happenstance, from people I knew and other jobs that I had held, and I was a restaurant manager, and also had done a lot of acting. And in the end of 2003 the restaurant that I was managing was closing, and it was a super hot spot in Los Angeles, and this incredible woman named Michelle le owned it, and she just had this magnificent circle around her, and had a great way of just creating energy out of any space energy. And people always wanted to be around her. And so I was, I worked with this woman for five years. And just, you know, the editors that I met, the people in fashion that I met, all of it. It was pretty it was a great opportunity. And so, and at the same time, I had always baked and made candy at home, and my now husband, Stan, was very into design and photography and also food. And when the restaurant closed, it really was this huge, sort of existential question of, what do I want to do with my life? And I wanted to do something indelible. I wanted to do something that was holistic for my interests. So it was never just about chocolate. It was about chocolate in a really specific box that evoked really specific emotions. So all of those layers were always components around the company, even from, you know, the original ideation. So the beginning of 2004 I was just sort of doing research in a variety of things. And I’ve always been really into media and print and art and just sort of walking around and. Going, what do I want to look at every day? What colors do I want to look at? What what sort of world do I want to exist in, professionally? And one morning, I woke up and I was like, it’s toffee. It’s toffee. That’s my world. And this is where this whole thing starts. And because toffee, to me, was the unsung hero in the confection business. And anytime you would get a box of seized chocolates, let’s say that, right, or any other kind of candy from an American confectioner, you would see toffee in there. And what I noticed it was, it was always the first thing to go, and people would get really excited about a good toffee, and it had never been created in a luxury way. So you could get it at something like C’s, you could get tins of toffeeettes, you could get almond Roca, you could get a score bar, right? And you say that, and people like, I love almond Roca, but it wasn’t luxury, right? There was nothing keepsake about that so, and I really, really loved chocolatiers in France, and I had spent some time in Paris, and I loved that experience of walking into La Maison de Chaco, LA or Fauci, or Fauci, and walking in and you were just enveloped by beautiful ribbon and beautiful boxes and the smell of chocolate. And to me, there was just some nothing more gratifying on the most you know, esthetic level, like, and just every sense was heightened, you know. And that was a huge inspiration. And also fashion. So studying, you know, brands such as Prada Chanel, I was always a huge fan of Chanel growing up, and I remember buying my first bottle of Chanel Number five, and being like, I have made it, and I kept the box. I kept the box, and so I always wanted, I wanted a keepsake element, right, and also something recognizable. So that’s how it all came together. And I was like, we’re gonna start with toffee and go from there. And it all moved very quickly. And there were storyboards, and there were mood boards. And I was just pulling stuff out of, you know, World of interiors and Vogue and, you know, all this stuff and like, and it was about creating a feeling as much as a taste. So all of that always went together. And then we launched in 2004 from our apartment. And the only way you can order in 2004 I love telling people this was via fax or phone, and it was a six

Kara Goldin 7:51
page

Valerie Gordon 7:51
order form, Kara, six pages that you would have to fax back with all of your billing information and things that you would touch and, you know, blah, blah, blah, because we didn’t have the money for for a the technology of an online store was very different. In 2004 right? Only, like huge companies could afford that, and just that basic technology cost, like, $40,000 it was a lot of money, which we certainly did not have. You know, we had a little two bedroom apartment. We rubbed some dimes together to start this company, and had some help from other people, and that was it, right? So what we did is we set the mood of the company. So we put all of our money into packaging and took some pretty pictures and launched it. Wow.

Kara Goldin 8:44
And so, did you just have outreach where you reached out to people that you knew in the restaurant industry or or you mentioned fashion, like, how did you get those initial consumers?

Valerie Gordon 8:56
Yes, so, and this is something that I always tell people who are starting a new company is never hold back from asking for help. Look at your Rolodex, and I’m dating myself now fully from faxes to rolodexes right now, we’ve got our digital Rolodex, but go through that whole thing. Who can help you? Who knows something that you don’t know, contact them and ask, you know what I mean? The worst they’re going to say is, no, I don’t have time, or I don’t remember you, you know, whatever, that’s all fine, right? But I think people are the best resource, the best resource, who you know is the best resource. So I went to friends that I had made over the years at running that restaurant, interior designers that I knew, bakery owners that I knew, candy company owners that I knew, and really got as much feedback from them as possible. About, how does this packaging look? And I solicited a group of tasters as I was developing the recipes. And there were people who I thought would be our customer base. So they were all people from and some people were, you know, straight, some people were gay, some people were in their 70s. I had one girl who was in her, who was 12 years old at the time, who had an exceptional palette and loved really good chocolate that her mother would buy for her. So she was part of my tasting committee, you know what I mean, like, and I would run around and drop off these samples with a form to get feedback from that. And then very quickly, people were like, how do I buy it? How do I buy it? And so as we were doing packaging prototypes and product prototypes, it all came together really, really fast. Our first sale was in July of 2004 I started testing in February of 2004 that’s a really quick idea to turn around and and in hindsight, I wish we had spent a little more time before diving in. But what I did brand wise at that time is I fully recognize that Valerie convections meant nothing to the consumer. Who’s Valerie convections? No one cares about Valerie convections. So at the time, I thought we’re defined by where we are. So I did a I did a lot of research around what are the best specialty food stores in this country? If I’m in that store, then that gives my product creed, right? So I traveled with samples. I always made sure I was really well put together, and would bring in my pretty boxes and say, Hi, can I will you sell this? Here’s some samples, and our first wholesale sale was to Dean and DeLuca, which is now defunct, of course. And I chose 13 stores around the country that so that we would get a nice geographical spread and raise awareness in different ways around the brand. And so that’s, that’s how we started. And then, of course, you know, you knew us, you could fax us that six page form.

Kara Goldin 12:24
Yeah, exactly. And at what point did you really feel like you were off to the races? You know, that you had seen success, that it were you were confident enough in what you were doing that you weren’t gonna have to change careers.

Valerie Gordon 12:41
I think it took probably two years to feel that way. We I didn’t pay myself for a year, and I love saying that too, did not pay myself a penny for a year, and had to do freelance work. And this, that and the other I would say, you know, once you start paying yourself, that feels good, once you start seeing your sales grow every quarter, that feels good. But I would say it was probably two years in and at that time, so by 2006 we were in a lot more stores. We were getting more corporate orders from people. We always were very we were very lucky early on with media and press and people were very, very kind to us, to, you know, we would send samples and send samples and tell our story, and to get things, you know, in a magazine, really move the needle quite a bit, quite a bit. So I would say by, you know, the end of 2006 early 2007 it just kept growing. You know, it really did. It just kept growing. And then we started working with larger retailers like William Sonoma. We had already been working with Dean and DeLuca, and our wholesale list was growing, which was growing, our how recognizable the brand was.

Kara Goldin 14:03
So your bakery is based in in Los Angeles, and was there a point when you decided I want to open the doors here? You sort of started it through your online catalog where people could fax you, of course, but also just being you were early on so into kind of the look and feel and what you were giving people and in this visual and this feeling, at what point did you decide we should allow people to come in and experience This?

Valerie Gordon 14:37
That was in 2007 so at that time we opened, we had, so we had start, we started the company in an apartment. And then a few months in, we were doing, we were working out of this like, sort of shared commercial kitchen, and we were there part time. And then in 2007 we got our own full time for. Facility. So again, like, over two years, you know what I mean. So by 2007 we had our own full time facility, and we had a teeny little, like, essentially, it was a counter. When you walked in the door, it was a counter, that’s all it was. And on, like the, the strangest Street in Los Angeles, like, not like, very destination, very destination. And it was 1100 square feet that space that’s

Kara Goldin 15:26
so interesting. And how many retail locations do you have now?

Valerie Gordon 15:30
We just have two. Now. Our main focus now at maximum, we had three. Our main focus is really about DTC through web sales and wholesale, that’s our whole growth channel at this point. We just continue to increase wholesale.

Kara Goldin 15:49
So when you think about competition, and obviously, you know, chocolate is to a connoisseur, you definitely stand out. But how do you what do you think of when you hear that you know another chocolate company is coming about? Does it make you nervous? Or have you learned to just stay focused? Or how, because competition is always one of those things that it’s always going to be there in every single category, but I think it’s, it’s people’s reactions, I think are sometimes very personal, right? That you’re that you’re thinking, oh my god, we’re it’s over, especially in the early days. But how have you seen that over the years?

Valerie Gordon 16:33
Competition, like we do so much, is the thing, like, we’re a chocolate company, we’re also a bakery. We also have a restaurant. I do tons of stuff as a, you know, food, personality, whatever. I don’t really think about competition, which is a very funny thing, and I never have very much, and I actually try not, you know, I know that we are compared to certain brands, there are certain brands that I admire a lot, a lot, and I love purchasing their product and supporting them. I’ve never been a proponent of compare and despair. I always feel like we are our own best judge and like my goal setting is about me and my company and the people within my life and within my company. I don’t sit around and obsess over what any other company is doing around the country. I don’t try, and I really, really never try to emulate any other company. So what is frustrating is when people copy you. That’s boring, yeah, and that happens a lot, so that’s irritating to me. It’s kind of like, Dude, you know, get your own ideas, right? Don’t be lazy. But I don’t, I don’t really worry about the competition. I really don’t, and I find that for me, that’s my healthiest response is I’m in competition with myself. I’m in competition with we always want to do better within our company. We want to do better for our staff, for our customers, for ourselves with our product. That’s that’s the driving force, not what other people are doing.

Kara Goldin 18:23
Definitely, when you think about a hero product amongst your your products, you talked about the toffee, but I’d be curious to hear you know, is that the same today as it was when you first started? Or has that evolved?

Valerie Gordon 18:39
I love my toffee, like, and I do a lot of cleanses and stuff like that. I’m always on some sort of nut reset thing. The almond fleur de sel toffee always gets me. And I’m like, I gotta get a piece of that. I love it. Like, I love it as much today as I did with the first batch. Um, other heroes, though, are petaphors really have a huge following, and they’re so meticulous. And there’s one in particular that I just think really encapsulates the philosophy of the company in that it’s detailed, it’s about quality, and it’s hand touched, and that’s our rose petal petaphor, which has four incredibly thin layers of vanilla bean cake, three layers of rose petal passion fruit ganache. It’s dipped in white chocolate and topped with a hand candied organic rose petal. So there are people in our kitchen that are trimming those roses by hand and candy them by hand, and each pet for gets one on top. And I think it’s that care that we give and that level I mean a machine can’t do that, you know what I mean. And in this day and age of AI and everything being generated, I can tell you that a human being has to do that. And when it comes to food, I think that people. Find a lot of comfort and joy in knowing that people are involved.

Kara Goldin 20:08
When you think about the biggest challenges that you have in the business, especially, you know, in scaling the business, you have a perishable product, and I can only imagine the logistics, and plus, you have a lot of people that are they have to deliver in order to create these beautiful products. When you think about like the things that have kept you up at night over the years, I’m sure there’s varying issues, right? Any entrepreneur sees this, but what would you say is one of the bigger challenges that you’ve seen,

Valerie Gordon 20:44
I would say one of the bigger challenges, like a couple of huge challenges that we’ve come up against, for the recession in 2008 the pandemic in 2020, these are massive, massive challenges. And like right now in Los Angeles, it will be 98 degrees today. So it’s, I think one of the big challenges that we deal with are things that are outside forces, and then we have to sort of calmly observe what is happening here. How do I safeguard and what adjustments do I have to make? So on a day where it’s 98 degrees, I’ve got to make sure that the chocolate part of our facility is not production after, or the Chef de Cuisine will probably do this honestly, that you know by one o’clock we’re not doing any more chocolate for the day. So that’s got to happen really early. And that’s something where you only know that with time. You know what I mean, after you’ve had chocolate, not set up correctly. That comes from experience. But other things like, say, the recession or the pandemic, I always think that you know these. You know right now, like yesterday, the stock market was down. God knows how many hundreds of points. Don’t look, don’t look, right? Yeah, it’ll go back up. Don’t look but like online sales were really slow yesterday. Why? Because everyone’s hearing that their portfolio is not doing well. That’s why, right? So it’s about making sure that you are nimble enough to adjust quickly and not like with a situation like the pandemic or the recession or, you know, anything else that might come into our homes, right? It’s, I think it’s really, really important to think forward and not backward. And it’s like, well, my God, we were planning to do this. That’s great. The world just changed, and we’ve now have to change with the world. So let’s look at what we can do. What can we do? And I think maintaining that philosophy in every challenge is something that’s kept us going and growing for 20 years that I never like. Who cares what happened last year that’s all great and fabulous. You know, the world shut down now. So how are we going to get people their desserts? Yeah, no one’s walking in the door.

Kara Goldin 23:17
No, absolutely it’s so it’s so true. So when you think about trends, and you know, maybe even some of the current trends, but I feel like, for example, we’ve talked to, I had a tequila company on where tequila used to not be a spicy tequila, but today, there’s all kinds of different types of together, including a spicy one. But I’m so curious, has there been trends that have come up that have, you know, really taken off? Maybe some that haven’t really taken off, and for you guys, either, but that have come along that you’ve seen and you thought were kind of interesting to jump into, or I’d be curious to hear if there was anything like that within your company.

Valerie Gordon 24:08
I think there’s a lot of trends. There’s so many trends that constantly happen. Um, something that’s sort of funny is I kind of run from trends, because what I’ve always set out to do is create something unique and perennial. So when someone opens a box of our petaphors or our chocolates, I want it to be recognizable, but also not feel like it’s from 2004 or feel like it’s from 2010 and I think you know, food, like fashion, things can become very of an era. Like a lot of chocolatiers do colors on their bon bons. And that’s something I’ve never done, and I’ve never done it. And like, I would say, like the mid 2010s It was huge. And. And everyone was starting to do it like and they’re beautiful. They’re lovely. You know, like a lot of my favorite chocolatiers, use color application. And I looked at it and I went, nope, this is not Valerie Confections. And like a lot of our collections have never changed. They’ve never changed. And you open it and you see it, and we might change the ribbon, we might change the gift box. We might change, you know, all the, all the sort of, I always say, I change the jewelry around the brand, but never the dress. The dress always stays the same. And I always want people to see the dress and know that it’s Valerie Confections. So a lot of trends I truly like, we’ve never sold cupcakes. We’ve never like. There’s a lot of different things that I look at macarons. So like, macarons really were so huge for so long, you know what I mean. But a lot of things that are trends, they come and they go, they come and they go. So I always try to stay very clear with what I like and the philosophy of the brand and something who’s someone who I listen to all the time is Rick Rubin, and I think that he has the most exceptional business advice, which is, listen to yourself. Listen to yourself. If I wouldn’t buy it, I’m not going to sell it. And I always look at that

Kara Goldin 26:26
metric, that’s, that’s, that’s so important to stand by. And I also feel like something I always say is, you know, you are the person that have to you’ve gotta put your stakes in the ground, right your heels in the ground, to maintain that quality and that vision and the things that you’ve done so beautifully, you could just, I feel like you can always tell when there’s a founder around and and The feeling of it, and there’s somebody kind of watching and manning the fort. You may have a CEO and kind of other operators within the company, but I think that it’s so important that you have that person who’s maintaining the the quality and has those stakes, stakes in the ground for sure. So last question, what wisdom would you share with aspiring entrepreneurs, culinary or not, that you know you feel like you’ve really learned along the way about yourself, about building a business that you think is really important to recognize and know?

Valerie Gordon 27:39
A few things. My first thing, particularly in food, I think that every kind of industry is a little bit different. Food is hard. Food is hard. And you get a lot of people who might work for you for five months or a year, you know what I mean, like, particularly in service. And they come and they come and they go, and they come and they go, right? We’ve been very fortunate where we’ve had many long term employees, like over a decade, which is that just it’s so much easier to run a company with that kind of institutional knowledge around you. I would say, make sure you have to do it. Don’t do it if you want to do it. Do it if you have to do it. If this is a thing like to this day at 11 o’clock at night, I’m thinking about a new recipe. I’m thinking about a different way to package something, a different co lab, a different gift set. And it’s not because I’m stressed, it’s because it’s where my mind goes. I can’t help it, you know what I mean. I’m all like, I did two new recipes before I got on this podcast. I don’t have to do that anymore. I want to do that. You know what I mean. And so there’s this thing where, if there is an undeniable urge that you cannot turn off, start the company. If you’re like, maybe I’ll do this. Don’t do it. It’s, I think, I think it’s, it’s very hard to start a company and last and gain a strong customer base if you’re a dilettante within the sector. So and what I say to people is, I’m gonna, like, I love baking cookies. I think it’ll start a cookie company. Like, you know, it’s okay to have a hobby too. Like, you know, it’s okay, yeah, know what this will take. It’s like, it’s real fun to make 24 cookies on December 19, making 20,000 cookies might not be as much fun. Know that, know that I would also say that it’s really good to continue learning, never stop learning, and because things are constantly shifting. You know, a few like I’d never been on Facebook or MySpace or anything like that. Yeah, I would say, like, six years ago, I was like, I’m doing Instagram. I’m not a technically savvy human being. And I had to take, you know, get millennials to help me. I’m a proud member of Gen X. And I had be like, that, mother needs your help. What do I do? I do this so, and that’s uncomfortable, right? But it’s good to be uncomfortable like to keep growing, to keep learning and to stay agile. This world changes. You know, a mile a minute. If we were not open to growth and new knowledge, we would still be selling the effects or phone out of an apartment, that would be a whole different level of discomfort, I would assume, right? So I would say, just don’t, don’t shy away from ideas that other people might have from you, like I always surround myself with people from younger generations and older generations, because both have information that I don’t necessarily have, and that’s a great thing. It’s a great thing. I did a thing this year that really it taught me so much about life and about business, which is, I learned how to swim. I never learned how to swim. And I just, I grew up in San Francisco, only really, really wealthy people had swimming pools, and I just never bothered. I just didn’t do it. And I would go snorkeling with a kid. I’m a small person. I’m little, and so I could wear, like kids, puffy vests when I would go snorkeling on vacation, lay in a chaise lounge with a Vanity Fair. Have a pina colada. I’m good. And this year I was like, I’m learning how to swim. And it really reconnected me to that process of learning and the process of being uncomfortable and being patient with myself, being patient and I think like and so within the process of learning, I think within companies as well, and as founders, we get so ensconced in what we do, right? And it’s like, it’s you breathe and eat it. Literally every day you breathe and eat it, and doing that thing, learning this thing outside of what I do, I think made me better at what I do. So it can come, you know, in all different ways. But I would just say, in general, keep learning. Don’t be afraid of the new app that just came out that other people are on. Don’t be afraid of the new platform. Find someone who’s really adept at doing that, get them to show you how to do it, or your team how to do it, so that you can stay nimble, so that you can stay current in so far as running your company.

Kara Goldin 32:58
Yeah, I totally agree. I feel like all of those opportunities to humble you right and right, yeah, and the and it forces your brain to kind of pay more attention in order for you to be able to, you know, get better right and, and not feel comfortable and and not be in that situation for long. So love that advice. So Valerie Gordon, founder of Valerie Confections, and we will have all the info in the show notes. But so, so nice to meet you and

Valerie Gordon 33:34
me on Yeah, I have to say it really is. Your podcast is phenomenal.

Kara Goldin 33:40
Oh, thank you so so nice. Well, everyone needs to try it, if they haven’t already, or I bet the next store, next time you walk into a store too, you’re gonna say, oh, that’s Valerie. Valerie Confections, because that’s what I always say. They’re you know, you may not know the name initially, but now you’ll know it, and especially putting a face together with it, but with the brand too. So well. Thank you so much, Valerie and thanks everyone for listening. Have a great rest of the week. Thank

Valerie Gordon 34:08
you. Take care.

Kara Goldin 34:10
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too, so feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now. You.

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