Episode 49

Episode 049: Farm to Table Entrepreneurship with Duane Slyder

On this week's episode of Unpolished MBA, Monique spoke with fellow entrepreneur and passionate farm-to-table innovator Duane Slyder. Duane is the founder and CTO of Seasonal Roots, an innovative and eco-conscious online farmers market that serves the metro Washington DC area and surrounding suburbs. 

Duane and his team at Seasonal Roots are providing ways to make healthy eating easy with their simple-to-use online farmers market and convenient year-round local, home delivery. Members customize their weekly orders in their online menu, shopping a wide range of the freshest local produce, meats, eggs, dairy, and artisan goods.

In this conversation, Monique and Duane discuss the challenges of establishing the business, how the gig economy has empowered many in his part-time workforce, and developing the technology, software, and mobile logistics required for such a time-dependent and multi-faceted service.

Duane also addresses the need for greater awareness when it comes to local agriculture and produce and how services like Seasonal Roots can both better serve their community's health and happiness while properly compensating local farmers and artisans. 

Topics Include:

  • The True Value of an MBA 
  • Leveraging The Gig Economy 
  • Disrupting Grocery Delivery Services
  • Where Technology Meets Innovation
  • The Importance of Supporting Local Agriculture 
  • Making Organic Foods More Accessible 

Follow Duane and Seasonal Roots: 

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/duaneslyder/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Website: https://www.seasonalroots.com/

Follow Monique:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquemills/

Website: https://unpolishedmba.com/

Transcript
Monique Mills:

Coming up on Unpolished MBA...

Duane Slyder:

You know, getting an MBA it's not worthless, but there are just

Duane Slyder:

things you just have to learn as you go.

Duane Slyder:

One is starting a company, especially when you don't have that support, you

Duane Slyder:

end up at the start doing everything.

Duane Slyder:

There's not too much at the company that I haven't done, but you quickly want to

Duane Slyder:

find people to bid in your weaknesses.

Monique Mills:

This show is sponsored by TPM Focus, the strategy and

Monique Mills:

execution consulting firm focused on generating revenue and finding

Monique Mills:

product market fit for new innovation.

Monique Mills:

Head over to TPMFocus.com to learn more.

Monique Mills:

Hello everyone welcome back to the Unpolished MBA podcast.

Monique Mills:

Today I have with me, Mr.

Monique Mills:

Duane Slyder.

Monique Mills:

Hi Duane!

Duane Slyder:

Hi, how's it going?

Monique Mills:

It's going well.

Monique Mills:

I want to thank you for joining us today, but I'm gonna start by asking you the

Monique Mills:

same two questions I asked everyone else.

Monique Mills:

The first one is, are you an entrepreneur or corporate employee?

Duane Slyder:

Definitely an entrepreneur.

Monique Mills:

MBA or no MBA.

Duane Slyder:

I do have an MBA.

Monique Mills:

Woah, all right.

Monique Mills:

so before we even go into the business side, entrepreneurial side,

Monique Mills:

tell me why did you get your MBA?

Duane Slyder:

Well, in the nineties, I started as a SaaS company and I didn't

Duane Slyder:

have an MBA then, and I knew how to develop software, but I didn't know how

Duane Slyder:

to market a product or run a company.

Duane Slyder:

They talked to investors and they thought we were crazy, and I was

Duane Slyder:

like, okay, I don't know what I'm doing, but I really liked this

Duane Slyder:

concept of being an entrepreneur.

Duane Slyder:

So I did get an MBA, but mainly because I just loved school.

Duane Slyder:

I liked that atmosphere.

Duane Slyder:

It really wasn't because I feel you need one though acquired a

Duane Slyder:

lot of critical skills, but I think you can learn them anyways.

Duane Slyder:

You know, I enjoy that.

Duane Slyder:

atmosphere.

Monique Mills:

You know what some people, and I would say I would probably

Monique Mills:

fall into that mindset, where I'm curious, I love to learn new things.

Monique Mills:

But goodness gracious, I certainly don't like paying MBA prices to learn.

Monique Mills:

So I'm wondering, I've only had two people on the show out of

Monique Mills:

we're almost at 50 episodes who had their companies pay for the MBA.

Monique Mills:

So back in the nineties did your company pay for it?

Duane Slyder:

They paid for some of it, and I was able to

Duane Slyder:

do some of it at a state school.

Duane Slyder:

I was in St.

Duane Slyder:

Louis at the time, so I was at Washington University out there, which was expensive,

Duane Slyder:

yes, but I made it as small as possible.

Monique Mills:

Yeah.

Monique Mills:

Well, it sounds like you made a smart move because it gave you skills and

Monique Mills:

information you didn't have before.

Monique Mills:

Tell me a little bit about what your undergrad was in, because for everyone

Monique Mills:

that's on here most are in the technology space, but they may not have understood

Monique Mills:

when you said you started a SaaS business.

Monique Mills:

SaaS stands for software as a service, and basically all of the tools and

Monique Mills:

apps that you're using right now and paying monthly for annually for those

Monique Mills:

are SaaS tools, software as a service.

Monique Mills:

So tell us a little bit about what your undergrad was in.

Duane Slyder:

I was a math major, so I moved very fast into software development.

Duane Slyder:

I was doing a lot of defense contracting, so I was very well connected with

Duane Slyder:

other people that were doing the same kind of things and was able to,

Duane Slyder:

just create a community of people that wanted to start a company.

Monique Mills:

Yeah.

Monique Mills:

Since you come from the STEM field, you definitely meet a lot of

Monique Mills:

intellectual, intelligent people that can do coding and everything else.

Monique Mills:

One thing that's not in our population is the marketing, not usually the marketing,

Monique Mills:

the branding, whatever, which sounds like you were able to get that, you know, at

Monique Mills:

least the beginning of that in your MBA.

Duane Slyder:

That's what I would say just enough to know what I didn't know.

Monique Mills:

Yeah, exactly.

Monique Mills:

How important it is, I always say after you have a product, everything

Monique Mills:

else is sales and marketing.

Monique Mills:

Most people don't realize that though, because they think they just keep

Monique Mills:

tweaking the product and the product is great and that's all that's needed.

Monique Mills:

Not unless it's something that like, I mean, that's critical to living.

Monique Mills:

So I want to ask you, what is your entrepreneurial?

Monique Mills:

What was your first one, and are you still doing it now?

Monique Mills:

If not, What are you doing now?

Duane Slyder:

Now, now my first one was a similar company to eBay.

Monique Mills:

Oh, really?

Duane Slyder:

Yes, but remember that the internet really didn't

Duane Slyder:

come to fruition until 95.

Duane Slyder:

This was 92, so I was talking to people about, it was called

Duane Slyder:

Trading Systems Limited, and it was about being able to sell things

Duane Slyder:

that didn't have a liquid market.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, we were thinking of coins and stamps and items like that at first,

Duane Slyder:

but, you know, we were going to be over modems and we had the software down.

Duane Slyder:

So, no that didn't happen.

Duane Slyder:

I found eBay in, I can't remember 98, 99, something like that.

Duane Slyder:

I still have an account and I just love what they've done, but now I'm

Duane Slyder:

running an online farmers market.

Monique Mills:

Right.

Monique Mills:

Okay, so that's close to my heart as a plant-based eater.

Monique Mills:

You know, my whole family is, this is definitely something that I want to learn

Monique Mills:

more about how you're making this work.

Monique Mills:

I mean, it's one of those things that, so from what I hear, it's difficult

Monique Mills:

because you know, you've got to keep the food fresh and all of that, but

Monique Mills:

I know you have a unique spin on it.

Monique Mills:

Tell us a little bit more about your business and how

Monique Mills:

you're able to accomplish it.

Duane Slyder:

Yeah, the company has been around for 11 years.

Duane Slyder:

Really, the problem that we were trying to solve is how to connect

Duane Slyder:

local farmers with local consumers in a way that's profitable for everyone.

Monique Mills:

Wait a minute.

Monique Mills:

Do you only do this in an area where you live or is this something

Monique Mills:

that's across the country?

Duane Slyder:

Not across the country yet.

Duane Slyder:

We're delivering in all the suburbs of Virginia and we've moved into Maryland.

Monique Mills:

Oh, fantastic.

Duane Slyder:

Our goal is to move throughout Maryland.

Duane Slyder:

We're North of Washington DC right now, but the goal is

Duane Slyder:

to, you know, move elsewhere.

Duane Slyder:

So, yeah, we started it in 2011.

Duane Slyder:

This is where I didn't need an MBA to start this.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, I just sort of wrote 10 things on a piece of paper.

Duane Slyder:

What I wanted to do, and I really wanted to do something local, something

Duane Slyder:

that made a difference, and something that had a niche in such a way that

Duane Slyder:

it didn't have a lot of competition and it could be very profitable.

Monique Mills:

I'm always interested to know why this in particular, because

Monique Mills:

some of the criteria you just mentioned, I could think of some other ideas.

Monique Mills:

Why this, all food and nutrition, you know, or this specific type of business?

Duane Slyder:

Well, I grew up, my father was in the military, but my high

Duane Slyder:

school years were on a gentleman farm.

Duane Slyder:

So we had horses and cows and we had a vegetable garden.

Duane Slyder:

When I got out on my own and I had kids, I realized that just food

Duane Slyder:

didn't taste as good from the grocery stores as it used to when I was a kid.

Duane Slyder:

It was that realization that, really freshness equals flavor.

Duane Slyder:

So when you're picking something from a garden, and I always pick on

Duane Slyder:

green beans, I really love eating green beans right out of the garden

Duane Slyder:

because you don't have to cook them.

Duane Slyder:

No one knows that because if you're getting your green beans

Duane Slyder:

from a grocery store, you're just not tasting the same animal.

Monique Mills:

Right.

Monique Mills:

I know all about it.

Monique Mills:

You're right.

Duane Slyder:

Yeah.

Duane Slyder:

So that was really the impetus.

Duane Slyder:

I also knew a farmer that had a CSA, which is community supported agriculture.

Duane Slyder:

It's this concept that when he had 500 members, that paid him upfront, and then

Duane Slyder:

every week he provided them with produce.

Monique Mills:

That's what I'm looking for.

Monique Mills:

Is that your business model?

Duane Slyder:

No, we're kind of a glorified CSA.

Duane Slyder:

So what we did was his name was Charlie and Charlie always looked

Duane Slyder:

tired in the summer because it was just too much for him.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, he farms, he distributes, he goes to farmer's markets.

Duane Slyder:

It's just, it's a lot of work.

Duane Slyder:

In fact, one of our farmers, he goes to farmer's markets and he

Duane Slyder:

has to farm at night and he puts a pith helmet on his head and he has

Duane Slyder:

the tractor at the end of the row.

Duane Slyder:

You know, with the light shining and he's picking at night.

Duane Slyder:

Cause that's the only time he has to do that.

Duane Slyder:

So we wanted to support the farmer.

Duane Slyder:

I know they just need to get out of the distribution business, these

Duane Slyder:

CSA's so that's what we handle.

Duane Slyder:

Basically what we do, you know, we're talking here at 2:00 PM on Friday.

Duane Slyder:

Our market opened it 2, and it'll close Sunday at midnight.

Duane Slyder:

We have everything that's available around us in Richmond, Virginia here,

Duane Slyder:

and we go out about 150 miles, so we've got produce coming from North Carolina

Duane Slyder:

and some coming in from Maryland, that's kind of our swath of area.

Duane Slyder:

Then we're telling the farmers Monday after the market closes exactly what

Duane Slyder:

they need, they're picking it Monday and we're delivering it Wednesday.

Monique Mills:

That is incredible.

Monique Mills:

I know a lot of us wished there were things like that, even in our communities,

Monique Mills:

you know, people have community gardens and things now, but there are farmers

Monique Mills:

that are local, especially, I'm in Georgia, we have plenty of them, but

Monique Mills:

it's more of a logistical issue, right?

Monique Mills:

Like you said, they want to focus on farming and producing the food.

Monique Mills:

We need some logistics to deliver and all that without overburdening them.

Duane Slyder:

Right.

Duane Slyder:

We we don't make contracts with our farmers because they're farmers.

Duane Slyder:

So we have some farmers that they do farmer's markets, other

Duane Slyder:

ones that just have a niche item.

Duane Slyder:

I have a farmer North of here that just does asparagus.

Duane Slyder:

So, you know, we just try to fit in and support them as best as we can.

Monique Mills:

We're going to take a quick timeout and pick back up in just a moment.

Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

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Monique Mills:

Is this your full-time job?

Duane Slyder:

Yes.

Monique Mills:

And do you have a team?

Duane Slyder:

Yes.

Monique Mills:

I understand how this operation can be

Monique Mills:

lean or it can be, ya know?

Duane Slyder:

Well, it's lean in that there are probably 10 of us working,

Duane Slyder:

mostly full-time, but it's big in that we have 200 people that deliver.

Monique Mills:

Oh, interesting.

Monique Mills:

Do you guys utilize the sharing economy at all?

Duane Slyder:

Yes, we do.

Duane Slyder:

We started before it really worked, it was kind of interesting though,

Duane Slyder:

to watch it come to fruition, it was like, "oh, that's what we are."

Duane Slyder:

You know, up in Maryland where we deliver, we have a few people

Duane Slyder:

up there, they deliver for us.

Duane Slyder:

They don't come down to Richmond, Virginia to pick up the produce.

Duane Slyder:

We take a box truck, we drive it up to Maryland.

Duane Slyder:

We have what we call a party stop, and then they come to the party stop.

Duane Slyder:

We've already prepacked all the orders, they pick it up and

Duane Slyder:

then they go and deliver it.

Monique Mills:

Wow.

Monique Mills:

I think that is something like, whatever you all have figured out, as far

Monique Mills:

as logistics, that's something that could be implemented somewhere else.

Monique Mills:

You thinking about coming to places like Georgia and extending?

Monique Mills:

Okay.

Monique Mills:

So are you adding technology to this or what are you thinking?

Duane Slyder:

We are a tech enabled company because of my background.

Duane Slyder:

We did design our own not just the business model, but the software.

Monique Mills:

Yes.

Duane Slyder:

Yes.

Duane Slyder:

We had to, there were off the shelf companies that sort of support what

Duane Slyder:

we do, but nothing really fit the business model that we wanted to create.

Duane Slyder:

So we needed to do it ourselves.

Monique Mills:

Wow.

Monique Mills:

You know what?

Monique Mills:

That's really an advantage that those who have either a technical background

Monique Mills:

or a technical network, you know, once you start figuring out what

Monique Mills:

you need, you can just build what you need instead of having to piece

Monique Mills:

together other people's technology.

Duane Slyder:

Yeah.

Duane Slyder:

There are some models, if we were a pure e-commerce company, let's

Duane Slyder:

say, so we were selling this razor.

Duane Slyder:

There are off the shelf things you can use, but what we're doing is unique.

Duane Slyder:

So, yes, there was nothing we could find.

Monique Mills:

Wow.

Monique Mills:

I was wondering when you say you have 10 people, are these all on,

Monique Mills:

you said most of them are logistics.

Monique Mills:

Is that something that they do full-time or is it just because you mentioned

Monique Mills:

how really efficient your days are with getting your orders and then giving it

Monique Mills:

to the farmers and then delivering it.

Monique Mills:

Do they have other jobs or is this basically their only job.

Duane Slyder:

You know, as we grow it shifts.

Duane Slyder:

Of those 10 people, six of them are full time.

Duane Slyder:

We have people in marketing and operations, product

Duane Slyder:

sourcing, those kinds of things.

Duane Slyder:

The 200 people that deliver for us, I would call it a part time job.

Duane Slyder:

They'll meet the truck at the party stop, at a specific time they'll pick

Duane Slyder:

everything up and, and go off and deliver.

Duane Slyder:

They're very critical though, because our model really hasn't changed and

Duane Slyder:

we've been fortunate that we created a successful model at the beginning,

Duane Slyder:

and then we've just been refining it and making it better, not changing it.

Duane Slyder:

The people that deliver for us create relationships with our customers.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, you want that local touch where we all know when Amazon comes

Duane Slyder:

to our door, we don't know the person.

Duane Slyder:

Because we're delivering such a fragile product being at produce , or bread or,

Duane Slyder:

something, we really deliver anything you can get at a farmers market.

Duane Slyder:

You really want that relationship so you know what, the member, what their

Duane Slyder:

wants and needs are, and then the person that delivers can keep things going and

Duane Slyder:

keep things better as much as possible.

Monique Mills:

That's good because I've written about this a few times on my

Monique Mills:

LinkedIn, because during the pandemic, you know, that's when a lot of people

Monique Mills:

got hip too, you know, getting groceries delivered or even just picking them

Monique Mills:

up at the grocery store, just having the folks bring them to the car.

Monique Mills:

One of the things that I've brought up and I've found it to be pretty common

Monique Mills:

is, yeah, I'll grocery shop online or on my phone, but I'll still go to the

Monique Mills:

store, pick my own produce, go to my car, and then pull into the spot and they

Monique Mills:

bring the rest of my groceries because I just haven't seen it be consistent

Monique Mills:

in picking what I find most appealing.

Monique Mills:

I know some people have really distinct preferences, like, if it's dented

Monique Mills:

here, if it's not that bad, but I want to know that if it's limpy green

Monique Mills:

beans just don't give them to me.

Monique Mills:

Don't put them in a bag, just, say we don't have limpy green beans,

Monique Mills:

but you can't get that type of service at grocery stores, even

Monique Mills:

though you shop there every week.

Duane Slyder:

You're right.

Duane Slyder:

Because the people don't care.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, it's really what it is.

Duane Slyder:

The people that are picking it for you.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, grocery stores are really focused with produce on shelf life.

Duane Slyder:

There's a reason there's only that one type of green bean in grocery stores

Duane Slyder:

because there are hundreds of varieties, but that's the one that lasts the longest.

Duane Slyder:

That's it, and so that's the one that's in the grocery stores.

Monique Mills:

I never thought about it that way.

Duane Slyder:

Because we have a two day turnaround.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, we call our distribution site, the hub, and there's really

Duane Slyder:

nothing in the hub right now because we deliver Wednesday and Thursday are

Duane Slyder:

our consistent weekly delivery days.

Duane Slyder:

So, we don't have anything now until Tuesday, we're trying to

Duane Slyder:

get the freshest produce possible.

Monique Mills:

So out of this venture, what would you say has been the most

Monique Mills:

challenging part over the past 11 years?

Duane Slyder:

I was thinking about that before we talked, you know, getting an MBA

Duane Slyder:

is, it's not worthless, but there are just things you just have to learn as you go.

Duane Slyder:

One is starting a company, especially you don't have that support, you end

Duane Slyder:

up at the start doing everything.

Duane Slyder:

There's not too much at the company that I haven't done you quickly want to

Duane Slyder:

find people to fit in your weaknesses?

Duane Slyder:

You need to find those people.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, the six people that are really on my team are wonderful.

Duane Slyder:

Some of them have skills that I just can't even touch.

Duane Slyder:

They have personal skills where they can hire people and hire the

Duane Slyder:

right people and keep them here.

Duane Slyder:

You know, our controller she cares about every single nickle and she can find

Duane Slyder:

the money where it went and everything.

Duane Slyder:

That's just so critical for what she does.

Duane Slyder:

That's what I think is the success of Seasonal Roots is that I was able to find

Duane Slyder:

good people that filled out my weaknesses.

Monique Mills:

With the company Seasonal Roots, would you say

Monique Mills:

is your main responsibility?

Monique Mills:

You've got all these folks now, now you've been able to hire folks.

Duane Slyder:

Strategy.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, mainly moving us in a direction.

Duane Slyder:

Most of the people I work with are focused on our weekly cycle of, the menu comes

Duane Slyder:

out and then we deliver and someone needs to keep their head up and figuring out,

Duane Slyder:

you know, how do we continue to compete?

Duane Slyder:

If we get competitors that come in and start being more successful

Duane Slyder:

than we are, or how do we move into new areas like Maryland?

Duane Slyder:

I'm the one that's really spent the most time up in Maryland making

Duane Slyder:

sure that we're making headway.

Monique Mills:

How do you start that process?

Monique Mills:

So you start building a network up there, you work with the local

Monique Mills:

neighborhoods, the chambers?

Duane Slyder:

You know what I did, I literally just went up there

Duane Slyder:

and started talking to people.

Duane Slyder:

I can remember going to a yoga studio.

Duane Slyder:

I don't even remember how I got in there and just talking to the owners and who

Duane Slyder:

they knew and, you know, bringing them some boxes of produce and going that way.

Duane Slyder:

Or I know that our expansion is going to be local.

Duane Slyder:

I'm not going to expand from here to Atlanta because it's too hard in

Duane Slyder:

Atlanta because it's too far away.

Duane Slyder:

I am moving into Maryland on purpose because I can ask all the people

Duane Slyder:

that I know here in Virginia.

Duane Slyder:

Who do you know in Maryland and just start leaning on it that way.

Duane Slyder:

It takes a while to find the right people.

Duane Slyder:

Unless you're a big corporation, and you can just say we're opening an office in

Duane Slyder:

Maryland and put out a hiring sheet, but as an entrepreneur, I just don't have

Duane Slyder:

the capital to do that and make mistakes.

Duane Slyder:

I have to find the right person or we're in trouble.

Monique Mills:

Right.

Monique Mills:

So I'm guessing you, you haven't raised money from investors or

Monique Mills:

anything and you've bootstrapped this company thus far, is that correct?

Duane Slyder:

Mostly I bootstrapped it for the first five years.

Duane Slyder:

We just made a profitable model.

Duane Slyder:

So we were able to do that, and then in 2016, we started looking for capital, but

Duane Slyder:

I never had success with venture capital.

Monique Mills:

Yeah.

Monique Mills:

I can see why though your business model doesn't fit with

Monique Mills:

their business model, right?

Duane Slyder:

Yeah that's exactly right, and I learned that the hard way.

Monique Mills:

You know what I do, like most of my, I would say like

Monique Mills:

50% of the work I do in my role with clients, is helping them understand,

Monique Mills:

this doesn't fit the business model that they're looking for.

Monique Mills:

Just stop chasing them and let's figure out how your business can make money.

Duane Slyder:

Yes.

Duane Slyder:

What I know now about the venture capital world and what I tried

Duane Slyder:

to do in my first business were, you know, a perfect marriage, but

Duane Slyder:

the timing was off on those two.

Duane Slyder:

You know, venture capital wants a comparable.

Duane Slyder:

They want to know how they're going to exit, and they usually want to exit

Duane Slyder:

soon, I'm creating something new so they don't know what the exit would look like.

Duane Slyder:

I've had the mask, you know, I have to be honest, I don't know.

Duane Slyder:

I don't know if we get big enough and we go public or if we merge with

Duane Slyder:

something else that really wants us.

Duane Slyder:

We're just too different right now.

Monique Mills:

Yeah, they would want you to expanding to all 50 states right

Monique Mills:

now, in order for them to be inching.

Monique Mills:

You know, they're looking for high, fast growth, they want it.

Monique Mills:

It doesn't even matter about profitability as we can see with, Twitter.

Monique Mills:

So just the whole concept of how venture capitalists look at businesses is

Monique Mills:

just different than everything else.

Monique Mills:

So, you know, I applaud you for saying, "oh, I see that's not for me."

Monique Mills:

I know some folks that still think that they're going to change

Monique Mills:

someone, you know, someone in venture capital's mind about their business,

Monique Mills:

even though it just doesn't align.

Monique Mills:

Some are just really nice and won't say, you know, won't give the tough

Monique Mills:

news that, it doesn't fit in, but, I can say that your business just overall is

Monique Mills:

a wonderful thing to have, especially in our society where fresh food, and

Monique Mills:

we have so much illness, that's the best medicine I know from experience.

Monique Mills:

So I really appreciate you even putting your all into doing this business

Monique Mills:

full time and being committed for the past 11 years to make it grow.

Duane Slyder:

We've had really good stories of people with children who

Duane Slyder:

have cancer, who, you know, use us and it just makes a world of good

Duane Slyder:

for their child or we had a lady who couldn't make her grandmother's recipe.

Duane Slyder:

She figured out when she was using Seasonal Roots, her grandmother

Duane Slyder:

passed away and it was a recipe with potatoes in it, and her grandmother

Duane Slyder:

always got potatoes from the farmer next door, so they were fresh.

Duane Slyder:

Once she started getting our fresh potatoes, it tasted right.

Duane Slyder:

Yeah, we're trying to make a difference.

Duane Slyder:

That's definitely true.

Duane Slyder:

I never wanted to run a company that I didn't feel was a good for the

Duane Slyder:

world, and Seasonal Roots is one.

Monique Mills:

Wow.

Monique Mills:

That's incredible.

Monique Mills:

Thank you so much for sharing your entrepreneurial journey with us and

Monique Mills:

also information about Seasonal Roots.

Monique Mills:

If our audience wants to learn more about Seasonal Roots, let's say, cause

Monique Mills:

we do have some folks that are in the DC area, in the Maryland and Virginia area.

Monique Mills:

How can they find out more about Seasonal Roots?

Duane Slyder:

Well, we're online, so SeasonalRoots.com is the website.

Monique Mills:

And if they wanted to order, is it pretty easy

Monique Mills:

for them to become a customer?

Duane Slyder:

Oh, yes.

Duane Slyder:

I mean, we only deliver in the suburbs.

Duane Slyder:

I always say we can't deliver past a cornfield or horse

Duane Slyder:

stables, we're in the cities.

Duane Slyder:

Other than that, yes, it's very easy to join.

Monique Mills:

Oh, that's fantastic.

Monique Mills:

Duane, thank you again for sharing your journey with us and Unpolished MBA make

Monique Mills:

sure you visit SeasonalRoots.com.

Monique Mills:

Thanks Duane.

Duane Slyder:

Thanks Monique.

Duane Slyder:

Take care.

Monique Mills:

You too.

Monique Mills:

Thank you for listening to the Unpolished MBA podcast.

Monique Mills:

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About the Podcast

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Unpolished MBA

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Monique Mills

Monique Mills is a degreed electrical engineer turned serial entrepreneur. Though she has an MBA, she wants to debunk the myth that you need one to be successful in business, innovation, or entrepreneurship. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HER GO TO MONIQUEMILLS.BIZ