The Bread and Butter Letter #9: Caroline Cotto of Renewal Mill
A bread and butter letter is a letter of thanks for hospitality…our version is full of gratitude, thank-yous and advice and will feature founders we’ve backed, our team, and friends of B&B.
Caroline Cotto, the co-founder and COO of Renewal Mill, is passionate about upcycled food, in large part due to the enormous impact it can have in the global climate crisis. “Reducing food waste is the number one most important thing we can do to prevent two degrees of global climate warming,” she says. “At our core, that’s the problem Renewal Mill is solving. We’re fighting climate change with flour by upcycling the billions of pounds of nutritious byproducts that are arbitrarily labeled as “waste” and thrown away each year into better-for-you, better-for-the-planet ingredients and pantry staples.”
Renwal Mill has been busy the past few months, partnering with Kroger as part of their Innovation Fund’s second cohort and launching its products in Whole Foods (NorCal), Cost Plus World Market, and a bunch of new stores in the New York City Area. Caroline also shared that Renewal Mill’s upcycled ingredients are now being used by more than 5 brands in their nationally distributed SKUS, including Tia Lupita, Pulp Pantry, Square Baby, Fancypants Baking Co, Eli’s Cheesecake, and more. You can also purchase their products directly on their website (we recommend the Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix!)
We recently sat down with Caroline to talk about the people, things and experiences that have helped her on her entrepreneurial journey:
Is there a person from growing up who you feel thankful towards?
No one gets anywhere alone, and there are hundreds of people who I’m thankful towards for all the support they’ve given me growing up and in my career. I’m especially grateful to my mom and my aunt who showed me there are multiple definitions of “success” and encouraged me to always march to the beat of my own drum rather than following the crowd. These two women, who’ve led extremely different lives, acted as guiding posts at every decision I made, giving me often opposing opinions and encouraging me to make my own.
Who was instrumental at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey
The entire Techstars Farm to Fork staff, especially Jess Stalbaum and Brett Brohl, were instrumental at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. They both took a chance on me a week before the program started, and it was at Techstars that I met my now co-founder Claire Schlemme. Under Jess and Brett’s guidance, I learned the technical aspects of entrepreneurship, but I also learned a mindset and an attitude that they both exude and that I try to emulate in my work now.
What books, podcasts, or blogs have really inspired you as a leader?
So many… Designing Your Life is a book that really inspired me because you can’t lead effectively until you understand how you operate, what motivates you, and how to best use your talents and tamper your weaknesses. For similar reasons, I think anything by Brene Brown is insightful, and I’d recommend So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport and Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. I also really enjoy the How I Built This podcast for how it sheds light on the fact that there is no one right way to lead.
Who is an unsung person at your company you’d like to highlight?
I’d love to highlight our Director of Operations, Aaron Brown, who is an absolutely incredible operator and asset to our team. As a trained pastry chef and voracious reader, Aaron brings a keen eye for detail, a next-level palate, and data driven wisdom to everything he does. He not only makes sure that trains run on time, but he helps us with new product development. And, he does an overwhelming amount of work with a positive attitude and a smile. We adore working with him every day.
What do you look back on and thank yourself for doing when you started your company (i.e. what would you recommend to others?)?
I’m grateful that we invested in the long game — we knew that upcycled foods would take awhile to catch on, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the momentum in the space over the last 18 months. We also knew that the sales cycle for ingredients was long and that we needed to plant seeds early. Relationships we started 3–5 years ago are just now starting to bear fruit, and I think that’s a testament to consistency and follow-up. It’s not novel, but I’ve found “follow-up, follow-up, follow-up” to be key to starting and scaling a business, with investors, partners, potential employees, you name it. I also thank myself for setting boundaries early. Entrepreneurship is exhausting, sometimes lonely, work, and you can only perform at your best when you make time for yourself. I’d encourage all founders to make sure they are building recovery time, even if it’s not a huge amount, into every week!
