# Stacy's Pita Chips: Stacy Madison

- Show: [How I Built This](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this)
- Published: 2019-05-27
- Length: 1h 03m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison

## Summary

Stacy Madison, co-founder of Stacy's Pita Chips, explains how she and Mark Andrus pivoted from a Boston food cart to a $250 million sale to PepsiCo by solving scaling challenges, including hand-cutting bread and managing cash flow. They overcame industry skepticism by investing in custom machinery, such as a conveyorized oven and a modified carrot-cutting machine, to transition from home-baking to industrial manufacturing. The episode details their strategic retail partnerships with Bread & Circus and Trader Joe's, which allowed them to avoid equity dilution, and their successful crowdfunding-style bootstrapping through bank loans. It also covers the operational crisis of a factory fire during the acquisition process and the personal dynamics of a clean divorce while maintaining 50-50 business ownership.

## Chapters

- [2:11](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=131) Introduction: Stacy Madison and Stacy's Pita Chips
- [5:14](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=314) Stacy Madison's Early Career and Move to Boston
- [14:13](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=853) Starting the Food Cart and Inventing Pita Chips
- [24:12](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=1452) Scaling Production: From 8 Racks to Custom Machinery
- [27:50](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=1670) Funding Growth: Bank Loans and Retail Partnerships
- [35:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=2116) Overcoming Industry Skepticism and Manufacturing Hurdles
- [41:53](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=2513) Divorce, Business Partnership, and Factory Fire
- [48:58](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=2938) The PepsiCo Acquisition and Post-Sale Life
- [59:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2019-05-27-stacys-pita-chips-stacy-madison#t=3562) Postscript: Prerak Juthani and REACT! Board Game

## Topics

- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Fundraising & investors](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/fundraising)
- [Retail, wholesale & distribution](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/retail-and-distribution)
- [Growth, exits & acquisitions](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/growth-exits-and-acquisitions)
- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)

## Most relevant to

founders before launch, early-stage companies, companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Stacy's Pita Chips (product)
- PepsiCo (company)
- Bread & Circus (company)
- Trader Joe's (company)
- Costco (company)
- Sam's Club (company)
- REACT! (product)
- Frito Lay (company)
- Campbell's (company)
- Cape Cod Potato Chips (company)

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