Noosa Yoghurt: Koel Thomae

How I Built This · 25 Nov 2024 · 1h 07m

What this episode covers

Koel Thomae, co-founder of Noosa Yoghurt, explains how she leveraged a $75,000 equity payout from Izzy Beverage to launch a passionfruit yogurt brand in Boulder, Colorado. She details the 8,000-mile partnership with the Matthewson family in Australia and dairy farmer Rob Graves, who provided the manufacturing facility. Thomae describes the critical decision to pull out of a damaging deal with ShopRite to save cash flow, and the subsequent scaling through Target and private equity investment by Advent, leading to a $200M+ exit to Campbell’s.

Mentioned

Companies
Izzy Beverage, ShopRite, Target, Campbell’s, Advent, Whole Foods, Morning Fresh
Products
Noosa Yoghurt, Queensland Yogurt

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