For Johnny Vaccaro”™s first two forays in entrepreneurship, his mom”™s kitchen serves as one of his most important production lines.
Not only did Vaccaro choose to launch his businesses heading into one of the greatest downdrafts in economic history, he also chose to debut two product lines at opposite ends of the business food chain ”“ one a relatively low-maintenance operation focusing on wholesale, bulk sale of nuts to markets, the other a high-maintenance service featuring delivery of high-end, homemade desserts to other people”™s homes.
Vaccaro”™s day job is managing call center duties at the Stamford office of Time Inc., after graduating from Fairfield University where he studied marketing at the Dolan School of Business. In his off time, the West Harrison, N.Y. resident has been seeding ideas for his own businesses.
His first such venture was Urth Organics, through which Vaccaro has been importing unpasteurized almonds from Italy, which retain nutrients that can be nullified in the pasteurization process, while featuring a softer texture and nuttier flavor.
U.S. nut producers are prohibited from selling unpasteurized almonds, but the nuts can be imported for sale stateside. Vaccaro learned about the product while attending a natural foods expo in Anaheim, Calif., to scout ideas.
After sending out 100 pounds of almonds to stores that agreed to test market the products, an independent, organic store in Amsterdam, N.Y. became his first official client, and Vaccaro focused on the market segment of independent grocers hoping to differentiate themselves from chains.
With the decline in the economy, however, Vaccaro said sales have suffered as “casual” organic food customers switch back to non-organic brands to save money at checkout. In response, Vaccaro has been bagging single-servings of almonds, cashews and walnuts in packaging derived from natural materials, marketing them for sale in salons, yoga studios and other health-conscious outlets.
Even as he has wrestled with how to make a go of it in the almond business, Vaccaro was marinating ideas for a second business, ultimately settling on Dolci Di Casa featuring the best tiramisu he knew ”“ his mother”™s ”“ and convinced her to head up “manufacturing” out of her kitchen.
Rather than attempting a mass-market business as he is attempting with his nuts, Vaccaro elected to go with a local, home-delivery model. In addition to tiramisu, the company also sells homemade biscotti.
“You order it, we make it,” Vaccaro said. “It is definitely high maintenance.”
It is also finding favor to date. Vaccaro got an immediate response the same day he posted his first advertisement on Facebook.
“I was out that night and got an inquiry on my Blackberry,” Vaccaro said. “It was a woman from Hartsdale (N.Y.) who said she used to make tiramisu herself but couldn”™t do it anymore.”
Ultimately, Vaccaro hopes to sell the tiramisu to area restaurants, but does not plan to hire a fulltime chef until order volume exceeds 40 a week.
Despite the significant differences between his two companies, Vaccaro said Urth Organics was just as valuable a classroom as Fairfield University in preparing to open the doors to Dolci Di Casa.
“Test the market before you go all in,” Vaccaro said of his most important lesson learned to date. “What I really didn”™t do in the nut business is get a smaller sample and do market tests.”
