Female Founders: Junea Rocha of Better-for-you On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
Being a founder is a tough job but also very fulfilling. It’s certainly not for everyone and that is okay. To be a successful founder you have to be resilient and have an incredible level of determination. You have to have a vision for what you want to achieve and confidently and tirelessly work to get closer to that goal. As a founder you also have to be willing to take risks — it’s not for those who are risk averse or need security to feel fulfilled. Embracing change is also critical. Accept the things you cannot change and use every opportunity to learn and improve your business.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Junea Rocha.
Junea Rocha is the Co-Founder and CMO of better-for-you, Latin-inspired food brand, Brazi Bites. In 2010, along with her husband and Co-Founder, Cameron MacMullin, Junea decided to bring a cherished household staple that was native to her Brazilian roots, “Pão de Queijo,” AKA cheese bread, to the U.S. market without any experience in the food industry. In a few short years after taking a giant leap and perfecting the family recipe, Brazi Bites grew into a nationally distributed brand with a cult-like following after appearing on ABC’s Shark Tank and being included twice on the Inc. 5000 list of “America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies.”
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up in Brazil where my memories are filled with family and delicious homemade food. Growing up in Brazil in the 90s, there were cultural career expectations that you must either become a lawyer, doctor, or engineer, so, I went with engineering. After going to college, moving to the US and working in engineering for over seven years, I realized I did not see a future for myself in that industry. Having always had an entrepreneurial spirit, I decided to take a leap of faith and do something that would bring me the fulfilment and passion I craved. I missed my family’s Cheese Bread recipe (“Pão de queijo”) which is a staple in South America, and I wanted to share these tasty bites with Americans. After my American friends traveled to Brazil for my wedding and gushed about the cheese bread more than any of the other wonderful things they experienced, I was convinced there was something to the idea. That’s when the lightbulb turned on and I decided to pursue bringing authentic Brazilian cheese bread to Americans.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
There are so many great stories in the journey of starting and growing Brazi Bites over the last decade. If I had to choose one single important moment, I would say it was appearing on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2015. Everything about it was challenging and amazing and pushed me way out of my comfort zone. It was incredibly competitive to be selected, the preparation for the pitch took weeks and the actual airing day changed the trajectory of our business and my career.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One mistake that always comes to mind that I can laugh at now, was when we were starting off, we bought an old food truck in hopes that it would create awareness and drive sales in our local market. We spent a crazy amount of time renovating it with plans to start sampling Brazi Bites at events throughout Portland. We hoped the food truck would drive people to the store, however, consumers struggled to connect that the cheese bread from the food truck was available in the freezer section of their local grocery stores, despite all our efforts to bridge that gap. We eventually sold the food truck and shifted focus to in-store sampling. Although it was challenging, I’m thankful for that experience as it taught me a lot about shopping behaviors and ultimately made us stronger as a company.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’m very grateful to our peer founders. They have been our greatest mentors and have always had our back. When we were preparing to go on Shark Tank, we leaned on a few of our founder friends who had previously been on the show and their help was invaluable. The natural foods industry is incredibly open and supportive. We are always lifting each other up.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I believe one of the biggest challenges many women face in starting their own businesses is a lack of stable and affordable childcare. It is such a significant issue in American society today. I believe more women would be founders or in leadership roles if there was more support. These roles require high focus and time commitment and unfortunately it is very challenging to do when childcare is not stable. Funding is also a big challenge for female founders. In 2020, women-led startups received only 2.3% of venture capital funding, according to crunchbase figures.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Federal paid family leave and federal childcare support are good starting points. I’m hopeful those pieces of the Build Back Better bill will go through and that will be a good step forward. There is a lot of criticism and noise around the length of the paid family leave but anything at this point is better than nothing and you have to start somewhere. The funding issue is systematically rooted — having more women in leadership roles of VC Firms and Company Boards would be a good step forward as well.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
- It is so important to have representation — especially in the food industry, women are doing most of the shopping and should be represented at the leadership level by the brands that serve them. We as women are also natural problem solvers. Starting a business is fraught with roadblocks and challenges and having problem-solving skills and the ability to think on our feet is crucial as a founder.
- We bring communication skills to the table, and it is no secret that women tend to be great listeners and are master communicators and networkers. Communication is essential for growing a business, building a strong team and developing talent as you grow.
- Women are also talented multi-taskers, and it is key for entrepreneurs to wear many hats and women do this their whole lives.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
There’s an idea out there that founders operate alone and make all of the decisions. However, most successful companies have more than one founder with different strengths. Another “myth” is that the work is glamorous. Being a founder is like being a small business owner. There is a tremendous amount of work, and you have to do whatever it takes to keep things moving. Founders wear all the hats and need to roll with all the punches. Work-life balance doesn’t really exist. Lastly, there’s this misconception that founders are crazy risk takers. While that is true to a degree (you have to be comfortable taking risks) more often than not, big decisions are usually calculated and thought through.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Being a founder is a tough job but also very fulfilling. It’s certainly not for everyone and that is okay. To be a successful founder you have to be resilient and have an incredible level of determination. You have to have a vision for what you want to achieve and confidently and tirelessly work to get closer to that goal. As a founder you also have to be willing to take risks — it’s not for those who are risk averse or need security to feel fulfilled. Embracing change is also critical. Accept the things you cannot change and use every opportunity to learn and improve your business.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Expect to hear a lot of ‘no’s’ — don’t let them stop you from moving forward.
- The amount of work and time that it’ll take to get the business off the ground will be way more than you imagined.
- You can do hard things. Keep pushing through the challenges and the path will unfold in front of you.
- Understand your target consumer and listen to them carefully.
- Be strategic and thoughtful about your retail launch strategy.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
What makes a life fulfilling is being of service to others and making the world a better place through what you do. I believe making foods that are better-for-you and replacing the junk people buy in the freezer has been one of our greatest achievements in growing the company. I also want to help aspiring entrepreneurs so I mentor and advise a number of entrepreneurs and hope that sharing my lessons learned will help them achieve their own goals.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would like to inspire more women to go after their dreams and break the glass ceiling. More women need to be in boardrooms and leadership positions, and we need to start by giving them the opportunity and addressing the structural problem our society has around childcare.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to have a private breakfast with Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx. She is successful, humble, authentic and a great role model. She spent two years doing tireless research to establish a brand and all without having any fashion or business leadership experience. She has changed women’s undergarments forever and it’s so inspiring to see what you can do with little experience but relentless determination.
I would also love to chat with Greta Thunberg. She is absolutely inspiring because she is fearless. She is courageous and speaks her truth with conviction. She embodies qualities of a leader and is a powerful and inspiring young woman.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Junea Rocha of Better-for-you On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.