Go inside today's most inspiring & emerging brands

Socks for Happy People was conceived in early 2007 when Tom Minter sold his previous company, Budda Bag, and was looking for the next project to focus on.

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In the summer of 2006, Scott Harrison remembers writing words about global poverty all over the walls; hunger, education, AIDS, justice, water. He was 30 years old, and had just returned from a humanitarian tour in Liberia West Africa that had changed him forever. charity: water started in a Soho apartment as a crazy dream.

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There they were, a happy little designer chocolate bar company just starting out in New Zealand in 2001. Bloomsberry & Co. founders Giles Baker and his wife Vanessa Kettelwell were quietly minding their own business making chocolate and designing quirky wrappers, when they were suddenly hit by a wave of popularity.

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One of the first socially-responsible companies in the U.S., Seventh Generation was founded in Burlington, Vermont in 1988 by Jeffrey Hollender as mail-order company selling environmentally-friendly household products, who believed that there was a growing need for a better way to do things.

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Childhood was a time of simplicity. Riding our bikes. Playing with our imagination. Having people tell us they like us by circling yes, no, or maybe. Ah, the good old days. 18 Rabbits, a San Francisco based company, wants people to feel the same goodness when they eat their yummy granola products. For founder Alison Bailey Vercruysse, memories of her mom baking her special granola recipe while she played outside with her four siblings and their rabbit, Blackjack, are what inspired her idea for her brand.

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Gigi Lee Chang, mom and third-generation entrepreneur, is the founder of leading baby and toddler food brand, Plum Organics. She launched with a line of frozen baby foods in 2006 on the basic principles of creating organic meals that exemplify freshness, optimal nutrition and great taste without compromise. 

The inspiration for Plum Organics came about when Gigi took a trip with her son Cato – then 8 months. At that time, Gigi had only been feeding Cato homemade baby food, and when she tried to give him commercial baby food on their trip, he refused to eat it. Using a food grinder, Gigi quickly ground some adult food and waalaa, he was happily eating again. This caused her to stop and think: Why wasn’t he interested in commercial food? Why did he only want to eat mom’s cookin’?

Upon returning to New York, Gigi started looking into the topic and found a couple of key points. 1) Research shows taste preferences are formed by the age of two, and 2) Commercial baby food was invented more than 50 years ago and not much has evolved to improve it since. So on a mission, Gigi went to change how kids eat and food is made by offering better tasting, more nutritious options.

In 2009, Plum Organics launched their next line of baby purees in shelf-stable pouches. The pouch delivers a much better quality product than traditional shelf-stable baby foods while also offering more convenience and portability than their original frozen line. Last year they also launched a toddler line to address the market need for a full-range of organic snacks to encourage eating independence.

In just four short years, Plum Organics has grown its distribution to over 1,500 stores in national retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Babies “R” Us and Target. Recognized as a leader and innovator in baby food, Plum Organics was selected for Entrepreneur’s 2007 annual “HOT LIST” and named “Brand Innovator 2008 & 2010” by Brand Packaging. Gigi and Plum Organics have been featured in over 250 media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, MORE magazine, Yogi Times, KIWI Magazine, Cookie, Parenting, OK! Weekly, Celebrity Baby Blog, TODAY Show, Newsweek and Time Out New York Kids. Quite the accomplishments.

Q+A with Gigi Lee Chang
Motto: What driving force propels you out of bed each morning? 
Quite literally at 6:30am, my 6-year old son. He was the inspiration for Plum Organics and continues to be my inspiration every day. 

Motto: What is the one thing you want to communicate to the world?
I believe that Plum Organics is about solutions for the contemporary family. Today’s consumers are about individuality and “a la carte” choices. No one brand or solution will be able to meet all needs at all times. We want Plum to be a brand that today’s parents can identify with and trust to bring them innovative solutions to meet their baby and toddler’s eating needs.

Motto: Do you consider your company to be passion-driven, mission-driven, socially-driven, all, or other?
As a triple-bottom line company, we are all three – but if you really look at it – we are passion driven. Our passion is our mission - which is about healthier, more nutritious foods for babies and toddlers. One way to deliver on our mission is through our products, but education is also a big part of what we do which leads to the social side of our mission. At the end of the day, it is all intertwined. 

We are also the only baby and toddler foods company to be a B Corporations. B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Certified by a third-party – B Lab - they help us by providing additional accountability and external metrics against which we are measured against our own triple bottom line goals.

Motto: What are big influences that have led you to where you are in life?
From a professional perspective, I would say that all my various career experiences have been like puzzle pieces that gave me specific skills to create Plum Organics. Prior to starting Plum, I had worked in management consulting and strategic planning for Fortune 100 companies as well as agencies. I also spent time working for my family’s manufacturing business in Asia, which was formative in helping me to gain a big picture view of end-to-end business processes. All of these learning helped me to put the pieces together and launch Plum Organics.

Personally, it is my family and their support that has enabled me to make this journey. My husband has been supportive of the business from the beginning and advised me behind the scenes. My parents also provided tremendous support. Everyone in my family has a real entrepreneurial spirit so I think that also allowed me to “go for it”.

Motto: Where does the name Plum Organics come from?
I worked with an agency to go through a naming process and decided on Plum Organics. I wanted a name that had an association with babies/children, but was not cutesy. I also knew I didn’t want any “earthy, granola” names because they weren’t contemporary. We ended up with Plum because it had the qualities I was looking for, I liked the double meaning of the word “Plum” and purple is my favorite color.

Motto: Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics?
I like to think I am fairly normal, but my family may disagree ☺ One quirk I have is that I am a neat freak. It is really important to me that everything is in its right place and if something is used, it is cleaned and put away straight away. When I am cooking for example, I can’t start cooking unless the entire kitchen is clean and everything is put away, even if I know I’m going to need to take it out to use it in 30 seconds time. Does that qualify as a strange mannerism???

Motto: What is your advice to companies on building authentic brands?
Authenticity is really about heart. I believe that if a company is passionate and true to their beliefs it will be authentic. Often times in business, there are choices and trade-offs which sometimes may seem like the better decision but if there isn’t a direct line back to the vision and mission of the company, it will not sit right with the brand. Consumers are very insightful and over time, these choices will eventually erode a brand’s authenticity. 

Motto: What role does design play in your brand?
Design and innovation is a big part of Plum Organics’ success. When we first launched, we made some bold design choices that continue to be the hallmark of what people like about our brand. For example, the white background, the imagery and photography come together in a way that really wasn’t applied to packaged food products in 2006. Now, for example, we see so many food brands using white packaging, but 5 years ago, that wasn’t the case. 

Now that we are part of the Nest Collective, design continues to be at the heart of the brand. Nest has design and innovation at its core. One example of this is the ability to integrate design into the DNA of the company by having an internal R&D, design and innovation team. By taking these functions in-house, the classic tension between operations and innovation is reduced, enabling us to bring ideas to fruition that otherwise might not make it.

As we continue to innovate, we are building on our core brand imagery, but also using intuitive product design to meet the needs of our core consumers. Our new baby food pouches are an example of this. The pouch format is more user friendly and creates a better feeding experience. It lets parents feed their children with one hand or easily dispense the food onto a spoon. To make the experience even better, we had the idea to make a spoon that would attach to our pouches and dispense baby food, creating a one-handed feeding effort. When we had the idea for the spoon, we looked to partner with Boon, Inc. – another brand that clearly has innovation at its core. The result is the Plum Dispensing Spoon by Boon. Recently launched in July, it has been a big hit.

Motto: What is your proudest moment as a brand?
I would say it is when I saw the product on the retail shelf for the first time. This moment continues to be replicated every time we launch a new product line or we gain a new retail partner. As a start-up company, it is the “I can’t believe it’s real” moment that makes me most proud.

Motto: What is your definition of success?
Knowing that you achieved your goal, not necessarily by external or material measures, more from within. 

Motto: If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
I would love to do a culinary course or degree in holistic health. Through starting Plum Organics, I am now part of the larger health and wellness community. There is so much I want to know more about and gain more knowledge in, especially around food and nutrition.

Motto: How are Plum products developed?
There is no single process since we have a variety of product platforms, but through our research and insights into the market and consumer needs, we identify opportunities and gaps. We challenge ourselves to improve on the product itself (taste, quality, nutrition), and also the consumer experience (usability, functionality). As we go through our innovation process, we garner further input from consumers and also share the concepts with our key retail partners and get their feedback and support as well. 

Gigi Fills in the Blank…
I believe what you put out into the universe is what you will receive back.
The world would be better if we all behaved as truthfully and transparently as children.
Someday I am going to go to bed early.
I’m not very good at turning off the computer at night.
I love answering my son’s endless stream of questions because it really challenges my assumptions and understanding of things we take for granted.
When I need a break I get a massage.
I am most happy when I am lying in bed reading or talking with my son.
It bothers me when people don’t acknowledge the collaboration and team effort that is required to be successful.
I never thought I’d be an entrepreneur.
My motto: Never be afraid to ask questions, better to learn something than pretend.

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