Provenance Meals - The Startup That Delivers Healthy Meals Right To Your Door
We had the opportunity to interview Caroll Lee, Founder and CEO of Provenance Meals, prepared meals to nourish mind and body.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and Provenance?
A: The most important thing to know about me is that I “live to eat”, not “eat to live”. Pleasure and enjoyment of my meals is always a top priority. But I became acutely aware of the connection between food and health after I lost my mom at too young an age and then shortly after became pregnant with my first child. After graduating from nutrition school, I put my instincts to heal people through “food as medicine” into practice as a wellness coach dedicated to helping busy professionals achieve optimal well-being despite their jam-packed schedules.
Provenance Meals, launched in 2012, is the result of my work researching and investigating the root causes of lifestyle disease and the healing benefits of clean, organic, sustainably-sourced nutrition. I’m trying to impact as many people as possible by providing healthy, anti-inflammatory meals that are ready to eat and delivered to our clients’ doors. Our mission is to dramatically reduce lifestyle disease (the leading cause of death in America) by replacing inflammatory foods with healing ones.
Q: How did you get the idea for Provenance?
A: In my private coaching practice, I was putting my clients on programs to reduce their weight, increase their energy, and help them become the most amazing version of themselves through nutrition. As long as I was actively coaching them and supplying them with the food to eat, they were very successful at reaching their goals. But when they stopped eating the nutrient-dense food, they would quickly go back to unhealthy routines because it was too difficult to eat well on a consistent basis. I realized that by providing convenient meals prepared with delicious and nutritious ingredients, I was able to help them stay on the path towards health and longevity. I knew that by launching Provenance, I could impact even more people and improve people’s lives.
Q: What makes your company different from others in your space?
A: Provenance Meals is not about being on a diet and restricting calories. That’s the old way of thinking about health, and unfortunately, many companies are still striving towards making you look skinny but not necessarily helping you feel your best. I love food. It brings me so much pleasure and joy, and when it’s healthy, it brings that happiness in both the short term AND the long term. In order for it to work, it has to fit into your schedule and your body. Literally, every body is different. So instead of strict programs and dietary restrictions, we incorporate a lot of choice and flexibility into our programs so that people can find what works for them at that point in their lives.
There’s a rapidly growing market for healthy meal delivery, but many of the newer companies are just not truly health-focused to our level, still using processed ingredients and industrial vegetable oils. Our differentiator is the integrity of our pure, whole-food ingredients that improve not only your weight, but all your important health markers.
Q: What kind of traction have you had since you first launched?
A: We became a profitable company at the end of 2014. We hit the $1m mark in revenue in 2017, and haven’t looked back since. We also acquired a sister meal delivery service in Los Angeles this year so we’ll be opening in our first new market later this Spring, and our revenue is on track to more than double this year.
Q: Did you hit any roadblocks that almost caused you to throw in the towel?
A: Refrigeration problems, staff not showing up, road closures, ingredient shortages… we’ve experienced it all. Running a food delivery business is not easy, but then again, no one ever said it would be. Whenever I’ve thought it would be easier to throw in the proverbial towel, I’ve let myself feel the frustration and/or exhaustion, then picked myself up and kept going. That’s probably the key to my success - my scrappiness to deal with whatever life throws at me plus my determination to finish what I started.
Q: If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of business/financial advice, what would it be?
A: I would tell my younger self that other people’s advice is often well-intentioned, but no one knows your company and your brand as well as you do. If you want to succeed and be proud of what you’ve built every step of the way, look inward, not outward.
Q: Are you looking for additional funding or have a crowdfunding campaign? If so, what are you looking for in a potential investor, and how can interested readers get in touch/learn more?
A: We are currently running an equity finance crowdfunding campaign via Republic. Our clients are our biggest cheerleaders so we wanted to give them a chance to become shareholders in our company and found that equity crowdfunding was a great platform for that. We’re also seeking to raise additional funds above and beyond our crowdfund. If you’re interested in learning more, you can visit republic.co/provenance or email me at clee [@] provenancemeals dot com.
Q: Where do you see the company in 5 years and how do you plan to get there?
A: In 5 years, we’ll be delivering nationwide, with a suite of products and programs that are priced for all income levels. I see doctors and nutritionists prescribing our meals the same way they would a pharmaceutical because in the majority of their cases, our meals are safer and more effective.
We’ll not only continue to promote health via food, but also provide resources and products to support our clients’ wellness goals in other verticals such as fitness, nutrition coaching, clean beauty, longevity, and mental health.
How will we get there? We’ve already formed some fantastic partnerships but the key to achieving our goals would be to work with more health care practitioners and networks. We will scale up, with delivery nationwide, keep improving our processes to keep food at peak nutrition, and continue to grow our network of functional medical practitioners, acupuncturists, therapists, and more to become part of a growing toolkit to live well.
Q: Is there any advice you'd give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?
A: Don’t be afraid to fail. And meditate daily.
Q: Is there anything else you want to share with our audience?
A: There are a lot of people who aren’t happy with the state of their health, or know instinctively that there is more they could be doing to feel like their best self every day. We know that there are a lot of factors that go into illness. One of the biggest factors is our environment, and as a country, we are living our way into illness and disease through bad diet. I just want people to know that it’s possible to live your way out of that towards wellness and optimal health. We are here to help people do that, one delicious bite at a time.
Disclosure: Startup Watch is a platform TalkMarkets provides for startup company executives to discuss their companies in depth. TalkMarkets provides a suggested list of questions but the format ...
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@[Caroll Lee](user:128882), I love this idea. Were you happy with the money you raised via crowdfunding? Would love to know how it has helped to grow your company. Are you still looking for more investors?