Geo D Foods, George Tikkun
George Tikkun is one of the youngest entrepreneurs that our SCORE chapter has seen. He started Geo D Foods in Hillsborough in 2023. Read on to learn about his business journey making and selling vegan bacon - with some help from his Mom Jill.
Prayson Pate - SCORE: How did you come up with the idea of making vegan bacon?
George: It started with a recipe that my mom found online. I like cooking in general, so I decided to cook it and try it out. It was fine but nothing special. I decided to bring it to a festival and I learned that people really liked it. I thought I could make it better, so I revised the recipe ten or twenty times to get to the final recipe. I also made two flavors, and have now added a third.
Prayson: You started making the bacon for fun, but then you got more serious about it and decided to make an improved product and sell it. What was that process like for you?
George: I started out at festivals making cookies to draw people to our booth where my Mom was selling a cookbook. So I had the experience with making and distributing food products. So selling the bacon wasn't weird for me. But it was also different because it was a product I wanted to succeed with, not just something I was doing for fun.
Prayson: How did you find SCORE?
Jill: I am not positive, but I think it was through our involvement with the SBA group at Durham Tech.
Prayson: How has SCORE helped?
Jill: We had already formed an LLC and done some first steps, but we needed help with business structure and planning. The first step was creating a business plan along with keeping track of our sales revenue. And answering important questions like how we should price out George’s product.
Our SCORE mentors worked with us over the summer on these items. And it was slow going because we were in a summer camp in Wisconsin with no internet. We had to set up meetings from a coffee shop so we had internet access. At each meeting we would go over the next item such as budgets, tracking revenue and profit and loss statements. And we had to learn a lot of concepts and terminology, and they were very helpful with that.
Prayson: How is the business going?
George: We ended the year in black, so that’s a positive. But we weren't able to go to all the events we wanted, so there’s room to improve.
Jill: And with our new P&L projections, we’re looking at revenues to double next year.
Prayson: Wow! Congratulations on your early success! What are the next steps for your business?
George: We are now looking into going beyond festivals and into direct retail. That means more of a focus on packaging and learning what makes people want to buy our product.
We are also looking more closely at the market in terms of our target customers and competitors. How do we compare in price, ingredients, and nutrition? How do we differentiate? All the aspects of improving the product and growing the business.
Prayson: And for yourself? Is this the type of business you want to do long-term?
George: Definitely not. I want to get the business up and running, and then sell it or hire some people to run it so I can step back. In the longer term my interest is in food biochemistry and inventing new vegan foods.
Jill: Hopefully the profits will be high enough that you can help pay for some of college.
Prayson: I think the business experience will help with college applications. And understanding the business aspects of bringing food products to market will help with your professional work. Of course, sales and marketing experience is good for everyone!
Some pescatarian family members and I tried George’s vegan bacon, and agreed it is quite tasty. If you want to learn more, please check out www.vegankids.com, www.facebook.com/vegankidscook, and www.instagram.com/geodfoods.
