920 Donna Letier:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP920 Melinda Wittstock with Donna Letier

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Donna Letier:

We work with family-owned farms around the country. And the CEO of Bonnie Plants said to me, ‘we grow gardens. Gardenuity is growing gardeners.’ I literally was like, oh, can we put that on a T-shirt? And so, you know, if somebody says, well, I can’t garden because I don’t have space, we gotcha. If they say, well, I don’t know how we’re going to walk you through every step. And we’ve premeasured, we’ve worked with the best scientists to get the plants everything they need. So, if you’re in a high rise or you literally just need a desktop garden and science shows if you have plants on your desktop, the mental health benefits are vast. From improved creativity to resilience to fewer sick days. The research is there. We just bring it to you.

Melinda Wittstock:

There is something both grounding and rejuvenating about getting your hands dirty in the soil, planting seeds, and witnessing beauty gradually fade music here flower in a garden. The wellness benefits are undisputed, and it just got easier to grow a garden wherever you live – thanks to Donna Letier, the founder and CEO of Gardenuity. Donna shares today her growing container garden business and how she’s leveraging AI to make it easy for everyone to enjoy gardening and its myriad health benefits.

PAUSE no words from 5-8 seconds…with music full

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, (Start to fade music GRADUALLY under my voice – here) epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who is a passionate advocate for making gardening accessible to everyone, regardless of location or physical ability. Donna Letier is the founder of the fast-growing container garden business Gardenuity, on a mission to democratize gardening, ensuring that people can enjoy its nutritional and mental health benefits whether they live in a Manhattan high rise, boast a spacious yard in San Diego, or navigate life in a wheelchair in Dallas. Driven by a commitment to wellness, Donna dispels the notion that gardening is too difficult by emphasizing its universal benefits and helping anyone overcome the common refrain of “I don’t know how, I kill everything” by empowering them to cultivate their own green spaces and improve their well-being.

Melinda Wittstock:

Donna will be here in a start music GRADUALLY under my voice moment, and first:

[PROMO CREDIT]

A belated Happy International Women’s Day. I’m in awe of the incredible companies I see women creating and scaling, and the growing number of women investors starting to write checks to female founders. Eight years ago, I started this podcast because I wanted to help women succeed as entrepreneurs. Over the years, I’ve driven more than $10 million in sales to the women I’ve featured on this show, and this year I’m taking my investment in female founders to a whole new level as a venture partner of the new firm Zero Limits Capital, where fade music after 2-3 seconds we’re dedicated to investing in highly scalable seed stage startups founded by women and diverse teams – a mission more important than ever as the Trump administration cracks down on anything and everything DEI. We’re looking for innovators with exciting new applications of AI, Blockchain and other emerging technologies that make a social and sustainable impact to change the world. Is this you? If it is, take a moment and tell us about your opportunity at bit.ly/ZLCintake – that’s bit.dot.ly/ZLCintake – capital ZLC lowercase intake.

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Melinda Wittstock:

Ever thought about the power of gardening beyond just growing plants? Turns out that when we surround ourselves with the beauty of nature by growing a garden we nourish ourselves and our wellbeing. Scientific studies show that just putting your hands in the soil is beneficial for your gut biome and cerebral cortex—and it also helps you combat anxiety by grounding yourself in a meditative state.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we get inspired by Donna Letier, the founder of Gardenuity, who is making gardening accessible to everyone, everywhere. Donna has created a fast-growing business that demystifies gardening and sets us all up for success, with customized container gardening experiences crafted for your lifestyle, your local environment, and your needs with the powerful AI platform Gardenuity Match. With a vision for a garden on every porch and balcony, Gardenuity aims to change lives one sprout at a time by mixing nature with cutting-edge technology and an eye for personalization. Donna also has a plan for businesses, bringing nature to the workplace from kitchen gardens to corporate workshops to enhance employee well-being and creativity.

Melinda Wittstock:

Drawing inspiration from her daughter, a 4-time Special Olympics gold medalist, Donna shares her entrepreneurial journey and proves that every challenge can bloom into an opportunity. She says gardening is not only a personal sanctuary for health and wellness but a powerful analogy for entrepreneurship itself—and all the challenges of raising capital, leading a team and scaling growth.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just getting started, listen on for valuable insights into personal growth and business inspiration to plant a seed of inspiration in your life. Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Donna Letier and be sure to download the podcast app Podopolo so we can keep the conversation going after the episode.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Donna, welcome to Wings.

Donna Letier:

Thank you, Melinda, for having me.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, congratulations on growing Gardenuity to where it is today. I want you, in your own words, to describe the unique innovation here and what you’re doing with Gardenuity.

Donna Letier:

Sure. Well, you know, it’s always fun for me to get to talk about something that people have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years, and we have democratized it and made the idea of gardening accessible to everyone. So, whether you’re in a high rise in Boston, have a beautiful yard in San Diego, or you’re in a wheelchair in Dallas, Texas, you can reap the nutritional and the mental health benefits of having your garden. It’s really been an exciting journey. We’re in the wellness space. And what’s fun, Melinda, is nobody has ever argued that gardening isn’t good for you. They just say, oh, it’s hard. I don’t know how I kill everything.

Donna Letier:

And we’ve changed that conversation.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s so interesting. It’s linked to wellness because if you’re in a beautiful garden, like, it uplifts your spirit, right? And then your hands are actually, like, in the soil. I don’t get to garden much, but the brief experience that I’ve had with it, you know, off and on in my life, it always feels nourishing somehow.

Donna Letier:

Well, it’s scientifically proven, I mean, that you just put your hands in soil, and it’s good for your gut biome, it’s good for all of your senses, it’s good for your cerebral cortex. We have got a lot of doctors and of all kinds and nutritionists and horticulturalists on our team who’ve really helped create Gardenuity. So, it’s certainly not something I’ve done in a vacuum with Julie, but the benefits are vast, and it helps you change your mindset. So, we talk about aging, we talk about gardening. If you’re going through menopause, we talk about gardening for nutritional benefits. The correlation between mental health and gardening has been practiced as horticultural therapy in Europe and Southeast Asia for 100 years. We’re really just bringing that stateside.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s so obvious when you say it, and yet it wasn’t anything I’d ever thought of before, like, on that kind of conscious level, right? And so, you’re really helping people not only get into gardening, but also providing them with kind of, I guess, personalized services. To help them do it. Is that right?

Donna Letier:

That’s 100% right. Think about, you know how I always use the analogy because we’re compared a lot to calm. And I think about, okay, they have built this beautiful business on something everybody knows is good for you. But some people think it’s really hard to meditate. So, they’ve made it simple and seamless. We’re doing the same thing for gardening. And it’s when we explain it, there’s that aha moment. We add the fun factor, but we also add the idea that it’s, it’s a way to build community.

Donna Letier:

And I think we as human beings are meant to be in tribes. And so, it gives us something to talk about as people are distanced. And the one thing I like to say is you can’t garden and hold your phone at the same time. So, you really learn to be present in the moment and that’s really good for you.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s something that people really struggle with. They’re either living in the past, like in their own head with all that kind of negative self-talk and recrimination and stuff. Just like, I wish I coulda, woulda, shoulda, all that stuff. Like they’re in the past, regret, whatever, or they’re really focused on the future. Like when I’m here, then I’ll be happy.

Melinda Wittstock:

Because we’re all moving towards, we all have a plan right where we’re going, but we can forget that the power is actually in the present moment. So, the gardening is kind of literally grounding us in the present.

Donna Letier:

And you know what? Nobody, you know, wellness is not a destination, it’s a journey. And so, if you think, okay, I’m going to lose ten pounds and then you’re healthy for the rest of your life, that’s not how it works. Right. I mean, it’s a journey. And I think so many different factors play into wellness, and we just are that thought provoking activity that does that. And I think if anybody like, you know, there’s a lot of technology we could have added to our outdoor gardens, but to automatic water and to do all those things. It’s a container garden, but I want somebody to go out every morning and take two or three minutes and look at their garden and see if it needs water. Because when you nurture this little square foot, beautiful garden of fresh herbs or tomatoes or whatever it is, it’s in those few minutes you’re nurtured. And you said the word: it is grounding.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, a container garden. Okay, so this is something that somebody could literally have on a balcony, an apartment building in New York or like…

Donna Letier:

That’s exactly how we started. We work with family-owned farms around the country. And the CEO of Bonnie Plants said to me, said to a whole group of people, and they are the biggest national plant network of farm partners in the country. And the CEO said, we grow gardens. Gardenuity is growing gardeners. I literally was like, oh, can we put that on a T-shirt? I mean, it was so if people just went, wow. And so, it is about, you know, if somebody says, well, I can’t garden because I don’t have space, we gotcha.

Donna Letier:

If they say, well, I don’t know how we’re going to walk you through every step. And we’ve premeasured, we’ve worked with the best scientists to get the plants everything they need. So, if you’re in a high rise or you literally just need a desktop garden and science shows if you have plants on your desktop, the mental health benefits are vast. From improved creativity to resilience to fewer sick days. The research is there. We just bring it to you.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, your container garden could be pretty tiny. It could be just herbs, or it could be quite large, depending, you know what?

Donna Letier:

We don’t go bigger than a seven gallon. Everything for our outdoor gardens have handles because we want you to be able to move it around. So, if you get a weather alert, need to move it inside, you’re good to go. You know, the herb garden, one of my favorites is the Cheers garden. And so, when I have people over or the tea garden, I’ll just put it on the counter and let people pick their own herbs for their tea or for their beverage of choice. And people love the idea that they’re having an opportunity in the middle of the city at the end of a busy day to interact with gardening, even if it’s just picking a fresh piece of sage or rosemary.

Melinda Wittstock:

Ah. So say you live in a house and you have a garden, but you could incorporate container gardens as well.

Donna Letier:

We actually have a lot of people because each one of these is customized to the plant’s needs. So, it’s all through match. And so, some people have raised bed gardens, and they’ll put six of these grow bags because that way, you know, they can have mint growing next to a tomato next to a pollinator garden next to a taco toppings. Garden and they all have different needs and so they can all be in one raised bed, but they’re all individualized.

Melinda Wittstock:

I see. Oh, that’s so interesting. And so, is there a focus on making sure that people have the plants that are native or more likely to prosper where you live?

Donna Letier:

You know what, I’ve learned so much because so much of our work is through B2B. And an HR leader of a Fortune 500 company said in this workshop where they have 500 people on camera, each one at their home planting their own garden, she literally said, so you’re onboarding the plants, so they’ll be successful. I’ve never been in HR, so I had never thought about it. Yeah, we are onboarding the plants so the plants will be successful. So, you will reap the benefits. We actually partner with 92 different family-owned farms around the country. So, you’re in California, most likely you’re going to get plants from a farm partner we have in California. If you’re in Seattle or Texas or New York, we really work very hard to match the right plants to the right environment.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m blessed to live in Santa Monica where one of the things that I love about it here is everything grows. Like plants that, you know, I grew up with in the Northeast prosper, roses prosper, desert plants, tropical plants, palm trees and fir trees, like it’s…

Donna Letier:

Everything, everything grows there. I love Santa Monica.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s really interesting, isn’t it? It’s literally a Garden of Eden. Every time I go for a walk with a dog and just like other people’s gardens are just passing by houses, even in front of apartment building. The variety is astonishing.

Donna Letier:

Yeah, it’s a lifestyle. And so, then you think, what lessons can I learn from the journey of growth and gardening? California, ironically, is one of our biggest markets and everything grows there. I like Florida. I mean, it’s been really fun to work with people who have. Santa Monica has perfect weather, unlike San Diego. I lived in Orange county for a long time, so I’m a big fan. But it’s, we’re still taking the scary away and making sure the plants have everything they need to thrive.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, I love the coupling though of the growth and the seasons of the plants or the growth of a human. I mean, you know, because you, you get very spiritual very fast and that like, we’re all connected.

Donna Letier:

You know, there’s lessons in every season. And you think about the gardening analogies in entrepreneurship. You know, I just did a talk about how pruning is necessary and as an entrepreneur, that can be daunting, but, well, for growth.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Well, this is interesting actually, because almost every business has seasons, right? There are seasons of like sort of rapid growth and then there are pruning seasons and sometimes they’re foisted on you just because of an adverse circumstance beyond your control or you just need to always be innovating and, and thinking differently. And so maybe even the team that you had when you began, like you’ve outgrown that, and you need sort of a different team to get to the next level or even who you’re being as a leader from startup to scale is different. Right. Like you have to grow in your skill set and attitude and everything, right?

Donna Letier:

A hundred percent. I mean, it, you know, I talk about as an entrepreneur, patience in a hurry and you want to, you want to, but sometimes you have to be present in the season. And then I think I’m a big believer in resilience through setbacks and learning to adapt. I mean, plants have been doing that forever. If you’ve ever, you know, seen on a freeway, you know, a dandelion growing out of a crack on the freeway, right? I mean, that took some persistence and patience. They had one job to do and that was to thrive and grow.

Melinda Wittstock:

And they did it even in those circumstances. Right, Exactly.

Donna Letier:

That’s exactly right. And that kind of gives me hope because we’ve created a whole new category, and it can be daunting. But I think that, you know, if you really think about each day kind of offers a new opportunity to trust the process and you just have to in the, in the tough seasons, just keep you reminding yourself of that.

Melinda Wittstock:

What’s fascinating about what you do though too, is in that kind of earthiness, you know, of the garden. You also have, you know, a pretty sophisticated technological solution involving like you were doing AI before it was buzzy, basically. Gardenuity Match, before it became a thing, you were already doing it. And believe me, I, I’m there with you, sister, because I’ve been innovating in AI since 2010. So, I know, I know a little bit about this. And so, tell me, you know, before you were recording, you were telling me a little bit about our garden match, but I want everybody to understand what you do because it’s pretty cool.

Donna Letier:

Yeah. So, we call it Gardenuity Match. And through a lot of research, and data was very clear that 90% of first-time gardeners fail. And so, we thought, surely data can change that. So, we looked at the most important things and that is time of planting, what you plant in, what nutrients you provide. And so, we build an algorithm, and we look at predictive weather because we ship the plants, and we want the plants to have at least 10 days to get settled in. And then we look at what kind of soil nutrients they need, what we really match, every single thing that the plant needs to thrive.

Donna Letier:

And then we also match content to the growers. So, let’s say you have a pizza garden, and it has Genovese basil in it, and Genovese basil does not thrive under 50 degrees. And you have unexpected cold front that’s going to drop to 46 degrees. You’d get a text message that says, hey, Melinda, move your garden inside. Tonight is going to be a little cold for your basil. And that’s down to the zip code. And so that’s part of Match.

Donna Letier:

So, we’re matching content and then we’re matching recipes and health tips. And that’s actually our grow-pro kind of communications are loosely based on the book What to Expect When Expecting, which is pretty funny at my age.

Melinda Wittstock:

I remember that.

Donna Letier:

And when you’re pregnant for the first time, you don’t know what you’re supposed to ask, or you don’t know. Is this right? Is this what I’m supposed to be doing? First time gardeners don’t know. So, we guide them through it, through our match, and it’s been really fun. The best way to describe Match for our outdoor gardens is if it’s March 20th and you decide you want a taco toppings garden and you’re in Dallas, Texas, you’re going to match to some early spring tomatoes. If you’re in Phoenix, Arizona, you might already match to some peppers. If you’re in Connecticut, you’re still going to match to cool weather, leafy greens, but they all fall into the taco collection. So, it just looks at all those attributes.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. And so, what was the spark that made you create Gardenuity? Where’d you get the inspiration?

Donna Letier:

Well, it would be so much better if I could say I was a master gardener, but in fact, I was not and I still am not. I’m a student of gardening. I love data and I love consumers and retail. And I looked at a category that was ripe for disruption and I had always been involved in wellness. My youngest daughter, I have to say, is a gold medal Olympian athlete in the Special Olympics. She’s won four gold medals in the Special Olympics. They said she would have five. She just turned 28 last Friday.

Donna Letier:

She’s still non ambulatory and nonverbal, but she is a picture of resilience. And so, wellness is something that my business partner and I were really, we thought if we’re going to this, this next chapter of our life and being an older entrepreneur, you can’t help but think, what can I do that can change the world? And we thought gardening can change people and that can change the world. It was a set of circumstances, data, retail, personal, where we were personally in our lives. And that’s what led us to creating Gardenuity.

Melinda Wittstock:

You were the CMO of a home furnishings brand that had like $500 million in annual revenue. So, you’re used to running things at like pretty big scale. And so was it a, was it a bit of a shock to the system to do a startup and grow it from the, I guess, seed, literally even pre-seed.

Donna Letier:

You know what? Yes and no. I think you have to learn from your mistakes. I’m a product girl at heart and so I love product. I love product development; I love matching product needs to consumers. And so, when I think about, was it daunting? Yes. But I have the perfect business partner and so I can come up with an idea for an algorithm and she can program it. Our skill sets are so different.

Donna Letier:

But I knew that it was something that I was excited about and passionate about. I knew it was going to be. It doesn’t happen overnight. And for the unicorns who, you know, are either lucky enough to say it happened overnight or actually just say it happened overnight, might not be wanting to talk about the years in their garage that they played around with ideas. But I think, you know, one of my favorite quotes is, the glory of the garden lies in More Than Meets the Eye by Kipling. So much of an entrepreneur. What’s really working and what you see on the outside. Is happening, you know, underneath the soil and, and behind closed doors.

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Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Donna Letier, founder and CEO of Gardenuity.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Donna Letier:

And so, I was ready, excited. And I think you have to be somewhat naive maybe. I don’t know. I mean, I think that you have to just believe in your heart you’re going to make this work and that, you know, going in, there’s going to be good days and, and there’s going to be bad days, but you got to keep growing. And I think for women, I always tell people, because I, I’m lucky enough to be older and I get to kind of talk to some young entrepreneurs and there’s not a woman that I know who, before they leave the house, they don’t check the mirror one more time, they just check hair, they tuck in their shirt, whatever it is. I think sometimes women wait too long because they wanted to be perfect till they get out the door. And sometimes you just gotta go, you just gotta say, I’m going to go. And, and if you’re not embarrassed by your first pitch deck, you know, five years later, maybe you waited too long because it’s never perfect.

Melinda Wittstock:

This is true. I mean, I think perfectionism is the biggest enemy of success for women in entrepreneurship, of anything. Like just our, our socialization also sometimes just makes us afraid of taking risks. So, playing a smaller game…

Donna Letier:

…too much planning, we’re afraid of failure.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. And, and maybe actually afraid of success in some cases too because when women play a really big game or actually say out loud they’re going to go build like a billion-dollar business or whatever, often their sisters are, I don’t know, I think it’s changing a bit, but often can come across a little bit less than enthusiastic about that for.

Donna Letier:

Them, do you know, 100%. And, and if that’s the reason somebody doesn’t get out there and try, you know, I think you learn as much from your failures and your missteps as you do from your successes.

Melinda Wittstock:

Actually. More, I think, I think more because, and, and so like entrepreneurship, you by definition, you have to embrace risk and failure because it’s the only way. Like if you’re inventing like you a whole new category, your company is very innovative. No one really put together the container with the kind of, with the AI, with the personalization, with the link to gardening and wellness in that unique combination before. So yeah, it’s a new category. So just to dare to do something new and like create this, this whole new thing involves risk, and it involves failures like, like little micro-ones right. Where you’re just basically iterating along the way. Through to other bigger ones and things that you couldn’t have foreseen or things that you can control.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, if you’re not up for that, it’s pretty hard to be an entrepreneur.

Donna Letier:

Well, a great example for us is the pandemic. Yeah. So, we were aligned with B2B, doing gardening workshops around the country as wellness workshops. And the pandemic hit, and they all canceled. And so, we converted our office to, really, DTC fulfillment. And about 60 days into the pandemic, the companies came back and said, let’s just do them all virtually.

Donna Letier:

You have to be willing to kind of change midstream to go with the realities of life.

Donna Letier:

I think adaptability leads to success.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, you know, when we’re talking about, you know, what makes an entrepreneur succeed, you know, you were mentioning the dandelion, right? Growing in the middle of the highway, right? The inherent determination and resilience of that, but it’s also adaptability.

Melinda Wittstock:

How do you develop muscles to be more adaptable? Because I think the way people are socialized in the, say, the schooling system or women in particular, were supposed to fit in these neat little boxes or categories or whatever. They’re not necessarily taught adaptability. It’s. It’s kind of like we’ve got to just dare to be that way.

Donna Letier:

Yeah. You know what? It’s actually a really great topic. And I am, you know, I have one sister who’s just kind of followed the path that my mother followed. And I’ve been the rebel, I guess, But I’m lucky enough that I get to see a kid every day who works to stay alive and adapts to the body she’s been given. So, I’m lucky, right? I get to be reminded that adaptability leads to success. So, she can’t walk, but she has taught herself to scoot on her bottom, and she gets from point A to point B.

Donna Letier:

How lucky am I that I’m reminded every day that there’s a different way to get there and be adaptable?

Melinda Wittstock:

How inspiring.

Donna Letier:

She inspires me. I mean, people say, oh, what do I do when I grow up? I don’t know what I want to be. And I always say, Jillian was fortunate enough the day when she was Born to know she was going to be a teacher. She teaches anybody who will, you know, be around her that you can find joy in every day and that there’s a different way to do things. And so, you know, maybe she’s not conventional, but she’s adaptable.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right? So that’s so, so inspiring because people can often focus on the lack, rather than the abundance of. Of the particular gifts that they’ve been given and how to share those gifts in a way that uplifts other people. And when we. When we think about business in that way, again, it comes back to the whole garden and the garden metaphor.

Donna Letier:

Right?

Melinda Wittstock:

And gardens are also just to geek out on gardens for a little bit. They’re kind of collaborative with each other, too, aren’t they? Just the plants kind of talk 100%.

Donna Letier:

Part of our matching is what companion plants grow together. Do they have the same nutritional needs, sunlight requirements, weather variants, you know, so it’s. It all comes together. I mean, I always say the lessons we can learn from nature are in abundance if we open our eyes. And that’s why one of my favorite things to do is to get kids in the garden. You know, it teaches them right away so many things that we all need to know.

Donna Letier:

I will say this. A book that I encourage everybody to read as an adult, because you probably read it as a child, is the Secret Garden. I would laugh. It’s such. I mean, listen to it as you’re on a run or on a walk or. I mean, it is so full of important life lessons in the way we live and move today. And so many gifts can be found in the simplest pleasures.

Melinda Wittstock:

I remember when my kids were little and I used to garden, like, it was kind of crazy. I’m going to set the scene for you because my. One of my first businesses, launched. My daughter was six weeks old. I don’t know how I was doing this.

Donna Letier:

Oh, God.

Melinda Wittstock:

I also had, like, you know, a golden retriever, you know, that I was, you know, walked all the time. And I just sort of decided I needed to garden as well, like, on top of all of that. And I don’t know what it was that made me feel the need to do that, but I think in all the chaos of, like, what my life was, I found such peace in the gardening. Although I did inadvertently teach my golden retriever to dig as well when I.

Donna Letier:

Was that’s impressive because he’s kind of like, you’re digging.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, like, I should be digging. It’s like, no, that’s funny. Only I can. It was kind of funny.

Donna Letier:

Oh, my gosh.

Melinda Wittstock:

But I found.

Donna Letier:

Never had a dog. Yeah. That trained.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, it gave me a lot of joy. I mean, it really, really did. Like, right now, where I’m living right now, I don’t have a garden. I really miss it.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, my next place that I live needs to be able to allow me to garden because I do enjoy it. And you’re giving me new impetus for this, for this vision I have. So, thank you.

Donna Letier:

Well, you know, it’s kind of like. And I love so much data, so many white papers. I mean, the research has been vast, and we get to benefit from that research. And it’s. You know, there was a study recently released by Yale, and it was titled how to add 10 years to your life without exercise or changing your eating habits. And it was changing your mindset towards aging. And if you think about that from an entrepreneurial perspective, they say that in Europe and in Southeast Asia and in the blue zones, of course, people are appreciative of the opportunity to age. That’s a totally different way to think about it than freaking out that you have wrinkles or gray hair or whatever. And B, I like to say I am lucky. I’m appreciative of the fact I get to be an entrepreneur even on really yucky days.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, 100%. Well, I think women especially do extremely well as entrepreneurs in their 50s and 60s. And in some cases, I’ve seen women in their 70s like, crushing it in entrepreneurship. And it’s not really the thing that gets written about. I mean, we read about all these guys in hoodies, you know, from MIT or wherever they are, you know. Right. That. That’s sort of the quote, unquote entrepreneur. And now there’s this new kind of like, you know, Boss Babe, kind of image of the younger woman, you know, crushing it and whatever. But, like, actual fact, we look at the data, women really, I think, come into their power in their 50s, right? Their children are a little bit older. They’re more likely over a lot of the insecurities.

Or maybe you just don’t care anymore.

Donna Letier:

Right?

Melinda Wittstock:

Like, you’re kind of like, I’m just going to be myself. All that other stuff. You have no F’s left to give, you know?

Donna Letier:

Yeah, no, I Think that’s right. You just. Yeah, you’re gonna go for it. Which I think is, what a great mindset. You’re not embarrassed. You’re not. I mean, you just push go, which I think is great.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. And you’re not really trying to prove anything. And, you know, you don’t have to worry about as much stuff. Right. In terms of, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’d find it easier, you know, in my 50s, for sure. You know?

Donna Letier:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, you’ve also raised money for your business. And I want to talk to you about this because this is something that most women struggle with. So, $8 million so far in investment into your company. So just tell me about your journey with that, because I know it’s not easy.

Donna Letier:

It’s not easy. And my husband keeps saying, you need to write this down. I mean, you know, I knocked on doors, went to friends and family. I mean, I had several people, one gentleman in particular say, wow, shouldn’t you be home taking care of your special needs daughter? You know, and so. Or, wow, you’re pretty old to be starting a business. And so, when those kind of comments are part of the, the room, I just let the quiet, the silence kind of answer the questions for them. You have to be resilient with the ‘no’, you know,

Donna Letier:

And you have to be okay with that. I’m a big believer in being over prepared. So, when I would have a meeting with somebody, I certainly would know what their investing ethos was or what their passions were going into it. And even if I got a no, sometimes, if I really wanted this investor, I would think, okay, it’s a no today, but it might not be a no tomorrow. And that’s how I’d leave the room. And we got lucky and went back. One gentleman in particular, his office, his family office manager said, you know, he’s just not investing in startups right now. I said, I totally understand that, but I know so much about him and I just want to meet him personally.

Donna Letier:

And so, Garrett came over, that office manager book, like 20 minutes. He say, two hours. Is one of my advisors, somebody I actually love and is an investor. So sometimes, you know, you just got to take the shot and be okay with it not working. But you also. Here’s, here’s my best advice. You have to be okay saying no because your investors become your partners forever, right?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes, exactly. As much as them that’s right.

Donna Letier:

That’s exactly right. And I had an investor who, you know, came on pretty strong, wanted to invest, and Julie and I left the meeting, and my husband said, well, how to go? And I said he was icky. And my husband said. And I said, sometimes you just gotta know that things are more important than money because this is a marriage, you know, and there’s going to be ups and downs. And so, find those investors who. And I just learned this term that bet on the jockey, right? They believe the. The people leading the charge are going to really figure out a way to make it work. And so that’s probably my cancel to people.

Donna Letier:

And don’t wait too long. You know, if the deck is not perfect, it’s okay if you are really passionate and have good numbers behind you, you know, the pretty pictures and the perfect font.

Donna Letier:

Yeah, I think it’s investors, they become your partners. And I have learned through this that really astute investors invest in the jockey. A good idea is okay. A jockey with an okay idea that’s really good will go a lot further. And I probably never would have thought about that until I started this journey. And so, you’re betting on the person, and I think that that does matter. I think it does. But through good days and bad days.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, I have a new perspective on this too, because not only am I a busy entrepreneur building, you know, my fifth business and raising money for that, and, you know, all the things, right. But I’m also a venture partner and entrepreneur in residence at a new VC fund that invests at the seed stage. And at the seed stage, you’re really investing in the team, like the founder and the team. I mean, there’s other things. Like, is it a big enough market? Is the market growing? Is this company differentiated? Do they have some sort of unique secret sauce, special technology? Right. And all those things you’re looking at. But at the end of the day, either the founder is, and, and the team is right or, or they’re not right.

Donna Letier:

And I always, I think it was important to my investors that I invested as well. I mean, I’m not just, you know, putting their money at risk. My money’s at risk. And I think that made a big difference. I wasn’t going to let somebody take a risk I wasn’t willing to do. And so, you know, I’m, my husband and I are the biggest investors, and I think that that made a difference to a lot of people we talked to. I did learn that one of my skill sets is not speed pitching, speed dating speed, you know, where you literally have four minutes to make your pitch. That’s not my gift.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s hard. And it’s honestly, as an investor, any of those things that I’ve been at where you’re bombarded with like, I don’t know, 25 kind of five-minute pitches, I’ll be damned if you can remember any of them at the end of that. It doesn’t, yeah, it really doesn’t work. Like, I, I’ve been in those pitches and I, I really don’t know anyone who’s ever gotten funded by doing any of those. Like, you, you might, might be good for marketing or maybe you might get some introductions or whatever. But like, nobody can, nobody can absorb that much information.

Donna Letier:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

It needs a proper conversation and, and several of them. Like, I just think even our diligence process, it’s, it takes a while, you know, it takes a while to get to know the founder. You know, all that kind of, all that, all that, all that stuff.

Donna Letier:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, it’s so important with women to just to remember, I think that when you’re asking for investment, you’re not asking for a favor. You’ve created something that is of value, and you have, you know, you’re the one taking really the lion’s share of the risk in, in building something. You have created the opportunity. But for you, this investor would not have the opportunity to, to grow their wealth even more.

Donna Letier:

You know what, you, you’re right. And I think that it’s an, that is a woman mindset. Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, so, so I see so many women sort of like looking for a favor. It’s not a favor. You’re giving them an opportunity. Right. So, like we have to get that mindset right, I think to succeed. And I would also like women investing in other women too. And that, that’s, yeah, really important.

Donna Letier:

I agree. Because I think when you invest, here’s a Lot of women are so afraid of investing in something that there is not a. They only want a home run because they’re so afraid of failure. They don’t want to say that, oh my gosh, you know, I invested in this group, and it didn’t work out because they think they’re going to be judged. I think that you, I think that that’s something that you want to see more women, not only supportive of those they invest in. And it’s not write the check and go away. How can you be a brand ambassador? How can you actually add value other than your dollars?

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. So, what’s next for Gardenuity? Like your big vision? Where do you see it in 5 years’ time? What are some of the big things that you’re tackling and where do you want to get it?

Donna Letier:

Well, I want to see a patio garden on every balcony and porch in the country because I know it’s preventative medicine and I know people would be healthier for it. I want more. And you know, we work with HR leaders and benefit providers across the country, and I love that they are bringing us into their organizations as a wellness tool for their employees. And I want people to experience the joy that comes from being able to say, I grew that, you know, things that our ancestors did forever because they had to. We’re kind of making that accessible and democratizing it for the way we live today. So, in five years, do I think that we’ll be sharing the stories of even more family-owned farms around the country? Yes. Do I think that we’ll have more people? We’re an introduction to garden gardening. So, if somebody, you know, successfully keeps harvesting tomatoes from their grow bag, they might move on and say, well, I actually am going to till half of my backyard because I want to grow everything under the sun.

Donna Letier:

If we’re that first foray into what it feels like to, to find success and reap the benefits from getting a little dirty, then that’s, that’s a win for us.

Melinda Wittstock:

How beautiful. So, if anyone wants a container garden, what’s the best way to start with?

Donna Letier:

Yeah, just go to Gardenuity.com we have two sites actually. We have Gardenuity.com but we also have Gardenuity for business.com that’s non transactional. It’s because 70% of our business is B2B working with companies around the country. We really wanted to tell the story of what it does for employees. And so, we do a lot of garden gifting for customers and colleagues, but we do a lot of gardening workshops with employees around the country.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, this is amazing. Thank you so much for such an uplifting conversation and putting on your wings and flying with us today, Donna.

Donna Letier:

Thank you, Melinda, for having me.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Donna Letier is the founder and CEO of Gardenuity, the container garden business innovating personalized experiences with AI.

Melinda Wittstock:

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