$25K/Month – Bringing Parisian Macarons to the US – Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is the show where I interview successful e commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders and ask them questions about their business story and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Anthony Rosemond to the show. Anthony is a Parisian chef and founder of Pastreez, an online French bakery. Uh, they handcraft macarons and crepes that ship fresh in the entire of United States. And today I’m going to ask Anthony a few questions about his entrepreneurial journey and some of the strategies and tactics that he has used to start and grow his business.

So Anthony, thank you so much for joining me today at TrepTalks. Really, really appreciate your time .​[00:01:00] Thank you guys for having me. Hi. So, um, You know, I was reading online and the headline that I read is the couple left France to build their American dream. Um, so can you share a little bit about No, how you came to United States, what was your background and how did you come up with this idea of starting this case?

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Yes, sure. So originally I’m a engineer. So I studied material sciences. So really something totally different. And my wife is a human resource. So we both had, you know, our careers, but we knew at some point we wanted to do something, uh, for ourselves, you know, like our own company. Hmm. And, um, so at some point we just said, okay, let’s see what we can do together, you know, and on my part I love like online [00:02:00] marketing and, you know, doing online businesses and, and, you know, uh, making the big, the, the website looks good and everything around marketing.

And on her side, she’s really fond of, uh, you know, baking. So since we were in Paris at that time, uh, we started to learn, uh, at Le Cordon Bleu, you know, the techniques and all that good stuff, uh, for, for the macarons. And that’s how we left France back in 2017. We just kind of mixed our skills and our passion together.

So she’s in charge of the kitchen and I’m in charge, you know, of the business online and together we have like the, the perfect team, I would say, you know, to, to build something like that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And so, I mean, the value proposition of your business, is it really that this is kind of, you are shipping these macarons, um, online?

Is that kind of your big value proposition or you, you have, uh, In store experience

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: as well. Yeah, so we started really, uh, um, on, on farmer’s market [00:03:00] originally to test the product. Maybe you have more question about it after, so I keep a, you know, some suspense on this one. But yeah, the, the value is, um, is really online first.

Uh, because the idea is, you know, French bakeries, you don’t have that many in the U. S. Or if you have some, it’s going to be like in big cities. So we really wanted to have like the authentic, uh, macaroon, you know, the, the big ones with the authentic recipe available for everyone. Um, so that’s why, that’s why we decided to go with, uh, shipping.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Is there, is there a big market for macarons? Like when you, when you decided to come up with this idea of having an online business selling macarons, which is kind of a very defined value proposition, um, you know, did you do any research beforehand to say, you know, there is a big market in the U S and people would be willing to buy this?

Yeah. So

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: the first before to leave Paris, uh, we, uh, I kind of looked online. [00:04:00] I don’t know if you know, the tool called SEMrush, uh, is, uh, an SEO tool, search engine optimization, and it allows you to kind of see the trends of the keywords that’s typed in Google. So, uh, for example, the keywords macaron near me, um, is roughly around 40, 000 requests a month, which shows a good interest from, you know, American markets.

And at the time in, uh, 2017, there was like two to three, all the businesses doing that. So it’s a really narrow niche, but in the meantime, uh, there is demand, you know? So that’s, that, that was like the first step, you know, before to leave. Uh, and then once we arrived here, we, we needed to check, um, okay, what is the market here?

What do you guys like as a flavor, as a color and everything? So that’s how we started doing farmers markets at first, you know, to kind of test our products, uh, on the lowest scale, you know, to, to, to see [00:05:00] what people like in here.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, one question that comes to my mind is let’s say, you know, anybody has an idea.

I mean, you were in France. Um, did you in in terms of, you know, starting a business or working in the United States, of course, you know, I’m assuming there’s some sort of like, you know, paperwork that you need in order to go from one country to another and start, you know, working or starting a business. Um, I mean, what kind of like, did you kind of just decide, okay, we want to go to the US, there’s enough demand seems to be for macarons based on SEM rush, let’s go there and.

Just start the business or like, was there more planning? Like, did you, did you come on like some sort of a business visa or something? Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, yeah,

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: yeah. For sure. It’s good. Actually, you asked me about that because I think you as maybe as a foreigner, you have that, uh, you have that challenge as well.

And we, we had that challenge. So, [00:06:00] uh, yeah, at first, you know, at the really, really first, we, we thought it was impossible to come in the U S because from outside of the U S on France, at least. We have that conception like, you know, it’s really hard to immigrate to the United States or you need like a lot of money or you need someone to hire you.

Things like that, you know, that’s in the culture. So we, at first we thought it was impossible, even if it was our dream. So we had our visa to go to Chile at first, we, we were meant to go to America, Latina, you know, but at some point we said, okay, let’s try it. And, uh, the first step was just the three months, uh, um, I would say tourist visa, you know, just to.

See how it is, um, test the market, see, you know, just asking questions around, nothing crazy. Um, and, um, so the, the route we took was the E2 visa, uh, which is, uh, called investor visa. And, um, the investor visa require you, you [00:07:00] to actually do what we did, which is test your idea, have some things invested already.

Um, you know, it’s like, um, they want. Once they give you the visa that the business is ready to go, you know, they don’t want to give a visa to someone that, you know, don’t know the market, don’t know if it’s going to work. They want some, they want to give the visa to someone that already have something almost established, you know, so it’s kind of an in between that you have to play.

Um, they ask you to prove that you’re serious to prove that you invested enough, but in the meantime. Uh, it’s very risky because if they don’t give you the visa, you kind of lose what you invested already. So, that’s, um, that’s, yeah, you need to be really motivated to go this route.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. What kind of investment did it require?

Like, uh, half a million dollars? Um,

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: nothing, nothing too crazy, but, uh, you know, usually people come here with… 100, 200, 000, things like that, you know, [00:08:00] and we didn’t have that kind of money. Uh, we, we, we saved, uh, uh, you know, we had savings. So that’s what we put in the project. But for example, they wanted to make sure, um, originally we had like a local delivery.

So we needed to have like a vehicle. Um, we had like an office, you need a lease. Something like that, that things counts to them, uh, to show that, you know, you, you already paid for your lease, you have a lease contract for a few years, things like that, you know, so they don’t really require specific items, but they want you, they, they want your project to be, um, fulfilled enough, you know, to be already, um, committed kind of, that’s actually the word they use is committed fund, like you need to have funds that are already committed into your project to show that you are serious.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. That, that makes a lot of sense. So basically they’re looking for a business plan and, and some sort of a financial commitment that, you know, it’s not like, you know, uh, that you’re going there just, just to, uh, you know, [00:09:00] stay and get a job and things like

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: that. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They want you to commit your funds to your project.

They don’t want like to see just a business plan. We’ve, uh, I would say a bank account number and that’s it. No, they want to see actual investment. They wanted to see actual things that you already did for that business showing that you are committed to it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, that’s kind of the definition of entrepreneurship, right?

So, so you, you know, you’re, you’re an engineer and your wife was doing something else and, you know, you had this idea and you kind of went all in, there’s, you know, um, an aspect of risk there, but of course there’s, you know, if it works, there’s a reward there. So, I mean, I would say that’s kind of the definition of entrepreneurship.

It’s like taking the risk. Um, but knowing, but, but it’s a calculated risk. It’s not, you know, completely uncalculated as well. Um, when you, [00:10:00] um, so, so, so you, you said that initially you kind of launched in the farmer’s market. Can you talk a little bit about those early days? So in terms of, I think the startup cost, It’s not really huge, uh, you know, because this is bakery.

So, you know, you’re kind of, you know, you can create small batches on your own. Uh, can you talk about those early days about how you kind of got the business started and how you got your first customers?

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Yes. So the beginning, beginning was really. The idea was to get the product in front of as many people as we can.

So even before the farmer’s market, we kind of used the app called meetup. I don’t know if you know that this app. So it’s like an app that you can meet people about a topic, a specific topic. So we kind of popped, uh, uh, we just show up on some, some, some meetings that people had and we said, okay, we’re coming with free pastries and we just want your feedbacks in return.

Uh, so we bring [00:11:00] like lots of different things. Um, because in the beginning, uh, it was, we didn’t know macarons was such a big, big thing in the U S you know, we, we kind of didn’t know. So we bring a few different pastries. Uh, and that’s when we understood that the macarons were pretty famous in the U. S. So we said, okay, let’s focus first on the macarons.

And now, let’s go to farmer’s markets to see, before even to go online, we needed to, uh, um, know what is the taste like, you know, do you like salty taste? Do you like, uh, I don’t know, chocolate, fruits? What is the vibe, you know, around this? So we did those, uh, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Malibu, a couple months.

Um, to get feedback again. And in the meantime, we were, uh, building the website, uh, according to feedback, you know? Um, and yeah, so that’s how we actually, we use that step to really, I would say, uh, tailor our product. Uh, what I call, you know, the most valuable [00:12:00] product, which is MVP kind of, so we really tailor the colors and the flavors.

And then once we were sure that, okay, this is our bestseller, people like, I don’t know, pistachio, chocolate, all that, we’re going to make website focused on that. Uh, and then we started online in parallel of the farmers markets.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: To me, it almost seems like, you know, I’m trying to think, you know, your value proposition.

So of course I’m on your website and, you know, one big value proposition is You know, uh, handcrafted by real French chefs, right? So that’s, that’s kind of the value proposition, but I think the value proposition, the real value proposition of your business is really that online delivery, quick online delivery aspect of it.

So this is in a way. It’s really the the delivery business rather than, you know, a pastry business. Um, is this I mean, is the product is the shelf life of the product long enough that [00:13:00] it’s okay for, you know, for it to be traveling three days. Um, you know, uh, you know, shipping to the customer. Um, does it, you know.

Can you talk a little bit about that logistics process? You know, is there a risk for, you know, the, the items to get bad or get, you know, crushed in the delivery process and things like that? How do you manage that? Yeah, that

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: was the first real great challenge because in the first place, you know, we were at a farmer’s market, so it was direct to customer, you know, uh, we were selling products directly to them and giving them, you know, hand by hand to them.

And once we went online, shipping was really the. Biggest challenge. So the first thing we did is, okay, let’s see how the competitors do it. So we ordered, uh, a couple, uh, websites and kind of see what everyone does best and we kind of [00:14:00] picked On each to, you know, to build our own shipping metal. So we see, okay, this one had a, I don’t know, a bubble cushion.

This one had an insulated bag. Okay. This one had the ice packs, this one do this, this one. And we kind of picked what we liked on each and kind of made like a custom solution to us. Um, and yeah, the beginning was a challenging because really we don’t know what type of shipping methods to use. We don’t know what carrier to use.

Uh, but over time, we kind of perfected it. Um, we also ship fresh, you know, nothing frozen. So everything you order on our website, paidstreet. com, you receive fresh items. They are handcrafted just for you. So it’s not like we have something in stock, you know, waiting to be shipped and stuff. No, we really do it for you.

And that also helps in the process. So nowadays, uh, we, we have, you know, all these multiple shipping options. You can do even next day air if you have an event tomorrow, uh, or you can do three days and that’s what we [00:15:00] usually do three day. Uh, and that’s, that’s perfectly fine now. And just in case we also put in place like the freshness warranty, you know, because we stand on our products.

So if you, there is anything happening because yeah, those are fragile cookies. So we are aware of that. But over the years, with our experience, they arrive in 99. 9 percent of the case perfectly. And in case they do not, we send you a free replacement. So over the years, with the experience, and you know, taking in the beginning from competitors, uh, we were able to craft something that works perfectly for us.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Can you talk a little bit about your customers? Um, are, is, are your customers looking more because I’m assuming that like in a bigger city place, there are probably shops that carry macarons and, you know, people can easily access that. Are your customers mostly in locations, um, that You know that, you know, maybe smaller places where they may not have this product [00:16:00] or, um, are your customers also more of kind of the luxury, um, you know, luxury, more, you know, high income segment where, you know, it’s much easier for them to spend a little bit more on the shipping, uh, and have it and have it delivered at home rather than, you know, just going to a bakery shop and picking it up.

Can you talk a little bit about your customers? Yes. So

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: our customers, we have, uh, We have a couple audience. So the first one is like a gift. So people just want to send like a special gift. Uh, for example, uh, um, your son or your daughter is just starting college and she’s not usually, she’s not in the same place as you.

So she’s in a different state. You can, you can send this gift to them, you know, wishing them good luck or even for happy birthdays and stuff like that. So that’s, that’s really a first one. Um, you send gift to someone that is not physically with you. So that’s, that’s the first one. We [00:17:00] also have an audience that is for events.

Uh, like weddings, baby showers, uh, corporate events as well. Um, all sorts of events and sometimes they are in a remote location, like in a hotel or, you know, different venues. So that’s that as well. Uh, we also have people that, uh, want to try them out. You know, they’ve heard a lot about Parisian macarons.

They never tried some, so, you know, they want to treat themselves maybe, uh, because they had like a good moment, like a, I don’t know, a newborn or something in their career and they want to celebrate. So they get them for themselves. Um, and yeah, and about their location. Um, yeah, in big cities, you have options.

Yeah. About macarons. That’s true. But the thing is, when you look in terms of pricing, since we have free shipping over 59 and even free express shipping over 89. Yeah. Um, it’s really almost the same offer, you know, because you have to take your [00:18:00] car and go to the place and then take them back. Or if you plan enough, you order on Tuesday and get them on Friday.

So it’s a very, you know, it’s, it’s, uh, we are kind of in the competition with your local businesses as well.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Yeah, it’s all about convenience. Um, I mean, that that brings me to my next question. I mean, this, it seems like the business model works. Um, the business model of having pastries delivered to your home.

Like that’s, that’s kind of the value proposition. Do you, do you think about kind of adding. On on this value proposition, like adding more products or more, um, you know, sweets or even, you know, other kind of snacks and things like that, um, to, um, uh, to kind of grow, grow the business. Yeah,

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: yeah, yeah. Uh, pastries.

I called it pastries, especially because we want to have some more in the future. Um, uh, now we have [00:19:00] preps as well that we vacuum seal and we ship it fresh as well. Uh, we want to do, uh, what’s called Madeleine, you know, it’s like a little, uh, cake specifically from France. Uh, yeah, the idea is to really offer like, um, an authentic panel of French pastries.

That’s the idea, you know, maybe in 5 10 years to have a representative panel of what we do best in France about pastries. So that’s the idea to grow. And we also want to make sure that whatever you need for macarons… We got your back. For example, we just purchased, um, a macaron printer so we can print logos in full color or whatever logo you need or whatever, you know, drawing you need.

We can now do it for you. We have a big event coming, uh, in September and they wanted like, uh, you know, their logo printed. So it’s a corporate event and they wanted their logo on, uh, you know, 1, 500 macarons. Now we gonna be able to do that. [00:20:00] Um, uh, we can do like a logo for your wedding or, uh, it’s a boy, it’s a girl, and whatever you need, we, we, we can have that now.

So I want to make sure that whatever the needs of the customer are in terms of macarons, we can do them for, we can do that for them, you know? So with that printer, we will be able to add one more, you know, one more thing to our panel. Um, and once I’m sure that we cover everything about the macarons. Uh, we’re going to move on to another product because developing another product is, you know, it’s time consuming, so I want to make sure first that we control the whole, uh, we can give you satisfaction to whatever you did in terms of macarons, crepes, and then, you know, go, go step by step on

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: this.

That is, that is really awesome. I think the printer idea, it should be really appealing to like corporate kind of customers, right. To have the logo. And I think it really adds to the, uh, to the look and feel of that. [00:21:00] Um, yeah, yeah,

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: yeah. And they also ask, you know, for specific colors, like custom colors or they are, they are launching like, you know, um, specific makeups.

So to have the matching macarons with their logo and matching colors, that’s going to be, uh, that’s going to be very good looking.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, in terms of manufacturing, is your wife still the kind of the main chef, the one creating these products, or are you kind of slowly thinking about as you’re bringing in more volumes to, like, hire more of professional kitchen or have your own professional kitchen managed by, you know, your wife and then other people working there, uh, creating these products?

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Yes. So for now, we are, so we are located in Phelan, California. We have our own, uh, uh, commercial kitchen. And, uh, we hire help, but usually it’s during the peak season. We don’t want to grow too fast because we want to keep the control over quality. For now, a hundred percent of our products is [00:22:00] really handcrafted by us.

Nobody else, you know, enter into the process. So it’s really a friend chef that does that. So it’s either me or my wife. Most of the time it’s my wife. And I’m taking care of, you know, the business online. But, um, but yeah, we, we don’t want to grow too fast for volume. We want to make sure quality is really met at first.

So, um, and you know, if it’s, I know sometimes people want to grow fast, but for us, we want to, we want to stay small as long as we can, kind of.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Awesome. Um, in terms of your competition, you know, you, you, you mentioned that You know, you do consider the local shop your competition, uh, but in terms of this business model itself, you know, to be able to deliver, uh, these kind of pastries, uh, through online, you know, through through mail, uh, do you see other competitors, other businesses kind of [00:23:00] coming into the same space?

Do you see more competition in the sense of new businesses trying to have similar offerings online? Yes. Yes. Unfortunately

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: for us. But yeah, we see a lot more competition, especially after COVID, I think, because people realize that, uh, uh, online, there was like a big, big market, even for macarons, uh, before the COVID, you know, lots of, um, uh, local bakery had to close down and they were without revenue.

Uh, and that’s when actually we grow really fast during COVID because People turned, uh, directly to online since they weren’t able to visit, you know, their local store. So all of their customers kind of went to us and other online competitors. And nowadays I can see that there is a lot more local shops that invest, invest into online stores as well.

But, [00:24:00] um, but remember the shipping challenge is still here. So all of these local bakeries will have to face that challenge because selling direct to customer at your local shop is really a totally different business than shipping, you know, to the other side of the country. So there is this challenge as well.

But yeah, online I can see lots more competition since

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: COVID. Um, how do you, how do you, uh, think about, you know, as, as you have new competition in the market, how do you think about, you know, competing in the market or, or staying kind of, Top of mind to the customer or, you know, um, not kind of losing your market share or share of wallet to the, to the competition.

Like, what are you doing to make sure that, you know, when a customer is looking for a macaron online, that the number one, that they see your shop come up in the number two, if [00:25:00] there’s like five shops come up that are doing the same thing that are delivering. Uh, to the customer that, you know, they, they go to your shop rather than like one of the competitors.

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: We, since the beginning in 2017, I really tried to rely only on SEO, most of the time on SEO. So it’s, I want to make sure that, uh, our website is visible organically. On Google and do not depend on ads. You know, paid advertisement is a Google or Facebook. Of course, we do that in the beginning. It was much, much less expensive than today, but especially today.

Now you see that all the ads are very expensive because there is lots of competition is almost even more important to be visible online organically. That means that, for example, I tried to cover it all. Everything about macarons. So if you type anything like, um, uh, why macarons are, why are macarons so [00:26:00] expensive, we might pop on the first top results.

Uh, you’re trying to find out if, uh, can I freeze macarons? Uh, how can I store macarons? All these kind of questions, I want to cover them all. Uh, so, you know, people, when they research about those, even if they are not ready to buy it, at least we’d be in their mind, you know, we would be there as a reference.

So that’s our strategy to really. Uh, cover everything about a topic like macarons or preps and for the next projects we do the same. We want to make sure we answer all of your questions and that’s how we stay, um, we stay visible.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And you do all that content marketing yourself or do you have like, uh, help, uh, create some of those content pieces?

Uh, no. So I

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: write all of these, uh, blog posts. Uh, so yeah, we kind of do a lot of, we are just two person, but we do a lot of different stuff. So maybe at some point I will need some help, uh, because yeah, I can’t be everywhere, but yeah, I [00:27:00] try to, uh, since I guess, you know, as a French chef as well, we, we have our own value to that.

So we have a specific approach. So, um, you know, if I find someone online to write about these, um, you know, they, they, they wouldn’t have the knowledge to, to share specific tips, you know, so that’s why I have to write it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That’s awesome. Uh, so in terms of your marketing, it seems like you kind of Um, invested a lot of your time creating these content pieces that are kind of driving your SEO.

Um, what, what else are you doing? Any other kind of marketing? Like, are you doing any kind of video marketing? Any kind of social media marketing to, to kind of spread the word

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: further? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah, on Instagram, we had a really good years. Uh, we, we are over a hundred thousand on Instagram. So, uh, at the time of COVID, especially even before that, we were doing a class like macaron class [00:28:00] online, uh, from Zoom actually.

And we were sharing, you know, tips, uh, uh, because macarons, as you might know, is a very big challenge to make. Uh, so we were sharing all kinds of tips and that’s how we started. We created like a buzz, um, online on Instagram. Um, so we’re using that. We also using of course, you know, the email and SMS marketing, um, for, you know, newsletters and new flavors coming every week.

Um, we have labor day coming this weekend. So this is another, you know, opportunity to, uh, to share on that. Um, so yeah, I would say, uh, digital marketing, such as email, SMS. And we also do on Instagram. I tried on TikTok, but, um, maybe I’m too old yet. I don’t know. I don’t understand it yet. So,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: we’ll see. Yeah, TikTok.

I think every social platform has its kind of like… unique thing that you have to, the unique crack that you have to code. [00:29:00] It has nothing to do with age. Like, I think there’s a lot of older people also very successful, but you have to figure out the algorithm. Um, so, um, I had a question. Um, in terms of your sales channel, you are primarily shipping through your website.

Are there any other sales channels are you using? Are you using any sort of partnerships with third, you know, third party, uh, you know, uh, vendors and so forth?

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Yeah. So mainly it’s really our website. Uh, so we have the regular products, but we also have subscriptions on our website so you can subscribe and, you know, receive like new flavors every month.

And we also have a store on Etsy and Amazon, but this is really, uh, I would say side side business. Uh, I try to be on point on these, but since the fees are different, the products are higher, you know, more expensive for the customers. So [00:30:00] I always try to redirect everyone to our main channels like the online stores, uh, because it’s kind of a win win, you know, the product is less expensive on our website because we pay less fees.

And also the customers get to subscribe to our newsletter. So we get, you know, emails and SMS. And in return, they get like seven macarons free added to their order. So even if we have other sales channels, I always try to redirect to, uh, to our own website because we can control the hundred percent of it, you know, uh, where Etsy or, you know, Amazon, they take like fees on top of your sales.

And, um, one day they decide that they can, you know, delete your listings. And yeah, it’s not, it’s not the case on our website. So that’s why. Yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: that’s, that’s awesome. I mean, I’m assuming that your business kind of makes. really good for repeat purchases. So, you know, if a customer has already purchased once and they are in your system, like in your email [00:31:00] marketing system, um, I think it’s, it’s a, it’s an easy way to kind of send out an email, you know, remind people.

You know, of macarons and a certain percentage are going to order again from your site. Do you see a lot of repeat purchases? Do you see email marketing to be a good driver of repeat purchases?

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Yes, yes. Together SMS and email and push. We have also push marketing. Um, all these, I would say, um, maybe 20 percent of the monthly sales.

So it’s really, uh, it’s really, uh, kind of our first, uh, uh, first sales, you know, for search channels, I would say. Um, that’s why we, and that’s already challenging for us because we want to bring something new every week. For example, a new flavor. Uh, now with that new printer, we’re going to, uh, we’re going to do [00:32:00] something really cool every week.

Maybe we’re going to do like a specific macaron’s pack about like a Netflix show, a new Netflix show, or, uh, you know, we’ve printed, um, uh, characters on it or a new movie or, you know, it can be a lot of fun, a lot of creativity. And, uh, that’s what works best with emails marketing, you know, when you have something cool to share, not just to kind of remind people that you are here, but, uh, to bring something new to the table and say, Oh, this is, this is the new show on Netflix and you have this limited version of stranger things, macarons, for example, you know?

So, so yeah, that’s, that’s a good way to keep your audience activated. Um, and then when the big season’s coming, like Black Friday and, uh, and Christmas. Um, you know, since you already talk to your audience all, all year long, they’re, they are more likely to, to buy for you from you, you know, when Christmas arrives, for example.

Do

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: [00:33:00] you, um, have you done any kind of PR or press release, press, uh, release play? Because I’m assuming that if you do a proper, um, PR campaign around like, you know, any holidays, Especially December kind of a season when people are, you know, doing a lot of gifting and things like that. I think that that could work.

That could really drive your sales. But with that, I think you’ll have to do a lot of pre planning as well. Because if you get a lot of orders, you’ll have, you know, you’ll have to figure out a way to fulfill them. And I think if there’s only one person kind of… Managing the kitchen. I think that will be very difficult.

Yeah, but that’s a good

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: problem to have, I guess. So, you know, if that happens, we’re going to have to figure it out real quick. But yeah, we did, we did, um, we did some PR. Uh, my big problem maybe is that I don’t like to, to pay for [00:34:00] advertising this kind of stuff. I, I, I, I hate to pay for that because sometimes you are not sure about the results.

Uh, if you get going to get a return on investment. And since we are still a small business, even where we are very successful, we are two person business, and I want to make sure that every penny that we spend have a good chance, you know, to bring back something. So usually what we do, and that’s what works so far, is In the beginning, we were sending free products.

So we say, um, for example, um, I approach someone, uh, I approach like a website like ink, ink. com, you know, big website or business insider. And I try to find the writers and I try to find their Instagram. And then I send them like a DM or, you know, saying, Oh, this is us. We can send you free macarons. This is authentic.

No pressure, no nothing, just let us know what you think and everything. And then you create like a good interaction and then they’re gonna write the piece for you. And this is without paying anything. Or if you [00:35:00] check online, uh, for example, if you type SEMrush pastries. case study. Um, they, they came to us, uh, from, from their location on the east coast.

They fly over to us to, to take a movie, uh, about us to, to, you know, to kind of share us our story. Um, and they did that twice already. We have a very good relationship with them and they, they shared, you know, on their website, how we succeeded with our methodology and with our business. Uh, and that was the same thing I reached out, uh, um, and, and, you know, we had a good feeling and then they came over and, you know, and such like that.

So that’s usually how I approach things. Um, I like to approach people saying, Hey, we can send you some free stuff. Just, you know, let us know what you think. Uh, uh, yeah, but I never really had to like pay, you know, press to write about us. So maybe we will have more advertising, like more buzz around us if I did, but [00:36:00] it’s like something that I don’t like to do.

I prefer to approach it, you know, on the

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: sideways. So no, that, that, that makes a lot of sense. I think, I mean, I think it’s, I think it may, I mean, I personally don’t see a harm in, you know, testing the idea out and see what’s, what’s the ROI. Like if you, if you pay a PR company, let’s say, you know, whatever they charge 10, 000, whatever.

And, you know, at the end of it, you, uh, you end up making 50, 000 as a result of that. Um, I think that’s still, I would consider it an investment. So

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree with you. And you need to make sure you track correctly though. So you will need to maybe create a custom code, uh, that people can use at checkout and make sure these sales is coming from that.

That’s always the, you know, the thing to track, to make sure you can track.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Definitely. Um, since a big part of your business kind of is dependent on the fulfillment aspect of your product, right? [00:37:00] Can you talk a little bit about, and I see on your website, I think right now you’re kind of working with, uh, UPS for this purpose.

So UPS is kind of your, you know, carrier partner. Um, Can you talk a little bit about how you, how you work that relationship out? Like, do you kind of spend more time on building more partnerships with carriers so that, you know, maybe your cost is, uh, your cost goes down and your, you know, shipping speed gets faster.

So for example, I’m assuming, you know, if you see your analytics and you see that, you know, a lot of 10 percent of your orders are coming from New York, for example, let’s say, um, Do you find like, you know, try to build specific carrier relationships in that area so that, you know, number one, your cost of shipping to New York, uh, is lower.

And then number two, you can, you can make a value proposition like, you know, in New York, you [00:38:00] can get macarons the next day or something like that.

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Um, yeah, we have a good relationship with UPS. They have, uh, they have like local reps all around the U. S. And, uh, you can reach out to them, they meet, they meet you and they kind of discuss volume with you.

Um, and in terms of areas, it works, it works like, um, you know, they have, they have three, three famous, uh, product. They have the three day air, second day air and next day air. So if you promise them, uh, if you commit yourself to, I don’t know, 500 orders next day air within a month, um, they’re going to give you a really, really good price.

The problem is. You have to ship always next day air, you know, and on our side, we prefer to give the choice of for the customers because next day air is very, very expensive. And since we know, uh, we’ve our shipping methods. You can, you can go with three days. Uh, we don’t wanna [00:39:00] force people to go into the more expensive, we wanna give you the options, you know, um, so you can pick d between the difference, the different, the three different stuff.

Uh, and the problem for us then is that we ca we negotiate less amount with UPS because we don’t know which shipping method is gonna be used. We can kind of, uh, have a ballpark, you know, But, um, but we can say, okay, we’re going to have like 400 or 500 a month for next year. No, because it depends on what the customer takes.

Um, so yeah, in terms of carriers, we work with USPS, UPS. Um, and, um, and yeah, it’s good to get, to keep, to, to keep the, I would say the flexibility to people because sometimes people order for big events and they want it, you know, tomorrow, you know, uh, or if you order, you know, far ahead in advance for a gift, you can take the economy shipping, you know, so yeah, that’s how we do it.

We, we just keep it

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: flexible. Who, who does the pack, the [00:40:00] packaging like for the items to ship? Yeah. That is that also in house.

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Yeah, that’s, that’s me and my wife. Oh, wow.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That must take a lot of

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: time. That’s, that’s us. Yeah, we have to organize good to make sure, for example, we ship on Mondays and Wednesdays.

So today’s Tuesday, so perfect. But yeah, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and Mondays, Mondays and Wednesdays to make sure that it doesn’t travel during the weekend. Um, so, so yeah, we make sure, you know, each, each, uh, I would say each task has, uh, each, its its own place to make sure we don’t lose too much time.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Awesome. Um, what is, uh, so I know, I know you mentioned five years down the road you want to have more products. What is, what is, how do you, where do you see yourself and your business? Like, what is your future vision, let’s say five years down the road or so? [00:41:00]

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Um, five years down the road. Um,

I would say, yeah, I mean, uh, I mean, like I said, I want to make sure to cover the whole, you know, macaron area business online. Uh, so I want to make sure whatever you need for macarons, we are here for you. For example, printed colors, different feelings. We can do all that. Once I’m sure we covered all that, we’re going to start adding more French pastries.

So the idea in 5 10 years is to be really the reference online for French pastries. Whatever French pastries we need, you go to pastries. com. That’s kind of the idea.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. In every entrepreneur’s journey, there’s always mistakes made, lessons learned, failures. Um, since you have started this business, uh, as an entrepreneur, what has been some of your kind of, you know, big, uh, lessons learned or, you know, a failure, a big failure that you, uh, [00:42:00] you know, that, that was kind of learning experience for you.

What did you learn from it and what can other entrepreneurs learn from your

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: mistakes? So I would say that was on my previous business is, um, I, I, I tried to do it all by myself, you know, it’s, and I was alone on this business. Uh, so for example, I’m not a developer. So every time I need some custom things on the, my website, I, I, I can’t learn all the way, you know, because it’s really skilled, you know, so the, um, I would say.

I would say a good team is the first point. So for us, it’s a team of two. We can do whatever we need with two person. Of course, all these development tasks, you know, for the website or, you know, things like that, we, we can hire potential help. But, um, but yeah, a good team is the first start. Whatever the product, if you have a

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: good team, you’ll succeed.

Awesome. Now I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment. In this segment, [00:43:00] I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a couple of words or a sentence or so. So the first one is. One book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why? Um,

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: the one called Making Websites Win.

Um, it’s because I don’t know if you know this one. It’s easy to understand and you have like practical examples. Uh, and easy to apply, you know, directly to your business or website.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, an innovative product or idea in the current e commerce, retail, or tech landscape that you feel excited about?

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Um, Chad GPT, definitely, I guess, like everyone, it’s interesting to, for me, it’s interesting to know, uh, how Google will learn to detect AI generated articles from real human valuable posts.

Since I, you know, I write my own stuff, uh, and I add value to it, I want to make [00:44:00] sure that Google still knows that it’s a real human. So that’s really interesting, uh, and scary in the meantime, I want to see how

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: it goes. Yeah. I, I hope, uh, I, I don’t, I, I don’t think chat GPT is going to replace human, um, you know, new human ideas.

So, I mean, it can, it can regurgitate like, you know, what’s already out there, but of course, coming up with new ideas.

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Yeah, I guess because there are going to be a lot of AI generated content that they are soon already,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: uh, a business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip.

Uh, yeah,

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: I talked about SEMrush already. Uh, it’s the perfect tool to track your SEO efforts. So, uh, it’s really, it’s really good to go to place to improve your SEO search engine optimization.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, a startup or business in e commerce, retail, or tech that you think is currently doing great [00:45:00] things. Um,

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: do you know In N Out Burgers?

Have you been to

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: California? In N Out, I’ve heard of it, yeah. Okay, so

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: it’s, uh, it’s like a family owned burger place. It’s like 1948. And they don’t have franchise. They are still pretty small since they are 70 years in business. They have like 200 stores. So it’s big, but they’re not like McDonald’s, you know, and it’s finally on, they control everything.

They control the whole chain with quality ingredients. And they also train their own employees, they have like a school and everything. So it’s really quality over quantity. So that’s why I like

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: them. Definitely. I think quality always matters in a business setting. Yeah. Yeah. A peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you?

That was the wrong

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: one. That I don’t, I don’t have one in mind. Because I think these days, um, you know, we don’t have big Gates [00:46:00] or Steve Jobs these days, you know, there is so many competitors, so many new businesses, everyone does their little stuff on their own. So, um, yeah, I don’t have anyone in mind for this one.

Sorry.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Final question. Best business advice you ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Um, sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Definitely. That’s, that’s kind of the, the, the daily motto of an entrepreneur, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. Either you win, either, either you win or you learn. Well, Anthony, those were all the questions that I had.

Thank you so much for joining me today at Trip Talks. And, um, if anybody wants to buy, uh, any of your macarons or, or crepes, where, where can they find you?

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Uh, so yeah, our website, pastries. com, P A S T R E E Z. [00:47:00] com. Uh, so you can buy macarons for your events, gifts and everything. And any questions, we also have a live chat, uh, button.

And as you know, that’s going to be behind it. So you can talk directly to me on your live chat on

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: our website. Awesome. I mean, it seems like you’re, you’re wearing so many different hats, but I think that that’s, uh, important. Well, Anthony, thank you so much, uh, for your, for your time today. I know you’re busy, but, and, but, uh, I appreciate you joining me today at TrepTalks and sharing your story.

So thanks again for, for your time and really appreciate and wish you all the best.

Anthony Rosemond of Pastreez: Thank you Sushant. Yep. That was a Good question. Good answer. We had a good time. Awesome.