Meet Jeanne, Our Founder and CEO!

A few weeks ago we asked you, our community, to share questions you had for our CEO & Founder, Jeanne, for International Women’s Day. We were floored by the amazing, insightful questions and sweet words that were sent in. Keep reading for a roundup of your questions and Jeanne’s answers (hint: with some exciting plans for the future of Outer Aisle)! 

Q:  How did you come up with the idea for Outer Aisle?

A:  The idea for Outer Aisle started with our own quest to get healthy by eliminating sugar and all processed, empty carbs especially bread. We were also trying to get in 5 servings of vegetables a day. Cauliflower pizza crust was just being seen on Pinterest. That gave me the idea to make a bread substitute with cauliflower for a low carb, vegetable based bread alternative.

Q:  What inspired you to proceed with this project?

A:  I believed these products would transform people’s health and that the world needed this revolutionary bread substitute. Eating a sandwich on our “bread” is really eating 2 servings of vegetables and whatever you put on the sandwich…no bread at all!

Q:  What motivated you to better people's health? Was there one person that inspired you?

A:  I have always been a wellness enthusiast and loved sharing health tips. Probably from my days as a personal trainer. I love serving others and making a positive impact in people’s health. There was not one person in particular, but entrepreneurs in general. I have always loved being an entrepreneur and all that it involves.

Q:  How long did it take you to succeed? Did you have failures before your success? If so, can you share how you overcame those failures?

A:  I would say our first 3 years were trying to prove the concept and succeed. We absolutely failed before we succeeded. The product concept was strong, but developing the product itself had many failures until we finally got the right formula. Like 76 failures! I didn’t look at them as failures, but was determined that each new recipe was getting us closer to the final formula for a great product.

Q:  What was the hardest thing you had to deal with while getting your product started to where it is now?

A:  The shelf life issue. When we first started making the products they had a 3 day shelf life! Now through science and technology our products have a 45 day shelf life with no preservatives.

Q:  What was your greatest hurdle to opening your own business? How do you define success?

A:  Getting real data on ingredient pricing other than retail to build a business plan around. Success is defined in many different ways. I feel like success is a journey, not a destination to be achieved. Success on a daily basis is bringing the best of who I am to every situation and making it better while achieving set outcomes whatever they may be that day.

Q:  Do you ever plan to make a vegan version of the Sandwich Rounds? I know there's a ton of us out there who would love it and pay a premium for it!

A:  YES!!!! We will have a vegan version as soon as we have more capacity in our plant to produce it.