Amanda Gorter is the founder of Lēto Foods. After spending over a decade advising the world’s leading consumer packaged goods & healthcare companies at a boutique strategy consulting firm, she set out to make healthy eating easier during & after pregnancy. While there were many products focused on babies, she was unsatisfied by the limited options designed specifically for people during & after pregnancy. Manufactured at a state-of-the art food & beverage incubator in Chicago, Amanda is on-site to ensure superior quality of each hand-crafted pouch and Lēto box. Amanda is a graduate of the University of Michigan and has advised >30 food, beverage, and healthcare brands – ranging in size from pre-launch, to $100M-$1B growth brands, to mature $1B+ brands.
Where did the idea for Lēto Foods come from?
Lēto Foods spurred out of a weekend trip with four friends – two of whom were pregnant. I left the weekend asking why it wasn’t easier to eat all natural, clean foods during pregnancy – with no ingredient second guessing necessary!
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Every day is a little different, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! On a typical day in the office, I may be in vendor & partner meetings, answering customer questions, reviewing marketing materials, or developing new content. On non-office days, I’m out in the field. I may be at a market talking to customers and educating about our product, or I may be working in our manufacturing facility on the production line, or I might be in our warehouse helping ship our product to customers!
How do you bring ideas to life?
I talk to our customers, iterate, and keep tweaking until it is just right.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Personalization. With the influx of research, big data, and analytics, we have the resources to create products for specific consumer needs – now we just need to do it.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I’m a perfectionist at heart, but one of the most important lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is sometimes you need to submit and move on!
What advice would you give your younger self?
Maintain perseverance and don’t give up.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Write your own playbook and set your own path. Just because others do things differently doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Talk to people! I talk to my vendors, my customers, my peers, and everyone else, and I listen. Entrepreneurship is about evolution and talking to others can help that evolution.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
The power of word of mouth. When we launched Lēto, we started hearing from customers that they heard about our product from so-and-so. It was often through a second or third connection that people heard about us, and it was powerful.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Early on we over-rotated on some marketing activities. When you get started, it’s all about test-and-learn and not putting too much spend in any one area.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Food good for people during menopause. We get the question all the time when we are at Farmer’s Markets, and there isn’t much out there.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Athleisure pants with pockets. When I’m in our manufacturing facility I need to have my phone, keys, and entry cards on me at all times. I can’t tell you how many women’s athleisure pants don’t have pockets!
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Klaviyo. It’s an amazing Email Service Provider that helps us create and automate our emails.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Designing Your Life. It was recommended to me by a fellow female entrepreneur!
What is your favorite quote?
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs
Key Learnings:
- Create products that can be personalized
- Automate where you can and then move on
- Get out and talk to your customers
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.