Our third installment of Member Monday highlights Nagélore Jean-Caïdor, founder of Naturel Juicing. Naturel Juicing creates fresh, nutrient dense, 100% raw cold-pressed juices, with no additives, preservatives or chemicals. These juices have globally-inspired flavors and seek to support a healthy life.

Keep reading to learn about the process behind creating health-forward juices, balancing a day job with founding a startup, and more. If you missed Nagélore’s Instagram takeover, head over to our Member Monday Highlight to check it out.

What inspired you to start Naturel Juicing?

Naturel Juicing is my love for fresh foods and natural juices. Growing up in my native country of Haiti, I've always loved eating all kinds of fruits and vegetables straight from the local farmers. My love for it grew even more when my mother started making fresh juices and smoothies for the family. The rich flavors of all these juices were so amazing that they remained ingrained in my mind ever since. I wanted to share with others all of the different flavors that Haiti and other countries in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and Asia have to offer through opening my very own cold-pressed juicery.

Also, I wanted to help people get back on track with their health in the most convenient way possible, and make them feel good about themselves by providing them with nutrient dense, cold-pressed juices that would naturally support and boost the immune system on every level. My vision was to create products that are 100% natural, raw, and fresh so that customers can feel confident and safe about what they are putting into their body, without having to worry about the potential consequences of eating or drinking something that is unnatural or has been processed with many chemicals and preservatives. At Naturel Juicing, we put customers’ safety and health first, so for every product we create, we make sure that it is highly nutritious, and that it will help customers achieve a health goal.

How did you transition from idea to successful business launch?

I was able to transition from idea to a successful business launch by being very proactive, courageous and persistent in achieving my goal. As we all know, starting a business takes courage and a lot of work (long days and late nights), so I knew that I needed to remain persistent and consistent in the pre-launch phase, and never give up until successfully launching the business. This mindset is what has allowed me to transition from idea to an actual launch. 

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are looking to optimize their nutritional intake now more than ever. Naturel Juicing’s products can support a boosted immune system. Can you expand on the process of developing a recipe that focuses on health?

At Naturel Juicing, the first thing we do when creating a new juice recipe that focuses on health is to choose a specific health concern or a group of related health concerns that we would like to address, like improving digestion or boosting metabolism. After we choose a health concern, we do our research, looking at scientific studies done by the National Institute of Health and other medical journals to find out all of the vegetables and fruits with high levels of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are known to improve those issues.. From there, we choose the fresh produce of our choice and work on developing our first recipe draft for that new juice. As we test out that recipe, we make alterations to meet the desired flavor and level of sweetness. Once we have a final version of a recipe that we are happy with in terms of taste and nutritional value, we launch it to our consumers.

Pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors presents great rewards and great challenges for founders. What has been the most rewarding part of the journey for you so far? What were the biggest challenges that you faced?

The most rewarding part of this journey has been seeing my customers happy and satisfied with my products. This makes me the happiest in the world, because it signifies to me that my customers and I are on the same page and that I am delivering on my promise. 

The biggest challenge I have faced so far is finding additional capital. To overcome this challenge, I have remained persistent and proactive in finding community resources, reaching out to people in my network, and expanding my network so that I may locate the financial resources out there for startups like Naturel Juicing. 

In addition to your role at Naturel Juicing, you work as a Financial Officer. Do you have advice for those looking to launch a CPG startup while maintaining their day-job? 

My advice for those looking to start a CPG startup while maintaining a day job is to do the following: 

1. Save as much as you can — more than you think you would need.

2. Create a good plan on how you would balance out your day job and the responsibilities of the startup.

3. Develop a process for how to deal with last minute orders for the business while working at your day job. Are you going to have someone else on standby to help with the business while you’re away working?

4. Working two full time jobs will put a lot of strain on your body, so you’ll need to figure out how to take time off to rest while still ensuring that your business remains open

5. Create a plan for when and how you will be able to resign from your day job so that you can dedicate 100% of your time to your CPG startup.

What drove you to looking for community support in the launch of your business? How has the Branchfood membership helped you find a community?

I wanted to seek community support in the launch of my business so that I can continue to make progress and expand. It is said that one person cannot run a business alone and that you will need to make connections with people who can help you along the way. I know how valuable it is for me to seek community support so that I can take my business to the next level. At Branchfood, I have been able to find the support and resources that I need which has made things easier for me as an entrepreneur. 

What is in store for the future of Naturel Juicing? 

I have more juice flavors that will be coming out soon for the summer as well as vegan snacks. I hope to launch them in the next couple of weeks. The long term goal is to open up a storefront where I can continue to operate and serve customers. Currently, I am working on raising the necessary amount of capital I will need to open our first storefront. 

How can people support Naturel Juicing? 

Our juices can be found online on our website and at farmers markets in Lowell, Cambridge, and Haverhill for pickup. 

People can also support Naturel Juicing by investing in our company. We currently have an investment campaign going on at the moment on Mainvest, a secure investment platform where people can invest as little as $100 in Naturel Juicing and have the potential to earn back a return of 1.5X their initial investment. Our investment campaign can be found at: https://mainvest.com/b/naturel-juicing. 

Thank you to Nagélore and Naturel Juicing for being this week’s Member Monday spotlight. Connect with Naturel Juicing on Facebook, Instagram, and check out their website to stay up-to-date on their future endeavors. 

Interested in how a Branchfood membership can help you succeed? Learn more about our membership benefits, and stay informed with our newsletter. Be sure to follow us on Instagram for our next Member Monday takeover!