Upon graduating from the University, many fourth-year students either anticipate or agonize about the career choices that lie ahead of them. While some students have prepared their entire four years for this transitional moment in their lives, others remain as undecided about what the future holds for them as they were when they first joined the University community.
However, former University student Kelly Flatley, who was undecided about her future plans upon graduation in 2001, was able to shape one of her favorite pastimes into a successful entrepreneurial business. Because of her love of cooking all-natural and nutritious snacks, she decided to open up her own granola company, "Bear Naked," which now supplies granola to specialty food stores and supermarkets all over the nation.
Flatley's passion for baking did not take off until her undergraduate years at the University. Unsatisfied with the options at the dining hall, Flatley decided to attempt producing her own healthy snacks for herself and her friends.
"In college, I began to realize how foods make me feel, and the importance of eating a healthy snack rather than unhealthy snack," Flatley said. "Not being a fan of fast food or dining hall food, I started mixing and matching different ingredients in my kitchen, making a batch of granola a week to graze on while studying. My roommates liked it, and then my family started eating it."
Flatley began to sell her granola snack locally, and it became a big success within the local community. Encouraged by her success, and with no post-graduation job lined up, she began to entertain ideas about starting a business with her popular product. Even at the beginning of her venture, she realized how competitive the market for cereal products is and was informed that a small, personally-owned cereal company would be a small fish in the big pond of General Mills, Kellogg's, and Post cereals.
"Some people asked me if I had any idea what it takes to start a food company," Flatley said. "People in the industry were telling me that the cereal aisle is really full, and hard competition was tough. However, I took on the challenge one step at a time."
Reuniting with high school friend Brendan Synnott, Flatley worked hard to shape and market their granola company. The pair funded their budding company through credit cards with 0 percent financing, by establishing credit lines with local banks and through generous donations from friends and family who believed in their coming success. Flatley and Synnott did not give themselves a salary during the first two years of starting the company but rather sent every penny they made back into the production of their granola.
Flatley said she realized that, in order to succeed, she had to make her granola stand out from the popular cereals rivaling for shelf space in the crowded cereal aisles. Capitalizing on increasing consumer trends toward a healthy lifestyle, Flatley began to produce her granola with her consumers in mind by using new, innovative ideas to make her product more marketable.
"In producing our granola, we wanted to be in touch with our customers and stay authentic with our ingredients, which we feel make us stand out from our competitors since their processed products have no authenticity," Flatley said. "Since many people picture granola as the equivalent of crunchy birdfeed, we decided to make our cereal with really soft baked granola. We opted to put our cereal in a clear bag, not a box, because we wanted people to be able to see what they were buying. Also, all of our products have whole nuts, not pieces or halves like other cereals."
The name of the company also reflects Flatley's use of all-natural ingredients in producing the granola.
"At first I thought that coming up with a name would be one of the hardest parts of starting a company, but in reality, if everything was as easy as creating the name, then running the company would be a breeze," she said. "We wanted to represent the hearty nature of our cereal with playful name that reflects the company's spirit. We decided on 'Bear Naked' because it proved to be a fun name to market, and one that people won't easily forget."
Individually produced by approximately 50 employees, Flatley's granola is handmade in a 5,000-square-foot commercial kitchen located in Connecticut, unlike the large manufacturing plants that other cereal companies employ. In this space, the company is able to produce about two million pounds of granola annually, which is distributed throughout the nation and is locally available in Harris Teeter and Rebecca's Natural Food store. It also is coming soon to Ukrop's in Richmond.
Flatley said she still is surprised at the success that her granola has had in the cereal aisle, and hopes that one day she will be able to see it in the dining halls of the University.
"My dream is to have 'Bear Naked' available in dining halls, and I think it would be successful since eating healthy and living a balanced lifestyle is present in the minds of many University students," Flatley said. "If I walked back in U.Va. next year and saw my granola in the dining hall, I would be thrilled. To me, that would be more of an honor than seeing it on a grocery shelf because it would mean that my product came full circle in being introduced to the place where I got started making it."
Flatley said she hopes the success of her product will continue as it proliferates throughout the nation and believes that taking the risk and starting her own company, even though the odds were against her, was one of the best decisions she has ever made.
"Without any real business experience and simply relying on passion and gut feeling, I dove in head first, and once I threw my hat in the ring, I was in it knee deep and totally absorbed," she said. "I feel really blessed and lucky to have stumbled into a career I love so early in life because some aren't happy with what they are doing. I still marvel at the fact that I'm a businesswoman, and although the road was full of bumps and tough competition, by following your passion and intuition, anyone can achieve what they set out to do and be successful. If I could make it happen with oats, probably the most un-sexy thing on the planet, I think it could happen with anything."
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