When the problem you’re solving is personal, you’re not guessing, you’re responding. You already know what’s annoying, what’s broken, and what you wish someone would fix.
They say your product should solve a problem. Kimberle Lau solved nine.
When she started getting food allergies (first lactose and eggs, then soy), she realized how difficult it became to navigate the aisle. Every grocery trip was a reminder that allergen-friendly products were made for the one-allergy shopper, not the growing number of people managing several.
Bake Me Healthy was her response to that gap. Top-nine-allergen-free, upcycled, and built to actually taste good, it wasn’t about creating another “better-for-you” option. It was about finally making a baked product everyone can enjoy.
Adapt the business. Don’t compromise the product. Kimberle kept top-nine-free and upcycled non-negotiable, even when co-mans pushed back. Instead of lowering the bar, she changed everything around it (the channel, the sourcing, the pace) until the business supported the product.
The right channel is the one that pays you. Coming from the beauty industry, retail seemed like the obvious channel for Kimberle. But once she saw how much demos, trade spend, and chargebacks ate into already thin food margins, she shifted to food service. It requires less legwork, fewer middlemen, and comes with better margins.
Accelerator programs are shortcuts. Take them. Kimberle has joined Naturally New York, the FedEx Accelerator Program, the Columbia Alumni Virtual Accelerator Program, Sam Adams The American Dream, to name a few. And she couldn’t recommend them more. “You're getting all these free resources, and then you can also get some money on the side. So why not apply to more accelerator programs?”
Be specific when you ask for help. Most of her best introductions came from straightforward questions: “Who handles food service at your office?” “How do you get into university dining?” No long backstory. No big pitch. People generally want to help. They just need to know what you you’re asking for.
You’ll make mistakes. Just don’t make them twice. Kimberle hired agencies too early and spent money she wishes she hadn’t. Every founder has their version of that. What made the difference was how quickly she got up and kept going. Mistakes can throw you off course, but it’s going back that will really slow you down.
Market insight → The allergen-friendly aisle needs an upgrade. Adult-onset allergies are rising, kids age into lifelong buyers, and multi-allergy households are now the norm. Solve for everyone at the table, and you win the biggest slice of demand.
Find micro-opportunities in the macro
7 steps to solve with constraints…
Not compromises.
1. Identify your non-negotiables. Pick the 1-3 constraints that define the product. Things that, if removed, make the product generic.
2. Evaluate all decisions against them. For every ingredient, partner, channel, or price, ask: Does this preserve the integrity of the non-negotiables? If yes, continue. If no, reassess.
3. Redesign the system around the constraint. Instead of: “Can my product work with this co-man/channel/system?” Ask: “What version of this system could support my product?”
4. Make difficulty your differentiator. If the constraint is costly, annoying, or operationally painful for everyone else, that’s your moat. The harder the constraint, the less competition.
5. Test the constraint at small scale. If the product fails in a small batch, it will collapse harder at volume. Fix the issue before you scale the business.
6. Adapt, but don’t compromise your constraints. Ops, channels, pricing, sourcing, and even your product can shift. Your non-negotiables shouldn’t.