040: Entrepreneurship Gone Crackers with Mary Waldner

By Aline Wealth Management on October 17, 2023

Sometimes the greatest business ideas are a byproduct of our personal passions. That was certainly the case for Mary Waldner when she decided to start Mary’s Gone Crackers, a wildly successful gluten-free organic cracker and snack company. A company that she would go on to grow and eventually sell.

Mary Waldner was a licensed marriage and family therapist, practicing in the California Bay Area for 28 years, before starting Mary’s Gone Crackers. Inspired by her own struggles with Celiac disease, she saw a need for nutritious, gluten-free options that tasted good. The company was sold in 2012 and Mary continued to work with the new owners, Kameda Seika (a publicly traded Japanese company) through 2018. Mary offers a distinct perspective when sharing her stories and insights as both a healer and a food company entrepreneur.

Today, Mary joins us to discuss how she made a successful business out of a passion project and then prepared her company for sale.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Mary shares her inspiration for the business and when she knew it was a viable product.
  • Discover the ways in which Mary grew the business all the way from raising initial seed money from family and friends.
  • Learn the process of selling the company and preparing the business for exit.
  • Mary offers advice to aspiring business owners.

INSPIRING QUOTE

“Think big. It takes the same amount of work to build something small as it takes to build something big.” – Mary Waldner

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