Braid & Berry is on hold until I find someone to bake the challah

Braid & Berry sells sandwiches on challah bread. The name says it: the braid is the bread. I'm not a cook. So right now the company is waiting on one person I haven't met yet: whoever is going to bake the challah.

Why everything depends on the bread

I could buy bread and start selling tomorrow. I won't, because the whole concept is the challah. If the bread is the same as everywhere else, Braid & Berry is just another sandwich shop.

And baking isn't my thing. I know how to build companies, run numbers, sell and design operations. I don't know how to make a six-strand braid that comes out the same a hundred times in a row at 5 a.m. So I'm not looking for someone to follow a recipe. I'm looking for a chef who becomes a partner.

The partner who said no

Before posting a job, I had someone in mind. She knew how to make challah, we'd tried hers and it was really good. She'd run a bakery and produced at commercial volume.

We signed an NDA, met on September 29 and I sent her the proposal. She talked it over with her family. On October 6 she said no: she didn't want long days and wanted time with her family.

That's a completely fair reason. And it's exactly what this job asks for at the start: very early shifts and a lot of hours.

The mistake was mine. I had one candidate and nothing running in parallel. When she said no, everything stopped: the 30-day test, the taste tests with customers, the first events. None of it can start without bread.

The job post

That same day, October 6, I posted a challah baker opening on LinkedIn. By the next day 3 people had applied and 2 had booked a call.

Three is not much, so I also posted it on Indeed. By October 8 there were 12 applications.

The offer is salary + equity. If I want a partner and not an employee, they need to own part of what they build.

What I'm looking for

Four things:

• Experience. They've baked at volume, not just at home.
• Drive. At the start this means getting up before dawn six days a week.
• Flavor. In the end, the challah has to be great.
• Belief in the project. With equity involved, they have to want to build this with me.

How the interviews are going

I've done 2 interviews. For the first one, the candidate didn't show up and rescheduled.

The second was with a baker who'd worked at a bakery making every kind of bread: sourdough, white bread, pretzels and challah. She was one of the people who braided the challah because hers came out consistent. She's done 3- and 4-strand braids; not the 6-strand or the round one yet, but she says she learns fast. Six days a week works for her, and she prefers shifts that start between 4 and 6 a.m.

I'm not deciding anything yet. I talk to everyone first.

The week of October 19 to 22 I have 15 fifteen-minute calls with 13 candidates. Fifteen minutes is enough to tell whether someone has real experience, cares about the project and can work the hours.

The taste test

From those calls I'll pick about 5 for a taste test. Each one brings their best challah with their own recipe. I don't give them mine: I want to see how each person bakes when nobody tells them what to do.

The goal is to close in about two weeks. As soon as I have the baker, Braid & Berry restarts with the 30-day test.

What I take from this

When a company depends on one piece, that piece goes first, and you look for it with several options at once. I had one, and I lost weeks. Now I have 15 calls in one week.