I pushed back the Braid & Berry plan: the first store moves from March to May

Braid & Berry is a sandwich on challah bread. Without the challah, there's no product.

I'm not a cook. That's why I'm looking for someone to bake it who'll also be a partner: salary plus equity. The job has been open for a few weeks, 12 applications came in through Indeed, and I'm still interviewing.

Nobody is hired yet. And that moved the whole calendar.

Why one hire moves everything

The plan is a chain.

Without a baker I can't test the menu. Without a tested menu I don't know how big each sandwich is, what it costs, or whether it tastes the way I want. Without that there are no tastings with customers. And without tastings I'm not opening a store.

Each step needs the one before it. If the first one slips, they all slip.

I could have pretended nothing was happening and left the dates where they were. But a plan with dates I already know I'll miss doesn't help me decide anything.

The new dates

On October 24 I pushed the plan back:

1. November 13: baker hired.
2. December 4: menu and packaging ready.
3. Mid-December: tastings with customers start. The goal is to finish them by January 15.
4. February 5, 2027: online launch.
5. May 7, 2027: first store.

The first store used to be March 12. That's eight more weeks.

What doesn't move

Not everything depends on the bread.

Incorporating the company, opening the bank account, setting up Stripe, finishing the brand and building the website all keep their dates. None of that needs a sandwich.

Some of it is already moving:

• The company. I talked it through with the lawyer and Braid & Berry will be a C corp. That unblocks the online incorporation, set for Monday, October 26. The bank account comes next.
• The colors. On October 7 we put them on the website and didn't like how the brand looked. The final ones were locked on October 22.
• The packaging. The designer is already working it down to exact sizes.

The menu we're designing for

The packaging is designed for a specific menu:

• The Braid: a sandwich on challah triangles.
• The Whole Braid: on a whole round challah loaf.
• The Triple: three layers.
• Short braid sticks.
• Kettle chips in a sealed, branded bag.
• Smoothies and fruit cups.

That means napkins, bags, smoothie cups, sandwich boxes, wrapping paper, braid stick packaging, chip bags and fruit cups.

The catch? I still don't have the real sandwich sizes. A box is designed for an exact size, and the bread sets the size. The measurements get confirmed once someone is baking the challah.

So even the packaging, which runs in parallel, ends up waiting on the same thing.

What I learned building this plan

When I made the original plan, I put everything on the product side behind one person I didn't have yet. Hiring someone who'll be a partner doesn't happen in a week: you have to find them, interview them, see how they bake and see whether they believe in the project.

What I did get right was not stopping everything else. While I look for the baker, the brand, the colors, the packaging and the company keep moving. When the baker shows up, I won't be starting from zero: the company will be incorporated, the brand done and the packaging waiting for its measurements.

If you're planning a food business, find the piece everything else hangs on. For me it's the bread. That goes first, and everything that doesn't depend on it runs in parallel.

What's next

Hire the baker before November 13. I'll share it here and in the Braid & Berry log as soon as it happens.