Four sandwiches, two made the cut

Kitchen first, brand later

This week I ran the first taste tests at home. Four sandwiches. Two passed: the Paola's Braid and the caprese. Two didn't.

The two that failed get adjusted and tested again. That's Braid & Berry's next step.

What the logo blocks and what it doesn't

I'm waiting on the final version of the logo. We're down to small revisions and it should be done Tuesday. Until it's locked I'm not moving on design or packaging: all of that hangs off the logo, and redoing it is expensive.

What I did decide is that the logo doesn't stop everything else. Taste tests continue. Sourcing suppliers continues.

Second company: 7 out of 112

Getting from 112 candidates down to 7 took me about three weeks of applying the criteria.

There's no decision yet, and that's what I want to close this week: pick one and announce it here.

This week on the blog

• Why I'm starting with a cart, not a storefront — opening a store in San Diego is the most expensive way to find out you were wrong.
• Kimik: a million dollars in 6 months and we still shut down — the product worked; the market didn't want it.
• TurboCar: my first acquisition and why I closed it — $2.5M in sales and I still lost money.
• 32 startup investments: what the 14 that died taught me — 17 active, 1 exit, 14 closed.

This week: the logo locked, a second round for the two sandwiches that failed, and the second company decided.