How Nicole Bernard Dawes Built Soda Brand Nixie After Late July

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicole Bernard Dawes, the 53-year-old founder and CEO of Nixie, a zero-sugar soda brand based in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was very fortunate to grow up in an entrepreneurial environment.

I watched my father, Steve Bernard, start and run Cape Cod Potato Chips, and my mom owned a health food store. They shaped who I am as a founder.

Growing up, I spent many days after school at the factory or at my mom’s store. My dad really wanted me to understand the business, so he would show me how to do things like read a P&L.

I went on to found Late July Snacks in 2003 and sold an 80% stake to Snyder’s-Lance in 2014. I remained CEO until Campbell’s acquired Snyder’s-Lance in 2018, adding Late July to its portfolio.

After the sale, we started looking into something we had been thinking about during the Late July days. We saw a gap in the market for a USDA-certified organic, zero-sugar beverage to pair with our chips.

Nixie was born in late 2019, and we’re now in over 11,000 retailers nationwide.

I’ve been working with my husband since Late July

We have two kids. I was pregnant with my oldest son when I started Late July. I decided I wanted to have dinner as a family every night and be present in their lives.

My husband left his film career to join me at Late July, which allowed one of us to always be home with our kids. We didn’t travel at the same time for many years.

I started Late July with my father as a cofounder. He died relatively suddenly, and our bank put a big loan we had in default due to his passing. It was the height of the recession.

I have a roll-up-my-sleeves, get-it-done mentality

I had to get myself out of my comfort zone and network as much as possible because I had to repay that loan. I had to fix the company by figuring out why we weren’t reaching the next level.

We had trouble affording our groceries. One of the things I’m really good at is budgeting, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs probably are. We definitely were not spending money on much of anything, and it was very stressful, but I always believed we would find a way out.

We were able to persuade the bank to give us more time. I rejected some options, such as selling more equity in the company. In the end, a mission-driven lender agreed to refinance the debt.

The breakthrough was starting our tortilla chips line in 2010

Late July started in crackers, then we innovated into tortilla chips and eventually other types of snacks. I was never afraid to compete in a competitive category. Our tortilla chips were gluten-free, allergen-free, and delicious, so almost everybody could eat them. That line basically catapulted us into the future.

I don’t think any of it was a mistake, because it led us to learn what we needed to know about our brand and probably made us stronger.

The company went from about $8 million in sales and struggling to repay its loans to being on track to reach $100 million within three years. By the time Campbell’s acquired Snyder’s-Lance, we were a large, profitable company.

Most of our team wasn’t being retained by Campbell’s

We’d spent 10 years building a team of around 27 people we respected and trusted — smart people who were great at their jobs and who really liked working together.

That’s one of the hardest things to find when you’re building a company. We were able to retain a lot of the leadership team for Nixie.

We had that great team, and we saw a part of the supermarket that needed what we could bring to the conversation. Those two things drove us to start Nixie almost right away.

Initially, we self-funded Nixie

Having $0 in revenue and starting from scratch was quite different, but there are enormous advantages to it being your second time around. I made so many mistakes along the way with Late July. I’m not going to make zero mistakes at Nixie, but hopefully I won’t repeat the same ones.

We decided to start with sparkling water and put in our own money after the Late July sale. We brought in a few angels who’d been part of Late July, including Short List Capital. Nixie later raised at least $8 million in a 2022 financing.

Last year, we raised more than $26 million from investment firm Invus, and its managing director, Evren Bilimer, joined our board.

The best way you can spend your marketing dollars is trade marketing

That’s spending it directly with a store. You’d be hard-pressed to get a better ROI anywhere than a display with a key retailer.

The second-best way is sampling. If you’re passionate about your products and they taste great, getting other people to try them should translate into sales. If you can sample with your retailers, even better, because you’re sampling the people who work in that store, too, and they’re some of your best evangelists.

We partner with organizations like HeadCount, which does voter registration drives at festivals and events, so we get to both support a cause we believe in and hand out samples.

The hardest decision at Nixie so far has been who to bring in as a partner investor

It is so important. It’s really like a marriage. You need to think long and hard about it, and really feel great about it. You should not have any reservations, because whatever you’re seeing as red flags will come back 10 times once the relationship unfolds.

My husband and I took that extremely seriously. In the end, we feel very lucky and really grateful for who we partnered with. Especially if you’re a mission-driven or organic brand, you need to make sure you’re in lockstep with your partners.

I’ve learned that the bigger you are, the more change you can drive

One of my investors in Late July was an organic activist who helped change the market with his brand. He taught me a lot, and I’ve since testified before Congress about the importance of organic agriculture.

What I want to build is a healthy beverage brand that’s a market leader, one that helps make the beverage aisle a healthier place for everybody. I love this brand, I’m so proud of it, and all I care about right now is building something strong.