Connect Who or what is your inspiration in business?

My daughter is my inspiration in business. I started my business as a promise to her that I would never deploy away from her again. I deployed one week before her 2nd birthday and I had graduated from George Washington Law School about 8 months before, was just sworn into my state bar, and then our lives were flipped upside down. We both struggled to make it through my deployment. I cried every day that I was away from her. I work daily to build a business and be a mom that she can be proud of.

How do you stay motivated?

Every time that I see my daughter in the morning or have her run off of the school bus into my arms, it's my motivation to keep going because I don't want to miss another day of her childhood, I've already missed enough. Each time that I hear her tell one of her friends that OUR chocolate is at the grocery store or that WE have a new flavor out, it reminds me that this isn't my business, she considers it our business and success of it is for both of us. She has been with me the whole journey.

What would you do with the $25,000?

We will be launching a two new products into Whole Foods in a couple months and an entirely new line in Walmart later this year. The $25,000 will help us to pay for packaging and ingredients as we continue to grow. It takes us 10-40 days to get paid for product that we ship out to stores, but it costs tens of thousands of dollars to launch into new markets and launch new products. This money will allow us to launch without having to worry about a loan.