In this conversation, Jaime Tulley shares her journey from a background in food science and pre-med studies to becoming a co-founder and COO of Hey Day Canning Co. She discusses her early experiences in the food industry, the challenges of launching a canned food brand, and the innovative approaches they are taking to revitalize the canned food aisle. Jaime emphasizes the importance of passion, adaptability, and collaboration in entrepreneurship, as well as the unique marketing strategies that have helped Hey Day gain traction in a competitive market. Jaime is a scientist by training and food manufacturing expert by trade. After spending several years doing nutrition-focused cancer research with the National Institute of Health, she decided to pivot into the world of food manufacturing where she felt she could have a more immediate positive impact on human health.Her first role in CPG was Plant Manager for Columbia Gorge Organic, a nationally distributed cold-pressed juice company. At Columbia George, Jaime got her feet wet (quite literally, often standing in a puddle of juice) managingthe front lines of the plant and overseeing all facets of Quality, Food Safety, and Operations.Seeking a role with more capacity for growth, Jaime joined Sweet Earth as the very first hire to lead Quality, R&D, and Operations. At Sweet Earth, Jaime built out the 30,000 square foot facility that would support the brand’s rise from $1M to $25M in revenue — doing everything soup to nuts from formulating dozens of new products across categories, designing production lines, implementing QA systems, hiring and training production teams, and instilling a culture of continuous improvements to drastically improve margins while maintaining quality. Jaime led the operational merge with Nestle, migrating major product lies from Sweet Earth's facility and launching new Sweet Earth products at Nestle plants all over the country.Prior to starting Heyday, Jaime was the VP of Operations at Catapult Commercialization Services, where she provided R&D and commercialization consulting services for startups in categories including dairy alternatives, meat alternatives, functional beverages, hot sauces, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices