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Making It Work is a series about small business owners who are struggling to make ends meet.
Hakki Akdeniz, the founder of the Champion Pizza chain in New York City, is free to talk about his past. When he first moved to the United States from Canada in 2001, he was homeless, sleeping in train cars and in Grand Central Terminal before staying in a shelter for three months.
Mr. Akdeniz’s experience is clearly displayed on Champion Pizza’s website, and the company’s dedication to supporting the homeless is key to its mission. Mr. Akdeniz, 43, is part of a growing group of small business owners who have incorporated some of the most intimate aspects of their personal lives into their company’s brand, according to business experts and observers.
Company founders telling their personal stories is not a new phenomenon. These stories are often straightforward, rosy accounts of people determined to solve problems. But the new generation of founders is distinguishing itself with uncluttered narratives, easy-to-digest stories about their businesses, experts say. These include stories of homelessness, addiction, incarceration, mental illness and physical health.
Many small business owners say they choose to be transparent about difficult times in their lives and, in doing so, build deeper relationships with consumers. But what happens when a company reveals some of the darkest moments in its founder’s life? Will consumers relate to or be turned off by too much information?
In recent years, an increasing number of small business owners are disclosing sensitive details about their past in company messaging, said Tulin Erdem, a professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business and chair of the university’s marketing department. Dr. Erdem said it is a “positive trend” that can inspire connections with customers, as long as it is original and suitable for the company’s products or services.
“Some people don’t like it,” he said, but added that those who don’t like it probably aren’t their target customers.
Angela Lee, a professor at Columbia Business School who teaches venture capital, said she’s also noticed more founders open up about their past struggles. But he said business owners should be “careful” when it comes to oversharing, especially when it comes to complex topics. He said, “Nuance is hard to show when someone is quickly scanning a bio, or a social media post.”
Mrs. Lee is also an investor and founder of 37 Angels, a network of female investors. He says the line between professional and personal life is blurring and founders need to be more proactive when pitching investors because the past can appear in the background. reviews. “The day of one person working, and one person at home, is behind us,” said Ms. Lee.
The “About Us” section on business websites is used to differentiate a company by explaining what makes it better than its competitors, says David Gaz, founder of the Small Projects Bureau, a branding agency that also creates websites for small businesses. The agency found that the “about” page was the second most visited section of a business’s site, after the home page, Mr. Gaz said. (The company builds about 100 websites for small businesses each year, he said.)
Mr Akdeniz’s biography is on Champion Pizza’s website, but he insists that his aim will not be at the center of the brand. “I want to be an example to many people, but not arrogant,” said Mr. Akdeniz, who is Kurdish. He often gives slices to homeless people who frequent the pizzeria and volunteers once a week with two organizations that support the homeless, donating pies that he serves himself.
Originally from Turkey, he came to New York as an asylum seeker after being deported from Canada because his tourist visa had expired, he said. He had learned how to make Italian-style pizza in Canada, where he lived for several years, after mastering lahmajoun, a Middle Eastern toast with meat, in his home country.
He eventually got a job washing dishes at a restaurant in Hoboken, before he started making pizzas in his own restaurant, and he opened his first shop in 2009. He said he got an EB-1 green card, which he gave to people. extraordinary ability,” after he received the highest score in a pizza-making competition by Pizza Marketing Quarterly, an industry magazine, in 2010 at the Javits Center in New York City.
There are 33.2 million small businesses in the United States, according to the Small Business Administration, and many of the owners are experiencing challenging times – the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that “more than one in five US adults lives with a mental illness,” for example. Historically, most have not disclosed these difficulties publicly through business platforms, said Dr. Erdem, a marketing professor from New York University. But few have found that their personal narrative resonates with their target consumers.
George Haymaker, founder of ReThink Ice Cream, is one of the owners of the business. Mr. Haymaker, 62, described the drug addiction period of his life as “going around the toilet drain.” Eating a lot of ice cream played a significant role in Mr. Haymaker’s early sobriety, he said, and helped him stay away from drugs and alcohol.
This experience is integral to the company’s identity: “ReThink Ice Cream was born from an addiction to alcohol and pain pills,” says the first line of the “Story” section on the company’s website. He had gained over 30 pounds the first time he got drunk, so he came up with a healthier ice cream recipe with less sugar.
“Whether there is a stigma attached to addiction or mental health, I don’t care,” Mr. Haymaker, who lives in Northern California, said. He said the message of recovery is particularly relevant to colleges that want to address the mental health of their students. He now sells ice cream at 30 colleges in California and one in Oregon, as well as in stores, and he has lectured on campus about recovery and entrepreneurship.
Alli Ball, a food consultant who is based in San Francisco and advises startups selling packaged food and beverages, said there are no hard rules about what founders should or should not talk about. “If it’s gimmicky, it doesn’t really shape you and you just do it to work on other stories, I think people can see through,” she said.
He advises his clients to put their values first, explaining that they can attract the type of customers the business wants to attract.
One business owner determined to move forward is Nadya Okamoto, the founder of August, a startup that sells feminine hygiene products. Her company, which sells products online and at some Target locations, allows consumers to create their own packages of menstrual products that will be delivered to their homes.
“All of my brands, from the beginning, have been unfiltered, talking about periods and blood and mental health,” she says.
Mrs. Okamoto, 25, said he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder six months after he conceived the idea for the company. She shares stories about her mental health struggles, including one where she says she was sexually abused, on Instagram and on TikTok, where she has more than four million followers. He admits that his approach isn’t for everyone.
“I wouldn’t say there’s any significant marketing incentive,” Ms. Okamoto, and added that there is an advantage for August, thus creating a sincere relationship with his followers.
He said openness on social platforms has led to a sense of loyalty among customers. But he admits that his candor has drawn judgment, causing some people to be more wary of him and even alienate others, adding, “I hate it online a lot.”
Meg Smith, founder of Love, Lexxi, a lingerie company specializing in bras with smaller cup sizes, agrees that customers appreciate transparency. “Consumers today are very savvy, and they care about authenticity and genuine motives that brands have,” he said.
Mrs. Smith, 38, said she developed an autoimmune disease after receiving breast implants and eventually had to have them removed. She said plastic surgery was taboo in the community where she grew up, outside of Portsmouth, NH, and she hesitated to open up about her cosmetic procedures and health struggles for fear of judgment.
Finally, in a video on Love’s website, Lexxi, she talks about her desire to be beautiful after struggling with her body image and health. In hindsight, he does not regret sharing, he said, because his story reveals the honest motives behind the company.
Mrs. Smith says that, for the company, their transparency shows, “Our founders have been through the wringer.”
Business owners who have been incarcerated say sharing their past can be a risk to their professional reputation, but some say it’s worth it. When Marcus Bullock founded Flikshop, a website and app where people can send postcards to their incarcerated loved ones, in 2012, he first recorded his personal experience in prison.
“I don’t want to be ostracized from the business community,” Mr. Bullock said.
He was imprisoned for eight years, starting at the age of 15, for stealing a car, and for the last six years of his imprisonment, his mother sent him a letter every day. This inspired his company, whose mission is to stop recidivism by helping people imagine life after prison through letters from loved ones.
After a customer expressed how important the app was to his family, Mr. Bullock decided to show that he knew where he was coming from because he had spent time in prison.
“I feel empowered by owning, owning everything, the narrative that I’ve been carrying for so long,” said Mr. Bullock, who is based in Washington, DC. .
“Our customers are surprised to learn that the technology they use every day was started by their loved ones in one of these cells,” Mr. Bullock said. Flikshop’s website says the service operates in more than 3,700 correctional facilities. He began hiring other ex-prisoners and created Flikshop Neighborhood, a project that connects organizations with people behind bars and teaches employers how to create hiring policies to give people with criminal records a second chance.
For Mr. Bullock and others, including Ms. Okamoto, openness about their private lives has led to a sense of liberation.
“I hid myself for a long time,” Ms. Okamoto said. “It takes a lot more emotional energy to filter me and think about who I’m talking to and how I’m going to show up.” He added, “So, I might as well be myself.”
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