A family problem revealed a larger market
Denise Woodard’s daughter, Vivienne, was diagnosed with several food allergies as an infant. Grocery shopping became an exercise in reading labels, weighing risks and explaining why certain snacks were off limits. Woodard saw that many products made for people with allergies solved for safety but not necessarily for taste, nutrition or the social experience of sharing food. That gap became the premise of Partake Foods.
Woodard had spent years in sales and emerging-brand roles, including work at Coca-Cola with brands such as Honest Tea. She knew that a meaningful origin story was not enough to earn repeat purchases or retail distribution. The cookies had to appeal to households managing allergies while also tasting good to people who were not. This was a larger commercial thesis: an inclusive product could serve a specific need without presenting itself as a narrow medical substitute.
Translate lived experience into a product that serves a broader market.
She financed belief before investors did
Woodard developed the company while holding her corporate job, then left Coca-Cola in 2017 to launch Partake full time. Early financing was deeply personal. In an Entrepreneur essay, she wrote that she maxed out credit cards, emptied her 401(k) and sold her engagement ring. She also sold cookies from her car and visited stores herself. Those details are often framed as inspirational sacrifice, but they expose a structural problem. Founders without ready access to wealthy networks frequently have to place their household security at risk before professional investors recognize the opportunity.
The gamble did not make the business sound. Execution did. Woodard had to find manufacturers capable of meeting strict allergen requirements, produce enough inventory to supply stores and persuade buyers that Partake could move off the shelf. Consumer packaged goods companies pay for ingredients, packaging, manufacturing and freight before a retailer pays them. Growth can therefore consume cash even when sales are rising. Partake’s path shows why a founder must understand inventory turns, gross margin and payment timing as carefully as brand storytelling.
Retail turned the idea into an operating company
A retail placement creates visibility, but it also creates obligations. The founder must forecast demand, meet delivery windows, maintain consistent quality and generate enough customer pull to justify keeping the shelf space. Partake reached more than 1,600 Target stores in 2020. By the end of 2023, Woodard said the company’s footprint had grown to 14,000 retail stores. Arizona State University, where she earned her MBA, reported more than 17,000 retail locations in late 2024.
Those numbers are company and institutional reports rather than audited public-company disclosures, but the progression demonstrates the scale of the operating challenge. Each expansion required Partake to work across manufacturing, distribution, retailer relationships and consumer marketing at the same time. For founders pursuing national retail, the real milestone is not the announcement that a chain accepted the product. It is the ability to replenish profitably after shoppers encounter it.
Capital followed evidence, but the road was unequal
Woodard has spoken openly about rejection while fundraising. Forbes reported in 2023 that Partake had raised more than $20 million from investors including Marcy Venture Partners, Black Star Fund, Fearless Fund, CircleUp Growth Partners and individuals such as Rihanna. FoodNavigator reported that an $11.5 million Series B in 2022 brought the company’s total at that time to $19 million. The funding gave Partake resources to expand distribution, products and its team.
Her achievement carries particular weight because Black women receive only a tiny share of venture funding. Partake has described Woodard as the first Black woman to publicly raise more than $1 million for a consumer packaged goods food startup. That milestone should be celebrated, but it should also prompt a harder question: how many promising companies never reach the evidence threshold investors demand because their founders cannot personally finance the journey to it? Woodard’s success demonstrates skill and persistence. It does not prove the system distributes opportunity fairly.
Mission became part of the company’s infrastructure
Partake’s products are designed to be free from the top nine food allergens, and the company uses the language of radical inclusivity to describe its purpose. The promise is practical: a child who normally has to bring a separate snack should be able to participate more easily. That product decision gives the mission a measurable expression rather than leaving it as a line in a campaign.
Woodard extended that logic to the talent pipeline. She created Black Futures in Food & Beverage, a fellowship connecting HBCU students with education, mentorship and paid opportunities in the industry. In a 2023 year-end note, she said the fellowship had become a nonprofit and was supporting its third cohort. This matters to Black business because company impact is not limited to the identity of the founder. Ownership can also change who gains access to networks, internships and decision-making roles inside an industry.
Purpose still has to survive the economics
Mission-driven brands face a demanding test. Customers may admire the story, but a product must still earn its price, taste good and remain available. Retailers evaluate sales. Investors evaluate growth and margins. Employees need a company stable enough to support their work. Partake’s purpose can strengthen loyalty and guide decisions, but it cannot substitute for operating performance.
That tension is the useful lesson in Woodard’s journey. She did not choose between purpose and scale. She worked to build a business in which the two could reinforce each other. The allergy-friendly formulation created a market position. The founder story made the need legible. Retail execution widened access. Outside capital accelerated the system. The fellowship then used the company’s platform to widen access for others.
What founders should learn from Partake
Woodard’s story is sometimes reduced to perseverance. Persistence mattered, but the more transferable lesson is the sequence of decisions. She started with a problem she understood intimately, shaped it into a product for a broader market, used her sales experience to win early distribution and produced evidence investors could evaluate. She also gave the mission specific operating consequences through formulation, partnerships and talent development.
Founders can ask four questions of their own companies. Does lived experience reveal a problem other businesses misunderstand? Can the solution serve the affected community while reaching a wider market? What cash will be committed before the first dollar returns? And how will the mission change an actual product, hiring or investment decision? Partake is compelling because its purpose can be seen in what the company makes, how it grows and whom Woodard is helping enter the industry next.