All I can say is WOW! Denise is an amazing woman and force! She has over 20 years of experience in the food industry with some incredible triumphs. She believes that a strong brand strategy plays a key role in a company’s success, and she has the background and successes to prove it.

Previously, Denise was with Udi’s for 5 years. She took them from a $500K company and accomplished their biggest goal, to be acquired – not to mention, when they were acquired they had a $100 million run rate. Way. To. Go. When Udi’s sold to Boulder Brands, she then transitioned to the GM role over the Udi’s vertical and grew it to over a $250 million dollar business.

Her dynamic background in chemistry has definitely given her an edge. She recommends that women not overlook S(cience)T(echnology)E(ngineering)M(athematics) when choosing their careers, as a math and science background will always serve you. We couldn’t agree more!

During this episode we discuss:

• Her transition from chemistry, to sales, to marketing & strategy - she has an interesting journey.
• How startups often follow the money instead of the path (not always the best idea).
• Her leadership style and what works for her.
• Being politically correct and how it really doesn’t always serve the greater good in companies. Let’s just get to the point already.
• How and why she enjoys working for startups.
• How she got over being shy.
• The difference of working from a women-owned business vs a large corporation.

I love her last pieces of advice, so listen to the end. There’s a lot to take in from this episode.

Coolhaus is a certified woman-owned business.

Coolhaus co-founders Natasha Case and Freya Estreller started baking cookies, making ice cream, and combining them into “cool houses” in 2008. With mutual backgrounds in the design and real estate fields, they began naming their ice cream sandwiches after architects and architectural movements that inspired them – and eventually decided to take their newfound passion (dubbed “Farchitecture,” or Food + Architecture) to their hometown streets in Los Angeles. So after a few days on Craigslist (and some time convincing their families they weren’t crazy), they found and bought a beat-up old postal van, trekked out to the world-famous Coachella Valley Music Festival in April 2009 to make their debut, and, well…the rest is history.

Now, Coolhaus distributes in 6,000+ grocery stores ranging from Whole Foods to Safeway to Publix markets with 30 SKU’s including hand-crafted ice cream sandwiches, artisan pints and chocolate-dipped bars. Fans can also visit Coolhaus at its two Southern California-based storefronts in Culver City and Pasadena, or swing by one of the 10 mobile ice cream trucks and carts in Los Angeles, New York, and Dallas.