Portland’s food scene continues to grow. While there are many different themes in the culinary expressions of the Rose City, one area of emphasis for many years has been vegetarian fare. The annual VegFest is the central celebration for local vegetarian and vegan food products. This year’s VegFest attracted more than 6,000 people to taste a wide variety of vegetarian delights, and I was one of those minions.

I had a chance to connect with many of Portland’s budding food entrepreneurs at VegFest, and one of those was Jennifer Lindsay. Lindsay makes “handcakes” under her label Niftyfare. What is a handcake and what is Niftyfare all about?

Good questions. Lindsay let me find out.

NN: What is a Niftyfare handcake?

JL: Niftyfare handcakes are unique and tasty, somewhere between a veggie patty and a pancake. Like the name says, they are designed for convenience and handheld eating.

Niftyfare’s handcakes arose from the energy and scheduling needs of being a busy parent. They had to be gluten free, dairy free, soy free, peanut free, and garlic free. (Yes, I’m allergic to garlic.) And they had to be fast and tasty. Instead of yet another jerky, power bar or imitation "meat," I went back to my love of different ethnic cuisines and my vegetarian roots.

Everyone deserves to eat joyfully. My goal is to make every product something that everyone at the table enjoys, whether they have dietary restrictions or not. Life is just too short for yucky food.

NN: Did you have any background experience that prepared you for creating and marketing a food product?

JL: I had been successfully self-employed as a consultant and as a postpartum doula before, so I know the basics of marketing, bookkeeping, etc. The main difference has been creating a product from scratch instead of providing a service. There are so many different things to learn for food production, not just the governmental regulations! There are very different tracking and organizational needs, some of which I’m still trying to figure out best practices for. I found some great resources locally, online, and in an excellent book, so I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do.

The Oregon State University Food Innovation Center and John Wells have been super. I was also lucky enough to hook up with the kind folks at the National Gluten-Free Business Forum, so when I came to a meeting exhausted from making everything by hand and discouraged about the labor required, experienced folks patted me on the shoulder and said, “Nope, you’re on the right track and asking the right questions—we started slowly too!”

NN: Has anything surprised you about starting a formal food business?

JL: The biggest surprise for me has been realizing how much packaging costs for each product—it’s a big portion of the expense. It is also challenging to scale up. You can’t just leap from doing things by hand straight to factory production.

NN: A big part of your launch was doing a Kickstarter campaign. Why did you decide to go that route?

JL: I am reluctant to take on debt or investors at this stage, when I don’t have realistic sales projections. Yet, I wanted to be able to give folks a way to contribute, to pay them back something, and also start to get the word out to the general public.

Kickstarter seemed like the most effective way to get a chunk of money to meet my start-up costs, fill all those preferences, and have a long-term marketing impact. So far, it’s been great.

NN: Did you seek out any advice when creating the Kickstarter campaign?

JL: Oh definitely! Everywhere! I spoke to a friend who was in the middle of a very successful Kickstarter here in Portland, attended a workshop at the World Domination Summit, read articles online, and followed the Kickstarter suggestions on the site.

NN: Were there any lessons learned or tips you would give people who are planning on using Kickstarter as part of a product launch?

JL: Definitely make a video; it was a really powerful experience! It allowed me to pull together all the different pieces—my mission, values, product production, marketing language, etc.

Also, get some really great pictures. They make a huge difference in being able to show what you’re talking about and can be used for follow-up materials. Finally, don’t be afraid to keep sharing the campaign over and over and over. You would be surprised how many folks didn’t realize it was going on until the very end, even after I thought I’d reached them through a number of different media!

NN: We most recently connected at VegFest. What were your goals for being at that event?

JL: I had a sampling table since I don’t expect that folks will bring a cooler to events to purchase a frozen product. My goal was to increase awareness in the local vegetarian market, especially the subset of folks that have other dietary restrictions; to let them try Niftyfare to experience firsthand how good they are; and to gather emails to build our audience for future direct ordering. I gave away over 3,000 sample bites and got 240 emails, so I would consider it a successful event.

NN: Where can folks find Niftyfare and what's next for you?

JL: The two vegan flavors of Niftyfare have been at People’s Food Co-op since August and they’re selling well. I should be able to take direct orders for all four flavors on my website by November. After I assess the direct sales demand, I’ll follow up with several small retailers that have expressed interest and see if I can get some food service contracts for bulk. I want to try all the different sales avenues and see what works best for me.

I’m also working on product development for other niche recipes, but you’ll have to sign up for the mailing list to find out what they are!

Ready to try a handcake? Visit People’s Food Co-op or connect directly with Niftyfare online.