DIARY OF A START-UP

1. Summer 2007: cooked a BBQ for friends and made some home-made veggie burgers. All the veggie burgers were eaten and the beef were left!
2. Started bringing my homemade burgers into the office and cooking them on a grill, I tried to make them as nutritious as possible, seeds, wholegrains etc. As I was tired of eating tins of tuna, soup and salads and still feeling hungry at 4pm.
3. Soon my work colleagues started asking me to make some for them. I thought “Hey! There might be something in this, and went to my first farmers market in Skibbereen on a Saturday in October 2007, I brought my Dad as a weight to hold down my stall as it was a wet and windy day!
4. We sold out and came back again to very happy customers the following week. People really did want food without salt, fat, sugar and natural ingredients.

Jump to 2008, solicitors firms were laying off staff left, right and centre. I could have waited to be let go in a few months or I could do something about it now. I made the jump and started to do markets and festivals full time.

I enrolled in some courses and started to focus on getting my products into the shops. I changed the name from Veg-e-Que to Dee’s and worked for almost 15 months getting packaging ready.

Finally July 2009, my business officially launched and the packs hit the shop shelves, with the first store reporting that they actually flew off the shelves.

November 2009, listed with Dunnes
February 2010, listed with Superquinn
March 2010 appeared on Dragons Den.
June 2010 listed with Musgraves

For more information and a full list of stockists, please see www.dees.ie or view updates on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dees/75169764960?ref=ts

DEE’S “EAT WELL, HE HAPPY”
We are committed to providing delicious wholefood burgers loaded with health benefits; made of nutritious whole grains, protein rich beans and superfood seeds (hemp & flax and sunflower seeds), free from meat, wheat, gluten, dairy & eggs. No added salt or sugar.