Jae was looking for a radical change from her life as a contractor, and Julie was searching for new career opportunities. It was a natural partnership for Jae the visionary and Julie the finance and operations guru to come together to open a soup and sandwich restaurant. From the time of concept to opening their doors, Jae and Julie took 18 months to do their homework from test marketing their product to clicker tracking foot traffic in different locations. On August 24, 2013 Julie and Jae opened Súpa!.
A key piece leading up to their launch was securing financing. Both Jae and Julie agree that their work with the Capital Access Team (CAT) was critical to their success. “Our experience was a huge relief in feeling we had an ally that could help us navigate some of the hardest parts which for us was the finance piece and understanding how this was going to happen. He [Noah Brockman, CAT advisor] was able to get us to the point where we had a super, legitimate, respectable product [loan package] to put out there,” explains Jae. With the help of the CAT team, Jae and Julie were able to secure a loan from Craft3 to make Súpa! a reality. Julie elaborates, “Working with Noah and the SBDC gave us permission to believe we could succeed with starting our own business and the appropriate tools to get ourselves through the front door.” Since launching, Jae and Julie have experienced great success and are in the process of securing their second location.
