Advice From 2023 Education & Child Care Grant Winner: Embracing Culinary Science

February 26th 2026

We reached out to our September 2023 Education & Child Care Grant Winner, asking her to share the business lessons she learned from the past year:

Angela Smith answered the call! Below are the answers she gave us.  Please give it a quick read. We’re sure there are some nuggets of wisdom you can apply to your business.

 

	We’d like to reintroduce you to Angela Smith, Founder of Inquisicook, our September 2023 Education & Child Care Grant winner.

What advice would you give to a new business owner in your industry?

Make sure you have good market fit before you go full tilt with production and promotion. Get honest feedback from people you don’t know. Your friends and family won’t tell you your baby is ugly, but strangers will. Find out what areas need improvement, reiterate and refine as needed, then make your big splash with a product customers truly want or need.

What are some pitfalls that you wish you had known about in your industry?

Throwing dollars at marketing without a clear strategy and a way to measure results is a great way to go broke. In our early days, I wasted a lot of money blindly trusting that catchy ads would lead to conversions. Grabbing attention in 2026 is more difficult than ever, especially if you’re trying to break through the noise on social media. If you don’t have time to figure it out and stay engaged with the process, partner with someone who does.

What part of your industry was the hardest for you to overcome? How did you do it?

The first phase of our go-to-market strategy was to penetrate the homeschool space. Even though I’m a native member of this tribe, gaining trust and making connections was very difficult. We’ve been able to overcome this challenge by utilizing podcasts in two ways. First, we sponsor esoteric podcasts with small audiences that have a coincidental interest in homeschooling. Targeting hyper-niche market segments has proven to be a cost-effective way to boost our reach. Second, being featured as a guest on podcasts allows me to tell the Inquisicook story to a warm audience that already trusts the host organization. Both of these strategies not only connect us to potential customers but also plug us into networks that lead to additional, fresh opportunities.

Are there any professional organizations or affiliations you have found helpful?

Surprisingly, our local Chamber of Commerce has been a valuable resource, even though almost none of our sales are local. They host informative business development seminars, connect members in mentoring relationships, and offer a supportive, encouraging community. One conversation at a roundtable meeting led to an opportunity to pilot-test our courses at a local private school, teeing us up for the next phase of our go-to-market strategy.