A loan helped .


Kelly's story

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit. My first business was imaginary donut shop I created with my younger brother to sell fake donuts to my grandpa (he paid for them with real quarters, so it was truly a great business model.) Later on I sold painted pumpkins to people visiting my neighbors’ farm stand, and ran a small screen printing business.

Despite these entrepreneurial beginnings, I pursued a different career path. I graduated from Duke University with a degree in International Studies and worked as a fundraiser for women’s human rights. After nine years in the field I found myself at a personal and professional crossroads, and decided to take the leap and launch a business. I founded McVicker Pickles with a goal of bringing the pickling & preservation traditions I grew up with in Kansas to the San Francisco Bay Area through high quality small batch products and hands-on education.

In my first year of business, I met bartender Gillian Fitzgerald while doing a pop-up in my neighborhood. We bonded over our shared farm girl roots (hers in Ireland, mine in Kansas) and immediately began collaborating on recipes, most notably a Bloody Mary recipe that used my pickle juice as a key ingredient. We sold it a few events, and the response was overwhelming—we knew we had a hit on our hands.

We were both at a crucial point in our entrepreneurial paths: I was taking McVicker Pickles from an occasional pop-up to a full time business, and Gillian was launching a new bar called Virgil’s Sea Room in the Mission. Even though we were busy, we saw an opportunity to develop our Bloody Mary mix together—and thus, McVicker’s Proud Mary Mix was born.


This loan is special because:

It empowers an entrepreneur to expand her business at this vital stage.



Loan details


About McVicker Pickles

Industry: Food
Years in operation: New Business
Website: mcvickerpickles.com

Follow:

Lenders and lending teams




Loan details