Virginia Specialty Foods, Inc.

Owner of Popghum LLC. Popghum is the first company in the US to make popped sorghum, which is basically kid-sized, kid-safe organic popcorn.

  • Stage $500K in TTM Revenue
  • Industry Food and Beverage
  • Location Arlington, VA, USA
  • Currency USD
  • Employees 5
  • Website popghum.com

Company Summary

A huge demand exists for organic kid-snacks, but a large segment of the market is untapped. Kids love popcorn but they don’t eat it much; mainly because, as the American Academy of Pediatrics warns, it’s basically unsafe (it gets stuck in their teeth and gums and they can choke on it).

Popghum is the first kid-sized, kid-safe organic “popcorn”. It’s made from sorghum instead of corn. Sorghum has smaller kernels that lose their hulls when poppe

Team

  • John Roberts
    Chief Advisor

    Mr. Roberts is one of the US food industry’s top leaders, formerly serving as President of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) - the largest specialty food trade association in the US. Under his leadership, NASFT increased revenues from $4 million to over $22 million. Mr. Roberts has also served as President of Romanoff Foods and Executive Vice President at Buitoni.

  • Dan Gadra
    President & CEO

    Mr. Gadra has extensive experience as a transactional attorney and General Counsel. His expertise includes mergers and acquisitions ($5 million to $100 million range), and advising small to mid-sized sized companies on start-up issues and general business law. Mr. Gadra was formerly an attorney with the law firms of Patton Boggs and Pillsbury Winthrop. He helped grow his previous company from start-up to $15 million exit.

  • Chris Mellgren
    Chief Operating Advisor

    Mr. Mellgren has extensive experience in the food industry. He runs a company with the franchise rights to Dunkin’ Brands in the DC metro area, which operates all the stores and the bakery. Under his direction, the company grew to over $16 million in annual revenue and over 190 employees. It was also recognized with the highest sales growth and customer service ratings in the Baltimore-Washington region for 3 consecutive years.

Advisors

  • Thomas Allen, Wyrick Robbins (formerly of Latham & Watkins)
    Lawyer
    Unconfirmed
    John Sterner (B.A., University of Virginia)
    Accountant
    Unconfirmed

Previous Investors

  • Dan Gadra
    Unconfirmed
    Dan Park
    Unconfirmed
    Chris Mellgren
    Unconfirmed

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