Sweet success
Eric Heinbockel, Nick LaCava
and Fabian Kaempfer
Ages: All 23
Company: Chocomize
Web site:
www.chocomize.com
BRIAN SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY
THE THREE FOUNDERS of Chocomize, a
new online company that sells customized
chocolate bars, were friends at Columbia
University and frequently refer to themselves
as “accidental entrepreneurs.”
Eric Heinbockel graduated in 2008 and
had a tough time finding a job. Nick LaCava
and Fabian Kaempfer, who graduated a year
later, saw their own prospects as similarly dis-
mal. Drawing on Kaempfer’s familiarity with a
highly successful German start-up called
MyMuesli.com, which sells custom-made
muesli, the three thought they might start a
similar company in the United States.
Then they stumbled upon another idea. A
bag of mixed candy, bought and forgotten
about, melted and then hardened into a tasty
amalgam of chocolate and candies such as
Sour Patch Kids and Skittles. “It tasted pretty
good,” recalls Heinbockel.
So, in 2009, the three decided to start a
custom-made chocolate company, using
MyMeusli.com as a model. The company,
Successful
launch
Stefanie Smith and Meg Helms
Ages: 26 and 27
Company: Launch Into Boston
Web site:
www.launchintoboston.com
From left, Nick LaCava, Eric Heinbockel and Fabian Kaempfer found the idea for their company in a bag of melted, forgotten candy.
based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, makes
chocolate bars using three base flavors and 80
ingredients, including bacon bits and edible
gold flakes.
They borrowed $70,000 from friends
and family to finance office space, raw materials and two machines to mold the bars. “We
came up with the idea last June and our goal
was to get it up and running by November so
that we’d be ready for Christmas,” says
Heinbockel. They scrambled, and managed
to sell more than 2,000 bars over the holiday
season. Their most popular bar? Milk chocolate with bacon bits!
Their marketing efforts, done on a shoestring budget, are definitely Gen Y. They
started by sending samples to bloggers who
write about candy and chocolates, and they
created a Facebook fan page. The efforts have
helped drive traffic to their Web site. “If they
try our chocolate, they are won over as customers,” says Heinbockel.
Like many Gen Y companies, Chocomize
also has a social mission. It donates 1 percent
of profit from each bar sold to a charity: The
Michael J. Fox Foundation, Action Against
Hunger and Doctors Without Borders. In
keeping with the spirit of customization, customers designate a charity at checkout.
“We were aware of the negative impact of
companies that exist just for their own good,”
says Heinbockel. “We wanted to head in the
other direction.” C
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
MARCH 2010 ;e Costco Connection 23
STEFANIE SMITH was perpetually casting
herself in the role of informal career adviser,
whether for her younger sisters, friends or
acquaintances in her native Boston. While
working as a paralegal at a law firm, the
Northeastern University graduate decided to
turn her avocation into a business with a co-worker, Meg Helms.
“Meg is in human resources, and we
started talking about how there are so many
people graduating from college, moving to
Boston and wanting to start a life here,” explains
Smith. “They can go see a recruiter and contact
a real estate agency, but what if there was a
resource that offered advice on everything
about working and living in the city?”
So two years ago, Smith and Helms, who
kept her job at the law firm, started Launch
Into Boston. Think of it as one-stop shop-
ping for young professionals who are mov-
ing to a new city and need help with just
about everything, from finding a job to
