In 2013, Elyse Oleksak, co-founder of Bantam Bagels, got a call from her husband Nick about a bite-sized snack that might set big plans in motion. “Mini bagels stuffed with cream cheese,” Oleksak recalls in his recently published memoirs The Shark Ate My Bagel: How We Built Bantam Bagels. “Kind of like donut holes, but bagels.” Oleksak had heard many ambitious ideas from her enterprising husband in the past, but she was able to make these little stuffed bagels a reality. The duo met after work at the food market to start experimenting.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Elyse Oleksak
This was the starting of an almost decade-long journey for Bantam Bagels that included “success followed by failure” and “exultation followed by panic,” says Oleksak Entrepreneur only.
The business was a hit Shark Tankwhere are the Oleksaks? entered into a $275,000 deal for 11% equity with Lori Greiner (hence the title of Oleksak’s book) in 2014. Over the next few years, sales reached $45 million, expanding the product line to include mini stuffed pancakes and egg bites, hitting 10,000 stores and 8,500 Starbucks, and ultimately acquired by Ohio-based T. Marzetti Company for $34 million in 2018 ceasing operations in 2022.
“If we don’t do something soon, we would die in the face of our own success.”
Like many entrepreneurs who spearhead a rapidly growing business, the Oleksaks had an “aha moment” when they realized their dilemma: money vs. growth. “We’ve reached the point where even though this was our baby and this was something that we owned almost 100% for so long, we would die in the face of our own success if we didn’t do something about it soon,” Oleksak says. So they sold the Oleksaks to T. Marzetti. It gave the impression of a perfect fit, Oleksak recalls, and the pair stayed on in marketing and product development roles.
However, getting used to the latest relationship with the company was difficult, admits Oleksak. He says it’s a fight that did not make it into the book, but is necessary nonetheless. According to Oleksak, with all the focus on success stories and flashy sales, an all-too-common experience gets lost in the narrative because “people don’t talk about it”: How do you cope when all of your labor has paid off and your dream has finally come true?
“Every ounce and every fiber of our being has been dedicated to the survival and growth of this company [for years]” explains Oleksak, “so when you are in fight or flight mode for so long, it just becomes who you are.” Chasing success and preparing for disaster at the same time takes a serious mental toll, Oleksak says, and once they’re gone, the fires she was supposed to put out, her brain began “inventing disasters” that did not exist and due to this fact had no concrete solutions — creating a never-ending a “spiral”.
“When we felt safe and calm, I almost didn’t know what to do with that safety and calm.”
“We found loving arms for our temperamental child,” Oleksak says. “We did it. But with every sense of self and success [had been] we were continuously in this whirlwind of panic, so while we felt protected and calm, I almost didn’t know what to do with that safety and calm. Your brain hardly knows what to do when it stops. I personally experienced an extreme breakdown.” Oleksak compares this experience to those of skilled athletes who have to redefine themselves after their sports profession.
Watching your biggest dream grow to be a reality may be amazing, but Oleksak says you wish to prepare your brain for a complete shift in considering and equip yourself with the right tools to deal with it. The entrepreneur is a big supporter of therapy and credits it with helping her reevaluate what it takes to get through one day without considering chaos to be a foregone conclusion. “I worked a lot to find mental peace and stability and to be able to be present in the moment again,” she says.
Unfortunately, just a few years after T. Marzetti acquired Bantam Bagels, the pandemic put pressure on the supply chain, making stocking the same number of products a challenge, while retailers streamlined processes wherever possible. Oleksak claims that by that time she and her husband had lost much decision-making power and weren’t involved in the discussions that ultimately led T. Marzetti to discontinue the brand. And yet Oleksak – and almost 1,500 people signed the petition supporting the return of Bantam Bagels – I might love to see these products return one day.
As Oleksak reflected on her entrepreneurial journey “full of ups and downs,” she kept considering back to all the connections she made along the way — from every customer who bought a Bantam bagel to manufacturers who took a likelihood on the product, celebrities including Oprah, Sarah Jessica Parker and Whoopi Goldberg, and many others, and wanted to return the favor by going behind the scenes and learning from the years. So Oleksak put pen to paper and sketched The shark ate my bageland then decided to self-publish it “in an entrepreneurial way” with a marketing plan that included her own website and Amazon support.
“Thank God I organized all these lessons because, man, I made a lot of mistakes,” Oleksak laughs. Currently, he approaches publishing his book like starting a “mini-business” and claims that this is where he puts the most energy. However, he looks forward to working with small businesses in the future, helping them avoid the mistakes they made and create their very own victories.
This WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS® this text is a part of our ongoing series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.