A Philadelphia dessert startup co-founded by husband-and-wife University of Pennsylvania alums is readying to raise $500,000, funds it plans to use to scale the business, including growing its retail presence and eventually moving into the food services industry.
Poppa’s Custard was launched in 2020 by Joshua and Christen Johnson, along with Joshua's sister, Jewel Johnson. The idea for Poppa’s Custard was a way to honor their aunt, LaDessia Johnson, who died in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The family was unable to have a funeral and properly mourn a woman who had been an important figure in their lives.
LaDessia was the “maker” in the family – crocheting baby blankets, making her own hot sauces and liqueurs and regularly “hosting a fish fry or something at her house,” Joshua Johnson said.
The business was a way to honor her memory and culinary prowess and also a way for the Johnsons to spend more time together. With successful careers and geographic differences – Jewel lives in New York, while Joshua, Christen and their children live in Philadelphia – finding time to connect proved difficult at times, something they wanted to change.
So they decided to launch a business together. They chose custard partially for its satisfying taste and because it’s “a real comfort food,” said Joshua. It was also something his aunt had taught him to make, even if for a different application – Joshua learned to make banana pudding, which has a custard base, from LaDessia.
While many in the Philadelphia area associate custard with a frozen treat, it’s served in many desserts and can be eaten on its own. For quality custard, non-bakery options are limited and more akin to pudding cups or boxed mixes. That was a space where the Johnsons saw a gap in the market they could fill.
“There’s nowhere, at least in terms of what I've seen, that has an actual egg custard that is prepared,” Johnson said, at least not “at the level of quality that we offer.”
The brand began with its Vanilla Bliss custard, which remains a best seller, and soon added Chocolate Decadence. Based on customer feedback, they quickly expanded to include vegan options of both.
“A lifestyle choice or dietary restriction shouldn't preclude you from having something really, really delicious,” Joshua said of their choice to offer vegan options.
Today, Poppa’s Custard has about 10 flavors, including seasonal options which rotate out. Those include hibiscus dragon fruit, mango, and gingerbread.
Each come in 4-ounce jars and retail for $8 apiece.
A jar of dairy-based custard has between 350 and 360 calories on average, while the vegan options are 250 to 260 calories.
The Johnsons worked together to formulate the recipe but leaned heavily on Jewel’s experience. A pastry chef, she has worked in restaurants in New York and has also appeared on Food Network shows numerous times, including “Candy Land,” “Halloween Wars,” and “Chopped: Sweets Showdown.”
“She’s really the culinary talent,” Johnson said.
That’s a stark contrast to Joshua’s and Christen’s backgrounds. Joshua is an engineer by trade and most recently was an associate partner in the Philadelphia office of consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
Christen works in education and is presently with nonprofit Heights Philadelphia, which seeks to connect area students with pathways to higher education.
Both have graduate degrees from Penn – he earned his MBA at Wharton and she earned a master’s in education.
Joshua is so committed to Poppa’s Custard that he left his job earlier this year to take it on full-time. The company name is a nod to Joshua’s childhood nickname. Born two months premature, his mom called him poppa because when he was in the incubator she said he looked like a tiny old man.
A move that prompted Joshua to take Poppa’s Custard on full-time was the company’s appearance at the Philadelphia Flower Show in March. During their week-plus vending at the show, they brought in more gross revenue than they had averaged in the years prior, which Joshua said was about $30,000.
“People really enjoy it. People buy it, people pay a premium for it, and come back to buy more,” he said of the brand's growing success.
He’s now looking to expand Poppa’s Custard, particularly in retail. He has a goal of hitting $200,000 in revenue in 2023. To do so will require dramatically ramping up retail or landing several marquee events like they did with the Flower Show. By hitting that figure, Johnson believes he can then start attracting investors.
Up until this point, the business has been almost entirely self-funded, though they raised a small $5,000 friends and family round for liquidity ahead of the Flower Show.
This summer, he is looking to raise $500,000, funds which will be used for working capital and runway through the next year – and to hopefully grow retail.
He’s confident that if Poppa’s Custard can get it into consumer hands consistently, business will grow quickly “as evidenced by the uptake and the sales we’ve had with our existing retail partners.”
Currently Poppa’s Custard can be found in about half a dozen locations, including specialty shops Salt & Vinegar and Spruce Hill Provisions, all in Philadelphia, as well as the Swarthmore Co-op, Whitemarsh Pharmacy in Lafayette Hill, and Triple C Angus in Pilesgrove, New Jersey.
As of now, business is direct-to-consumer or retail with between 70% and 80% of sales coming from festivals, markets and pop-ups, much the way the business started.
As part of their efforts to scale, Poppa’s Custard is onboarding a co-packer, which would increase production capacity dramatically. The company can produce about 700 jars of a single flavor in a day with their present hand packing capabilities at the Dorrance H. Hamilton Center for Culinary Enterprise in West Philadelphia. With a co-packer, Joshua expects that figure could jump to 12,000 to 15,000 jars of a single flavor in a day. His goal is to launch production with a co-packer this summer or fall.
In addition to expanding retail, Johnson sees considerable whitespace in direct food service, something he’s focused on in the longer term. In particular, he sees Poppa’s Custard filling a need for small to midsize restaurants that are serving “knock out food” but don’t have the budget to hire a pastry chef.
“I think that’s an easy win,” he said.
