Jule's Foods

The founders of Jule’s Foods, Julie Van Dam and Stephen Janke, are passionate about vegan cheese. In 2014, Julie was diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer. After this life-changing experience they committed to a plant based, healthy lifestyle. The couple wanted to share this lifestyle and their love of fine foods by creating Jule's Foods. Jule’s Foods mission is to fulfill your cheese craving. They hear it everyday, “The one thing I can’t give up is cheese!” So they’ve created an inspired plant based cheese company.Jule’s Foods is dedicated to quality specialty vegan cheese products that enables vegans and non-vegans alike to live a healthy lifestyle without compromising their gastronomical experience. Its flagship product is a cashew-based brie: a creamy, delicious vegan cheese that is completely dairy free, animal cruelty free, and environmentally friendly. Most importantly, it has received superior reviews from chefs and consumers alike on both taste and texture.At their location in Carlsbad, CA, Jule’s Foods team creates their artisanal cheeses. The Brie is Aged for over 2 weeks until it ripens to perfection, hand wrapped, then sent out to consumers. Jule’s Foods products are now in over 50 retailers and restaurants nationwide and are available directly to customers via shipping in the US. 

Funds will be used to increase production of Jule’s Foods products. This includes the addition of an aging room, refrigeration, and a larger capacity cashew grinder, as well as moving to their own dedicated space and improving it. They intend to use some money for working capital to bring on production staff, new packaging, and goods including cashews.They’ve been contacted by some larger grocery stores and will not been able to take on this new business until they are able to increase their production output. They are excited and look forward to fulfilling these opportunities, utilizing these funds to help realize these goals.

• (50%) $100,000- Equipment
• (20%) $40,000- Improvements
• (20%) $40,000- Working Capital
• (10%) $20,000- Packaging

*This offering is 50% secured against the equipment that will be purchased with the funds raised. Please see the Form of Collateral section of the Bond Prospectus for additional details.

Julie and Stephen’s journey into the restaurant world started early in their lives. Stephen attended California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, and after graduating, spent the next 4 years at the acclaimed Aqua, a fine dining seafood restaurant. Stephen had the opportunity to move to Los Angeles to become the PM Sous Chef at Patina, which is where he met Julie. From here Julie and Stephen moved up the coast to San Francisco, where Stephen was the chef at The Cypress Club and Julie was the General Manager at the Waterfront Restaurant. After several years, they continued North to Seattle where Stephen was the Executive Chef at the Salish Lodge and Spa.

Seattle is where the couple started a family with the birth of their son Carson. But the warm weather of Southern California was calling, and soon Stephen took a job as a private chef down there, which lasted several years. Taking a break from foodservice, Stephen took a research and development position at Penguin Natural Foods, a company focused on baking mixes, seasoned rice and pasta blends. With their son Carson getting older, the couple moved closer to family in Davis, California and started Gourmet Solutionz Catering in 2007. They ran that business for 10 years until starting Jule’s Foods in 2018.

This breadth of experience gives Jule’s Foods a unique ability to develop foods for consumers at retail grocery stores as well as chefs and restaurants, elevating the level of vegan options to rival the standard options on the menu.

Security Type: Bond

Bond Duration: 60 months

Yield: 7.50%

Unit Par Value: $10.00

Total Unit Value: $12.02