Sweet success

With Valentines Day coming this weekend, I thought today would be the perfect day to write about Chocri, a fabulous startup I recently discovered via my favorite foodie-entrepreneur, David Lifson, that allows you to create something special--your own chocolate bar!

Founded in Germany in 2008, Chocri allows consumers to make fully customizable chocolate bars. You start with a base of white, dark or milk chocolate. Then you can choose from more than 100 different toppings. They use fair trade, organic chocolate and donate a portion of their proceeds to charity. What could be better?  

Chocri recently decided to expand to the United States and brought Carmen Magar, a graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, on board to facilitate their entry into the market.  Staying true to the theme of this blog, I asked Carmen a few questions related to her own success and that of Chocri:

I'm sure there were much safer paths to take out of business school than a startup.  Why Chocri?

I actually went through a long process to finally admit to myself that I wanted to pass...on the safe route and work for a startup.

I knew I wanted to work where I could find a creative, non hierarchical, informal atmosphere that allows me to be passionate about what I do--not exactly what they want in consulting or banking. At the same time, I'm not that fixed on financial reward, which differentiates me from most of my fellow students at Booth. I did not dare to start my own business, but loved the idea of an international expansion.

Chocri was the perfect opportunity. I am German, Chocri is German. They wanted to expand to the U.S., I had the skill set. Plus, in business school classes, I pretty much learned to point out mistakes in business plans and models, and Chocri was the best model I had come by in two years. Finally, who wouldn't want to work for a chocolate company?

How do you think "life's little pleasures" (or huge, in the case of chocolate) contribute to a person's success?

Chocolate contributes greatly to my success, but I think that's not your question...It mostly depends on your definition of success. If your definition of success is to make a whole lot of money or to be famous, then the purpose of life's little pleasures is to keep you going and motivated in between your endeavors. But if you measure success with happiness, then those pleasures can be the endeavor/reward itself--like looking at an intensely blue sky, or, yes, enjoying an amazing bar of chocolate. If those moments make you happy, then that's a success in itself.

As an MBA from Chicago Booth and business strategist, you are quite accomplished and successful. What are some of your top tools or tricks for being your most effective?

I have a trick, a tip, and a tool for you:

Trick: I have a habit of writing everything down. Unfortunately I still use paper notebooks, which is comfortable, but not searchable. Thus I put the important things into my e-mail program, Mac Mail, as well, so that I can always search for it later, which happens all the time. But paper has the advantage of enduring my little drawings and schemata.

Tip: As an entrepreneur, I pretty much roll out of bed and sit in front of the computer and I do the reverse at night. I realized I don't last if I don't set myself a few hours on the weekend, or an hour in the day, when I let go of computer and phone and just relax. It's so easy to get lost in operations, but I need to see the whole picture clearly not to miss the big, important things.
Tool: I fear this is cheesy, but I'm really addicted to Facebook and Twitter. To be able to communicate directly to our customers, to learn about them and to invite them to contribute (e.g. What we should print on the inside of our packaging?) is super important in order to be effective with what I do. Similarly, we use surveys a lot.

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