Long before Nicole Bernard Dawes’ brands were lining the aisles of thousands of grocery stores, she got her start in business wheeling around baked goods in a little red wagon. The two-time founder discovered her passion for entrepreneurship as a kid selling $1 cookies to small businesses.
“My first foray into this universe was when I was 12. My best friend and I had a cookie company, and we had customers” Dawes tells Fortune. “I actually sold to local delis in my town, which is kind of wild that was even allowed.”
Over the course of one summer, their cookie operation brought in $500: a fortune in the eyes of a kid, but chump change compared to Dawes’ future success selling her organic tortilla chip brand Late July, which reeled in $100 million in annual sales. Her pre-teen business wasn’t a smashing financial success like her later ventures, but the experience did teach her about company costs, how to sell a product, and different ways to market.
Luckily, the then 12-year-old also had a strong mentor to guide her first operation; Dawes’ father, the late Steve Bernard, founded $4.87 billion brand Cape Cod potato chips back in 1980. Unfazed by her adolescence, he took her dream seriously, teaching her how to structure the costs of goods, price a product fairly, and above all else, bake a quality treat for customers. It was a formative summer job that set her up for success in helping turn around her father’s legendary snack business, and launching two of her own brands.
“My dad was very interested [in] me in learning the business. When I was a little kid, he would sit down and, like, show me a [profit and loss statement],” Dawes says. “To this day, I bake good cookies. I’m a great cookie baker.”
Working at her dad’s company to becoming a two-time founder
Dawes was destined to shake up the food and beverage industry. Born to a mother who ran a health-food store, and a father who created a billion-dollar chip empire, her entire childhood revolved around the world of snacking—and how to make it better.
“I was only a child, guided by what my father saw in Cape Cod potato chips, and the idea of recreating categories,” Dawes explains. “You end up with a kid like me who then spends their entire career trying to recreate all the products that I couldn’t have as a child.”
However, her love for entrepreneurship didn’t come into full bloom until years later. After graduating from Tulane University with a degree in economics, she landed a job as a management consultant for food and beverage clients. It was a joyless, short-lived career, Dawes explains, and she quickly ditched the gig to help revive her dad’s ailing business. At the time, Bernard had just bought it back from Anheuser-Busch, which had divested from the company almost “overnight,” Dawes explains. Cape Cod chips was left without its manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.
“It all timed out,” Dawes says. “There really wasn’t time for worrying about anything but getting this brand back.”
Four years into her work at Cape Cod chips, her father sold his company once again to snack food company Lance. But instead of sticking around for a new era of ownership, Dawes decided it was time to forge her own path.
In 2003, Dawes launched Late July while pregnant with her first child. Now, the organic non-GMO tortilla chip brand is lining the aisles of major grocery chains including Target, Whole Foods, Kroger, and Walmart. Over the span of a decade, the $100 million kitchen-counter operation grew into a massive business, with Campbell’s acquiring a majority stake in 2014, and eventually completing the acquisition of Late July in 2018.
And it didn’t take long for Dawes to set her sights on creating Nixie: a zero-sugar, sustainably packaged soda line offering flavors from cola and root beer, to ginger ale and cream soda. She launched the beverage brand shortly after Late July was acquired, and over the eight years since, Nixie has staked a claim in a competitive market alongside businesses like Olipop and Poppi.
Nixie raised nearly $27 million in funding in 2025, and its products are sold at over 11,000 major grocers like Whole Foods, Sprouts, Safeway, and Ralph’s—even on Amazon and Instacart. The company’s cream soda was recently awarded the best new organic beverage at the Organic Night Out Awards Natural Products Expo. And just last month, the brand released two new flavors: cherry cola and strawberry cream.
Dawes leans on other female founders as a sounding board
When it comes to entrepreneurship, Dawes has decades of skin in the game—but that doesn’t mean she has all the answers. The Nixie founder still leans on a circle of professional confidants in navigating new heights of success in the food and beverage space. She advises other budding founders to embrace mentors and industry peers as powerful career resources.
“I just need a sounding board sometimes,” Dawes says. “It’s never too early to start building a really good network of peers, in addition to mentors. But over the years, I think I’ve leaned on my peers more.”
Dawes has 20 female founders at her fingertips—just one text message away. And with so few women launching and leading beverage companies like Nixie, these connections are even more essential. Dawes explains they can all relate to the grind of running their own businesses, raising kids, and trying to squeeze in some time with friends in between: a connection that has been her “most invaluable resource over the years.” And she’s hoping to bring more women into the fold, even at her own company.
“I want to encourage as many young women to get out there,” Dawes says. “A lot of people [who] come to work for Nixie hope to one day start their own companies.”
