Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Nicky Bandera, the inspiring founder of Project Paulie. I’m really excited to dive into Nikki’s story, explore the impact of Project Paulie and discuss her vision for the future. I’m not going to explain any of what Project Paulie is about? Well, I’m going to let Nikki do the talking.
🔉 Listen to Audio Excerpt:
So,Nicky, we’ll start by explaining what exactly Project Paulie is and how it originated?
Yes. So, Project Paulie, is an organization, a retail company here in Boston where we raise funds and awareness through the sale of our tomato hats and other merchandise. So, the way that we started was in my kitchen week one of Pandemic. I was certainly afraid of what was going to happen next for myself, my own job, my family. But one of the things that I knew for sure, was there was this incredible need and that at the very least people needed food and I was able to maybe feed 20 families. And a lot of that selfishly was to take the focus off my own stuff. And we made a video, and that video had Paulie from Goodfellas slicing the garlic with a razor blade. And so, I called it Project Paulie as a joke. And that first round we ended up feeding 3,500 families in the Boston area, which was incredible.
That’s awesome.
So, here we are.
Did I read somewhere that you have a background in marketing, and if so, how has that experience shaped your approach to running Project Paulie?
Yeah, I certainly do. Right when pandemic hit, I was launching a tequila brand all over the country. I had launched a couple of different spirits brands. I had done lots of marketing for different spirits brands and went to design school prior to that. Because a lot of that stuff always felt a little bit empty to me. One of the things that I would do is we would loop in a charitable organization. So even right before pandemic, I was traveling with a women’s breast cancer fundraisers that were kind of going around the country, and that’s how we were launching this tequila brand was through that to raise money. So, kind of what we’ve seen through this is all of these things that I’ve always done that I guess I wasn’t brave enough maybe to do my own thing. Here it is. Life is wild.
Project Paulie focuses on helping those in need. What would you say has been the most challenging obstacle that you’ve faced since starting?
“I think the most challenging obstacle is maybe being so passionate about the work that I’m doing, seeing all the need that there is and feeling like even as much as we’re doing, it’s not enough.”
I think the most challenging obstacle is maybe being so passionate about the work that I’m doing, seeing all the need that there is and feeling like even as much as we’re doing, it’s not enough. I think that most of the organizations that I work with are organizations that are extremely underfunded in terms of federal and state funding and their marginalized groups. And seeing, I guess the response, it’s not as sexy as all of these large organizations and people want to donate to those to give. They want to go to the gala. So, I guess fighting for these organizations, or these people has been really hard, really hard and really easy. Also, Charlie.
I’m curious about your decision-making process when you’re faced with a tough call for the organization, how do you tackle it? Do you have an example of something like that?
Yeah, I think for us it’s always community first and there are situations that maybe it will end up costing us more money or we have to find more resources. But I think that it’s always been community first and that makes my decisions really, really easy.
Let’s talk growth. Where do you see Project Paulie five years down the road?
Wow. Well, I can tell you that I didn’t see myself making lasagna five years ago and now selling 10,000 hats with all these shops and everything. I think especially with our Ocean Spray collaborations, our collaborations in the Seaport and seeing people that really just like me, they want to be connected to their community, and they just don’t know how. And I think that we give people a way to be involved. We kind of always say that buying our hat different from other companies, it’s not just this donation that goes to the organization and you forget about it.
People definitely, they start their relationship with the organizations and my hope is that they continue to work with them. And because of what we’ve seen through that and now these companies doing the same, I just feel like there’s no ceiling and I’m just open to wherever the universe is leading us. Certainly.
What is the collaboration with Ocean Spray?
Last year around Thanksgiving? At Thanksgiving time, it’s the only time that we are physically feeding families. Still all year round, I am a retail company that raises funds. Every Thanksgiving, we feed hundreds of families primarily of their survivors of domestic violence. They’re here in Safe Homes in Boston, and my goal is to give them this beautiful Thanksgiving meal that they can cook it with their own traditions in mind. So, we just give them the tools to do that. And we had been contacted by Ocean Spray last year and they said, we want to be involved with your work. So, they contributed $50,000 to the work that we do, and we’re doing Thanksgiving in Boston together this year. It’s absolutely incredible.
And as I said to you earlier, most of the organizations that we partner with are certainly marginalized groups that large organizations like that would say, no survivors of domestic violence are undocumented, or LGBT kids and all these things that we work with, they wouldn’t ordinarily attach themselves to someone like me. So, to start to see that good is this really awesome.
That’s great. Great. How do you maintain your passion and avoid burnout?
I don’t know, man, you read all this stuff about work-life balance? I don’t think that it exists. I’m certainly passionate about what I do. My daughter, my family has been with me the whole way. Am I exhausted? Especially now? Yeah, I am. But I think it’s always something exciting to talk about and to tackle and really, it’s easy for me.
What’s been your biggest “oh sh*t” moment since starting Project Paulie? How’d you navigate it?
I mean, “oh sh*t” bad would be like, oh my God, I have these people that depend on me and that I have to find it within myself to make sure that I can do it. I think Ocean Spray, certainly a lot of the brands that we’re talking to now, having people see us and not necessarily being prepared for that yet. In terms of our internal, I mean, we’re a self-funded company from moment one, and that stuff is, we’re definitely in moment to moment, Charlie.
Cool. Tell me, what’s the deal with the tomato hats?
Yes.
Your beanies, other hats. How do people find them?
Yeah. Yeah, so the tomato is pretty cool. I had drawn a tomato that was on all of our bags that we fed families with out of my home. And throughout that process met people who had run or founded or worked with these great organizations. I’m like, shit, man, I have never heard of you. I bet other people are wondering the same. So, we put the same tomato that I had drawn on these hats and each different color now goes to a different charitable organization. And the coolest thing is that everyone asks you why do you have a tomato on your head? And it’s an opportunity to speak about these organizations. Right? So, there’s very wild, fun thing.
I’m interested more about your fundraising strategy.
Yes.
How do you fund Project Paulie? What’s been your most successful approach so far?
Yeah. I think as I kind of mentioned before, one of the things that’s been interesting is that we’re certainly grassroots. The people that have funded us and that have funded these projects that we’ve done with these organizations have been people like us. It’s talking about them and they’re going into their schools that their kids go to and they’re spreading the word. It’s really been a grassroots effort and it’s amazing to see recently that kind of change. But for five years we’ve been running within our own community.
If you weren’t running Project Paulie today, what do you think you’d be doing instead?
Oh, I think I’d probably still be launching brands and doing what I was doing before, which I certainly loved.
Last but not least, what’s the ultimate dream for Project Paulie? And don’t hold back. I want to hear a big goal.
Yeah. I mean, I think that we certainly have no ceiling. I think that seeing the way that people attach to these tomatoes and to these projects, I think that we’re able to do anything. And I think that step-by-step, little by little, we’re seeing the change that’s coming from that. And for us, big change. And something awesome is seeing the smiles on the family’s faces that we affect. It’s the biggest deal to me, and that’s what gets me up every day. And I just hope there’s tons more of that.
Awesome.
It’s pretty cool.
Well, thank you. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much. I know this is the crunch time for you, but I really for coming in. Awesome.
No, this is so awesome and really great to meet you. It’s been a pleasure.
Thank you!
If you’re interested in learning more about Project Paulie, please visit their website where you can purchase any of their hats and other items.
