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For entrepreneur Jovani Prince, the motivation behind building The Cracker King line of gluten-free crackers was love. “The Cracker King company started when I got fired,” says the former advertising/sales executive about the event that prompted the formation of his cracker brand.
“I was the only Black guy there. It was a tech company, and they gave me the worst territory; they just did me dirty. My wife, Leslie, was pregnant with twins, and we had a beautiful eight-month-old baby girl,” recalls Prince about the time he was left wondering how he would be able to take care of his family on his terms.
“I knew I couldn’t keep going to these people and asking for a job, and at the end of the day, not having the opportunity to do what I know I can do.”
Mom’s Homemade Crackers Serve as an Inspiration
Though Prince knew he wanted to start a business, it wasn’t until his wife suggested he try the food industry that things began to click. “She was right, but I wasn’t sure what kind of food I should do; a taco cart, sell hot dogs,” he laughs.
The answer came after a family visit to see Prince’s mother. “As we were going out the door, she handed us these fresh bags of homemade crackers. We’re driving home and we couldn’t stop eating them! My wife turned to me and said, “You should make these crackers.’”
As it turns out, the homemade crackers were exceptionally delicious because Prince’s mother, Juanita Prince, taught healthy eating classes and authored two vegetarian cookbooks.
Though the crackers from Prince’s mother were not gluten-free, the entrepreneur got the idea to focus on a gluten-free recipe for The Cracker King brand while scouting products at local California farmers’ markets.
“I went to a bunch of [farmers’] markets and noticed that the gluten-free section was really small. I saw this as a good opportunity because not a lot of people are in this space compared to other crackers,” observes the Southern California native.
“I thought if I can make a name for myself in this, then this would be the way to go.”
Creating The Cracker King Gluten-Free Crackers
With the help of his mother, in 2019, Prince began working on a gluten-free cracker recipe based on the original cracker he first tasted. “My mother’s recipe is really amazing but the margins were actually too high to make a profit because of the ingredients. I had to really flip everything and streamline it where we could to make a profit and still make an amazing product,” he says.
It was a long learning process before Prince honed in on the perfect cracker recipe.
“Consistency wasn’t right at certain times. The cracker might have been too oily, too thick…It’s even harder because we’re doing a gluten-free cracker; it’s harder to manipulate. With the flours, the binders and the process—if done wrong, you come out with a cracker that’s hard as a rock or a cracker that is way too soft, so it crumbles everywhere. We were trying to figure out how to make it hold together and actually get that ‘crisp,’” relates Prince, who eventually hit upon The Cracker King’s proprietary cracker recipe.
Building The Cracker King Brand
Prince’s wife had the twins and the family moved from their home in Oakland, California, to Portland, Oregon, for her job at Nike.
“When my wife went to work, I took care of the kids, all under [age] two, until she got home. I would then go to a shared kitchen and I’d make crackers. Then I would get into my car and drive Lyft and Uber all night long to make ends meet,” recalls Prince, who at the time sold his crackers at farmers’ markets in Portland, the birthplace of The Cracker King brand.
One night, an executive from the New Seasons Market grocery chain got into Prince’s ride-share car. After hearing the entrepreneur talk about The Cracker King brand, she offered to introduce him to the chain’s buyer.
“We ended up being in New Seasons Market, and we’re probably one of the highest-selling crackers in that market right now—and then New Seasons backed me up with an $18,000 loan to help get me moving. Up to that point, I couldn’t get anyone to help me. No one ever took me seriously, so it was a slow grind,” shares The Cracker King CEO about the turn of events that took his company to a new level.
The Hardest Year Ever
Yet even with The Cracker King making it onto store shelves, Prince still faced obstacles and devastating loss. “Last year was the hardest year of our lives ever,” shares Prince.
“First, our little dog died. But then my aunt died in January. My mom died in February, and two months later my wife’s cousin died. Then, a month later my wife’s dad died (my father-in-law, who I was really close to), and then three months later my brother-in-law died. We had five deaths in one year. And then, after all that, our co-packer went out of business. We had no product; we couldn’t produce [the crackers]. We couldn’t do anything.”
How do you pick yourself up after such heartfelt loss and a business disaster? For Prince, it was about turning to love.
“I wanted to quit. My mom was the reason behind this whole thing,” relates Prince. “I talked to my father-in-law, who passed away a couple of months after, and he said, ‘She wouldn’t want you to quit. She would tell you to keep on.’ That’s the only reason I kept going. It was for the respect of her and the love for her.”
Getting Back On Track
To get back on track, Prince took a loan off his home to help meet expenses and began the search for a new co-packer for The Cracker King. “That saying, ‘Let go and let God’—there’s a reason for that. I call God the universe…I learned you can’t control everything. You need help, not only from your peers and people helping you but from God,” attests Prince, who sees himself as more spiritual than religious.
“God is someone that will get you over that hump. You have to let it go and trust that God’s got you.”
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The other inspiration for keeping The Cracker King in business was and continues to be, the love for his family. “I wanted to take care of my children. The reason why I started this company, if my kids can see a Black man building a legacy, if they can see a Black man working [hard], if they can see a Black man getting respect, then they’ll know, through my example, that they can do whatever they want to do,” says the entrepreneur.
“I wanted to build a legacy to know that we can stop the poison within our community, within who we are as Black people, that we can be successful [and] we can make a difference. I wanted my kids to see that. That’s what drove me. That was the catalyst.”
Prince’s hard work and perseverance paid off when he found another co-packer better suited for The Cracker King’s growth. “Now we’re in a situation where our margins are amazing. We have 59% margins on our four-ounce bags alone with our new co-packer, so everything has changed,” he shares.
“We are looking for a few more investors right now in order to take us to another level. We have a great product, and we’re the only Black company out there doing gluten-free crackers.”
Where to Find The Cracker King
The Cracker King can be found online and in stores like Whole Foods, says Prince, with plans to expand throughout the West Coast and, hopefully, nationwide. Likewise, there is strong interest from a big box retailer to get The Cracker King onto its shelves. “We’re in the final phases of getting that [information] together so we can present to them. But they love the product,” says the businessman. “It’s not set in stone yet, but this is something we do have on the burner.”
“We’re in the final phases of getting that together so we can present to them. But they love the product…It’s not set in stone yet, but this is something we do have on the burner.”
As for those two-inch square crackers, they surely pack a flavorful punch. Currently, The Cracker King offers three flavors of crackers: Sea Salt, Cheddar N’ Pepper and Rosemary & Sea Salt (with a Cheddar flavor for kids in the works).
The gluten-free crackers can be enjoyed as is, much like a chip, or crushed and used similarly as breadcrumbs.
“I love the Rosemary & Sea Salt with goat cheese and brie,” offers Prince. “And the Sea Salt flavor pairs great with various types of jellies and all different types of cheeses. People also take it and put it in their soups, like a crouton.”
He proudly shares about the gluten-free crackers, “Our proprietary process results in a cracker that’s crispy, crunchy, buttery and delicious. It took me a while to figure that out and no one else knows how we do it; that’s why our crackers, they are fire.”
Prince goes on to say the all-natural, gluten-free crackers list just nine ingredients on its label—with each ingredient you can easily pronounce.
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Growing The Cracker King Empire
Looking back at how far he’s come on his entrepreneurial journey, Prince looks forward to further nurturing The Cracker King brand. “We’re now in the position where we have the traction for these huge accounts. We just need investors to see what we’re doing and be excited about it and take us throughout this process,” he says.
However, the main inspiration for why he started The Cracker King remains the same. “If you’re fighting for a big house, cars and being fancy, then you’re fighting for the wrong things. But if you’re fighting for love—to help people, to make a difference, to take care of your family—that’s the true fight. You will grow from that.”
Judging from the upward trajectory of The Cracker King brand, it’s a battle this family man is definitely winning.
For more information about The Cracker King and to purchase the all-natural, gluten-free crackers, visit their website.
