# Firebrand Artisan Breads We don't hire people to bake bread, we bake bread to hire people πŸͺ΅ πŸ”₯ ## Elevator pitch Firebrand bakes the best damn breads and pastries in the Bay Area while providing great jobs to people with barriers to employment. We focus on hiring people who are formerly homeless or incarcerated. - Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/firebrand.artisan.breads - Entity ID: wefunder:company:98017 - Last updated: 2026-06-22T05:03:25Z - Generated at: 2026-06-22T19:37:24Z ## Quick facts - 🍞 People First, Purpose Driven: We provide great jobs to the formerly homeless or incarcerated - πŸ’° 2.5m secured to date, lead by Candide Group and Inner City Advisors. - πŸ“ˆ $6M in 2021, with a full year in a new facility we are projecting $12.2M in 2022 (not guaranteed) - πŸš€ Successfully launched our first CPG product of sliced bread this year in all Norcal Whole Foods - πŸ›₯ Dedicated anchor accounts such as Whole Foods and loyal following at our own retail cafe - 🏭 New 40,000 facility in Alameda Point in August 2021 - 🀝 Strategic opportunities that have opened up since COVID ## Active fundraises - wefunder:fundraise:64662: 4(a)(6) open (USD) - wefunder:fundraise:51554: 4(a)(6) successful (USD) - wefunder:fundraise:51564: 4(a)(6) successful (USD) ## Story Firebrand was born out of my determination to make the best damn bread possible while building a business that ends the cycle of recidivism and homelessness that's devastating our communities.   From my first job in a bakery at the age of 14, I was hooked on working in the food industry and fell in love with the craft of baking.  Having a mom that had legal troubles and myself experiencing homelessness, we wanted to create an equitable workplace that provides opportunities to great people who just needed, in some cases, a first chance. Started in 2008 Firebrand has grown to have 85 employees, two production facilities and a thriving retail cafe in Uptown Oakland.  Firebrand serves over 250 wholesale accounts, delivering fresh bread and pastries from Sacramento to Santa Cruz.  People First, Purpose Driven!With a record level of homelessness and a 69% rate of recidivism, Firebrand's mission is to help build back our communities through providing an inclusive, equitable workplace, providing good jobs for those with barriers to employment.‍Our holistic, wrap around service model, provides integrated programs for employee personal development and growth.  Firebrand supports our employees’ growth to live up to their potential and become the best versions of themselves.Through our Steward Ownership model, we have fully aligned our financial management, operations and governance around a set of 11 governing purposes that serves our employees.  Providing profit sharing, open book management training and employee ownership, these purposes are embedded in our legal charter.  Removing barriers with Open HiringPut your name on a clipboard and we'll call you with a job opening.  No resumes, no cover letters, no formal job interviews.   Pioneered by Greyston Bakery, Firebrand uses Open Hiring to remove barriers to employment and evaluates people solely on their merits and drive to be part of our team.  We believe everyone is capable of greatness and through baking we can all rise together.Oakland's only wood fired bakeryFirebrand is primarily a wholesale bakery, with 75% of our business through wholesale and 25% of our revenue through our own retail cafe in Uptown Oakland.  We make damn good wood fired breads and pastries that are distributed through our own delivery network from Sacramento to Campbell and everywhere in between.  We have a growing list of over 200 accounts such as Whole Foods, The Four Seasons, Verve Coffee, Red Bay Coffee, Google and Twitch.  Strategy for growthWe've just opened up our brand new 40,000 square foot production facility in Alameda Point with the goal of having 100 people at Firebrand by mid 2022.  Firebrand is on a fast growth trajectory seeking to double our revenue to $12m by the end of 2022.  To do this, we are expanding our sliced bread line down to Whole Foods in Southern California, have an exclusive contract with Guckenheimer food service, several copacking deals contracted,    large purchase orders for our sliced breads and expanding wholesale customer base.Forward-looking projections cannot be guaranteed.In order to help achieve this growth and increase our margins we are bringing on some key new hires.  Recently we have brought on DoGood CFO's to help provide strong financial management.  We're bringing on an experienced COO as well as adding a Logistics Manager to run our extensive DSD network.  Forward-looking projections cannot be guaranteed.Scaling the missionFirebrand has ambitious growth plans to not only scale our business, but also our social mission.  We have built an office for Five Keys to open our Worker Resource Center in November.  The Worker Resource Center will be dedicated to providing GED classes, soft skills training, financial literacy training and a computer lab.  Additionally Five Keys will serve as an important stakeholder, connecting employees to various community groups and service providers who can help support them around any issues such as: mental health, drug rehabilitation, housing, food security and domestic violence.  We hope this holistic approach to serving our employees will become a new model for employee support and development.  Firebrand is the communityTogether we can help end the cycle of homelessness and incarceration that's plaguing our community.  Together we can bring good jobs that lift up people.  Together we can change lives.  Join us in this journey!   ## FAQ 1. **How much is the share price? For example, I invest 500,000 dollars, how much is my share of the company?** - Hello Abdullah, the price per share is $1.583, so if you invested $500,000, you'd own 791,500 shares. Because we're currently fundraising we can't tell you what the exact ownership percentage will be until all fundraising closes. It would most likely be around 7-8%, with the caveat that that could go up or down depending on how much we raise. 2. **Why are there no terms ? Why would anyone Invest if there are no terms ?** - Daniel, the legal side was still being decided. You can now see the terms of the SAFE note under the "Investment Terms" link. 3. **Hi Matt, I love your company's purpose and products. They're both really impressive. Would you please provide some commentary on your gross margin and any future plans to improve it? Also, when do you expect to have updated financials for 2021, and when is this WeFunder round ...** - Hello Rob! Yes, we just had our highest margin of the year in October and it's improving. We brought on a COO to help drive some efficiencies and bring our labor down. We just moved into our new space in Alameda and have more machinery that can drive this efficiency. By February we are targeting 28%, which would be higher than pre-pandemic levels. Our goal is to get to 40% by the end of 2022. The round is closing in April. 4. **Hi Matt, Thank you for your previous replies to questions. They are helpful and concrete. Just for my understanding, this is a post-money SAFE meaning investors lock in at $1.583/share once the SAFE converts. What does confuse me is your comment, "The company may elect when th...** - Hey Michael, happy to share more about our thinking, thanks for reaching back out!! We are planning to convert the SAFE after the fundraising round is complete at the end of April. 5. **Hi! What a great mission! I've invested, but for reasons unknown my funds are not transferred. Who should I reach out to about this?** - Thank you Yadira!! kapow@wefunder.com, thank you!! ## Team - Matt Kreutz (Founder ) - Gemma Holmes (Director of Finance) - Sherry Akioka (Head of People and Culture) - Alfredo Reyes (Alameda Bread Production Manager) - David Shenson (COO ) ## Q&A - Q: Any update on when you expect to finalize this investment? - Q: What are the next steps with this? It seems that the round has closed, but should we expect to receive a confirmation or any legal docs confirming our investment? Thanks - Q: I'm interested in investing with my IRA, but they say "When investing in a company using a self-directed IRA, only C-Corporations, Multi-Member LLCs, and Limited Partnerships are the corporate entities eligible". Is Firebrand one of those? - Q: Hi Matt- Heard about you through ICA. What an inspiration! Do you have any updates in regards to some of the overview details or financials that you can provide at this point in early 2022? For example, how are you tracking to the goals outlined in here? Has Google returned as a customer, etc.? Also, I see comment below that you're planning on converting the SAFE at the end of April. Is that still for certain? I see it's not updated here in the overview. Finally, when you say that Series A-1 Preferred Stockholders receive a percentage of attributable profits, what does this mean? Is it a distribution to stockholders? If so, how and when? Thanks! - A: Thank you for the kind words Amie! To track our goals we have an internal Director of Finance that's been with us for 10 years and we use an outside CFO group called DoGood CFO. We have developed a weekly reporting dashboard to report sales by channel in real time, a budget vs. actual model and are in the process of revamping our projections model to be easier to read. All three are provided to our investors. We are on track to hit our Q1 goals. Google returned as a customer in October, at a lower volume, along with many other customers in our Guckenheimer contract. On 4/4 all Google campuses are returning full time to the office, so things should increase after that and we should see ripple effects on other campuses as well. We are still planning on converting the SAFE when the fundraising round closes, yes. You are correct, it is a distribution to stockholders at the end of the fiscal year, for us 12/31. If you have any additional questions, please let me know, thank you! - Q: Hi! What a great mission! I've invested, but for reasons unknown my funds are not transferred. Who should I reach out to about this? - A: Thank you Yadira!! kapow@wefunder.com, thank you!! - Q: Hi Matt, Thank you for your previous replies to questions. They are helpful and concrete. Just for my understanding, this is a post-money SAFE meaning investors lock in at $1.583/share once the SAFE converts. What does confuse me is your comment, "The company may elect when the SAFEs convert, if at all." If the SAFE doesn't convert this is basically a donation with no tax break value. If you could say more about the decision-making process regarding the conversion of this Wefunder SAFE I would appreciate it. - A: Hey Michael, happy to share more about our thinking, thanks for reaching back out!! We are planning to convert the SAFE after the fundraising round is complete at the end of April. - Q: Hi Matt, I love your company's purpose and products. They're both really impressive. Would you please provide some commentary on your gross margin and any future plans to improve it? Also, when do you expect to have updated financials for 2021, and when is this WeFunder round closing? Thanks so much. Rob - A: Hello Rob! Yes, we just had our highest margin of the year in October and it's improving. We brought on a COO to help drive some efficiencies and bring our labor down. We just moved into our new space in Alameda and have more machinery that can drive this efficiency. By February we are targeting 28%, which would be higher than pre-pandemic levels. Our goal is to get to 40% by the end of 2022. The round is closing in April. - Q: Why are there no terms ? Why would anyone Invest if there are no terms ? - A: Daniel, the legal side was still being decided. You can now see the terms of the SAFE note under the "Investment Terms" link. - Q: How much is the share price? For example, I invest 500,000 dollars, how much is my share of the company? - A: Hello Abdullah, the price per share is $1.583, so if you invested $500,000, you'd own 791,500 shares. Because we're currently fundraising we can't tell you what the exact ownership percentage will be until all fundraising closes. It would most likely be around 7-8%, with the caveat that that could go up or down depending on how much we raise.