Montero’s Restaurant, Elizabeth City, NC
Montero’s is a family owned and operated restaurant located in Elizabeth City, NC. I have known the Montero’s since 2002. My first encounter with him was as “the Muffin Man.” He would come to the bank with a basket of fresh-baked goods every two weeks offering not only delicious baked goods but kindness and community. I chose to interview Andy because of my Reflections book assignment, The Four Stages of Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Startups that Win by Steve Blanks. The stages are Customer Discovery, Customer Validation, Customer Creation and Company Building.
Stage 1-Customer Discovery starts with locating customers that buy into your solution for their problem. And I need to say here that sometimes consumers don’t know they have a problem until they are given an answer. It’s time to hit the streets and identify your repeat buyers. That does not just consist of surveying the land to see it there is an interest, but “Instead [being] out in the field listening, discovering how [the] customers worked and what their key problems were.” How often is the product shopped instead of shopping the problem and learning consumer behaviors? (Blank, 2013, pg. 28) Montero’s came to mind. I first remember him as the Muffin Man delivering baked goods to businesses door-to-door. So the story begins…
