Nicole Facciuto & Eric Hargrove

When Nicole was 4 years old, she helped her dad plant trees in his first organic walnut orchard. Over the next 40 years she watched her father “Corky” tend to his trees and his land as if they were also his own children. In 2015, Nicole and her husband Eric launched CORKY’S NUTS as a way to honor her father and provide people with access to the fresh, amazing tasting organic walnuts that she’s spent her life enjoying.

Nicole said, “I had no experience with operating a food business other than my former experience working as a server in NYC. Starting a business can be very overwhelming. After diving into entrepreneurship, I realized very quickly that anything you need to know is within your community and is only an ‘ask’ away.”

She came to WEV and found the advisory program mentorship to be remarkable. She shared that WEV has “been a godsend. Though I’ve always understood our numbers as a business, I never created a business plan. I just launched.”

Nicole and Eric do not plan to stop anytime soon. Nicole said, “Everything is ‘figureoutable’. Take a chance, throw that spaghetti on the wall and see if it sticks. If you would have told me that we’d have national award-winning and recognized products when we launched, I don’t know that I would have believed you. I’m proud of how far we’ve come and I’m even more proud of the community of CORKY’S NUTS lovers.”