They Wanted Better Jelly for Their Kids. Then Coles Said Yes.

Most of us have stood in a supermarket aisle reading the back of a packet while a toddler provides increasingly urgent commentary about how long this is taking. We weigh up the options, put something in the trolley and move on, usually because somebody now needs the toilet. Jacqui took her supermarket frustration a little further. She spoke to her friend Eliza, they started exploring an idea, and eventually they found themselves developing a product, pitching supermarket buyers and building a business around the children’s sleep schedules.

The result is HELLO JELLO, a jelly brand born from a very familiar parenting question: could we do this a bit differently? Behind it are two longtime friends, young families and a shared ambition to create something that might eventually give them more control over their working lives. First, however, came a lot of work after bath and bed, because apparently getting the children to sleep was only the opening item on the evening agenda.

It All Started With a Toddler’s Jelly Era

Children move through eras with impressive commitment. There is the dinosaur era, the everything-must-be-pink era and the deeply inconvenient era in which yesterday’s favourite food becomes today’s personal insult. Jacqui’s firstborn was entering her “jelly-era”, bringing back happy memories of a dessert Jacqui had not eaten in decades. Then she turned over a supermarket packet and began reconsidering what she wanted to serve her daughter.

That moment sparked a conversation with Eliza. They loved the idea of jelly, but wanted another option on the shelf. “We loved everything that jelly represented – fun, wobbly desserts, birthday parties and childhood nostalgia – but we couldn’t find one that we genuinely felt good about eating or serving to our families.”

The brief was appealingly simple: keep the fun and rethink the formulation. Jelly still needed to be something children got excited about, rather than something requiring a persuasive speech from a parent who had already delivered several that day. According to the founders, HELLO JELLO contains less than 1g of sugar per serve, is naturally sweetened and uses natural colours and flavours. Those were the priorities they chose for their product, with the wobble and childhood nostalgia firmly intact.

The Friend You Always Talk About Starting a Business With

Eliza and Jacqui have been friends since finishing high school, and the idea of working together existed long before the jelly did. “We have been friends since finishing high school and along with our partners had often thrown around the idea of starting a business together, we just didn’t know what.”

Plenty of friendships have this conversation. It usually happens over dinner, gathers considerable enthusiasm and occasionally progresses as far as choosing a name before everyone goes home and resumes their normal lives. For these two, becoming mums gave the conversation a purpose. They had a specific product they wanted to change and a reason they cared about doing it.

Initially, the idea lived in their spare time. They chipped away at it, explored its potential and listened to feedback from other parents. Being on maternity leave at the same time became a turning point. Most maternity-leave conversations involve sleep, feeding and whether anyone has managed a hot coffee; Eliza and Jacqui added supermarket buyers to the agenda.

Encouragement from their parent peers helped them decide to take the next steps. They pushed ahead with product development, engaged a packaging designer and started contacting major supermarkets, all around sleep schedules and bedtimes. The time was not sitting there waiting to be filled. They were finding it wherever they could, alongside the considerable work of caring for young children.

One Knows the Supermarket World. One Gets Things Moving.

Their friendship gave them a foundation, while their professional backgrounds brought different strengths to the business. Jacqui works for a major food company and has experience in fast-moving consumer goods. Her knowledge has been particularly valuable when navigating conversations with supermarket buyers, where enthusiasm for an idea needs to be supported by an understanding of how the industry works.

Eliza’s background spans events and, more recently, emergency services. They describe her as the “do-er”, bringing the structure that helps turn Jacqui’s ideas into action. It is a useful combination when the task list includes everything from developing a product to getting it into a retailer. Having an idea is exciting; figuring out the next twenty steps tends to require a slightly different kind of enthusiasm.

When they disagree, they return to the brand’s values and mission to help evaluate the decision. Their partners also maintain an interest in proceedings, with the founders adding, “Our husbands also enjoy throwing their two cents’ in!” Apparently, there is always someone available for the advisory board, particularly when no formal invitation has been issued.

The Children Clock Off. The Founders Clock On.

The colourful packaging tells you very little about the hours behind it. Ask Eliza and Jacqui what has been hardest and they give an answer many parents running businesses will recognise immediately: the juggle. Eliza now works on HELLO JELLO full-time around mornings with her son, while Jacqui continues in her full-time corporate job and fits the business into her evenings.

“Our time together is limited with all of our meetings occurring post bath-and-bed routines, so we’re often online until late.” Anyone who has opened a laptop after putting children to bed knows the particular energy this requires. Your body has begun preparing for the sofa, but your inbox has other plans.

There is also the small matter of bedtime not always ending when the adults believe it has ended. A meeting scheduled for “after the children are asleep” is relying on several people who have never demonstrated much respect for a calendar invitation. The founders are honest about the demands: “Unfortunately when you own your own small business, particularly in the early stage we’re in now, the ability to ‘clock off’ is virtually non-existent.”

They are still working out how to balance the business with everything else. That honesty makes their story much more relatable than a polished claim that success is simply a matter of getting up earlier. At some point, there are only so many hours available, and somebody still needs to deal with dinner.

They Had Doubts. They Kept Going Anyway.

From the outside, a product arriving on supermarket shelves can look like the final step in a confident, orderly plan. Eliza and Jacqui describe a less certain experience. Asked whether they ever questioned if it would work, they answered, “Absolutely! Many times along the journey. Honestly, there has been a lot of ‘fake it ‘til we make it’.”

They believed they had a good idea, but needed supermarket buy-in to make it happen. Until that support came, there were questions they could not answer with certainty. Their response was to keep progressing the work in front of them: “We just kept ticking things off our list and kept things moving forward. Then we secured Coles and it was all systems go!”

That confirmation changed the commitment required. Eliza left her job to focus on the business, taking the idea into a new stage. It is easy to imagine that founders make decisions like this because they possess a level of confidence unavailable to the rest of us. Their account suggests something more encouraging: they had doubts, too, and continued gathering feedback, doing the work and making decisions as the opportunity developed.

For a reader with an idea parked permanently under “when I feel ready”, that might be the most useful part of the story. They did not need to eliminate every uncertainty before taking another step. They needed enough belief in the idea to keep finding out whether it could work.

Their Big Business Dream Includes School Pick-Up

There are plenty of ways to define success. Eliza and Jacqui’s version includes supporting their families and being able to show up for the everyday moments that matter to them. “The idea that we might one day be able to build a business that supports our families and gives us the flexibility to be there for every drop off, pick up and extracurricular activity is what really keeps us motivated.”

Many parents will understand that ambition immediately. Being able to make school pick-up without a complicated arrangement, or attend an activity without mentally calculating what needs to be made up later, has enormous appeal. Right now, however, building towards that future requires a substantial amount of work and support.

They lean on their husbands and parents when extra demands arise, and acknowledge that their own downtime has taken a hit. “There hasn’t been much time to prioritise ourselves for the last little while. The business can become all-consuming, but we’re working hard to set healthy boundaries and ensure there’s time to switch off.”

It is a refreshingly honest account of pursuing flexibility. They can see the life they want the business to support, while recognising that the current workload still needs boundaries. Behind the two founders are family members helping create space for the work, especially when something unexpected lands on an already full week.

The Shelf Moment Was Huge. The Customer Messages Hit Differently.

Seeing HELLO JELLO on a supermarket shelf was their biggest “pinch-us” moment. A product that began as a conversation between friends was suddenly available for someone else to put in their trolley. That must make the weekly shop feel rather different. Most of us are pleased if we remember everything on the list; they can walk past something they helped create.

But the messages from customers have been particularly meaningful. “However, it’s the messages we have received on socials from customers that has been the most meaningful part.” Hearing from parents who appreciate having another option brings the work back to the original idea. They began because they wanted something different for their own families, and now other households are discovering it.

The shelf confirms that the product has made it into a store. Customer feedback tells them what happens once somebody takes it home. For founders investing so much of their time and energy, those conversations offer encouragement that is more personal than a business milestone and give the next late-night meeting a little extra purpose.

“Back Yourself Before the World Does”

Ask what they wish they had known before starting and the advice comes quickly. “Don’t wait until you feel ready, qualified or confident enough – you’ll be waiting forever.” There is a familiar trap here, especially for anyone very good at researching a possibility and slightly less comfortable declaring they are going to pursue it. Another course, another plan or another month of thinking can feel productive while the first uncomfortable step remains untouched.

Eliza and Jacqui recognise that hesitation. “Especially as women, we can spend so much time questioning whether we’re capable of doing something that we forget it’s possible to figure it out along the way.” Their encouragement comes with practical guidance: do as much as you can without investment, and speak to the people whose feedback will help you assess whether the idea is viable.

For them, that meant getting in front of supermarket buyers early. It gave them an opportunity to receive feedback before going too far down the road, rather than spending months perfecting something without understanding whether it could find a market. An early conversation can help shape the next step, even when having that conversation feels intimidating.

“Back yourself before the world does. You don’t need to know everything to start, you just need the courage to take the first step and the resilience to keep going when it gets hard. Confidence comes from doing, not waiting.” That last sentence deserves a place somewhere you will see it, preferably before opening another browser tab labelled “more research”.

There Could Be More Than Jelly in Their Future

HELLO JELLO is the first product under their company, HELLO FOOD CO. Their longer-term ambition is to develop a broader range using the same starting point: products they believe they can change while preserving what makes them enjoyable. “The (very) big vision is that HELLO JELLO is just the first of a series of products that we can make better-for-you while not losing any of the fun.”

For now, they have taken one idea from a supermarket aisle to a supermarket shelf. It has required professional knowledge, a longstanding friendship, family support, persistence and a considerable number of late nights. The starting point was wonderfully ordinary: a toddler wanted jelly, her mum read a packet and two friends began a conversation.

If you have a friend you have been discussing a business idea with for years, this might be the story to send them. Then perhaps organise a catch-up and talk about the first practical step, somewhere between comparing calendars and checking whether the children are finally asleep.