Columbia Entrepreneur in Line for Super Bowl Ad

A Columbia businesswoman competing for a Super Bowl ad starred in a promotional video this week at Whole Foods.

Kavita Shukla, who created FreshPaper, is one of 10 business owners to make it to the final round of the QuickBooks-sponsored “Small Business Big Game” contest.

Her business was selected from 15,000 entries by small business owners.

The winner will receive an ad spot in the 2016 Super Bowl, produced and broadcast with funding from QuickBooks.

See Also: Marylander Wins Best Doritos Ad in $1M Super Bowl Contest

To introduce the top 10 contest entries, QuickBooks is traveling around the country to produce a video of each small business.

FreshPaper, which is based in Columbia, consists of spice-infused sheets that, when placed in produce containers, reportedly keep fruits and vegetables fresh two to four times longer.

Shukla shot a segment promoting the product Wednesday alongside entrepreneur Bill Rancic, who is helping to get the word out about the QuickBooks contest. The video was made in the Columbia Whole Foods, which sells FreshPaper.

Online votes will help determine the grand prize winner for the contest; voting is open until Nov. 3 and people can vote once a day.

• Vote for Columbia-based FreshPaper here.

The idea for FreshPaper began brewing after Shukla, a first-generation U.S. citizen, drank tap water while in India at age 12. Her grandmother gave her a tea with spices in it to keep her from getting sick.

“I then began to wonder if and how it actually worked,” Shukla said in a TED talk she gave in 2012. “When I got home to the U.S., I decided to do some simple experiments, and I actually ended up finding that some of the spices in the mixture were able to stop the growth of common bacteria and fungus that I found around my kitchen.”

As student at Centennial High School and then Harvard University, where she majored in economics, Shukla continued to work on the concept.

“I just couldn’t let go of the idea [that] maybe it can be useful to a couple hundred people,” Shukla said. “I just really wanted to get it out there.”

When she took some of her supplies to a farmers market in Cambridge, Mass., a few years ago, she sold out of the paper.

“I was shocked...but then I understood that food waste was a tremendous problem,” she told Patch.

Approximately 30 percent of all food made in the U.S. each year is thrown away, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

Shukla, 30, says she hopes FreshPaper will ultimately make its way to developing countries that lack refrigeration.

“Our mission is fresh for all,” Shukla said, “to make fresh healthy food accessible and affordable.”

FreshPaper has a production center in Columbia, where she returned after the business took off.

She’s constantly experimenting with the product, which she admits she has all over her home.

“If you came over to my house, I use it more than I need to—I’m always testing stuff,” she said. “I have it lining [everything].”

The company’s reach has expanded with support from customers.

A few months ago, Shukla said national retailers like Whole Foods and Bed, Bath & Beyond became clients, so production has been ramping up.

Amid all the buzz, Shukla said she scrambled to put in her application for the QuickBooks contest, which she heard about as an opportunity for small business owners. To complete, small businesses much have fewer than 50 employees.

“I can’t even tell you how shocked I was,” Shukla said of being a contest finalist.

Vote here for FreshPaper. Voting is open until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Photo Credit: Small Business Big Game/QuickBooks.