As a special treat for Valentine's Day, we wanted to showcase some of our business owners who live, love, and work together. Owning a small business is no simple feat, and these business owners decided to take on the challenge as a couple. 

Anna and Liz Kintz own and operate Poot's Provisions, a bakery in St Louis metro area. 

You and your partner’s name: I'm Anna Kintz & my wife is Liz Kintz

How long have you been together? Where did you meet? We've been together for 12 and a half years. We met in St Louis while I was in town visiting a college friend. 

How long have you owned this business? What did you do before? We started Poot's in December of 2022 as a holiday pop up selling holiday treat boxes. We both love to cook. I love to make things from scratch and we both love a good curated gift! We used to make boxes for our friends around the holidays with homemade cookies, pastas, pesto, and smudge sticks from plants from our garden. Someone suggested we sell them for the holidays and that's how it all began! Prior to Poot's Liz and I were part of a local software company. We sold together for 10+ years. After losing Liz's father to cancer in 2021, we stepped away from our software roles and promised each other that whatever we did next, we'd be doing it together, for ourselves, and it would be something that felt good, allowing us flexibility to live our lives and do the things we enjoy. Life is too short to be spent with your nose to the grind not looking up to enjoy what's in front of you.

How do you typically divide work duties? I am the baker. Liz is the business lady. I make the goods, she makes sure we are operating effectively and efficiently. 

Coolest part of working together- Being able to spend our time together in our own space, doing something cool in our community,  and producing a good that people enjoy, while building something that we can be proud of together. 

Worst part of working together-  We both are grateful for the opportunity to get to spend our days together so I wouldn't call any of it bad. There are certainly late nights and early mornings but that's part of it!

Thank you Anna for this interview! This story deserves more than a simple write-up, so support their business on Market Wagon St Louis today!