As I make my way to Bentonville, it feels like the perfect moment to share this insightful article by Lukas Southard of BevNET.com When he wrote it back in July, I’ll admit—it took me by surprise.
About a year and a half ago, an investor told me, "You sure know how to handle the hard stuff—but can you manage the easy things?" That question stuck with me. What does "easy" mean? In an environment of cheap, undisciplined capital, I think he meant “marketing”—in other words, doing your best to convince the public that your incrementally different widget is worthy of their time, attention, and hard-earned dollars. "Easy"? Yeah, I can do that... but I think I lost him in my explanation of why that would also be a waste of my time.
"Simple"—now that’s something worthy of pursuit. Early in my career, I learned that simplicity is often misunderstood, and designing for simplicity is rarely “easy.” Take fish jerky, for instance. It’s been around since the 1400s under different names, yet it hasn’t become mainstream because traditional methods often lead to mold, listeria, and other risks you don’t want incubating in your gut. So, no—speed to market using the old ways, while easy, didn’t seem like a worthwhile nor responsible pursuit. So my journey started in something that more resembled an engineering lab than a kitchen, figuring out how to produce safe, delicious, healthy seafood protein snacks, and then understanding the rest of the business process needed to build around and scale a new innovation.
Is it easy? Absolutely not. But is the result elegantly simple? Yes. And I often hear, "Why hasn’t anyone done this before?" Which, I must admit, delights me.
There was a lot more hard work that came after our product design. You can read about some of that in Lukas’ article, along with the systemic and structural challenges we’ve had to overcome, such as re-educating the marketplace about persistently mischaracterized and misunderstood supply chains in a post-Seaspiracy world.
Today, as I reflect on that investor’s question after a weekend of back-and-forth with my team preparing for this pitch, I’ve come to appreciate the ‘easy’ part: sharing our innovations with world-class customers like Walmart and eventually, the world. There were no shortcuts, and I see why people enjoy the ‘easy’ part—just don’t forget, you have to take care of the ‘simple’ things first.
Read more about Pescavore's journey:
Pescavore’s Long Road To Scaling Tuna Jerky
https://lnkd.in/gbMHktaR
#emergingbrand #foodinnovation #seafood #sustainableseafood #manufacturing #foodmanufacturing #snacks #opencall2024 #walmart #scaleup #startup #tuna
