Description:
What does it look like to bring innovation to a static industry? A lifelong love for entrepreneurship and the food and beverage industry led Ben Lewis to take a massive risk to disrupt the baby food industry, and with $90 million raised to date, it certainly paid off! In this episode of Stairway to CEO, Ben shares the story of continuing his dad’s legacy in business, finding out-of-the-box solutions to the complex problem of manufacturing his product, and much more!
Exclusive Deals from Our Sponsors:
AWESOME CX by Transcom provides high-touch, personalized customer experience services to consumer brands of any size! Email Lee at lee@stairwaytoceo.com to learn more about their award-winning services and Awesome Coffee Chats
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
• [01:05] Ben Lewis’s first taste of entrepreneurship as a child and how he continued his father’s legacy, starting with a bottled water start-up.
• [12:00] His exposure to the food and beverage industry by developing a Greek yogurt brand.
• [15:50] Learning essential lessons through bootstrapping a food distribution company.
• [20:45] Ben's involvement in angel investment in the food and beverage space.
• [21:48] Founding Little Spoon with the motivation to disrupt a static industry, naming the product, and developing the product and packaging.
• [28:46] Product expansion and the philosophy of growing with the customer that underpins Little Spoon’s growth.
• [34:30] Surprises on the road to building a D2C business, including an unlikely partnership with a tamale company.
• [40:25] How Ben’s role has evolved with the company and Little Spoon’s approach to talent.
• [42:29] Fundraising in the baby food industry, finding a new approach to return on investment, and what’s next for Little Spoon.
To Find Out More:
Little Spoon
Ben Lewis on X
Ben Lewis on LinkedIn
The Equity Studio
Kairos HQ
Lee Greene on LinkedIn
Stairway to CEO
Stairway to CEO on Instagram
Awesome CX
Quotes:
“You could have the best product in the world, the best brand in the world, and even the right team and the right capital – but ultimately so much of it, especially in the traditional retail space, depends on the distribution and what happens at the point of sale.” [0:15:14]
“For the right brand and the right product, having a direct relationship with your customer is so critically important.” [0:19:17]
“Being detached from your ultimate customer is a real hindrance to building a brand.” [0:20:01]
“There’s a big opportunity for us, not just within that baby stage with the baby blends, but for Little Spoon as a brand to be the go-to as that kid is growing up and as the family is growing.” [0:31:32]
“[We’ve grown our business] largely through growing with our customers.” [0:31:48]
“That was how we started. We turned this manufacturing roadblock into a very unlikely partnership.” [0:39:29]
“One of the things I’m most proud of at Little Spoon is that we’ve had extremely low attriti
Information
- Show
- FrequencyUpdated Weekly
- PublishedJune 11, 2024 at 11:00 AM UTC
- Length51 min
- Episode196
- RatingClean