First, You Need To Believe In It

I’ve been involved with the beginning of a few businesses over the years. Some things stick, some things don’t. There’s a lot of perseverance involved. You have to take the idea seriously enough to give it the kind of attention it needs, and to be relentless in your pursuit.

Create Something Worth Sharing

With Laird Superfood, I had this coffee recipe I had been really into for the past 10 years, and was interested in how it affected caffeine absorption, among other things. Friends and I share these ideas and recipes all the time. It’s what we do. Philosophically, our approach to fitness is to pass around recipes and help each other be our best.

A friend who’s in the business came over, and I was trying to share the recipe with him. We realized most people would struggle with getting the unique ingredients it called for and making it properly. We decided the best way to share it was to make it and sell it ourselves.

Other businesses I’ve been involved in have been more specialized, appealing to a small group of enthusiasts we had to win over. But a lot of people drink coffee, and everybody eats— multiple times per day!

Keep It Slim Until You Balance

At first, you'll need to play almost every role in the company, or have someone who can do it for you. You don’t need to be the best at everything. What matters is you need to do it.

In the beginning, it was shoestring, just my partner and serial entrepreneur Paul Hodge and me. We then added people in manufacturing, but it was a skeleton crew up until the last few months, when things took off and we had to scramble to hire new people for a lot of new roles.

Even now, we’re careful to only hire what we need. When you double from one person to two, that’s one thing, but doubling from 100 to 200 is totally different. What kills most businesses is that they outgrow themselves and can’t sustain the costs.

Work With The Best

Whether it’s surfing or selling coffee creamer, I always give the same advice, “If you want to be good at something, go where the people are the best at it.” We met with several top ingredient suppliers, because while our product was unique, they all use a lot of the same ingredients and face the same challenges. You want to make sure they’re not just looking to run off with your idea. You want them to be a think tank you can learn from.

When it’s time to look for investors, look for those who will also be strategic advisors, like on the popular TV show Shark Tank. Search for investors who have experience that’s valuable, such as manufacturing or distribution, rather than just money.

Let Your New Fans Guide You

Customer input is something we actively consume. We use our client base as our test lab. If you have a core group of people who love the product, you can go to them and ask, “Can you try this new thing? What do you think of it?” They already get what you’re about, and, in our case, they were happy to help us grow.