Building a food company with tech startup methods

Jon Sebastiani, KRAVE, Brand (branding), Food, Non-Tech, Sell Your Business

Today’s guest took all the ideas that have made tech companies into phenomenal, fast-growing businesses–things like minimum viable product and customer development–and he applied them to the food industry. He created a brand that I see in stores all the time.

Jon Sebastiani is the founder of KRAVE, a high-end gourmet jerky. We’re going to talk to him about how he came up with the idea and how he used the Lean Startup methods and other software company ideas to grow it.

I also want to find out why he sold it and what he’s up to today. His new company is called Smashmallow, America’s first snackable marshmallow made from the best all-natural ingredients.

Jon Sebastiani

KRAVE

Jon Sebastiani is the founder of KRAVE, a high-end gourmet jerky.

Andrew: Hey, everyone. My name is Andrew Warner. I’m the founder of Mixergy, where I usually interview tech entrepreneurs about how they built their businesses.

When I’m not doing these interviews, I sometimes will watch an old period piece where people are fighting each other with swords on horseback. Whenever I see that—maybe you guys do that too—I can’t help but think if I had a machine gun, I’d own all these people. I’d really just be able to take over the world back then. Now, of course I can’t go back to medieval times with a machine gun, but what today’s guest did is essentially that.

He went into the food industry with all the ideas that you hear here on Mixergy, all the ideas that have made tech companies today into phenomenal, fast-growing businesses, things like minimum viable product, customer development, he took all that into the food business and he created a brand that I see now in stores all the time....

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