A natural industry call-to-arms: More innovation, less iteration

Founders: The barrier of entry to start a brand has never been so low. But why are you getting in? Is it to fill a white space, or is it to make something we’ve never seen before? The former might raise money faster and scale quicker putting you on a path towards acquisition (because that’s what you’ve surmised from other success stories), but does it have true value? Unlocking value is what makes it all so hard. It builds an unimpeachable business and brand worth its weight in gold, not just a product. What if you think about what the world really needs and go make it rather than making a product because that category is growing?  

VC: You’ve developed your own playbook and know what works. You build a brand, sell it, then look for the next up-and-comer to do it all over again. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. You’ve made us obsessed with monikers like scale and velocity, but at what cost? Your success has attracted so much attention that you are now flush with cash so you’re left with no choice but to overcapitalize brands even if they aren’t disrupting anything. It makes business sense to leverage what you’ve learned along the way. Iteration may be smart money management but its not transformative. You have the power to reward disruption and pass on derivation. Legacy is built when the risk is high but the upside of change is higher. 

Broker: While you helped make organic and better-for-you products ubiquitous, your business model is now based on depth and breath rather than touch and intention. It only makes sense for you to add another bar if you have five of them because you have the relationships and know the levers. But this breeds intentional iteration. You’re about incremental industry growth. More high-touch models that bring value to unique products is what’s driving the next phase of your function. Take a risk on a product that will bring a new customer into an old aisle. Be the hero of that category manager.  

Big Food: You're attracted to things that are familiar—product, ingredients, form. Acquisition or building it yourself are not easy tasks. You lack internal innovation and your top line growth is slowing, so you buy upstarts in hopes of more widely distributing their specialness while learning from it. But then you spend so much time and effort integrating their brand into your business model that you stifle that growth and innovation you were attracted to. Let the innovative brands you are buying, funding or incubating keep on innovating. Cutting costs breeds iteration. Give them access to your sales engine and your price efficiencies but encourage them to run free—the way they got your attention. 

Press: Your job is to help inform us. Your detailed coverage of the industry is giving us a much appreciated behind the scenes look at how success stories bake their cake. But covering anything new and calling it innovation because that brand hasn’t done it before is compounding the problem. You have the power to grow a business by giving it attention. What if you were to shine your formidable light on the brands that are truly breaking the mold in the name of innovation?