Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/725016
BY BRANDON FOX Hacking the Marketplace David Hack, founder of online specialty food retailer Direct Eats, shares his strategy for shaking up specialty e-commerce and his hopes of becoming the Amazon of small purveyors. L ess than a year after Direct Eats' founder and chief executive officer David Hack started his online spe- cialty food business, he was buying out the competition. Abe's Marketplace, an online company that sold organic and natural specialty products, was rolled into Direct Eats and the two companies were consolidated in early 2016. PHOTO: DAVID HACK Today the company, with a staff of 12, is located in Wilton, N.Y., and its site is currently home to more than 20,000 natural and organic products—mostly in six- and 12-packs—that might once have remained local purchases. Hack, a serial entrepreneur pursuing a strategy of aggressive growth, is passionate when he talks about how Direct Eats can bring these specialty foods to a national audience, allowing small brands to increase production, without the risk associated with hasty expansion. Here, Hack talks to Specialty Food Magazine about championing small vendors and leveraging his site to bring their value to the marketplace. What made you take the leap to start an e-commerce food business? Did you have a background in food? I did not. I've eaten food. But I have no shortage of confidence. (Laughs.) I've got some get-up-and-go. My wife liked Luna Bars, and while at Whole Foods, she realized she couldn't buy a whole box. She had to literally take the amount of individual bars and put them in the cart. She saw the same thing at Trader Joe's, and I said, "This is kind of ridiculous." At the time there was no definitive online leader in the space and no centralized marketplace for these products. I saw an opportunity. Did you begin with just a few products or was it a big launch? We began aggregating product at a significant rate about nine months before we launched. The Bites Company and The Funky Muffin were just a couple of the makers who started to sell with us in the beginning. We have national brands including Annie's, Amy's, Quest, Kind, and thousands of other brands. q&a 44 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com