™
sausage &
chickpea stew mix
™
southwestern
Bold flavor in easy home cooking
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Homemade in minu tes
Made with
Natural Ingredients
Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 342
How quickly were you able to
scale up from where you started?
We did something kind of interesting. We
actually built a media consortium group with
an equity stake in the company. Big media
companies like I Heart Radio and others
actually own a piece of Direct Eats. The idea
is that instead of raising tens of millions of
dollars and turning around and spending it
on media, we actually had the media compa-
nies give us tens of millions of dollars imme-
diately. That allowed us to push and drive
the brand out of the gate. I used to work for
a media company, Nonprofit Sponsorship
Network, and the contacts I made there led
to this partnership.
What was your strategy with
your recent acquisition of
Abe's Marketplace?
Abe's is actually the first of many acquisi-
tions that we have planned. We're going to
buy subscription businesses, we're going to
buy media companies, and other e-commerce
companies. Our purpose is to consolidate, to
become a central point for each individual
maker to reach the maximum audience. So
far we've seen significant growth rates, quarter
over quarter, with customers coming back.
What's the process for looking
for vendors?
We reach out to companies (such as
Winking Girl Tomatillo Foods, Organico
Bello, and Acalli Chocolate) and help them
understand the value, understand that we're
going to be the definitive source or hub or
aggregator to sell online. [Many] have zero
brand-recognition and [the key component]
is helping them to understand quickly how
we're here to help them in a significant way.
I believe in what these makers are
doing. They've worked hard to create this
great cookie or great granola or great hot
sauce. They need an opportunity—a mar-
ketplace—to help the country see what
they've created. With big-name retailers, as
soon as they find it's a hot product, they slap
q&a
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