Ep. 149: Food Should Taste Good Founder Pete Lescoe On The Three Words That Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

We live in a time when we don't have to make a trade-off between healthy and delicious food, but we used to. Pete Lescoe was one of a handful of pioneers who paved a path for better-for-you and tasty snacks with Food Should Taste Good, which he launched in 2006. The brand’s line of tortilla chips, made with healthy ingredients like flaxseed and quinoa, was an instant hit with retailers and consumers, and just six years after its market debut Food Should Taste Good was acquired by General Mills.

Five years later after the sale, Lescoe was back at it with Plant Snacks, an innovative brand of healthy chips made from cassava flour. In the following interview, Lescoe chronicled his journey as an entrepreneur, including how he created a foundation for success with Food Should Taste Good, discussed his perspective on risk and explained why cash will always be king. He also spoke about the eventual sale of the company, why he got back in the food business and why he doesn’t think about happiness as a goal.

Show notes:

2:38: Interview: Pete Lescoe, Founder, Food Should Taste Good/Plant Snacks -- In a conversation recorded at his office in Greenwich, Conn., Lescoe recounted his early days in business beginning with a business development role at small chain of flower stores through to his MBA education at Babson College and work with a food broker. He also discussed why having an income while launching Food Should Taste Good was so important in the first year, how he negotiated contracts with co-packers and retailers in such a way that cash was always available, why imitating success helped scale the brand, and the decision to take on equity capital. He also talked about life after the sale of Food Should Taste Good, why he saw an opportunity to lead the emerging cassava snack space with Plant Snacks, and the role of happiness in his life.

Brands in this episode: Food Should Taste Good, Plant Snacks