Transformative Leadership Conversations with Winnie da Silva E8: Spices, Entrepreneurship and Social Impact with Ethan Frisch & Ori Zohar
Season 2; Episode 8: Spices, Entrepreneurship and Social Impact with Ethan Frisch & Ori Zohar
Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar are co-founders and co-owners of Burlap & Barrel. Burlap & Barrel sources unique, beautiful spices for professional chefs and home cooks. As a Public Benefit Corporation, they partner directly with smallholder farmers to source spices that have never been available in the US before and help improve the livelihoods of our partner farmers. As a Public Benefit Corporation Burlap & Barrel is building new international food supply chains that are equitable, transparent, and traceable.
Key Takeaways from this Episode:
Building a Sustainable Business
· We went from: what if we have to close the business, to we're about to run out of spices.
· We want to build a big business, a business that has impact, that has influence.
· Entrepreneurship is always a process of iterating and improving. Nothing is static.
· Now that we’ve grown, most of the things that happen in the business on a day-to-day basis are not my area of expertise.
· You can be an entrepreneur even if your area of expertise is in business operations; continue to find the right subject matter expert that you can partner with partner.
· We are lucky we get to live a life that we design. We get to decide what we do every morning. We get to make decisions for ourselves that most people in the world never get to make, and really don't have much hope of getting to make. The fact that we get to do this is already such a privilege, such a treat that, if the business had to close tomorrow, we are fine. We are healthy. We are in positions to make decisions about our lives, and the business doesn't define that. The business is an outcome of that, but not definitive
Avoiding the Silicon Valley Model
· Create a sustainable, long-term business that isn't optimizing for a crazy exit in five years; build a healthy, happy business.
· The crazy, venture-backed, gigantic companies and founder as hero creating a new world is too stressful. Use other inspiring, quirky, funny companies for inspiration that have grown organically, have a deep and interesting culture of their own.
· We disagreed with the advice we got from a startup accelerator program; and it turns out that what we did instead saved us from the pandemic.
· Not relying on venture money forced us to be lean, thoughtful and to create more clever solutions because we couldn’t just hire a senior person to come in to fix things.
Building a Healthy Partnership
· Starting this business was a new phase of a longstanding friendship. Having had one experience together of entrepreneurship meant that we understood how our skillsets and interests were going to complement each other.
· Shared values can help partners navigate challenging decisions.
· We’re constantly checking in to see how we need to adjust our roles as the business grows.
· When we disagree, it means we're working on something important. We have arrived at different conclusions with essentially the same information, and why? Tension is not, necessarily a negative thing, and in fact, it's been an overall a source of positive energy and it pushes us in the right directions.
Our Toolkit:
· Put in the time and energy and explicit focus to create a conflict resolution process including a toolkit and common language.
· We ask ourselves how strongly we feel about something – on a scale of 1-10. The person who feels more strongly about something gets to make the decision.
· We have a weekly meeting with no agenda. During that meeting we bring pebbles, not boulders. We want to talk about problems as early as possible. If it feels off or weird, we don't just sit and stew on it. These meetings create a safe space for us to bring whatever we're feeling. We can check in and disagree and talk through the things that are sitting the heaviest on our minds.
· We practice disagreements about the small things, so that when a big thing comes along, we’re ready.
Companies & Resources:
· Examples of social impact business:
o Rancho Gordo: sells incredible dried heirloom beans
· “Let My People Go Surfing” by the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard
· Pete Flint at NFX
Burlap & Barrel Articles
To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.
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I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!
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