Scott Sapire is an ambitious entrepreneur in Los Angeles with an appetite for all things food-related. He also runs a company called Sweetwater Spice Company that bottles ready-to-use artisanal brine concentrates. Anyone serious about barbeque knows the secret of brining — a process that requires bathing meat in a liquid full of spices and flavors over a period of time to produce tender, flavorful meat.
As a founder running a one-man business, Scott admits that his journey as an entrepreneur hasn’t been easy, but it’s part of the nature of starting your own company.
For this edition of Member Spotlight, a series where we showcase the entrepreneurs of emerging companies, we chatted with Scott on his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and lessons he learned along the way. This is his story.
I’m lucky to have parents who are foodies and expected me to eat everything on my plate growing up. From an early age, I’ve been in love with food, and I’ve always been an “idea” person. Upon graduation from the University of Texas, I went to work in Hollywood to satisfy the latter. But when the first four companies I worked for (Miramax, Michael Ovitz’ Artists Management Group, Rhythm & Hues, and Konrad Pictures) folded during my tenure, I decided that the idea of starting my own company didn’t seem so daunting.
I posted a recipe for a smoked brisket brine on a Texas football message board in the days leading up to a big game. While a fan of the game, I never played, so my contributions to the message board were primarily regarding tailgates. My team won the game in a dramatic fashion at the last second. I logged on to read about football, but there were many people claiming to have smoked the best brisket of their life using my recipe. When men in Texas talk recipes over football after a game like that, you bottle it.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. Sweetwater Spice Co. has hit $0 a number of times, particularly during the recession. But if you let fear drive your decision-making, you may as well get a job working for someone else and let him or her worry. If you hit your brakes or turn the wheel to avoid a patch of ice, you’re more likely to spin out of control. Have a vision and stick to it.
I would say my biggest screw up so far is hiring and managing poorly at launch. I am now a one-man business, though that too is not ideal. And for any advice that could help out anyone, the specific mistake I made was outgrowing our capital. Cash is king. We were in 3,000 stores in our first 18 months of sales, but started with only $50,000. One cannot support 3,000 stores on $50,000, although I sure as hell tried.
I advise many small food ventures these days, and I tell each of them the same thing. If you don’t have $1 million, your focus should be direct to consumer and direct to wholesale. This is the strategy Sweetwater Spice Co. is now pursuing, even though we maintain a presence in grocery stores around the country.
Sometimes being an entrepreneur feels like some kind of illness. I never feel like I accomplish enough in a day. I’m never satisfied with the work I have done. Whatever work I do should generate more work because in business, if you aren’t growing, you’re shrinking.
Hopefully we’ll be releasing some new brine flavors in the spring, and a new product line called Mexinara before the end of the year. Mexinara is a line of pasta sauces – Summer Squash and Saffron, Huitlacoche Black Bean, Chayote Green Chili, & Chocolate Chipotle — that I hope will stand out from the sea of red sauces lining store shelves. I’m also developing a web app that will help food artisans understand the industry, learn how to budget, and manage their startup.
Photographs by Lauren Kallen