Butter + flour
The early days of a startup are all about momentum. It’s about lighting the fire in your belly that makes the entire team simply GO. Where are we going? Here’s a milestone, but it’ll probably shift. How do we get there? Here are our values — beyond that you’re here because I trust you, your experience, and your skills. What do we do when we get there? Listen, learn, iterate, and don’t forget to celebrate along the way. And why? That’s the easy one. My co-founders and I have spent 30 years in the food industry, in addition to the countless hours (years?) we’ve spent in our own kitchens. We love this industry, and we believe it has some systemic issues that limit food culture to fetishization and ephemeral virality. After all, food is the most universal part of the human experience. It matters, big time, and fortunately for my co-founders and me, we like big opportunities.
Google, Ina, and Ferrari (quite the group, right?) all started somewhere. I’m so lucky to have friends and family supporting me on this journey, many of whom are probably reading this right now (HI). After leaving my job last October, moving to London in March to participate in an accelerator, and now being back stateside, every new conversation in my life starts with: “How’s Roux going?”. They want to play with the product, read about us in Eater, and buy the tote bag. But damn — first we need to incorporate, split founder equity, pick just the right blue, set up expense categories, define values, capture all the amazing conversations we’ve had about the future of food culture in ways that feel actionable, decide which AI products we’re going to use, choose an L2, fundraise omg fundraise, figure out what roles we hire for and which we fake along the way, surf Reddit to estimate the cost of an office before I lose half a day to a salesperson, decide if IG is over, become a thought leader while also being an actual leader, did I mention fundraise?, trojan horse crypto values, read TC but don’t let it dim my light, find a megaphone, and create a work environment where people have that fire in their bellies to create that product, brand, and community that make you want to wear the tote bag.
I’ve already knocked off more than half of that list. This newsletter will mostly be about the product, brand, and community, but I’m going to throw in some of the other stuff, too. Not because I need an outlet, but because it makes the story so much richer. It’s the same reason you don’t need another glossy cheese pull on your feed, but you always welcome BTS of the mozzarella shop in Bensonhurst that makes their mozz fresh every morning. The history, the people, and the nuance make it all the more delicious. Thanks for reading, and welcome to Cooking Roux.