October 8, 2025 • 35 mins
There's nothing we like more than a comeback kid.
While 98% of total farm seaweed in the world comes from Asia, over the past decade, entrepreneurs in the US, Europe and Africa have been trying to change that by producing locally-grown, high-quality seaweed for their domestic markets.
I've met a number of these entrepreneurs and it's not easy. Once you master aquaculture, you have to find a market, and that is proving to be a challenge. Some of these companies have gone bottom up.
A few months ago, we thought Maine-based, Atlantic Sea Farms, commonly referred to as ASF, was going to live a similar fate. Right out of the gate, it seemed like nothing could hold it back. ASF raised millions of dollars and made an incredible splash in the national media, but they just couldn't become profitable.
ASF shareholders, however, refused to shutter the company. They opted to restructure and brought in turnaround specialist Barrett Wood.
Barrett joins us today to tell us how he is breathing new life into the company and paving a way to profitability.
Listen on Apple , Spotify, our website, or pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts!
I'd like to thank our sponsors:
Gulf of Maine Research Institute and Bold Ocean Ventures have partnered to create a mission-driven venture capital fund, supporting the growth of innovative, sustainable ocean-related businesses.
Startup Marin Skincare has rocketed thanks to products made with Maine-lobster-derived glycoprotein that work on eczema and dry skin. Former guest on our show and co-Founder Patrick Breeding is offering listeners a 20% discount on their skincare products. Type HAPPYPLANET into the coupon code field!
Spark No. 9, ensures that companies - and startups - have successful product launches by testing their products online. Remove the guesswork before you launch!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Abigail (00:01):
Welcome to the podcast where we celebrate innovation
for a happy planet.
I'm your host, Abigail Carroll.
After the oyster boom came theseaweed boom, while 98% of total
farm seaweed in the world comesfrom Asia.
Over the past decade,entrepreneurs in the us, Europe
and Africa have been trying tochange that by producing locally
(00:23):
grown high quality seaweed fortheir domestic market.
I've met a number of theseentrepreneurs and it's not easy.
Once you master aquaculture, youhave to find a market, and that
is proving to be a challenge.
Many of these companies havegone bottom up, like Akua, whose
former CEO came on the podcastin the spring to share her story
(00:44):
of how it all fell apart.
A few months ago, we thoughtMaine based Atlantic Sea Farms
commonly referred to as a SF,was going to live a similar
fate.
Much like Akua, it seemed likenothing could hold it back.
It raised millions of dollarsand made an incredible splash in
the national media, but theyjust couldn't become profitable.
(01:08):
A SF shareholders, however,refused to shutter the company.
They opted to restructure andbrought in turnaround specialist
Barrett Wood Barrett joins ustoday to tell us how he is
breathing new life into thecompany and paving a way to
profitability.
There's nothing we like morethan a comeback kid.
(01:31):
Welcome to the podcast Barrett.
Barrett (01:33):
Thank you Abigail.
I'm really excited to be here.
Abigail (01:36):
Well you've come all the way from Texas.
You're here in Maine for aspecial opportunity to turn
around Atlantic Sea Farms.
Tell me a little bit about whatthat means to be a turnaround
specialist.
Barrett (01:50):
Yeah, so I started out as an attorney out in West Texas
and I no longer practice but youknow, still carry some of those
skills, but.
But one of the things I alwaysenjoyed when I was practicing
was the restructuring space.
And so now as I've moved forwardto the investment and advisory
side, I, I try to, I tend tolean more towards those
(02:11):
projects.
A turnaround, you know, I mean aturnaround always starts with a
company that's in trouble.
But what happens next reallyvaries case by case.
And it can ha you can goanywhere from a.
A quick sale to you know, acompany that has a full on
comeback and, and experiencesmajor growth after.
(02:31):
So how did I get from Texas allthe way up to Maine?
Well this company, Atlantic SeaFarms drew a lot of attention
all over the country and, andone of, one of the main
investors was, was a fund here.
True wealth ventures.
In Austin that I've known the,the principals of for a very
long time, and they knew that Idid this type of work and they
(02:53):
saw an overlap in the, in thesituation that Atlantic Sea
Farms was in earlier this year,and the stuff that I attend to
work on.
So that's, that's how I gotthere in May.
And and we've been working hardon it ever since.
Abigail (03:08):
So this sector of these seaweed farms, we saw a big,
huge surge of seaweed farms.
In fact, we had a kua on our.
On our podcast not too long agofor a situation that seemed like
it could have actually beenthis, the fate of Atlantic Sea
Farms.
They, they blew up earlier inthe year and she's now in, in
(03:31):
Africa helping elephants.
Which sounds like anotherexciting opportunity.
But, what's going on here?
What, what happened to AtlanticSea Farms?
And why, why do you thinkthey're here in this situation?
And what do you think could bedone?
Because obviously you thinksomething could be done, you
wouldn't be here.
Barrett (03:50):
Oh, for sure.
So, you know, we'll take a stepback and, and talk about kind of
the history.
It, it Plan C Farms was foundedin 2018.
Bree Warner did a spectacularjob in drawing awareness and,
and raising capital for thiscompany.
A thing, certainly not in inNorth America, and so.
And, and to verticallyintegrated was another challenge
(04:12):
that she took on.
And and so how did we get here?
It, it's not unusual for acompany that grows very quickly
to sort of lose sight of theeconomics.
It happens frequently whenyou're growing fast.
You know, you're spinning a lotof plates at once.
And, and so what, what AtlanticSea Farms was, I think the, the
(04:32):
jam that they got in franklywas.
They were trying to do too manythings at once.
And, and that included, they had35 products that they were
putting into, into retailstores.
And you know, with 35 skewsyou're at some point you're,
you're putting'em in the marketand you're just kind of crossing
your fingers.
And, and retail's tough.
It's really tough to, to meetyour margins.
(04:54):
It's really tough to, to have aconsistent demand there if
you're, if you're just notconfident in that already.
So despite an extraordinaryeffort again they were losing
money.
And kind of finally the musicran out in terms of the ability
to raise enough capital to matchthat.
So in May, the board made thedifficult decision to, you know,
(05:17):
to discontinue that, that modeland, and didn't know exactly
what the, what was next, butjust had to turn off that
faucet.
Had to stop the retail.
You know, hemorrhaging to becompletely honest.
And so we took a good look at itand, and if there's anything
that, my professional careerhas, has trained me to do is
(05:37):
kind of quick take a quickassessment and, and I assessed
and said, okay, let's go back toa simple and as basic a process
as we can, and let's just nailthat.
My first thing, when I enter anew situation.
I like to ask every singleperson, customers, stakeholders,
lenders, everybody.
(05:57):
What's the best thing?
This company does more betterthan anybody else.
And, and here clearly becausethey've made the industry, but
also just because of the talentinvolved.
That thing was cultivating kelp.
They the fantastic atcultivating and harvesting kelp.
And and why was that kelpsuperior?
Because it's traceable.
If, if you compare it to the, toraw seaweed you know, what they
(06:22):
call rock weed you don't knowwhere it's coming from and you
don't know the water that it'sbeen in, and it's unreliable in
terms of you know, you're theultimate customer that needs it.
So we took a good look and wesaid how they're definitely good
at this.
But we've got to get back tomargins.
And so we did, we, we got backand we figured out what the, the
(06:44):
products we had already youknow, going out the door that
were selling well and who werethey going to.
And it turns out that was moreon a B2B basis than, than the
retail.
And so we quickly pivoted toselling by the bag, as we say,
and not by the box, not by theretail box.
Abigail (07:02):
Yeah.
So, who are these wholesalebuyers?
Who are these businesses thatyou're selling to?
Barrett (07:08):
Oh, for sure.
We're going to wholesalers.
We're going to distributors.
We're going to restaurants.
You know, we're having very goodearly discussions.
With legal seafood.
The executive chef said, let,let's do it.
Loved it.
We're, we're going to, we'regonna be in cafeterias either K
through 12 or, or all the way upto higher ed.
We've had great conversationswith the University of Maine
(07:30):
and, and UMass already.
You know, we just turned thisnew model on and, and.
Where we've gotten or, you know,the progress in the last 40 days
has been unbelievable.
And I think that's a testamentto one, the, the foundation that
this company already had.
The goodwill and the, you know,the support that it had in the
community and in the businessworld, but also.
(07:52):
We put together a group ofexternal advisors Andrew
Wilkinson and Andy Wright GutAndrew Wilkinson's at North
Coast and Andy Wright gut's athe's the CEO of Dr.
Prager's and Zoe Croft, who waswith LAC Farms within the last
year and, and knew the placebackwards and forwards, and, and
they've made introductions onthis B2B level.
(08:13):
That might've taken weeks ormonths and, and are getting us
right there to the, to the, youknow, decision makers, so to
speak right away.
So yeah, you know, stay tuned.
We're gonna be, we're gonna bein your, in your nearest
cafeterias and, and restaurantshere very, very quickly.
Abigail (08:31):
Well, it's interesting because what Brianna did was
create a ton of brand equity.
So you're stepping into sort ofa startup, but you already have
a lot of goodwill in thecommunity.
And I think a.
That's to her credit and I thinkthat makes it an interesting
challenge.
Barrett (08:49):
No, no question.
You know, I've, I've doneseveral of these and what was
unique about this situation wasthe amount of building blocks I
was able to start with, it, youknow, we had a, as I mentioned,
a first class team.
These are, these are the expertsin their space.
They're resilient.
They're also versatile.
We've had to wear a lot of extrahats, as you might imagine, in
(09:09):
a, in the last, you know, 120days or so.
And they've, they've done itwith Grace and they've done it
with you know, with excellence.
And we have a board that's that,that, like I said, made tough
decisions, but also stuckaround.
I've been in situations where.
You can't get the board on thephone when, when the, when the
company goes, you know, in thewrong direction.
And so we had a, an incredibleinvestor base.
(09:32):
This, this investor base isunique in that they are you
know, equally if not more intune with the impact than, than
frankly the, the bottom line.
Most of the time on theconversations that we're having,
so our bank has been amazing.
Anytime I enter into a newsituation, the first question I
ask is, how angry is our, is ourlender at us?
(09:53):
And, and that usually, you know,dictates.
Sometimes it's, you know, I'llenter into a, into a company
that has a, has software thatjust, it just didn't work.
Or it's, it's behind on, youknow, behind the market, so to
speak.
And so you've gotta face thatreality, but people are buying
(10:17):
kelp.
And we just need to find the,the best channels to put that
into.
So, and, and as you mentioned,we're not a startup.
Startup doesn't, doesn't beginwith 204 customers that had
already bought the product fromyou.
We just needed to go back and,and knock again if they wanted
to buy from us again.
Abigail (10:37):
Right.
Right.
So you've got, tell me, tell meabout the, the farmers on this
journey.
'cause you've got a, a networkof farmers, you aren't farming
the seaweed yourself, if Iunderstand correctly, you've got
people in your network.
So how have they, you know, madeit through this period of
transition?
And what are, what are theirhopes and dreams right now?
Barrett (10:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the first year in 2018 A A SFfarmed 30,000 pounds.
And then fast forward to 2024,it was 1.3 million pounds.
And that's.
That's all a testament to, to,you know, Brie obviously at the
top, but Liz and Aurora in oursupply division are, are
(11:21):
spectacular.
And they stay in constantcommunication with that farmer
network.
They also provide, you know,kind of the tools and the, and
the permitting advice to reallyget the farmers up to speed.
And, and ready.
And they, you know, they handle99% of those discussions.
It's, an amazing operation andthey scaled it up to, to a
(11:42):
significant size now.
When, when we realized thereality that we were over
harvesting and, and thoseweren't really matching our, our
sales forecast, we had to dosomething about it.
So we, we did cut back this yearon our harvest.
We were, we tried to be as, astransparent with the farmer
(12:02):
network and, and really as quickwith information as we could,
as, as quickly as we had it.
We, made sure this previousharvest in, in the spring of 25,
right?
As I, right as I came on, one ofthe first things that we decided
to do was we were gonna actuallypay ahead of schedule.
'Cause there was some concern.
You know, word gets around andand we, we wanted to head that
(12:24):
off.
So we said you were going, goingto be paid by I believe it was
the end of June and we wentahead and paid'em in May.
Just, just to, to make sure thatyou know, those relations stayed
intact and, and also there wasthat transparency again.
Abigail (12:37):
Just trying to put the pieces of the first sort of
iteration together.
What happened to, you know, theinvestors, angel investors and
stuff in that first, like in a,in a turnaround situation, do
they lose out?
Do they just shrink?
Like, how does, how does thatget managed?
Barrett (12:52):
You know, it all depends on the situation.
But in this situation, we'reraising again and the valuation
had had to come down'cause.
It's a different company.
And so there's a, there is adilution factor for sure.
And there's, you know, I'll usethat word transparency again.
We've been very clear about thenew reality.
And we've invited those sameinvestors and said, you know,
(13:12):
this is, you can, you can lookat this as, as a loss.
You can look at it as a newopportunity.
And ask us anything you wantabout where we're at.
But you know, it, I, I wouldcompletely understand if you've
had it with us but I could alsounderstand why you'd be excited.
Abigail (13:28):
Sometimes it's easier with all the information of the
first round.
So so you've got some newopportunities too,'cause to, to,
to date.
You worked with a lot with.
Pretty much exclusively, I thinkwith kelp and you're looking at
some other seaweeds, how is thatgonna open up the, the world of
opportunity for you all?
Barrett (13:48):
Yeah, so we're excited about dos.
I, and I'll be completelyhonest, Abigail, before May, I
wouldn't have been able to tellyou the difference between a lot
of these things.
I'm so
Abigail (13:57):
taste like bacon.
Everybody says
Barrett (14:00):
Exactly.
I mean.
Abigail (14:01):
like bacon?
Barrett (14:02):
they're raving about it.
So I, I'm grateful throughout tobe able to call Sue and Kara in
our, in our innovationdepartment because they, they're
not just, you know, a SFexperts.
They're, they're, you know,international experts on these
things.
But do you know, I'll tell you,when I first got into a SF we,
(14:23):
the early conversations, if.
If we were talking about, youknow, the day to day, and then
all of a sudden somebody saidthe word dulls, people would sit
up and, and their posture wouldchange, and there would be just
a little bit more energy andexcitement and, and I, you know,
picked up on that.
And I, and so I said, this iswhat we need to do.
And, and Dolce demonstrates kindof where we're taking this new
(14:46):
model.
We're not gonna try 35 things atonce.
We're going to nail this.
We're gonna nail what we'redoing you know, one at a time,
so to speak.
So we've got, we have thesethree skews that we're doing at
the, at the moment, and thenwe're going to do a very
deliberate and you knowobjective launch of dos.
(15:07):
We're doing a beta this, thisharvest, we're gonna do 10,000
pounds.
We're gonna make sure we get itright.
And then in in the next harvest,we're gonna try for a hundred
thousand pounds.
We already know just from youknow, kind of a, a study of our,
of our peers and our market,that, that frankly, people just
asking us that, that we've got80,000 pounds of demand.
(15:29):
So, we, we've we're matchingthose, those concepts.
We're being very careful, butalso, you know, ultimately we're
gonna be more ambitious withthat product.
Abigail (15:41):
You said something that, that took me right back to
grad school.
I, I went to grad school in NewYork City and I I, I.
Sat in in a class aboutturnaround management and the
teacher there started the firstclass by telling this story
about how they went into thefirst thing they did in any
turnaround project was go in andclean the bathrooms themselves
(16:03):
to show that management caresabout employees.
And so you mentioned that somebacks the posture correcting
when you started talking aboutadults with people in your, in
your environment.
And it made me think that.
As a turnaround guy, you are, Ithink, acutely attuned to people
and you, have to have a reallygood read on your environment so
(16:26):
you can just plunge in outtanowhere and, and get people to
work with you.
Can you just speak to that alittle bit?
Barrett (16:34):
For sure.
And there's, there's a coupledifferent ways that, you know,
CROs or, or restructuringadvisors work.
And, and a lot of times may haveto do with basically the, you
know, the size of the project,but the way that I have always
approached it is I want to bethere face to face as quickly as
possible.
And not just with the, the, theteam itself, but with all of
(16:54):
the, all of the stakeholders.
So as quickly as I could, I, Iwent to Maine and I sat in the,
in the conference room atAtlantic Sea Farms, and I went
and sat in the conference roomwith our, with our first lien
holder.
And we had a face-to-facediscussion.
I think that there's just somuch more value in that.
I've, I've had some, somementors that have had a, a
strong influence on me, andthat's always been important.
(17:15):
So whenever I can, I'm gonna bein the conference room.
Some advisors, I'm not, it's notto denigrate, you know, anybody
in, in the industry.
It, it will be a, a few phonecalls and a report and you know,
and, and that's that, that I,I'll just never, I'll never work
that way I'm going to beinvolved for better or worse.
And I take it personal.
I really do.
(17:36):
I, I hope that's a good thing.
I'm very outcome oriented.
We talk about what the result'sgonna be on day one and we point
that direction as quickly aspossible.
Abigail (17:47):
Well, speaking of results, I saw your new
projections and it had like600,000 monthly sales by April
of 27, I
Barrett (17:57):
That's what we're looking at.
Abigail (17:57):
business plan.
Barrett (17:59):
Yeah.
So, you know, that might be thebest case, but to, to be honest,
we're, we're looking at breakeven around mid the middle of
2027.
Abigail (18:08):
Amazing.
Barrett (18:09):
Our, our initial goal is a hundred thousand in sales
because we're starting, we'rereally just flipping the switch
here this summer on the new DEmodel.
But I feel confident that we'regonna get there.
I feel confident that the, thetimeline from from 100 to 200 is
going to be shorter than it wasfrom, from zero to a hundred.
And so on and so forth.
(18:30):
I think because of, of howsimple this model is, it's it's
much easier to replicate.
It's much easier to scale.
The, the team is tired of mesaying that.
We're gonna know these productsbetter than we know our, our
pets and our kids.
Because that's, that's what Isay over and over again.
We're going to know how to dothis from the water all the way
(18:53):
out the door.
And, and every single day we'regonna micro focus on waste to
improve it.
And over time we're gonna, ourcosts are gonna go down and
we're going to get better atselling it with ev every
progressive day.
So.
Yes, I'm, I, I'm excited.
I, you know, as, as you knowyou, you could, a pro forma can
say a whole lot.
(19:13):
But, but it actually just needsto kind of play itself out.
This one is playing out on anencouraging trajectory to start,
for sure.
Abigail (19:23):
What made this so exciting for you?
I'm sure you have people comingto you all the time with
opportunities to, to turnprojects around.
Why did you pick this one so farfrom home in, in an industry
that you know, why workingwaterfront, I mean, that's a,
that probably was a reach.
Barrett (19:42):
well I can start by saying that it, you know, it's
40 degrees cooler in May.
In in May.
In May.
It is in central Texas, and sothat's appealing.
But no, I'll, you know, the twofactors that come to mind are,
are.
This, as I mentioned earlier,had had the building blocks, had
a lot more to start with than Itypically see.
This team you again, a patientlender, incredible investor
(20:05):
base, a real product.
And so I, I'm kind of feedbackdriven and, and I was pretty
sure we were gonna see up ordown pretty quickly here.
And we did, you know we, we weregonna know pretty quickly
whether or not this was gonna.
Gonna take, so to speak.
And, and the other factor, I, Ijust frankly would say is, you
know, Carrie Rub asked she's a,she's a force of nature and, and
(20:28):
she wouldn't ask if it wasn'timportant.
And so there's a certaincredibility and, and and, and I
importance there on its own.
Abigail (20:35):
in the ask.
Right.
Depends on who's asking for yourhelp.
That's interesting though, tokind of come in and get a sense
pretty quickly whether or notyou have a vision that can, that
can thrive.
And I think that's, that's animportant lesson.
I think even for startups thatare just coming out of nowhere,
you know, the.
(20:55):
The, the eternal raises towardsthis future, which is, you know,
gonna happen where yourproduct's finally gonna, run is,
is a bit of a cycle.
I think startups get in and it,and it sort of feeds in all to
all these myths we have of thehow hard it is to, you know,
make a startup work.
When in reality, I think theones that do work often find
(21:18):
that success pretty, prettyclearly and very pretty early
on.
Barrett (21:23):
Yeah.
Well, again, another thing theteam has heard me say is this.
This is simple.
It's not easy.
Or, or at least that's whatwe're trying to do.
We're trying to make it assimple as possible.
And you know, a quote I like is,is Steve Jobs when he said that
focus is not about what you sayyes to it's about saying no to
the a hundred other good ideas,right?
(21:43):
I think that really demonstrateswhat was going on here.
There, there was a milliondifferent ways that kelp could
have been sold into the market.
And, and unfortunately they weretrying a lot of it and, and not
really letting one work longenough to, to build on.
So that's what we're trying now.
We're just, we're just trying tosimplify it and, and, you know,
(22:04):
find the model, get stability,and then, and only then do we
start to grow.
Abigail (22:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what does, what does successlook like to you right now?
Like what?
What will you call a win?
Barrett (22:18):
Yeah.
There's, there's two ways tolook at it.
There's the, the, the practicaland then there's kind of the
more abstract, right?
The practical is what I alludedto earlier.
When we get to that, that firsta hundred thousand dollars a
month line in, in sales revenue,that's gonna be great.
Balloons are gonna, you know,fall from the ceiling.
And because I think that that'llbe a major benchmark in terms of
(22:40):
that this is, this is reallyworking.
We have some proof there.
But, and, and that's, you know,the economics, that's the
practical, but the, the abstractis more, you know, how many
farmers are we, are we able to,to line up for the harvest?
How many lines of kelp we ableto put in the water that really
reinforces that, that shore lineand, and, you know, takes carbon
(23:02):
outta the air and, and does allthe great things for the
environment.
You know, how many grants isour, is our amazing innovation
team able to, to get to, to justhave that, you know, forward
pioneering science through andcare are spectacular at writing
grants.
And, and this is not an, an easygrant environment to, to say the
(23:23):
least.
Abigail (23:24):
for sure.
Barrett (23:25):
they've been incredibly resourceful.
And so and I, and really it'sjust fascinating to go into the
lab and see what they're workingon.
So, you know, success is, is allof those things.
It's, it is not just the numberson a, on a spreadsheet, but it's
what it's doing in thiscommunity.
And, and, you know, to be honestyou know, on day one I, I
completely underestimated.
(23:47):
The, the impact this company hason, on the community and, and
the aquaculture community andthe, the entire, you know, new
England you know, world up thereand, and and now I kind, I'm
getting it more and more everyday.
Abigail (24:02):
Yeah.
Well, welcome to Maine.
Barrett (24:05):
Yes.
Abigail (24:05):
Maine does really buoy around some.
Specific companies and they getexcited about them.
And I know Main Angels supportedthem.
I know they've got, main venturefund, you know, they've got all
the big people who've beenrooting for them.
So on the, on the farmer side,are the farmers who farm for
you?
(24:25):
Is this sort.
Additional income for theirother waterfront jobs.
Are these lobstermen and stuffor are these dedicated seaweed
farmers?
Like is that a, is that aprofession now?
Barrett (24:38):
Almost all of them are, are supplementing.
It, as we were, as we were goingand circulating to get our
agreements these last two weekswe couldn't get anybody couldn't
even get'em on, on the phone'cause it was a great time in
the water.
They finally hit a good seasonor a good part of the season.
And so yeah, for most of'em itis, it is supplemental.
The, waters are getting warmer.
Lobsters is harder to, to bringin.
(24:58):
And so this, this helps.
Abigail (25:00):
Why is it so important for a SF to, you know, survive
and thrive right now?
Barrett (25:06):
Yeah, so as, as I just mentioned, there was the, the
jobs in the larger communityand, and obviously that
environmental impact.
But one thing I, I noticed earlyon in having discussions with
particularly externalstakeholders or, or people that
were external to the company.
Is that Atlantic Sea Farmsreally was a bellwether for, for
how things were going in this,in this industry for the ocean
(25:28):
economy.
You know, at one point AtlanticSea Farms was on the front of
the New York Times.
We were on CNBC, we were namedRetailer of the Year by Whole
Foods.
As we've mentioned throughoutbreed was, was amazing at at
getting awareness to thiscompany and to this industry.
And so for better or worse if,if a SF disappears, then, you
(25:50):
know, risk reinforcing the ideathat that companies that do the
right thing companies that makea positive impact, can't succeed
on their own or can't succeed atthe level that other companies
do.
But the, and this is a big, butif it does.
If a SF is able to survive andthen thrive, then it proves just
(26:11):
the opposite, right?
That that value and impact cango hand in hand and even scale
together.
The, the more margin, the moremission.
That's what we're trying toreally nail right now and, and
prove up.
So that's why it's importantfor, for a SF to not only just
stabilize now, but, but then,you know, turn around and grow.
Abigail (26:32):
Well, I certainly hope that's true because that is the
whole purpose of this podcastand to talk about companies that
can grow and they can do goodfor the world.
So, you know, a SF has had areally, task in you know,
changing habits and and playingto new tastes of, of clients and
(26:56):
that that can be a hard missionwhen your product involves
education and adventure andforming new habits.
Can you, can you tell me alittle bit about that part of
the, the challenge.
Barrett (27:11):
Sure.
It's a unique product.
It's, it can be considered aniche product.
It is growing, there's noquestion.
But it boils down to franklyit's how people see it and, and
also how people experience it.
And, it's been my observation.
You have to start small.
You don't expect people to wantto eat a giant bowl of kelp
straight outta the ocean.
You start with the, with theready cut ingredients, right?
(27:34):
The, smaller ingredient levelthat goes into your, your staple
recipes like chowder or lobsteror, or even sushi obviously.
And so, and, and then, you know,you start to get some traction.
And once you remind people howgreat it is for them on a health
basis.
Y you know, some people are, areeven influenced just, just by
(27:57):
the impact it's having on, onthe environment.
And, and they'll give it anothercouple tries if they didn't like
it the first time.
Or, or you just tried it in anew way.
Right.
You know, if there was anotherthing that Atlantic Sea Farms
did well before they, theyexplored several different ways
that you can, you can make this,make this ingredient really
work.
Whether it's fried or, orotherwise.
(28:17):
I know with, with yourbackground, with, with oysters,
you know, sometimes people justdon't, don't eat'em right outta
the ocean, but they'll eat an anoyster po boy.
Abigail (28:26):
Rockefeller Povo.
Yeah.
Barrett (28:28):
exactly.
It, it with without evenhesitation.
So it's, just how you try it,right?
You start small.
And and you try to reduce allthat friction that comes with
people's, you know,predispositions.
And you know, next thing youknow they're eating seaweed
salad.
And, and that's, again, speakingearlier of adults and people,
posture chain.
(28:49):
We're going to thesedistributors we're saying
seaweed salad.
And, and they sit up becausethey get it.
They've seen it.
And knowing that we're comingwith a sustainable version, a
chem free, you know, chemicalfree version you know, a
traceable version we don't havedyes.
And, you know, comparing that towhat's, what's already out
there.
(29:10):
Then we're getting a, we're,we're getting a lot of positive
response there, and we're, we'regonna try and, and, and put that
out as quickly as we can.
Abigail (29:18):
That's great.
I'm, I'm glad to hear moresitting up.
I love your focus on posture andI just, it just speaks volumes.
So tell me do you have advicefor other entrepreneurs who are
either trying to bring thesetype, like, new products to the
market or just battling it outin a, in a business that sort of
has a dual mission of doing welland doing good?
Barrett (29:40):
Yeah, I mean, it seems like two different things.
You're trying to influencesomebody to try a product that's
new or, or out of the ordinary,again, I would say make it, try
and make it their idea.
Make it something, make it sothat they can make it their own
way.
Right.
Again, if it's fried oystersrather than straight outta the
ocean, if it's you know, if it'sMaine seaweed salad instead of
(30:00):
you know, a big bowl of, of kelpstraight from the harvest make
it theirs.
Don't try and own every, everyelement of their decision.
And I think that, you know, kindof revert back to what we were
talking about earlier when wehad our 35.
Products.
We were, I think maybe we weretrying to control too much of
the of the outcome.
We were saying, you're gonnalike it fermented and you're
(30:22):
gonna like it with this tasteand, and so on and so forth.
And you're gonna like it youknow, in this, in this little
box.
And so, you know, if, if anentrepreneur has something that
they are sure people are gonnalike, ultimately, then they, I
would, I would listen to yourcustomers a lot more and, and
see the ways that they.
They would really want to useit.
Abigail (30:43):
I love that because I think listening is so important
and we don't talk about itenough in business, but like to
understand what people want andwhat they need and what their
hopes and dreams are, you reallyjust have to listen.
I mean that's, you know, at, atthe Oyster Farm, you know,
everybody wanted come see thefarm and it turned into a, a
major revenue source for usbringing people out into the
(31:05):
farm and having these tastingtours.
And, and I, you know, I wouldn'thave thought that up, but we,
you know, the people were comingto us asking for this and we had
to kind of turn it into abusiness.
So I think that's really smart.
Just listen, listen,
Barrett (31:19):
Yeah.
And, and to, you know, just onanother, the other part of your
question, your question was how,you know, how do you, if an
entrepreneur says, how do youhave an impact?
And also, you know, have a, anongoing business, I, I would
suggest, and, and this is reallyon the heels of this particular
experience, that you really leanin to your story.
You rather than, than have it bean afterthought or.
(31:43):
Or it might be nice kind ofthing.
We, we are telling our, ourcustomers all about, you know,
our farmers.
We're telling'em all about the,the process.
And we're, we're telling'emabout how critical this is.
And, and you know what?
We're gonna compete on price.
And if, if we're close I knowthat, that those customers are
(32:04):
gonna be compelled by thatstory.
And so lead into your storyleading to what got you there.
Don't try and be everybody else.
What, what you know, you, youwant to be the, the, the product
or the, or the leader, frankly,that that is distinct from
everybody else.
Abigail (32:21):
Interesting.
Good.
So lastly, I just wanna know ifyou're optimistic about the
planet now that you're in theseaweed and you're seeing
you're, you're now.
Really on top of the coastalerosion issues and rising sea
waters and all of that.
How, how are you feeling?
Barrett (32:40):
Yeah, this is a, a much higher altitude question, right.
And, and I, I kind of as you, asyou ask it, I, I kind of have to
zoom out, but well, first thingthat comes to mind is that, you
know, we as a human race have,when we, when we focus, we can
accomplish amazing things, rightfrom, from a.
(33:01):
From an airplane to a, to arocket in 60 years that puts us
on the moon with, you know,with, with computer power.
Now that you could, you couldbarely find in a calculator.
But, you know, so that's, that'sthe positive.
That's why you would becautiously optimistic.
About, about how we're alladdressing climate change now.
(33:22):
We're all aware, obviouslythere's, you know, a very.
Politicized issue, unfortunatelyit shouldn't be
Abigail (33:29):
Right.
Barrett (33:34):
You know, cold War that started the space race or the,
or nine 11 moment that, youknow, where we have cities
underwater before people finallyget it.
So I, I think it's, it boilsdown to, and I hope I'm not
rambling here, I apologize, butI think it boils down to just
those.
That awareness and thoseresources, if you want to
compare it to the moon landing,then, you know everybody was
(33:55):
rooting for this, for thisoutcome.
And, and I really hope thatthat's, that translates to, to
climate change and to, and to.
You know, fixing our planet.
My goodness.
We're, it's the only one we got.
So if, if we, I, I don't haveany doubt about what we can do
if we all put our, our focus onsomething.
(34:16):
I'm just wondering what it'sgonna require to get us there.
Abigail (34:19):
Right, get everybody looking in the same direction.
Well that leaves us with somegood food for thought.
But but thank you so muchBarrett, for coming on the
podcast today.
It's been so exciting to hearabout this adventure, and I
really, really wish a SFA afresh start and, and just tons
of success.
Barrett (34:40):
Well, thank you so much.
You know, I like the way we'repointed and, you know, call,
call us in a year and I, and Ihope to give you a, an even more
exciting update about, aboutwhere we're at.
Abigail (34:49):
Oh, that'd be great.
I'd love that.
Welcome to the podcast where we celebrate innovation
for a happy planet.
I'm your host, Abigail Carroll.
After the oyster boom came theseaweed boom, while 98% of total
farm seaweed in the world comesfrom Asia.
Over the past decade,entrepreneurs in the us, Europe
and Africa have been trying tochange that by producing locally
(00:23):
grown high quality seaweed fortheir domestic market.
I've met a number of theseentrepreneurs and it's not easy.
Once you master aquaculture, youhave to find a market, and that
is proving to be a challenge.
Many of these companies havegone bottom up, like Akua, whose
former CEO came on the podcastin the spring to share her story
(00:44):
of how it all fell apart.
A few months ago, we thoughtMaine based Atlantic Sea Farms
commonly referred to as a SF,was going to live a similar
fate.
Much like Akua, it seemed likenothing could hold it back.
It raised millions of dollarsand made an incredible splash in
the national media, but theyjust couldn't become profitable.
(01:08):
A SF shareholders, however,refused to shutter the company.
They opted to restructure andbrought in turnaround specialist
Barrett Wood Barrett joins ustoday to tell us how he is
breathing new life into thecompany and paving a way to
profitability.
There's nothing we like morethan a comeback kid.
(01:31):
Welcome to the podcast Barrett.
Barrett (01:33):
Thank you Abigail.
I'm really excited to be here.
Abigail (01:36):
Well you've come all the way from Texas.
You're here in Maine for aspecial opportunity to turn
around Atlantic Sea Farms.
Tell me a little bit about whatthat means to be a turnaround
specialist.
Barrett (01:50):
Yeah, so I started out as an attorney out in West Texas
and I no longer practice but youknow, still carry some of those
skills, but.
But one of the things I alwaysenjoyed when I was practicing
was the restructuring space.
And so now as I've moved forwardto the investment and advisory
side, I, I try to, I tend tolean more towards those
(02:11):
projects.
A turnaround, you know, I mean aturnaround always starts with a
company that's in trouble.
But what happens next reallyvaries case by case.
And it can ha you can goanywhere from a.
A quick sale to you know, acompany that has a full on
comeback and, and experiencesmajor growth after.
(02:31):
So how did I get from Texas allthe way up to Maine?
Well this company, Atlantic SeaFarms drew a lot of attention
all over the country and, andone of, one of the main
investors was, was a fund here.
True wealth ventures.
In Austin that I've known the,the principals of for a very
long time, and they knew that Idid this type of work and they
(02:53):
saw an overlap in the, in thesituation that Atlantic Sea
Farms was in earlier this year,and the stuff that I attend to
work on.
So that's, that's how I gotthere in May.
And and we've been working hardon it ever since.
Abigail (03:08):
So this sector of these seaweed farms, we saw a big,
huge surge of seaweed farms.
In fact, we had a kua on our.
On our podcast not too long agofor a situation that seemed like
it could have actually beenthis, the fate of Atlantic Sea
Farms.
They, they blew up earlier inthe year and she's now in, in
(03:31):
Africa helping elephants.
Which sounds like anotherexciting opportunity.
But, what's going on here?
What, what happened to AtlanticSea Farms?
And why, why do you thinkthey're here in this situation?
And what do you think could bedone?
Because obviously you thinksomething could be done, you
wouldn't be here.
Barrett (03:50):
Oh, for sure.
So, you know, we'll take a stepback and, and talk about kind of
the history.
It, it Plan C Farms was foundedin 2018.
Bree Warner did a spectacularjob in drawing awareness and,
and raising capital for thiscompany.
A thing, certainly not in inNorth America, and so.
And, and to verticallyintegrated was another challenge
(04:12):
that she took on.
And and so how did we get here?
It, it's not unusual for acompany that grows very quickly
to sort of lose sight of theeconomics.
It happens frequently whenyou're growing fast.
You know, you're spinning a lotof plates at once.
And, and so what, what AtlanticSea Farms was, I think the, the
(04:32):
jam that they got in franklywas.
They were trying to do too manythings at once.
And, and that included, they had35 products that they were
putting into, into retailstores.
And you know, with 35 skewsyou're at some point you're,
you're putting'em in the marketand you're just kind of crossing
your fingers.
And, and retail's tough.
It's really tough to, to meetyour margins.
(04:54):
It's really tough to, to have aconsistent demand there if
you're, if you're just notconfident in that already.
So despite an extraordinaryeffort again they were losing
money.
And kind of finally the musicran out in terms of the ability
to raise enough capital to matchthat.
So in May, the board made thedifficult decision to, you know,
(05:17):
to discontinue that, that modeland, and didn't know exactly
what the, what was next, butjust had to turn off that
faucet.
Had to stop the retail.
You know, hemorrhaging to becompletely honest.
And so we took a good look at itand, and if there's anything
that, my professional careerhas, has trained me to do is
(05:37):
kind of quick take a quickassessment and, and I assessed
and said, okay, let's go back toa simple and as basic a process
as we can, and let's just nailthat.
My first thing, when I enter anew situation.
I like to ask every singleperson, customers, stakeholders,
lenders, everybody.
(05:57):
What's the best thing?
This company does more betterthan anybody else.
And, and here clearly becausethey've made the industry, but
also just because of the talentinvolved.
That thing was cultivating kelp.
They the fantastic atcultivating and harvesting kelp.
And and why was that kelpsuperior?
Because it's traceable.
If, if you compare it to the, toraw seaweed you know, what they
(06:22):
call rock weed you don't knowwhere it's coming from and you
don't know the water that it'sbeen in, and it's unreliable in
terms of you know, you're theultimate customer that needs it.
So we took a good look and wesaid how they're definitely good
at this.
But we've got to get back tomargins.
And so we did, we, we got backand we figured out what the, the
(06:44):
products we had already youknow, going out the door that
were selling well and who werethey going to.
And it turns out that was moreon a B2B basis than, than the
retail.
And so we quickly pivoted toselling by the bag, as we say,
and not by the box, not by theretail box.
Abigail (07:02):
Yeah.
So, who are these wholesalebuyers?
Who are these businesses thatyou're selling to?
Barrett (07:08):
Oh, for sure.
We're going to wholesalers.
We're going to distributors.
We're going to restaurants.
You know, we're having very goodearly discussions.
With legal seafood.
The executive chef said, let,let's do it.
Loved it.
We're, we're going to, we'regonna be in cafeterias either K
through 12 or, or all the way upto higher ed.
We've had great conversationswith the University of Maine
(07:30):
and, and UMass already.
You know, we just turned thisnew model on and, and.
Where we've gotten or, you know,the progress in the last 40 days
has been unbelievable.
And I think that's a testamentto one, the, the foundation that
this company already had.
The goodwill and the, you know,the support that it had in the
community and in the businessworld, but also.
(07:52):
We put together a group ofexternal advisors Andrew
Wilkinson and Andy Wright GutAndrew Wilkinson's at North
Coast and Andy Wright gut's athe's the CEO of Dr.
Prager's and Zoe Croft, who waswith LAC Farms within the last
year and, and knew the placebackwards and forwards, and, and
they've made introductions onthis B2B level.
(08:13):
That might've taken weeks ormonths and, and are getting us
right there to the, to the, youknow, decision makers, so to
speak right away.
So yeah, you know, stay tuned.
We're gonna be, we're gonna bein your, in your nearest
cafeterias and, and restaurantshere very, very quickly.
Abigail (08:31):
Well, it's interesting because what Brianna did was
create a ton of brand equity.
So you're stepping into sort ofa startup, but you already have
a lot of goodwill in thecommunity.
And I think a.
That's to her credit and I thinkthat makes it an interesting
challenge.
Barrett (08:49):
No, no question.
You know, I've, I've doneseveral of these and what was
unique about this situation wasthe amount of building blocks I
was able to start with, it, youknow, we had a, as I mentioned,
a first class team.
These are, these are the expertsin their space.
They're resilient.
They're also versatile.
We've had to wear a lot of extrahats, as you might imagine, in
(09:09):
a, in the last, you know, 120days or so.
And they've, they've done itwith Grace and they've done it
with you know, with excellence.
And we have a board that's that,that, like I said, made tough
decisions, but also stuckaround.
I've been in situations where.
You can't get the board on thephone when, when the, when the
company goes, you know, in thewrong direction.
And so we had a, an incredibleinvestor base.
(09:32):
This, this investor base isunique in that they are you
know, equally if not more intune with the impact than, than
frankly the, the bottom line.
Most of the time on theconversations that we're having,
so our bank has been amazing.
Anytime I enter into a newsituation, the first question I
ask is, how angry is our, is ourlender at us?
(09:53):
And, and that usually, you know,dictates.
Sometimes it's, you know, I'llenter into a, into a company
that has a, has software thatjust, it just didn't work.
Or it's, it's behind on, youknow, behind the market, so to
speak.
And so you've gotta face thatreality, but people are buying
(10:17):
kelp.
And we just need to find the,the best channels to put that
into.
So, and, and as you mentioned,we're not a startup.
Startup doesn't, doesn't beginwith 204 customers that had
already bought the product fromyou.
We just needed to go back and,and knock again if they wanted
to buy from us again.
Abigail (10:37):
Right.
Right.
So you've got, tell me, tell meabout the, the farmers on this
journey.
'cause you've got a, a networkof farmers, you aren't farming
the seaweed yourself, if Iunderstand correctly, you've got
people in your network.
So how have they, you know, madeit through this period of
transition?
And what are, what are theirhopes and dreams right now?
Barrett (10:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the first year in 2018 A A SFfarmed 30,000 pounds.
And then fast forward to 2024,it was 1.3 million pounds.
And that's.
That's all a testament to, to,you know, Brie obviously at the
top, but Liz and Aurora in oursupply division are, are
(11:21):
spectacular.
And they stay in constantcommunication with that farmer
network.
They also provide, you know,kind of the tools and the, and
the permitting advice to reallyget the farmers up to speed.
And, and ready.
And they, you know, they handle99% of those discussions.
It's, an amazing operation andthey scaled it up to, to a
(11:42):
significant size now.
When, when we realized thereality that we were over
harvesting and, and thoseweren't really matching our, our
sales forecast, we had to dosomething about it.
So we, we did cut back this yearon our harvest.
We were, we tried to be as, astransparent with the farmer
(12:02):
network and, and really as quickwith information as we could,
as, as quickly as we had it.
We, made sure this previousharvest in, in the spring of 25,
right?
As I, right as I came on, one ofthe first things that we decided
to do was we were gonna actuallypay ahead of schedule.
'Cause there was some concern.
You know, word gets around andand we, we wanted to head that
(12:24):
off.
So we said you were going, goingto be paid by I believe it was
the end of June and we wentahead and paid'em in May.
Just, just to, to make sure thatyou know, those relations stayed
intact and, and also there wasthat transparency again.
Abigail (12:37):
Just trying to put the pieces of the first sort of
iteration together.
What happened to, you know, theinvestors, angel investors and
stuff in that first, like in a,in a turnaround situation, do
they lose out?
Do they just shrink?
Like, how does, how does thatget managed?
Barrett (12:52):
You know, it all depends on the situation.
But in this situation, we'reraising again and the valuation
had had to come down'cause.
It's a different company.
And so there's a, there is adilution factor for sure.
And there's, you know, I'll usethat word transparency again.
We've been very clear about thenew reality.
And we've invited those sameinvestors and said, you know,
(13:12):
this is, you can, you can lookat this as, as a loss.
You can look at it as a newopportunity.
And ask us anything you wantabout where we're at.
But you know, it, I, I wouldcompletely understand if you've
had it with us but I could alsounderstand why you'd be excited.
Abigail (13:28):
Sometimes it's easier with all the information of the
first round.
So so you've got some newopportunities too,'cause to, to,
to date.
You worked with a lot with.
Pretty much exclusively, I thinkwith kelp and you're looking at
some other seaweeds, how is thatgonna open up the, the world of
opportunity for you all?
Barrett (13:48):
Yeah, so we're excited about dos.
I, and I'll be completelyhonest, Abigail, before May, I
wouldn't have been able to tellyou the difference between a lot
of these things.
I'm so
Abigail (13:57):
taste like bacon.
Everybody says
Barrett (14:00):
Exactly.
I mean.
Abigail (14:01):
like bacon?
Barrett (14:02):
they're raving about it.
So I, I'm grateful throughout tobe able to call Sue and Kara in
our, in our innovationdepartment because they, they're
not just, you know, a SFexperts.
They're, they're, you know,international experts on these
things.
But do you know, I'll tell you,when I first got into a SF we,
(14:23):
the early conversations, if.
If we were talking about, youknow, the day to day, and then
all of a sudden somebody saidthe word dulls, people would sit
up and, and their posture wouldchange, and there would be just
a little bit more energy andexcitement and, and I, you know,
picked up on that.
And I, and so I said, this iswhat we need to do.
And, and Dolce demonstrates kindof where we're taking this new
(14:46):
model.
We're not gonna try 35 things atonce.
We're going to nail this.
We're gonna nail what we'redoing you know, one at a time,
so to speak.
So we've got, we have thesethree skews that we're doing at
the, at the moment, and thenwe're going to do a very
deliberate and you knowobjective launch of dos.
(15:07):
We're doing a beta this, thisharvest, we're gonna do 10,000
pounds.
We're gonna make sure we get itright.
And then in in the next harvest,we're gonna try for a hundred
thousand pounds.
We already know just from youknow, kind of a, a study of our,
of our peers and our market,that, that frankly, people just
asking us that, that we've got80,000 pounds of demand.
(15:29):
So, we, we've we're matchingthose, those concepts.
We're being very careful, butalso, you know, ultimately we're
gonna be more ambitious withthat product.
Abigail (15:41):
You said something that, that took me right back to
grad school.
I, I went to grad school in NewYork City and I I, I.
Sat in in a class aboutturnaround management and the
teacher there started the firstclass by telling this story
about how they went into thefirst thing they did in any
turnaround project was go in andclean the bathrooms themselves
(16:03):
to show that management caresabout employees.
And so you mentioned that somebacks the posture correcting
when you started talking aboutadults with people in your, in
your environment.
And it made me think that.
As a turnaround guy, you are, Ithink, acutely attuned to people
and you, have to have a reallygood read on your environment so
(16:26):
you can just plunge in outtanowhere and, and get people to
work with you.
Can you just speak to that alittle bit?
Barrett (16:34):
For sure.
And there's, there's a coupledifferent ways that, you know,
CROs or, or restructuringadvisors work.
And, and a lot of times may haveto do with basically the, you
know, the size of the project,but the way that I have always
approached it is I want to bethere face to face as quickly as
possible.
And not just with the, the, theteam itself, but with all of
(16:54):
the, all of the stakeholders.
So as quickly as I could, I, Iwent to Maine and I sat in the,
in the conference room atAtlantic Sea Farms, and I went
and sat in the conference roomwith our, with our first lien
holder.
And we had a face-to-facediscussion.
I think that there's just somuch more value in that.
I've, I've had some, somementors that have had a, a
strong influence on me, andthat's always been important.
(17:15):
So whenever I can, I'm gonna bein the conference room.
Some advisors, I'm not, it's notto denigrate, you know, anybody
in, in the industry.
It, it will be a, a few phonecalls and a report and you know,
and, and that's that, that I,I'll just never, I'll never work
that way I'm going to beinvolved for better or worse.
And I take it personal.
I really do.
(17:36):
I, I hope that's a good thing.
I'm very outcome oriented.
We talk about what the result'sgonna be on day one and we point
that direction as quickly aspossible.
Abigail (17:47):
Well, speaking of results, I saw your new
projections and it had like600,000 monthly sales by April
of 27, I
Barrett (17:57):
That's what we're looking at.
Abigail (17:57):
business plan.
Barrett (17:59):
Yeah.
So, you know, that might be thebest case, but to, to be honest,
we're, we're looking at breakeven around mid the middle of
2027.
Abigail (18:08):
Amazing.
Barrett (18:09):
Our, our initial goal is a hundred thousand in sales
because we're starting, we'rereally just flipping the switch
here this summer on the new DEmodel.
But I feel confident that we'regonna get there.
I feel confident that the, thetimeline from from 100 to 200 is
going to be shorter than it wasfrom, from zero to a hundred.
And so on and so forth.
(18:30):
I think because of, of howsimple this model is, it's it's
much easier to replicate.
It's much easier to scale.
The, the team is tired of mesaying that.
We're gonna know these productsbetter than we know our, our
pets and our kids.
Because that's, that's what Isay over and over again.
We're going to know how to dothis from the water all the way
(18:53):
out the door.
And, and every single day we'regonna micro focus on waste to
improve it.
And over time we're gonna, ourcosts are gonna go down and
we're going to get better atselling it with ev every
progressive day.
So.
Yes, I'm, I, I'm excited.
I, you know, as, as you knowyou, you could, a pro forma can
say a whole lot.
(19:13):
But, but it actually just needsto kind of play itself out.
This one is playing out on anencouraging trajectory to start,
for sure.
Abigail (19:23):
What made this so exciting for you?
I'm sure you have people comingto you all the time with
opportunities to, to turnprojects around.
Why did you pick this one so farfrom home in, in an industry
that you know, why workingwaterfront, I mean, that's a,
that probably was a reach.
Barrett (19:42):
well I can start by saying that it, you know, it's
40 degrees cooler in May.
In in May.
In May.
It is in central Texas, and sothat's appealing.
But no, I'll, you know, the twofactors that come to mind are,
are.
This, as I mentioned earlier,had had the building blocks, had
a lot more to start with than Itypically see.
This team you again, a patientlender, incredible investor
(20:05):
base, a real product.
And so I, I'm kind of feedbackdriven and, and I was pretty
sure we were gonna see up ordown pretty quickly here.
And we did, you know we, we weregonna know pretty quickly
whether or not this was gonna.
Gonna take, so to speak.
And, and the other factor, I, Ijust frankly would say is, you
know, Carrie Rub asked she's a,she's a force of nature and, and
(20:28):
she wouldn't ask if it wasn'timportant.
And so there's a certaincredibility and, and and, and I
importance there on its own.
Abigail (20:35):
in the ask.
Right.
Depends on who's asking for yourhelp.
That's interesting though, tokind of come in and get a sense
pretty quickly whether or notyou have a vision that can, that
can thrive.
And I think that's, that's animportant lesson.
I think even for startups thatare just coming out of nowhere,
you know, the.
(20:55):
The, the eternal raises towardsthis future, which is, you know,
gonna happen where yourproduct's finally gonna, run is,
is a bit of a cycle.
I think startups get in and it,and it sort of feeds in all to
all these myths we have of thehow hard it is to, you know,
make a startup work.
When in reality, I think theones that do work often find
(21:18):
that success pretty, prettyclearly and very pretty early
on.
Barrett (21:23):
Yeah.
Well, again, another thing theteam has heard me say is this.
This is simple.
It's not easy.
Or, or at least that's whatwe're trying to do.
We're trying to make it assimple as possible.
And you know, a quote I like is,is Steve Jobs when he said that
focus is not about what you sayyes to it's about saying no to
the a hundred other good ideas,right?
(21:43):
I think that really demonstrateswhat was going on here.
There, there was a milliondifferent ways that kelp could
have been sold into the market.
And, and unfortunately they weretrying a lot of it and, and not
really letting one work longenough to, to build on.
So that's what we're trying now.
We're just, we're just trying tosimplify it and, and, you know,
(22:04):
find the model, get stability,and then, and only then do we
start to grow.
Abigail (22:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what does, what does successlook like to you right now?
Like what?
What will you call a win?
Barrett (22:18):
Yeah.
There's, there's two ways tolook at it.
There's the, the, the practicaland then there's kind of the
more abstract, right?
The practical is what I alludedto earlier.
When we get to that, that firsta hundred thousand dollars a
month line in, in sales revenue,that's gonna be great.
Balloons are gonna, you know,fall from the ceiling.
And because I think that that'llbe a major benchmark in terms of
(22:40):
that this is, this is reallyworking.
We have some proof there.
But, and, and that's, you know,the economics, that's the
practical, but the, the abstractis more, you know, how many
farmers are we, are we able to,to line up for the harvest?
How many lines of kelp we ableto put in the water that really
reinforces that, that shore lineand, and, you know, takes carbon
(23:02):
outta the air and, and does allthe great things for the
environment.
You know, how many grants isour, is our amazing innovation
team able to, to get to, to justhave that, you know, forward
pioneering science through andcare are spectacular at writing
grants.
And, and this is not an, an easygrant environment to, to say the
(23:23):
least.
Abigail (23:24):
for sure.
Barrett (23:25):
they've been incredibly resourceful.
And so and I, and really it'sjust fascinating to go into the
lab and see what they're workingon.
So, you know, success is, is allof those things.
It's, it is not just the numberson a, on a spreadsheet, but it's
what it's doing in thiscommunity.
And, and, you know, to be honestyou know, on day one I, I
completely underestimated.
(23:47):
The, the impact this company hason, on the community and, and
the aquaculture community andthe, the entire, you know, new
England you know, world up thereand, and and now I kind, I'm
getting it more and more everyday.
Abigail (24:02):
Yeah.
Well, welcome to Maine.
Barrett (24:05):
Yes.
Abigail (24:05):
Maine does really buoy around some.
Specific companies and they getexcited about them.
And I know Main Angels supportedthem.
I know they've got, main venturefund, you know, they've got all
the big people who've beenrooting for them.
So on the, on the farmer side,are the farmers who farm for
you?
(24:25):
Is this sort.
Additional income for theirother waterfront jobs.
Are these lobstermen and stuffor are these dedicated seaweed
farmers?
Like is that a, is that aprofession now?
Barrett (24:38):
Almost all of them are, are supplementing.
It, as we were, as we were goingand circulating to get our
agreements these last two weekswe couldn't get anybody couldn't
even get'em on, on the phone'cause it was a great time in
the water.
They finally hit a good seasonor a good part of the season.
And so yeah, for most of'em itis, it is supplemental.
The, waters are getting warmer.
Lobsters is harder to, to bringin.
(24:58):
And so this, this helps.
Abigail (25:00):
Why is it so important for a SF to, you know, survive
and thrive right now?
Barrett (25:06):
Yeah, so as, as I just mentioned, there was the, the
jobs in the larger communityand, and obviously that
environmental impact.
But one thing I, I noticed earlyon in having discussions with
particularly externalstakeholders or, or people that
were external to the company.
Is that Atlantic Sea Farmsreally was a bellwether for, for
how things were going in this,in this industry for the ocean
(25:28):
economy.
You know, at one point AtlanticSea Farms was on the front of
the New York Times.
We were on CNBC, we were namedRetailer of the Year by Whole
Foods.
As we've mentioned throughoutbreed was, was amazing at at
getting awareness to thiscompany and to this industry.
And so for better or worse if,if a SF disappears, then, you
(25:50):
know, risk reinforcing the ideathat that companies that do the
right thing companies that makea positive impact, can't succeed
on their own or can't succeed atthe level that other companies
do.
But the, and this is a big, butif it does.
If a SF is able to survive andthen thrive, then it proves just
(26:11):
the opposite, right?
That that value and impact cango hand in hand and even scale
together.
The, the more margin, the moremission.
That's what we're trying toreally nail right now and, and
prove up.
So that's why it's importantfor, for a SF to not only just
stabilize now, but, but then,you know, turn around and grow.
Abigail (26:32):
Well, I certainly hope that's true because that is the
whole purpose of this podcastand to talk about companies that
can grow and they can do goodfor the world.
So, you know, a SF has had areally, task in you know,
changing habits and and playingto new tastes of, of clients and
(26:56):
that that can be a hard missionwhen your product involves
education and adventure andforming new habits.
Can you, can you tell me alittle bit about that part of
the, the challenge.
Barrett (27:11):
Sure.
It's a unique product.
It's, it can be considered aniche product.
It is growing, there's noquestion.
But it boils down to franklyit's how people see it and, and
also how people experience it.
And, it's been my observation.
You have to start small.
You don't expect people to wantto eat a giant bowl of kelp
straight outta the ocean.
You start with the, with theready cut ingredients, right?
(27:34):
The, smaller ingredient levelthat goes into your, your staple
recipes like chowder or lobsteror, or even sushi obviously.
And so, and, and then, you know,you start to get some traction.
And once you remind people howgreat it is for them on a health
basis.
Y you know, some people are, areeven influenced just, just by
(27:57):
the impact it's having on, onthe environment.
And, and they'll give it anothercouple tries if they didn't like
it the first time.
Or, or you just tried it in anew way.
Right.
You know, if there was anotherthing that Atlantic Sea Farms
did well before they, theyexplored several different ways
that you can, you can make this,make this ingredient really
work.
Whether it's fried or, orotherwise.
(28:17):
I know with, with yourbackground, with, with oysters,
you know, sometimes people justdon't, don't eat'em right outta
the ocean, but they'll eat an anoyster po boy.
Abigail (28:26):
Rockefeller Povo.
Yeah.
Barrett (28:28):
exactly.
It, it with without evenhesitation.
So it's, just how you try it,right?
You start small.
And and you try to reduce allthat friction that comes with
people's, you know,predispositions.
And you know, next thing youknow they're eating seaweed
salad.
And, and that's, again, speakingearlier of adults and people,
posture chain.
(28:49):
We're going to thesedistributors we're saying
seaweed salad.
And, and they sit up becausethey get it.
They've seen it.
And knowing that we're comingwith a sustainable version, a
chem free, you know, chemicalfree version you know, a
traceable version we don't havedyes.
And, you know, comparing that towhat's, what's already out
there.
(29:10):
Then we're getting a, we're,we're getting a lot of positive
response there, and we're, we'regonna try and, and, and put that
out as quickly as we can.
Abigail (29:18):
That's great.
I'm, I'm glad to hear moresitting up.
I love your focus on posture andI just, it just speaks volumes.
So tell me do you have advicefor other entrepreneurs who are
either trying to bring thesetype, like, new products to the
market or just battling it outin a, in a business that sort of
has a dual mission of doing welland doing good?
Barrett (29:40):
Yeah, I mean, it seems like two different things.
You're trying to influencesomebody to try a product that's
new or, or out of the ordinary,again, I would say make it, try
and make it their idea.
Make it something, make it sothat they can make it their own
way.
Right.
Again, if it's fried oystersrather than straight outta the
ocean, if it's you know, if it'sMaine seaweed salad instead of
(30:00):
you know, a big bowl of, of kelpstraight from the harvest make
it theirs.
Don't try and own every, everyelement of their decision.
And I think that, you know, kindof revert back to what we were
talking about earlier when wehad our 35.
Products.
We were, I think maybe we weretrying to control too much of
the of the outcome.
We were saying, you're gonnalike it fermented and you're
(30:22):
gonna like it with this tasteand, and so on and so forth.
And you're gonna like it youknow, in this, in this little
box.
And so, you know, if, if anentrepreneur has something that
they are sure people are gonnalike, ultimately, then they, I
would, I would listen to yourcustomers a lot more and, and
see the ways that they.
They would really want to useit.
Abigail (30:43):
I love that because I think listening is so important
and we don't talk about itenough in business, but like to
understand what people want andwhat they need and what their
hopes and dreams are, you reallyjust have to listen.
I mean that's, you know, at, atthe Oyster Farm, you know,
everybody wanted come see thefarm and it turned into a, a
major revenue source for usbringing people out into the
(31:05):
farm and having these tastingtours.
And, and I, you know, I wouldn'thave thought that up, but we,
you know, the people were comingto us asking for this and we had
to kind of turn it into abusiness.
So I think that's really smart.
Just listen, listen,
Barrett (31:19):
Yeah.
And, and to, you know, just onanother, the other part of your
question, your question was how,you know, how do you, if an
entrepreneur says, how do youhave an impact?
And also, you know, have a, anongoing business, I, I would
suggest, and, and this is reallyon the heels of this particular
experience, that you really leanin to your story.
You rather than, than have it bean afterthought or.
(31:43):
Or it might be nice kind ofthing.
We, we are telling our, ourcustomers all about, you know,
our farmers.
We're telling'em all about the,the process.
And we're, we're telling'emabout how critical this is.
And, and you know what?
We're gonna compete on price.
And if, if we're close I knowthat, that those customers are
(32:04):
gonna be compelled by thatstory.
And so lead into your storyleading to what got you there.
Don't try and be everybody else.
What, what you know, you, youwant to be the, the, the product
or the, or the leader, frankly,that that is distinct from
everybody else.
Abigail (32:21):
Interesting.
Good.
So lastly, I just wanna know ifyou're optimistic about the
planet now that you're in theseaweed and you're seeing
you're, you're now.
Really on top of the coastalerosion issues and rising sea
waters and all of that.
How, how are you feeling?
Barrett (32:40):
Yeah, this is a, a much higher altitude question, right.
And, and I, I kind of as you, asyou ask it, I, I kind of have to
zoom out, but well, first thingthat comes to mind is that, you
know, we as a human race have,when we, when we focus, we can
accomplish amazing things, rightfrom, from a.
(33:01):
From an airplane to a, to arocket in 60 years that puts us
on the moon with, you know,with, with computer power.
Now that you could, you couldbarely find in a calculator.
But, you know, so that's, that'sthe positive.
That's why you would becautiously optimistic.
About, about how we're alladdressing climate change now.
(33:22):
We're all aware, obviouslythere's, you know, a very.
Politicized issue, unfortunatelyit shouldn't be
Abigail (33:29):
Right.
Barrett (33:34):
You know, cold War that started the space race or the,
or nine 11 moment that, youknow, where we have cities
underwater before people finallyget it.
So I, I think it's, it boilsdown to, and I hope I'm not
rambling here, I apologize, butI think it boils down to just
those.
That awareness and thoseresources, if you want to
compare it to the moon landing,then, you know everybody was
(33:55):
rooting for this, for thisoutcome.
And, and I really hope thatthat's, that translates to, to
climate change and to, and to.
You know, fixing our planet.
My goodness.
We're, it's the only one we got.
So if, if we, I, I don't haveany doubt about what we can do
if we all put our, our focus onsomething.
(34:16):
I'm just wondering what it'sgonna require to get us there.
Abigail (34:19):
Right, get everybody looking in the same direction.
Well that leaves us with somegood food for thought.
But but thank you so muchBarrett, for coming on the
podcast today.
It's been so exciting to hearabout this adventure, and I
really, really wish a SFA afresh start and, and just tons
of success.
Barrett (34:40):
Well, thank you so much.
You know, I like the way we'repointed and, you know, call,
call us in a year and I, and Ihope to give you a, an even more
exciting update about, aboutwhere we're at.
Abigail (34:49):
Oh, that'd be great.
I'd love that.
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