Founder Spotlight: Seth Tibbott (The Tofurky Company)

Seth Tibbott

Company:

Business Description:

Tofurky is tasty food for plant-eaters, meat-eaters and people who resist labels. Our mission is to make great food everyone can enjoy, and do it with respect for people, animals and the planet

Startup Stage:
Family owned and independent. Bootstrapped with loans, never sold equity outside family.

Location:

Trout Lake, Washington, USA

What led you to where you are today?

The first 9 years were a struggle financially, only averaging $300/month in pay but the mission of bringing low on the food chain, vegan foods (especially tempeh) was what kept me going. In 1995 after 15 years of failing to make a profit, I pivoted to include Tofurky in our portfolio which changed the fortunes of the company as well as the nascent meat alternative market. 55 Tofurky products are now sold in 27,000 stores around the globe and we are a B corp still selling only vegan foods.

What do you wish you knew before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?

I wish I had known that being an authentic person, who I really was deep down at heart, was way more important than pretending to be what I thought a businessman should dress and act like. When I stopped pretending to be something else was when things turned around for me.

What is the most difficult decision you've had to make regarding your business so far?
The hardest time for me was after 10 years of failure, deciding to stay in business. I was frustrated financially and was looking for a way out. I tried writing a book on treehouses (was living in a treehouse then) but it too was a failure. I decided to reinvest $100K in starting a new production plant I had rented, unsure I could ever turn things around. Five minutes later, boom, Tofurky was born and my life changed forever. I am thankful for all that failure.

What can you help the VEGPRENEUR community with?

Hopefully new vegan "plantrapreneurs" will be able to learn from all my failures and be encouraged that if a misfit like myself who had no business knowledge can succeed by just staying in the game and becoming less stupid day by day, week by week, year by year, they can do the same. Happy to be a cheerleader and give pro bono advice and encouragement.

How can the VEGPRENEUR community help you?

They can buy my book, In Search of the Wild Tofurky, How a Business Misfit Pioneered Plant Based Foods Before They Were Cool on Amazon or Indie Booksellers and write reviews to help get the word out on vegan foods and inspire other vegan businesses.

Fun fact about you:

I was born with six 'fingers' on my left hand.

Anything else you would like to share?

www.tofurky.com/book has more info on my story.