Jacqueline Claudia and Christy Brouker are the co-founders of LoveTheWild, which launched in 2014 as a start-up selling cook-from-frozen fish kits based in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. The company currently sells a line featuring barramundi, catfish, mahi mahi, rockfish, cod and trout through Alfalfa’s Market in Boulder and is planning its distribution expansion into the Midwest and New York City.
SeafoodSource: What is the concept behind your business? Why did you decide to focus on fish?
Claudia and Brouker: Everyone knows they are supposed to eat more fish, but they don’t because fish is intimidating to the average customer. What is really sustainable? How do you cook it? It can be a pretty expensive and risky experiment. So they usually skip the fish and buy chicken instead. That’s sad on a lot of levels, but especially for the environment, population health and the people around the world working hard to make seafood sustainable. It’s all moot if people won’t eat it.
We see a huge opportunity to engage a new group of customers and bring something fun and innovative to the category. It’s a unique and engaging culinary experience that even the most novice home cook can rock out – and rest easy knowing that they are getting clean, sustainable and socially responsible product from a brand they can trust.
SeafoodSource: How did you choose your supplier partners (Fortune Fish and Seattle Fish) and the locations (Colorado and now New York)?
Claudia and Brouker: To clarify – Fortune Fish and Seattle Fish are distribution partners and invaluable industry advisors with unquestionable ethics and commitment to seafood leadership. However, we buy almost all of our fish directly from the source.
When we were first starting out, we sat down with our friend Josh Goldman at Australis Barramundi, and asked him about how we should approach the market and distribution. He said, “To a large extent, you go where the love is.” So far, it’s been great advice. We’ve chosen all of our partners because of their willingness to try something new and different and embrace our mission to democratize access to great seafood experiences in America. There are innovators we want to partner with across the country – to drive real change we need to be everywhere, not just on the coast or in the natural grocery channel.
SeafoodSource: What have been the biggest challenges in starting up and now expanding this venture and what have you learned from this experience?
Claudia and Brouker: We are building a category. We’re not selling another fish stick. As an industry, we’ve trained consumers that delicious, premium seafood offerings aren’t found in the freezer case. Understanding where our product fits in the customer’s mind, where we belong in the store, in the distribution chain, etc. are all things we are working out. However, it can’t just be us. The more exciting options there are in the freezer case, the better chance we all have of succeeding and building relevance with consumers.
We’ve learned that there is a need for a product such as ours and a strong brand leader with a strong voice. Customers are curious and open and want to learn. All the complexity that we have propagated as an industry has emotionally shut consumers down. Cutting through the confusion and clutter and educating customers about the category is critical. We are up to the challenge.
SeafoodSource: What is the key to continued growth and success for LoveTheWild?
Claudia and Brouker: Everyone has the same goal, and we have been humbled by how willing folks are to give us a chance and help us. We have a strong focus on maintaining healthy relationships with suppliers, distributors and retail partners. That doesn’t mean that it’s always easy. We’re new and sometimes people try to test our boundaries. We sometimes need to help people understand that we mean it – a no-tolerance policy. If it doesn’t meet our quality spec and isn’t 100 percent traceable, we won’t buy it. Delivering on our brand promise is essential.
To stay relevant for consumers, we need to keep our lineup delicious and on-trend. Fortunately, experimentation is in our DNA. We’re always working on new species, new flavors and new experiences.
SeafoodSource: Looking at the broader seafood industry as a whole, what are the top one or two issues facing the industry that directly impact your business and what are some of the solutions you would offer to address those issues?
Claudia and Brouker: Aquaculture! We strongly believe that aquaculture is the future of food and we are committed to playing a leadership role in that space. We want to accelerate the change in consumer perception of aquaculture. The two most important things we can do and are doing to drive this change: support the products and educate consumers. When we find great aquaculture species that meet our sustainability criteria, we work hard to get them in our lineup as quickly as we can. On our packaging and website, we tell the stories of the amazing people producing great fish and the fantastic taste, health and environmental benefits of the product.
The other big issue is securing seafood’s relevance in the American diet. If we don’t work together, we could miss our chance. Right now the American diet is heavily reliant on animal protein and switching some of that to seafood is a net positive. However, if we continue to clutter the media with story after story about IUU fishing, [with headlines like] “Fish farming is bad,” and “Wild salmon is full of Prozac,” we could turn people off of seafood altogether and accelerate a move to plant-based diets. For someone on a plant-based diet, asking them to add more seafood is trading down, not up, in terms of impact on the environment, health, etc. We’re working to make delicious seafood fun, easy and accessible to remove those barriers. However, we as an industry need to start speaking with one voice, talking about our progress and celebrating our successes—not dividing and fighting each other to the bottom.
SeafoodSource: Given the opportunity to address a room filled with seafood industry leaders, what is the one nugget of wisdom you would offer them as your closing remark?
Claudia and Brouker: Consumers really can change the world. We just have to give them a chance. Too many conversations happen around seafood where the consumer is conspicuously absent. We need to focus and empower them.
