Michael Finete Of Mary’s Gone Crackers On 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Authenticity
Cutting and pasting is not how a brand succeeds. Leading instead of following is what a successful brand does. Some brands try to be unique or different for the sake of being just that. Authentic brands don’t have to worry about other brands or comparisons; they have their own identity and focus on communicating their identity, attracting consumers to that identity instead of chasing new or different identities. Authenticity means simple, impactful, recognizable, relatable, and real.
As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Finete.
Michael Finete is an accomplished leader in the natural food industry, known for his commitment to sustainability and innovation. As the new CEO of Mary’s Gone Crackers, he is spearheading the company’s mission to provide consumers with healthy and delicious options that are also responsibly crafted.
Finete has garnered impressive credentials and extensive experience in his journey in the food industry. He has held key roles at renowned companies such as General Mills, H. J. Heinz, and Samsung International, showcasing his proficiency in international sales, marketing, business development, mergers and acquisitions, global procurement and general management. Prior to joining the team at Mary’s, Finete served as a partner at Santo Amaro Foods as well as the President and CEO at SupHerb Farms.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
My story begins in two very distant places: one, a fishing village on the island of Madeira, Portugal where my family immigrated from, and the other, Point Loma, a Portuguese community in San Diego where I grew up, also known as Tunaville. In our community, everyone worked in and depended on the tuna fishing industry that my grandfather and others pioneered in the 1930s. When sustainable, artisanal fishing practices were supplanted by global industrialized fishing, our community was eventually devastated along with our ocean resources.
So, I guess you can say I’ve been in the food industry all my life, being especially passionate about sustainability and protecting our resources and our communities, I understand, in a personal way, the impact of our actions or inaction on our environment and our families.
I joined Mary’s Gone Crackers, Inc. because it takes sustainability to heart and is an active industry leader in regenerative agriculture with a focus on helping families, family farms and our environment.
Can you share with us the origin story of Mary’s Gone Crackers?
A psychotherapist in the San Francisco Bay Area named Mary Waldner had been sick most of her life. Eventually, in 1994, she was diagnosed with celiac disease. Mary had an interest in health and healthy foods and was frustrated that there weren’t any cracker options in the market that were nutritious, gluten free, and also tasted good. She decided to create something better for herself and began experimenting in her kitchen, finally landing on a recipe that fit the bill. Her friends soon wanted her crackers, which grew into small retailers. Mary’s friend recommended the fun name that was also a play on her career as a psychotherapist — Mary’s Gone Crackers. Mary and her husband became partners in the new small business, believing enough in their new company to take on the heavy burden of debt. They succeeded and, today, Mary’s Gone Crackers is the world’s leading brand of organic, gluten-free crackers.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting in the F&B industry? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I remember being in international sales for a leading multi-national food company in 1996 and meeting with a new potential customer, the food division of a Japanese trading company, Okura, in their Santiago, Chile office. The potential customer was interested in buying a large quantity of a product from our factories. He gave me a sample of the product that he wanted us to produce; it was a beautifully designed small pouch that had a very premium look to it. I was excited about the business opportunity and did not ask many questions. I brought the sample product back to our HQ and met with our head of R&D to discuss how we could produce our canned tuna in a pouch like the sample. He then consulted other members of his team. One team member understood Japanese, read the packaging, and asked us, “Why are you looking at producing CAT FOOD in our plants?” While this was an embarrassing experience for me, that cat food pouch helped develop the most relevant innovation the industry saw in decades and four years later, the Chunk Tuna Pouch was launched nationally.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food or beverage line? What can be done to avoid those errors?
It’s disappointing to see so many food company start-ups that are completely focused on securing venture capital and concentrating on their exit strategy before they’ve built anything. Having a real connection with brands I like is important to me. Brands are our modern-day colors that should reflect our values, interests, personality and even our passions. Perhaps this is a more old-fashioned way of thinking, but knowing that a brand or company has a reason for existing and represents something that matters to me or that I’m aligned with, in some way is sine qua non. If a start-up does not have a heart and a sincere purpose, consumers will eventually see through any superficial, cheesy façade.
A related anecdote: I was new to a company that had been around for quite a long time. One day I was called into a “critical” meeting for top management. The leader stood up and began the presentation with the question, “Purposeful companies are on trend with customers now, so let’s develop our company’s purpose for them. What are your ideas?” It was clear to me at that point that this wasn’t the kind of company I could be proud to work for. Just as consumers deserve authenticity, the brand’s team, too, needs to believe in what they’re selling.
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
It would be important to reflect on their idea and envision what it would look like in the market, on the shelf and in the eyes of consumers. Then ask yourself a few questions like, “What need would this product fulfill?” and “What current problem or market shortcoming would this product solve.” Then make sure you validate your conclusions externally; your spouse can be a great starting point, but be ready for their tough, critical questions. If you believe in the product, determine whether your idea is really a product or a company. Then, define what success would look like for you. At that point, I recommend focusing on how you can bring the idea to life. In my case, as a very visual person, I’d envision the path to success and look at different scenarios such as offering the idea to an existing company (with legal guidance), developing samples and seeking potential customer feedback, which could lead to possibly starting a company. Whatever path is chosen, make sure you believe in what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. If the path you choose can help others, and make the world a better place, your heart will help your decision-making process and your efforts will be rewarded in ways that venture capitalists rarely understand. It may seem strange, but I like to share my ideas with my four-legged son, Major. I always feel that the best answers can be found in a dog’s eyes, so long as I take him on a long run afterward.
Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?
Human beings are incredible, and we should all have confidence in ourselves, our abilities, our specific gifts, and our instincts. We should also reflect on, and try to understand, our strengths and weaknesses. Finding a partner who shares your vision, is passionate about your business purpose, but has strengths in the areas where you are weakest, can help propel a good idea into a project and then a project into a company supported by a team of two, or more. Of course, this is easier said than done, many partnerships don’t work out but it’s worth searching for.
Whether in business or otherwise, I always find it helpful to envision the future state, then start at the beginning and see, step by step, how you can progress on the path to what you are tying to achieve. As you progress and have more experiences, the steps may need adjusting, but they will become more vivid and real as you go. When you’re sailing and want to reach a certain place, keep your eyes on the destination, jibe when appropriate and even tack when necessary, but don’t lose sight of your destination; you’ll eventually get there.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
I have not worked with invention development consultants, but I do believe perspectives from others is important. I’ve led natural ingredient companies, and these types of companies can be a good place to start on the road to developing new products.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
In seeking venture capital, many companies make that their focus, and in doing so, lose the true essence of their brand and its reason for being. Venture capital, in my view, should be the means to an end and the end itself. Starting a company to exit the company as soon as possible isn’t for those of us who put their heart into building companies and building brands that have authentic connections with consumers.
Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?
In terms of ingredients, there are great ingredient companies in the US, and California is the center of the universe when it comes to most agricultural ingredients. So, good options for ingredients should not be too difficult. In terms of manufacturers, it would be important to do your due diligence once you have determined what is most important to you in this area. As per retailers and distributors, starting with retailers can be helpful, then the retailers can recommend the distributor they prefer to work with. In seeking a retailer, make sure you focus on the right retailers for your specific offering.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food Brand” and why?
- Compelling Commitment to Consumers.
Communicate your brand’s reason for being and connecting with consumers. An example would be, “XYZ brand will make you feel good because we are committed to always providing the healthiest and tastiest organic ingredients using sustainable practices in everything we do.”
2. Ability to Fulfill the Brand Commitment.
A successful brand should never over-promise and under-deliver and should aim for transparency. Eventually, the cream (truth) always rises to the top. Maintain high-quality standards and do it for the right reasons. For example, you hear of clothing brands that tout sustainability while using synthetic, instead of more expensive, natural fibers.
3. Innovative Process Not Product.
Look at innovation as a process enabling the brand message to continuously resonate with consumers generation after generation. Change is constant in everything; yesterday’s innovation means nothing to the next generation. A successful brand must continuously generate new points of contact with different consumers on an ongoing basis while not losing its meaning or essence.
4. Authenticity
Cutting and pasting is not how a brand succeeds. Leading instead of following is what a successful brand does. Some brands try to be unique or different for the sake of being just that. Authentic brands don’t have to worry about other brands or comparisons; they have their own identity and focus on communicating their identity, attracting consumers to that identity instead of chasing new or different identities. Authenticity means simple, impactful, recognizable, relatable, and real.
5. True Meaning — Depth
Consumers are smarter and deeper than ever before; therefore, shallow brand connections will be overtaken by more sophisticated connections. Connections that are multi-faceted encompassing the who (who is behind the brand?), the what (what is the brand story and what does it stand for?), and the how (how does this brand operate?) will be more successful in the future. Working in sales for another multi-national food company, I got my team together to define a new tagline for our brand. The result was a successful tagline, “Number 1 in the World.” Yes, the brand was number one in the world, but a superficial, meaningless tagline like that wouldn’t be successful now.
I’m hopeful that brands possessing these five attributes will be successful in the future and that consumers will align with honest brand values that help us all come together to make this incredible world even better.
Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?
Create a product that you really love and are crazy about. Then, ask your spouse for feedback!
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
My wife and I raised our children to appreciate all life and to protect our planet for future generations. Currently, all our children are either studying or working in environmentalism and corporate sustainability, and our family started a foundation dedicated to regenerative farming and fishing. Both my wife and I come from sustainable agriculture and fishing family backgrounds, and helping family farms and family fishing companies is how we feel we can continue to build a tradition of sustainability to make the world a better place.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’d love to see today’s technology used in a way that would connect consumers to sustainable artisanal farmers and fishermen in a direct, real-time way. Imagine seeing the artisanal farmer that grew the organic chocolate (cacao) that is in your favorite Mary’s Gone Crackers Chocolate Kookies. Being able to see, understand and verify/trace food ingredients to the actual source in this tangible way would be truly incredible and inspirational. This would also help isolate bad actors using harvesting methods and trade practices that damage our environment and prey on communities.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Michael Finete Of Mary’s Gone Crackers On 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.