Tough choices

Richard Hanley of Hanley’s Foods is a startup food entrepreneur who launched his first product, Sensation Salad Dressing, a couple months ago. He is a big believer in sustainable, organic food, and the salad dressing he’s bottled up reflects those beliefs. From the organic lemon juice (which is surprisingly difficult to source in bulk for a fledgling food manufacturer) to an equity structure that includes “1% For the Planet,” he’s created a product that he’s proud of.

Just weeks before his scheduled launch date in September 2012, he made a small tweak to the recipe. Unfortunately, this tweak put the brakes on his launch. The Powers That Be And Get To Decide These Things decided that he needed to prove his new formula was shelf stable for a full year, and are currently requiring him to do another shelf-life test, which will take–you guessed it–a year.

He had to make a tough decision: Wait until fall 2013 for his all natural product to be approved, or add the minimum amount of a common food preservative so he could bottle and sell now? His heart ached, but he knew if he waited a year, the product might not launch—market forces, supply chain, competition, evaporation of scarce capital are among the pitfalls that await entrepreneurs who drag their feet. In the end, he made the decision to include the preservative and now sells the product in local grocery stores.

I’ve tasted his dressing and it’s out-of-this-world delicious, far superior in taste and healthfulness to the average “big brand” dressing. Next year he’ll be able to announce that his dressing is now all natural with no preservatives, once the shelf-life test of the new recipe is completed.

The startup world’s mantra is “ship”—ship before it’s perfect, ship when you’re embarrassed by it, ship and learn and build and ship again. Richard shipped, and I think he made the right choice. It was a tough choice, but now he has the benefit of learning the ropes of food entrepreneurship while he works on Sensation Salad 2.0.