{"id":16387,"date":"2020-11-04T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=16387"},"modified":"2020-10-19T13:05:23","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T17:05:23","slug":"in-search-of-the-wild-tofurky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/11\/04\/in-search-of-the-wild-tofurky\/","title":{"rendered":"IN SEARCH OF THE WILD TOFURKY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/51PggDmV-VL-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/51PggDmV-VL-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/51PggDmV-VL.jpg 333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Review by\nKatelynn Budzich, VRG Intern<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1980,\nSeth Tibbott, began a little business called, Turtle Island Soy Dairy. This\nlater became known as Tofurky, the company that created the Tofurky Roast and\nother plant-based proteins. The book, <em>In Search of the Wild Tofurky: How a\nBusiness Misfit Pioneered Plant-Based Foods Before They Were Cool, <\/em>by Seth\nTibbott, is about how a man with no business background grew an organization\nthat sold tempeh and tofu into a multi-million-dollar company, and in the\nprocess, launched a plant-based food revolution. The journey was not easy and\nposed many challenges, but Tibbott demonstrates that with hard work and\nbootstrapping, success will come. This book was so insightful that it is hard\nnot to share the recipe for success according to Tibbott. Thus, here are 5\npieces of advice I learned from reading <em>In Search of the Wild Tofurky: How a\nBusiness Misfit Pioneered Plant-Based Foods Before They Were Cool<\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Listen\nto your gut.<\/strong> This\none may be a clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s good advice. Your business is a reflection of\nyourself and what you value, so if you don\u2019t follow your intuition, your\nbusiness won\u2019t be a true reflection of yourself. People told Seth that selling\ntempeh, which is essentially a type of mold, was a bad idea. Individuals also\noffered to buy Turtle Island Soy Dairy when it was starting out, and others\nthought the name \u2018Tofurky\u2019 was a bad branding decision. Yet, the founder of\nTofurky didn\u2019t listen to what others thought was the right move to make when he\nthought something different. Tibbott continued to persist with his dream and\nwhat he felt was right.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Make\ngoals for yourself.<\/strong>\nGoals will give you something to strive for. It is important to have a purpose\nto work towards. Tibbott did this many times when growing his business. First,\nhe began with three goals to get his business running, then made more goals\nwhen the company started to grow, and once again when it was time to scale\nproduction. Making goals will help steer you on a path and will influence what\ndecisions to make.&nbsp; <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>More\nimportant than investors is generosity.<\/strong> Support from others goes a long way and can make a\nbig impact on your business. Especially in the early days, Tibbott received a\nlot of help from his family and community. His landlord from the first space he\nrented out, the Hope Neighborhood Food Co-op, gave him free business advice,\nhis brother Bob, gave him is first loan, the postmaster of Husum offered\nTibbott a free place to stay, and even his grandmother sent him a check to help\nhim out. Tibbott sums it up perfectly, \u201cThere\u2019s this idea out there that\nbusiness is a mean, dog-eat-dog world. There may be some truth in that idea,\nbut for me the generosity I\u2019d found\u2026 was deeply encouraging. It told me that\nbusiness can also be generous, people-helping-people world\u201d (101). So, accept\nhelp because it takes a lot to stay afloat when an entrepreneur. There\u2019s one\nthing about starting a business: you can\u2019t do it alone. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Take\nrisks and don\u2019t be afraid of making mistakes. <\/strong>Tibbott\u2019s Tempeh burgers and KISS\n(\u201cKeep It Simple Stirfry\u201d) product lines were not successful, but you learn\nthings even from your failures. Another risk was when Tibbott bought a new\nproduction space at Port of Hood River, after his first one began to get too\nsmall. The price of the space was on the higher end, but in order to expand, the\nfounder of Tofurky needed to take a leap of faith. Perhaps the biggest risk was\npivoting from tempeh to tofu when Tibbott began to make what is known today as\nTofurky. As Tibbott wrote, \u201cPerhaps the most important asset was that I learned\nquickly from my mistakes, so my lack of understanding became a great teacher. I\ngave myself a crash course in business by making mistake after mistake\u201d (64). The\noverall theme of taking risks, is that some pay off and some don\u2019t, but it is\nimportant to take risks because by learning from mistakes, you will be one step\ncloser to finding out what the sweet spot of your business is. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Find\na need in the market.<\/strong>\nDiscover the one thing that will differentiate your business. For Tibbott it\nwas creating a meat-free option for holiday dinners. \u201cPeople <em>loved <\/em>the\nconcept of having a high-protein centerpiece for their Thanksgiving tables. In\nfact, they loved the concept even more than they loved the product. For fifteen\nyears, I\u2019d been following a great product that lacked an attractive concept\u2026\u201d\n(178). The key to creating an interest in your products is to find a problem\nand solve it, which is exactly what Tibbott did. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting a\nbusiness is one thing. Starting a business in 1980 is another thing. And\nstarting a business in 1980 that sells tempeh and tofu products is a whole\nother thing. It requires patience, being humble, and determination. After\nreading <em>In Search of the Wild Tofurky: How a Business Misfit Pioneered\nPlant-Based Foods Before They Were Cool, <\/em>and seeing how Seth Tibbott, the\nfounder of Tofurky created success, now I know that others can as well.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To\npurchase <em>In Search of the Wild Tofurky<\/em>,\ngo to <a href=\"https:\/\/tofurky.com\/book\/\">https:\/\/tofurky.com\/book\/<\/a>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review by Katelynn Budzich, VRG Intern In 1980, Seth Tibbott, began a little business called, Turtle Island Soy Dairy. This later became known as Tofurky, the company that created the Tofurky Roast and other plant-based proteins. The book, In Search of the Wild Tofurky: How a Business Misfit Pioneered Plant-Based Foods Before They Were Cool, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16389,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16387\/revisions\/16389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}