dump antibiotics into a person, or ward off infections, you’ve got to re-estab-lish gut health. So we found a patent-protected bacteria that had been extracted from the mucosa of the human gut and grew it on an organic oatmeal base.
If you look around the world, you’ll find that we’re probably one of the only
probiotics that is grown on a non-dairy base. All these large competitors that
we’re up against are all dairy people and, the last time I checked, you weren’t
“…it’s important for the ind ustry
to demonstrate its authenticity by
narrowing the gap between its core
values and its demonstration of
those core values.” born with a cow in your”stomach, you were born with this bacteria in your
stomach. The bacteria we are using has had around 15 clinical studies done on
it. We already have human clinical tests that the Swedish government has per-mitted health claims on, but we will go through the FDA process in the United
States so we can make the health claims here as well.
Meanwhile we are also working on getting this USDA certified organic.
There are technical issues due to our launch out of Sweden that prohibit us
from making too many of the obvious claims until we make product domestically. The oatmeal, the juice and the evaporated cane juice are all organic, but
at this point there is no reciprocity with the Swedish organic certifier and
USDA. While the fruits are from U.S. organic suppliers, the oatmeal is currently only certified to EU standards and won’t be USDA organic for the first
month or two, so to be on the safe side, we haven’t made any claims yet. The
only thing that is not organic is the vitamin mix which is about 6 to 7 percent
of the product. Thus, we are in the 93 to 94 percent range on Good Belly
being organic now. Over time, I’m sure we can boost this into the 95 percent-plus area. Remember we are a startup at this point and the most important
thing is to get the product to market and begin the business process. We have
aims to improve much of what we do today.
demonstrated without the personality
involved. We love the hero part but
my mission has nothing to do with
that. I’m not looking for that anymore. I’m hoping that future interviews aren’t with me, they’re with this
team and they’re talking about right
livelihood, the mission and the vision.
The vision may have come from me,
but they are out demonstrating this
and actually working it and they will
get the rewards. The five senior VPs at
NextFoods are all former directors or
VPs at White Wave. They were hand
picked. Then I’ve also taken the
retired senior VPs from White Wave
and put them on the board, so they
can mentor the current management
team. I’ll be the chairman of that
organization and basically the inspiration for the vision. I’m playing Yoda.
The intent is to control it at this point
so that these people can reach the
same levels if not greater levels with
NextFoods that we did with
White Wave. I like the role, it lets me
travel and do other things; I work on
some other projects and serve on
boards. I’m not viewing this as the
stressball that the management team
is. They’ve taken on one of the hard-est things in the world that I’ve ever
experienced. A startup business is not
meant for the thin skinned.
OP: So what do you think were some
of the key factors that made
White Wave successful?
OP: Unlike White Wave, where you were involved in every aspect from produc-
tion to placement, with NextFoods you have decided to help jumpstart the
company and then step back and let others drive. What led you to this
approach?
Demos: When I was a young man, my job as an entrepreneur was to do everything because I didn’t know whether I could prove it. I had to be in control of
everything because it was a narrow path and I hadn’t identified the path. My
job this time is to get a team aligned with the core values and the mission and
then deliver the vision and hand it off. What I’m doing with NextFoods is centralized vision and decentralized authority, or “management from the middle.”
This is all about the fulfillment of the team. I want them to walk the path and
know how to get there. I think it’s very important that right livelihood is
Demos: It goes back to right livelihood, and I’ll add one thing—
perseverance. You don’t know the depth of
the difficulties that you’ll face with a
business. You’d better be able to point
at why you’re doing it, and come up
with a right answer to get you
through, because if the answer is “I’m
doing this to make a living,” there are
a lot of ways to make a living that are
easier. But if I’m doing this because I
understand right livelihood, then
