I had the chance to meet Craig Kanarick of Mouth when he gave a pitch presentation at an Apartment Therapy Design Evening. Being a lover of all things tasty, I loved the idea of Mouth and their ultimate mission of helping small indie food makers get out to the masses. New York City is indeed full of amazing independent food companies that are not only delicious treats for you, but make amazing gifts for friends and family. (Note: You can find McClure’s Spicy Bloody Mary Mix, one of Chapter Be’s other interviewees, on Mouth). The site introduces you to the makers of the products, as well, so that you have an idea who you are buying from and get to learn a bit about their story. Chapter Be loves a good story.
What I found the most interesting, though, was how Craig came to create Mouth. He is well known for starting the tech company Razorfish, so some might see an indie food company as being quite a change. It all stemmed from a creative endeavor that he started based on his love for candy design. He started collecting candy and photographing it – some were sorted by color and others by their design. His perspective is unique and highlights the candy in a new and fun way. This genuine interest around unique foods is now carried out and realized through Mouth…
Digital technology to indie food – tell me a little bit about this transition and whether or not you see the two as being connected at all or very separate experiences within your life’s journey.
The transition from digital technology to indie food isn’t exactly a linear transition, but if I look at all of the various paths in my life, they do sort of converge on what I am currently doing. After spending almost a decade building websites for other people and other companies, it is great to be the client, so that’s one example of an easy transition. I also have started a lot of companies and advise a lot of small companies and startups, so working with indie foods companies, most of whom are small startups, is also a logical leap. Mouth really combines my love of food, innovation, digital technology, entrepreneurship and marketing all in a nice package.
When we first met you mentioned that a lot of your inspiration for mouth.com stemmed from you being a candy photographer. Can you tell me a little bit more about what this entails, why it interests you and how it ultimately allowed you to take a particular interest/passion and turn it into a company?
For about 10 years I spent a lot of time and emotional energy on my candy photographs. That project started out as a design exploration — I was really interested in the design process behind bite-sized hard candies. To me, they were in that category of everyday objects that clearly had been designed, but the design just fades away. I also really started to pay attention to the way food and food products are photographed and marketed. In many cases, websites tend to show the same thing that a customer sees in a store: the packaging. However, I found that the best food photography is the kind that makes the viewer hungry, so I wanted to focus on shooting the food, not the package. The result is what you see on mouth.com.
One of the points in the Mouth Manifesto is ” WE LOVE FOOD MADE BY PEOPLE NOT COMPANIES.” Can you talk to the difference and why this is important to you? At what point do you think “people” turn into companies? Is this a state of mind or is there actually a point of switchover?
Food made by people and not companies is a big part of the ethos of Mouth. These days, transparency in product production is important and there may be no category in which it is more important than in food. Look, consumers today are taking a much greater interest in where their food comes from. People care about organics, they care about Fair Trade, they care about food safety, they care about nutrition. This is increasingly steadily every month. So, while many of us still love products from big companies like Coke, Kraft, General Mills, and other big companies, many more people are starting to want food from smaller companies. This seems to be because people want to eat better. They want healthier foods.
Of course, all food that we sell is actually made by a “company” even if it is made by people. But some of the most successful companies in the world (think Apple), have a recognizable person behind their success. This makes a company more appealing. It makes people feel like there are real people who are caring about the products and their customers.
What inspires you? How do you ensure that the fun in your work remains as the site grows bigger and creates more “work?”
I find inspiration all over the place. I find inspiration every day as I discover new people getting into the indie food world. I’m inspired by the creative people that I interact with in my life. I find inspiration from my wife and from my children, who introduce me to new things and new experiences all the time. I’m not worried about the level of fun in my work life regardless of how much “work” it becomes, as I have been lucky enough to choose a “work” life that is actually fun.
What were some of the struggles in creating mouth.com? Was there a moment (or moments) when you questioned your decision to start the site and create something new and different from what you had been doing?
I’ve been through the startup process many times so, no, there were no times when I really questioned my decision to start something new. Struggles, however, were all over the place — hiring, raising money, making creative decisions, balancing work and life, and so many more. Life as a CEO is full of struggles.
Yes – you co-founded the company Razorfish – so you clearly are comfortable in creating start-ups/turning your ideas into reality. What advice do you have for others in this process? What would you list as being the most important step in beginning this process? Was starting mouth.com very different from starting Razorfish?
I hesitate to pick the most important step in starting the process, as it is different for everyone. I’m a big believer in getting a partner or two at the beginning. And knowing that it is going to be incredibly difficult and working through those times.
What do you love most about your current work?
Again, I try to avoid things like “most”, so I’ll tell you instead some of the things I love about my current work:
- I love my team. I love collaborating with them, they make me better.
- I love working with creative food makers who are constantly inventing things that people fall in love with.
- I love being able to help people find great gifts for the people that they love and, in turn, making them happy.
What is your favorite product on mouth.com? Why?
I can’t pick a favorite product, but right now, I’m eating a lot of white chocolate-covered black olives, lots of pickles from Epic Pickles, lots of Masala Pop popcorn and, as always, chocolate.
NOTES of Reflection:
- Craig’s story helped me realize just how important it is to follow what interests you. He started by taking pictures of candy because he was so enthralled with the fact that someone’s job was to design what a piece of candy looked like. This interest eventually led to designing photographs that people could buy and then ultimately made him think about how people were being connected to wonderful independent food companies – especially interesting and unique items. If we take the time to explore what our genuine interests are, we never know what it could lead to – perhaps a business.
- Craig had a lot of success, and well-known success, with his company Razorfish. Many people (but not all) who start tech start-ups sell their companies and then start working on a new tech start-up. I really appreciated the fact that Craig allowed himself to follow what he was interested in doing and not doing what might be generally expected of him. As he mentioned, having already worked with start-ups it helped him with creating Mouth, but it was a whole new industry and a whole new group of people to be exposed to along the way. His story is a good reminder to be open to all that might develop and not put ourselves into a box of what we think we should do.
- So many times when I speak with people that want to be their own boss or create their own company they think they have to create an item or have a new unique product to sell. This can halt them from doing anything. Not unlike Brika, Mouth is a company that supports other people’s unique products and stories. It just takes a little bit of creativity and willingness to think about how other creatives might need support to come up with a new idea. It is asking, “Where is there a need?” and then delivering the service.
- Mouth is another example of starting small to get big. The company started with just New York based companies, but now has indie food makers from all over the country. This allowed time to test the market and see what sold before expanding its reach. It continues to add new ideas, which keeps the site fresh and entices customers to come back more than just once. As an owner, this also keeps things exciting and avoids letting things get to a stagnant process.
- Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
- Influence, by Robert Cialdini
- Why We Buy, by Paco Underhill
- Design Writing Research, by Ellen Lupton
- The Psychology of Everyday Things, by Don Norman
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
- Four Fish, by Paul Greenberg
- The Art of Travel, by Alain de Botton
- A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink
- Tibor Kalman, Perverse Optimist, by Peter Hall
- Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
- Tender at the Bone, by Ruth Reichl
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward Tufte
- The One Minute Manager, by Kenneth H. Blanchard
*Images via New York Times, Kanarick’s Website and Mouth’s Facebook Page
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