Food52 co-founder and CEO Amanda Hesser, speaking at a keynote session of The Inspired Home Show, shared insights on the inspiration behind the creation and growth of Food52.
Hesser, during a fireside chat with HomePage News Editor-in-Chief Peter Giannetti, detailed how consumer-driven content and product curation built a sturdy brand identity for Food52’s loyal consumer community while laying the foundation for a growing e-commerce business further supported by recent acquisitions of Dansk kitchenware and Schoolhouse home décor.
Hesser started by looking back at what inspired the launch of Food52 more than a dozen years ago. As a food reporter for the New York Times, Hesser found herself noticing enormous changes happening in the food industry and everyday culture. She observed that food was becoming a “critical part of how Americans saw themselves,” touching so many facets of their lives.
Hesser and co-founder Merrill Stubbs in 2008 saw an opportunity in a fragmented food content experience for consumers. She noted how, at that time, there wasn’t one encompassing food content source for consumers. While there were food magazines, food coverage and commerce companies that sold the products. “There was no one pulling it all together for people, making a connection for them and acting as an active resource,” she said.
When Hesser and Stubbs launched Food52 in 2009, they wanted to create a new way for consumers to find recipes and shop: through content. “The most powerful way to build trust with the consumer is through content,” Hesser said, describing how she and Stubbs embarked on a mission to create a community where content could be user-generated and curated by Food52. User-generated content was common online, said Hesser, but it lacked the curation that Food52 could offer through melding the discipline of traditional media and the crowdsourcing of content. Through this, she said, Food52 was able to design a high-quality platform to showcase the very best of that content.
Although Hesser sees herself as a curator and not necessarily a merchant, she has presided over a continually growing e-commerce platform. In 2012, the company began selling items in “flash sales,” and though it was not a very streamlined process, Hesser noted, the response was strong and the company decided to launch its own shopping platform in 2013.
That new shopping platform engaged the community the company had worked so hard to build, and when Food52 stepped up to create its own brand of products, it reached out to that community to ask their opinions, Hesser said. By using the data gathered from the real-life responses of passionate users and combining it with the expertise and knowledge of the Food52 team, the company created its first product: a combined cutting board/carving board
That Food52 community sits today at 25 million users across all platforms and the involvement continues with the brand Five Two. Hesser describes the tagline “Made by us, made with you” as the cornerstone of its approach to building the company and its own brand of kitchen and dining wares. “We’re here with you, we’re listening, but we’re also educating, surprising and entertaining you,” Hesser said. “We are that dynamic friend in your life.”
After instituting e-commerce on the site and creating its own brand of products, the company set its sights on acquisitions. Food52 acquired the Dansk kitchenware and tableware business from Lenox in early 2021, followed later with the acquisition of Schoolhouse home décor. “We pride ourselves on being storytellers with the products,” Hesser said, and in the case of Dansk, she saw an opportunity to bring a beloved brand back to life and set it up for success in the future. “If anyone could bring it back, we felt like we could,” she said.
Schoolhouse was acquired to coincide with the building of the Home52 platform, which brings Food52 outside of recipes and kitchenware products. Hesser said the Food52 team began exploring home products outside of the kitchen, and after listing a few on the site that sold well, the content foundation was created to build out a dedicated home vertical home section. Hesser said the Food52 team admired the aesthetic and the soulfulness of the Schoolhouse brand.
Looking forward to the future, Hesser said the company is focusing this year on integrating Schoolhouse, which will add 145 employees to a staff of 170. “We want to show that we can integrate a brand like that well so we can do it with other companies,” Hesser said.
She said the company is working on another own brand expected to launch this fall and looks forward to the possibility of creating a brick-and-mortar location in the coming year.
Asked to sum up what she has learned from the first 12 years of Food52 and its dynamic evolution built on a unique blend of content, community and commerce, Hesser said, “You learn how much grit you have. Building a company in the way that we’ve done it – until recently we have had minimal funding – it takes a lot of energy, creativity. I love creating things and surrounding myself with people who love to build and create. This has been the coolest part.”
