Entrepreneurial Spotlight: Jay Henderson – The Start of Something Gud

While starting a local, grocery delivery service is not something we typically hear about from food and beverage entrepreneurs on the producing end, the process of forming the business and getting the necessary connections with suppliers and distributors is actually very similar. FBU interviewed with Jay Henderson, one of the founding members of Something Gud, a local (all suppliers are within 200 miles of the city), grocery delivery service in Boston, and asked him about the business and how it got started.

FBU felt that through the interview, entrepreneurs would not only learn about starting a business, but also get a better understanding of what a retailer and distributor are looking for.  Additionally, (in a later clip) we also offer up a more in-depth analysis of local grocery delivery, revealing that while it may not seem like a traditional route to market, this type of distribution should definitely be a consideration for any new food or beverage brand looking to get their product to market.

FBU started the interview by asking Henderson about the company and why he started the service.  In explaining his motivation, Henderson said he saw an opportunity to address needs both from the consumers’ side and from the producers.

“We saw farmers’ markets building in popularity and saw a lot of farmers working hard producing their products and spending a lot of time in the markets,” Henderson said.   “And a lot of us didn’t have a lot of time to get to the farmers markets, so that drove us to creating a vehicle to make it easier to receive local food and also help the workload of the farmers.”

Henderson was in investment banking and worked as a consultant in New York prior to starting Something Gud, which currently occupies a 12,000 square foot shared commercial space with a brewery, chocolate factory, and coffee roasting company among other operations.  Henderson said he was actually the first of the co-founders to leave his job and dedicate full-time to the company, which was a big move.

Something Gud recently paired up with Instacart, which will allow the company to expand on its number of deliveries.  When FBU asked Henderson about the growth of the company, Henderson explained that although the business is steadily developing, he hopes that it will always maintain that local feel — that producers can call up to introduce their products directly and that local residents who choose to pick up their grocery, can do so right at the site.

Catch the rest of our entrepreneurial spotlight with Henderson on FBU, and be sure to stay tuned for the rest of his interview as we discuss for entrepreneurs what local grocery distributors are looking for in a brand and what it’s like working with a distributor at such a local level.