Imitation stands out as the sincerest type of flattery, but not within the startup world.
There was drama within the olive oil business this week — and it unfolded on LinkedIn, an internet haven of start-up feuds, over-sharing, and self-mythologization of odes to #founder culture.
An indignant post by olive oil entrepreneur Andrew Benin caused a stir in a small corner of the net food world, partially since it raised a slippery query: who owns the squeeze bottle?
Mr. Benin is the CEO and co-founder of the corporate Grazstart-up aimed directly at the patron launched in 2022 which sells olive oil in forest green squeezable plastic bottles designed for optimal sprinkling and Instagram posting. Whole Foods sells it Enjoy your meal gave him an enthusiastic, and Food and wine warehouse he called it “a pleasant baby olive oil”. How Wall Street Journal recorded this 12 months, Graza hit the sweet spot with two bottles of additional virgin olive oil, Drizzle ($20) and Sizzle ($15).
Following quality and shipping issues last holiday season, Mr. Benin apologized to greater than 30,000 customers in an incredibly candid and detailed email. This gesture, together with entries on Grazy’s blog (“Glog” as the corporate calls it), painted an image of an enthusiastic founder.
Then, as he wrote this week LinkedIn, faced what he called “the culture of #imitating”. In the post, he singled out a competitor’s latest olive oil, which can also be packaged in a squeeze bottle and sold as something to sprinkle on pizza.
“While friendly competition has at all times been welcome, I see this as grossly disrespectful and select to specific my displeasure,” Benin wrote. Marked the corporate Bright Landand its founder, Aishwarya Iyer, and attached a photograph of the squeeze bottle in query. “The #founders know today will come,” he wrote, adding, “Personally, I feel it’s okay to get annoyed when people cheat on you.”
Some Twitter users said that Mr Benin’s post began the “olive oil wars”, nevertheless it ought to be noted that the dispute was one-sided. Ms Iyer and Brightland haven’t spoken publicly concerning the call. (Brightland declined to comment on this text. Graza didn’t reply to requests for comment.)
Reception to Mr. Benin’s post seemed mixed, with many comments on LinkedIn chastising him for stirring up unnecessary drama. “With all due respect, you didn’t create the squeeze bottle” – Alison Cayne, founding father of the corporate Haven kitchen, he wrote. “Chefs and residential cooks have been using it for a long time.” The Frequently asked questions a bit of Grazy’s website even says a lot.
“Get used to it,” Ju Rhyu, CEO and co-founder of Hero Cosmetics, tweeted what she called “olive oil copycat gateway.” She included 4 photos of products that appeared to mimic certainly one of her own company’s Mighty Patch products.
“I feel it is determined by the territory,” Mrs. Rhyu said. “It means you could have a certain level of success if there are followers. It’s something we’re definitely attempting to defend against, nevertheless it’s tough.”
Ms Rhyu said she first learned about olive oil imbroglio on LinkedIn.
“I believed it was bad form to call out one other founder who’s an entrepreneur and it really, in a way, revived the category,” she said in her post about how Benin named Ms Iyer, who founded Brightland in 2018. She added that she thought the post was “overreacting”.
Mr. Benin looked as if it would regret pursuing his rival. A number of hours after his original statement, he posted a comment on LinkedIn that included an apology addressed to Ms Iyer and his team in Graza. “I used to be excited, reacted badly and learned from the varied comments everyone left today,” he wrote.
For some online, the cold-pressed social media drama has been a welcome distraction from more pressing issues outside of the area of interest community of artisanal olive oil.
“Honestly God bless the Olive Oil War, this is strictly the type of ridiculous low-stakes drama the world needs more of straight away” tweeted Helen Rosner, a New Yorker author who deals with food. “No villains, no victims, just the best level of public ego.”
