Founders Everywhere: Becca Millstein
Becca Millstein is the founder and CEO of Fishwife, an omnichannel brand providing ethically-sourced, premium, and delicious tinned seafood.
Welcome to Founders Everywhere, where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at Everywhere Ventures, a global pre-seed fund supported by a community of 500 founders and operators.
What seafood is in your cupboard? Chances are it’s just tuna, but Fishwife is a new, sustainable, premium, tinned seafood brand bringing delicious anchovies, salmon, trout, and tuna to pantries all over the United States. Founder and CEO Becca Millstein was first introduced to conserva culture while studying abroad in Spain and it was love at first taste. Fast forward to COVID when she was looking for nutritious shelf-stable products and had a lightbulb moment that it was long overdue for the American market to offer a greater variety of high-quality tinned seafood. Fishwife’s products are also ethically sourced from the Pacific Northwest, Norway, Spain, and the UK.
According to their website, “the term ‘Fishwife’ dates back to the 16th century, and originally referred to the daughters or wives of fishermen who sold fish at the market. The term gradually evolved into a gendered insult for women who were brash, foul-mouthed, and brassy. We relate.” Talk about a luring brand persona. We’re hooked!
What is Fishwife’s Northstar?
Our Northstar is first to make high-quality tinned seafood a staple in every American cupboard and then to generally transform the idea of seafood in the United States. There's never been a seafood brand in the US that people have resonated with and that's pretty staggering because it's a massive category. As a result of that disengagement, most people don't know anything about seafood. They don't know what kind of species are out there, what’s sustainable, or whether farmed or wild is better. We want to be a steward of amazing sustainable seafood and to help people feel comfortable eating it.
Why is Fishwife going to win?
We are focused on meeting the consumer’s needs and we’ve created a really strong brand identity. The strength of a brand is unquantifiable in its importance and Fishwife has already helped make significant cultural changes in how people perceive seafood and we’re just at the tip of the iceberg.
How does Fishwife inspire “customer love”?
The first impression is the branding outside of the box and people really identify with a sassy, funny lady and are endeared to her. All of our packaging is art first and is really welcoming, friendly, colorful, and fun. It was designed by an artist - an illustrator, not a package designer. We have a very different take on the category and people get excited about that. The branding captivates the customers, but it’s the premium quality product and delicious taste that keeps them coming back. We also ensure that all of our seafood is ethically sourced from responsibly managed fisheries.
Where can we get Fishwife products?
You can order directly from the website and we ship all over the US.
We have a store locator.
We recently partnered with Whole Foods Market and have launched in some parts of Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii and will be expanding to three more regions this summer.
Any favorite podcasts?
I constantly listen to Taste Radio, where I was recently a guest, and In the Sauce for all things food and CPG related. I also like Second Life because they have some really good episodes with women founders.
Check out Episode 19 of the Venture Everywhere podcast, Uncanny Products with Alex Abelin and Becca Millstein. Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Pandora!, and check out all our past episodes here
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