Craft Meat With Crowd Cow

smallfarmnation.com

I’ve got a fascinating episode this week as we examine one of the biggest problems consumers face when wanting to buy directly from farmers. And that problem is, it’s inconvenient.

Today I’m speaking with Joe Heitzeberg, co-founder and CEO of Crowd Cow.

Joe’s not a farmer—far from it. He’s something of a serial entrepreneur having started a number of tech companies. But a few years ago he became enamored with the whole idea of buying meat directly from a farmer. You’ll hear him tell the story in a few minutes, but it’s a transformation that I, and many of you, have gone through as well.

Joe was a typical consumer who bought meat at the grocery store, giving little thought to where it came from or how one cut of meat could possibly be different from another.

That all changed when a co-worker bounced down the hallway of their Seattle offices exclaiming, "I'm so excited! I'm getting my cow this Friday.” Joe couldn’t imagine what it meant to “get a cow” especially in downtown Seattle.

But when the co-worker described how much better the beef tasted and the relationship he had with the farmer, Joe was hooked and decided he, too, had to get a cow.

Now, for a lot of people, the story would end there.

But when you give an idea like that to an entrepreneurial minded person, it tends to become more than an idea. It becomes a business opportunity.

Joe and his partner Ethan launched Crowd Cow in 2015. It’s an interesting business model that is endeavoring to make it easier for farmers and consumers to come together and celebrate what Crowd Cow calls “craft meat.”

Let’s find out what Joe means by that and listen into the story of how an innovative business is born as Joe and I discuss the story of Crowd Cow.