Entrepreneurship Zone: 04 June 2020: Meet The Entrepreneur Who Just Raised $5 Million For His Cookware Startup

[Bulls n Bears]

 <http://www.zb.co.zw/> In late 2017, Jordan Nathan put a non-stick frying pan coated with Polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE (also known under the trademark name Teflon) on his stove, forgot about it, and 45 minutes later his apartment was in fumes. He felt nauseous and ended up calling poison control specialists, who told Nathan it was likely due to PTFE poisoning and the fumes from the overheated pan.


Nathan looked into the problem and found out the majority of cookware is made with Teflon, with research showing that at temperatures above 570°F, Teflon coatings on nonstick cookware start to break down, releasing toxic chemicals into the air. 

This prompted Nathan to start Caraway, a direct-to-consumer home cooking products brand, which recently closed a $5.3M seed round. The funding comes from over 100+ investors, which include traditional venture capital funds, consumer-focused angels, and other entrepreneurs. 

Participants in the round include Republic Labs, Springdale Ventures, Wesray Social, Bridge Investments, WTI, CompanyFirst, G9 Ventures, Super Angel Syndicate (led by Ben Zises) and Five Four Ventures, alongside Andy Dunn (Bonobos), Brian Sugar (PopSugar), Henry Davis & Bryan Mahoney (Glossier & Arfa), Ali Pincus (One Kings Lane), Nik Sharma (Sharma Brands and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree), and more.

“I saw a big opportunity to create a brand in the kitchen space centered around safe and non-toxic products that are also beautifully designed,” Nathan, Caraway’s founder/CEO and a 30 Under 30 honoree from the 2018 retail and ecommerce list, says. 

The company’s flagship offering is the ceramic-coated cookware set, which was launched in November of 2019 costs $395. In April of this year, Caraway launched the second product line, the linens set, which includes tea towels, linen apron, oven mitts, and pot holders.



Caraway cookware

 CARAWAY

The situation with the coronavirus has prompted more people to cook at home, which resulted in a spike in Caraway’s sales. Though the company doesn’t release revenue numbers, Nathan says that Caraway has seen a 390% increase in ecommerce monthly sales when comparing January and May of this year. 

“I don’t think we’ve had more than one or two colors (of the five offered) of the cookware set in stock since early April, and we’ve been selling on backorder for two months now,” Nathan says.

The 10-employees company designs the products at its headquarters in New York and manufactures them in Asia. According to Nathan, a big portion of Caraway’s success has been its marketing strategy, where they have leveraged a sizable community of influencers in the cooking, design and wellness space across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

“We are seeing a lot of organic sales and referrals which are the core identifiers that we have achieved product market fit,” Nathan says.

Prior to founding Caraway, Nathan graduated with a degree in consumer psychology from Colby College and worked as the CEO of Vremi, a kitchen and home goods company owned by the Mohawk Group.—Forbes.com


 


 

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