-Next on "Start Up," we head to Burgaw, North Carolina, to meet up with Amanda Jacobs, the founder of Sea Love Sea Salt Company, the company that makes solar-evaporated sea salt and harvests it from the ocean waters of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
All of this and more is next on "Start Up."
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♪♪ ♪♪ -My name is Gary Gary Bredow.
I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.
As the country focuses on recovery, small-business owners everywhere are still fighting to keep their dream alive.
So we set out to talk to a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they've learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves in this ever-changing world.
♪♪ This is "Start Up."
♪♪ [ Waves crashing ] Sea salt is salt that's produced by the evaporation of seawater.
It's used as a seasoning in food for cooking, cosmetics, or for preserving food.
It's also commonly referred to as bay salt or solar salt.
Like mined rock salt, the production of sea salt has been dated to prehistoric times.
The nutritional value of sea salt versus table salt is similar, as they're both sodium chloride, however, table salt is processed and contains additives to prevent clumping.
♪♪ Today, I'm heading to Burgaw, North Carolina, to meet up with Amanda Jacobs, the founder of Sea Love Sea Salt Company, a company that makes solar-evaporated sea salt and harvests it from the ocean waters of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
From what I know, Amanda has grown the business to the point where she feels it's time to bring on a partner to help scale and take things to the next level.
I'm a bit of a saltaholic, so I'm really interested to learn more about how salt goes from the sea to the table and how Amanda got her start.
What is this space that we're in right now?
-So, we're in our salt house.
This is where the magic happens.
-Okay.
-Um -- [ Laughs ] So, our water went in about a week ago, and we're about ready to harvest the sea salt.
-You come in, and you, like, dump the ocean water.
-Yeah, yep, so ocean water comes into these pans, and nature does the work, and it solar-evaporates.
So, this -- this pan is about ready to be harvested.
-Okay.
-Um, so, this is sea salt that we could harvest and bring inside to package or flavor.
-So this is, like, edible, ready to eat, like...?
-For sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Help yourself.
-Seriously?
What do you do?
Just grab a little piece?
-Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
Please do.
Please do.
-Okay.
All right.
-Here we go.
-It's very salty.
-Yeah.
[ Laughs ] It is.
It is.
So -- -But in a different way, though.
Like, I'm sort of a salt connoisseur, I gotta tell ya.
-Yeah.
Yeah.
So, one of our chefs says that it's like being smacked in the face by a wave.
-It -- 100%.
It tastes very much like the ocean.
-Yeah.
-So, right now in this room, in the salt house, there -- I don't see any dehumidifiers.
I don't see fans blowing, any big, like, solar-energy panels or anything.
-Correct.
Correct.
Right.
-And is that -- That's part of the whole purpose?
-Correct.
So, when we started experimenting, we did start by boiling.
We tried baking in our oven, and it was just taking so many resources to create such a little amount that we tried to go away from that and as natural as possible.
-Yeah.
-And solar evaporation is the way that we came to find the best way of making it, and it also creates a flakier product versus, like, a rock salt, one that you would have to grind almost.
We were trying to get away from that.
It's not completely dry yet.
This isn't totally ready to go into the warehouse.
-Container.
It needs to be dried out a little.
-Right.
So we would scrape it, put it into a bag, and hang it to, like, dry, to kind of drip dry for a few more days.
So, basically, you're just -- You... And you can kind of see how flaky it is as you're scraping it.
-You ever see the show "Breaking Bad"?
-I ha-- [ Laughs ] -Okay.
I was gonna say.
If this were blue... -Are you feeling it?
-...I'd start calling you Pinkman.
-[ Laughs ] Right.
Exactly.
So, essentially, we... -Oh, this is so cool.
-...gather it into here.
-Wow.
-And we will put it into this bag.
So, for a few days, we'll hang it from a beam.
-Okay.
-And it'll just get a little bit more dry, and then we'll be able to bring it in and flavor.
-And then you just fill up your bottles to sell.
-Exactly.
Yeah.
Exactly.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -How much competition is out there in the artisan salt world?
-There -- Very little.
[ Chuckles ] There's probably 10 sea-salt makers in the country.
-That's it?
Wow.
-And there is about a handful of us that do it solar-ly.
-When did the moment come that making homemade sea salt was -- was actually going to be, you know, a thing that you did?
-I've primarily been a teacher my whole life and love learning.
I love experimenting.
And when we moved to the beach, that's kind of how Sea Love came to be.
My husband and I had a lifelong dream of living at the ocean.
-Mm-hmm.
-And sea salt is something that we've always brought home from our travels.
A friend of mine asked -- He knows us very well and knows that we travel and knows that we're foodies, and he said, "Have you thought of making your own salt?"
when he was here visiting, and I was like, "Oh, my gosh.
I can't believe I haven't done this."
-Right.
-So I literally walked out with a bucket and filled up a few pans and experimented in our backyard.
Eventually, probably like two months after this, we -- my husband and I went to a restaurant for dinner, and we ate at the bar, and it was a slower evening, so the chef actually brought our food out rather than the waitress who was helping us.
And as he was dropping off our food, Dave said to me, "Mand', I wish that you had brought some of your salt."
And so the chef came back five minutes later and said, "I'm so sorry.
I was totally eavesdropping.
And I heard you say 'your salt.'
Do you make your own salt?"
And I said, "Oh, yeah, it's -- I just -- We live on the beach, and I just get it from the ocean and solar-evaporate it."
And he was like, "I need to try that."
-[ Chuckles ] -So, I brought him some back, and he said, "If you can sell me a pound a week, I'll stop buying my sea salt from France."
And I said, "You would buy this?
How much would you pay for it?"
Then he went in the back and got out this big binder with all of his receipts, and that's how I figured out how much I could charge and how much he would pay.
And he was the impetus for starting, really, to sell to other people.
I was never intending to market it out to others besides my house.
-You're a total accidental entrepreneur.
-For sure.
♪♪ ♪♪ -Were you, I guess, unhappy with your current salt or just piqued your curiosity?
-Well, we are a, like, hyper-locally focused restaurant.
So, I mean, all our vegetables, seafood, meat, everything comes from local farms, fishermen, and everything.
-In keeping with that... -Yeah, that was a missing link.
We were buying fleur de sel from France, so... -Okay.
-And then all of a sudden, I met Amanda, who produced wonderful sea salt right here, you know, within a couple miles of the restaurant.
-Right.
-So it was a natural fit.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -What was the feeling that you had at that moment?
Was it this nervous-excitement sort of thing?
-Super excited.
-Okay.
-I tend to get a little excited over lots of things.
-That's good.
-I went home and said to Dave, "You know, I think we have a business here."
And he was -- kind of rolled his eyes.
It was perfect timing because a local farmers market was starting up about two months later, and so I signed up for that just to see if, like, the general public would purchase our salt also or if it was just like a... -A fluke.
-...very, yeah, interested chef.
So I signed up for the market, and I quickly, like, figured out packaging.
I was printing my own labels, which was a disaster, and designing them.
I had a horrible banner.
Everything about the first market is pretty horrifying to look back on.
And we sold out in about an hour.
-Oh, my gosh.
So what that your proof of concept?
You're like, "This could work."
-Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
People were just super-interested in the process.
And, you know, a lot of people come here as tourists, so to leave with a bit of the ocean that they can use at home was a pretty spectacular idea for them.
-Yeah.
-And then, you know, locally, people use it in their kitchens all the time.
-I don't see any downside.
It checks all the marks, literally.
-Yeah, for sure.
How were you making it at this point?
Because it becomes sort of fairly unsustainable to do in a couple kitchen pots and pans.
-I was doing everything in our kitchen, boiling it for hours and hours and hours, simmering it on the stove.
It was taking a long time, and it was creating very crystally salt, not really the texture that I had envisioned.
Then I tried baking it.
My husband is a huge cook.
We had a very expensive convection oven placed into our house, and after about a week, something was, like, floating on top of the water.
And I don't know why I decided to taste whatever this was that was floating.
I put my finger in, and it was metal.
-[ Gasps ] -And so I looked up, and the top of the oven, our brand-new, very expensive oven, was flaking off into the water.
-Oh, my gosh.
Was it because of the salt?
-Yes.
Yes.
-Ooh.
Ouch.
-So it, like, corroding the inside of the oven.
-Homeowner's claim or...?
[ Laughs ] -So then we -- I started to venture to outside to solar evaporation.
So I bought -- I bought a small greenhouse, very small, three-shelf situation, and started doing it all outside.
And then soon after the farmers markets started and we were selling out so rapidly, I realized I wasn't going to be able to do it in our very small backyard.
-Right.
In the little greenhouse.
-Exactly.
So I moved a 10x20-foot greenhouse to someone else's backyard.
So, in exchange for mowing and free salt, I had space on somebody else's backyard.
-That's a good deal.
-Yeah.
So I stayed there for a year and a half, yeah.
-And how much product could you yield?
Enough to sustain the chef and the farmers market?
-No.
It still wasn't enough.
It still wasn't in the realm to purchase a property.
It just seemed like almost like a side gig for me while I was still kind of searching for a teaching job.
-Gotcha.
-But with each market grew such a following that I realized I was able to find a bigger space and kind of call it home.
-And that's the space that we're in currently?
-Yeah, we had to do some build-out, which we did with a Kickstarter campaign.
That was very helpful, but, yeah, it was -- It's -- It's a perfect fit for out here, and now we have tons of space.
If we want to do events with chefs and dinners and things like that, we have the available space.
♪♪ -Amanda and I hopped in the car to take a ride to Wrightsville Beach, where she gets the ocean water for her salt.
♪♪ We are heading to -- What is the name of the beach?
-Wrightsville Beach.
-Wrightsville Beach.
Okay.
And why have you chosen that as, like, the main place where you're gathering all of your saltwater?
-My husband and I live in Wrightsville Beach, so obviously it's convenient.
It's a convenient location for me to collect the water.
-Okay.
-But when I first started and I was going to go collect water from different beaches and then name salts after different beaches.
-Wow.
That's cool.
-Instead of, like, a peppercorn, I was going to do, like, a Topsail salt and I was gonna do a Carolina Beach salt.
However, in speaking with, like the FDA and the Department of Ag and doing water testing, quality studies, all of the things that I did prior to starting, I discovered that Wrightsville Beach has the cleanest water... -Yep.
-...out of all of the beaches.
So we just stuck with one location.
-How many buckets of water are you getting at a time?
I'm excited to do it ourselves, but... -So, we usually will get 275 gallons' worth of water.
So we take the 5-gallon buckets as a vehicle to put into a larger container.
Like, we pour that into a larger container and then transport it back that way.
-What do your friends and family think about what you're doing, or of what you've done with the salt?
-I think that they think it's a little unusual.
-Really?
Okay.
-You know, it's a different -- it's a different type of path.
You know?
It's kind of random, quite frankly.
-Sure.
Well, maybe especially with all of your education.
But at the end of the day, what does it matter, you know?
-Yeah.
Everybody is definitely proud and thinks it's cool.
But it's definitely, like, a weird fact.
You know?
[ Laughs ] When we're at, like, a dinner or a cocktail party or something, it's like, "Oh, this is Amanda.
She makes sea salt."
You know, then it's like, "What?"
It's a whole conversation.
-It's a heck of a conversation starter, though, right?
-It is, yeah.
For sure.
♪♪ -So, I thought that I could scoop up some water during a riptide fully dressed, shoes and all, but I quickly learned it might be a better idea to roll up my jeans, take off my shoes, and jump right in.
We grabbed a couple of buckets of water, and back to the farm we go.
♪♪ How much are you selling at this point?
I mean, could it be a sustainable, profitable business or has that -- you hit the ceiling based on your ability to create product?
-The room for growth is huge.
-Right.
-There is so many more customers that we would like to reach that we're just not able to.
-Have you thought about a grand, sort of master plan to scale to a point where you can sustain the demand?
-Yes, and I need help, like physical help.
I need like another me, which -- which I'm solving.
We're bringing in a business partner, which is going to be a huge help for our growth issue.
We have chefs calling.
We have breweries calling.
We have stores calling.
Whole Foods would like us into more of their stores.
And we just -- We have to say no... -"No salt for you."
-...or we're waiting on your next harvest.
Exactly.
So, yeah, we just need to grow, and we have room out here to grow.
It's just a matter of...
I need more people.
I need more of me.
-Tell me about the decision to bring on a business partner, which can be either incredible for the expansion or it can be like the kiss of death and everything falls apart.
-Yeah.
So, I have been super-picky.
I wanted very specifically to have them be a fan of sea salt, have them be a foodie.
If they had business experience, that would be even better.
But I wanted somebody that would be as passionate as I am.
And it took a lot of meetings and interviews, and we have definitely found a perfect match.
-How many interviews or meetings did you go through?
-I would say at least 80 e-mails.
So, we kind of screened with e-mails.
And then we went to phone calls and meetings, and I would say we did about 25 of those.
-Oh, so over 100 sort of interviews in some capacity.
-For sure.
Yeah.
-Tell me a little bit more about the folks that you're partnered with.
-Mm-hmm.
So it's a husband-and-wife team.
Husband Jason is going to do it full-time, which is amazing.
-Yeah.
-I'm also a teacher on the side, so I am doing two full-time jobs as it is, so to have somebody who is not only handy but has the time to devote to the business is going to be incredible.
-Teacher "on the side."
Teaching is a full-time thing.
What are you -- -Yeah, so, I did -- I started teaching a few years into Sea Love.
I kind of fell back into it.
I kind of do Sea Love in the evenings and weekends, and then I teach during the day.
-How did you first get introduced to this company?
-Well, I've been searching for many years for a company to invest in.
Coming in, finding a small business to purchase in a kind of unique market is something that I was, you know, really focused on and something I could get behind.
For me, selling is all stories.
-It's just like, how can you -- -For sure.
-If I'm -- I have to be 100% behind whatever -- whatever it is I'm selling, otherwise, I'm the worst salesman, but, you know, when it comes to... -Yeah.
You got to believe in it.
-I gotta believe in it.
Exactly.
-You're not a good actor, is what you're saying.
-Exactly.
-Are you an investor?
Are you buying the business?
-Somewhere in that -- in between that, you know?
I definitely want -- Amanda's been the story for seven years or so now, and it's, you know -- I think it's important she's still part of it.
Eventually it's going to need to transition to, you know, Jeanette and I, you know, to be that.
She's been amazing to work with and as we're figuring this out.
-Where do you see this going?
Like, what's your ultimate vision or goal for this company?
-The first phase is getting this to maximum production.
-Is there any consideration of changing the way that the salt is harvested in any capacity, I guess, to be able to scale quicker?
Or is this the draw?
-This is it.
I mean, I love patience.
-Okay.
I was hoping you'd say that.
-That was the perfect word.
Paint dries faster than salt, so it's -- -You can't rush perfection.
-Exactly.
You know?
You're getting what you're paying for and the time you're putting into it, and nothing speaks to it more than this.
Like a good wine or something, you know, age.
-Gotta let it age.
-Yeah.
♪♪ ♪♪ -What was the moment that you decided that?
Like, that you were gonna give up your baby, in a way?
-Yeah, I literally thought I would do this forever, and I still may be involved forever, but I really love my teaching job and I really love my school, and I feel like the business has gotten to a point -- I have been, like, literally sweating -- sweat equity'ing this for seven years.
-Yeah.
-And I just need somebody else out here to really grow it.
We're at this tipping point where we're getting more inquiries than I ever have before.
And I don't want to leave my teaching job that I love, but I also don't want to close Sea Love.
So I kind of want to do all the things, but I know that I physically can't because I haven't been able to for the last two years.
So to bring in Jason -- and he's not only handy and can build tables, you know, and can haul the water -- is such a bonus for the company.
-Time for the good part here.
-Yeah.
-The tasting.
-This is the best part.
-So, walk us through, like, the different flavors, how you come up with some of these concoctions, what they're used for, bottling, just all of it.
-Yeah, sure.
So, I think we're up to about 9 or 10 flavors.
Just kind of branched off into, like, flavors that I liked.
Or customers would request a flavor or a chef would request a flavor.
We had a chef that really wanted dill pickle for a fried chicken sandwich.
-Oh, that sounds amazing.
-So that came on.
Yeah.
And then that's also, like, really awesome on, like, a Bloody Mary, like, the rim of a Bloody Mary.
-Yeah.
Let's try 'em!
-Okay.
All right.
I'm gonna start you hot with some sriracha.
-Okay.
-I'm just gonna give you a little bit to put in your hand.
There you go.
♪♪ -She's got a kick.
-It's good, right?
[ Laughs ] -That's phenomenal.
-Yeah.
I love that one.
Jason has our citrus... -Okay.
-...that is lemon line and orange zest.
So that's awesome on seafood.
It's really great on cocktails.
It's kind of light and bright.
-Okay.
Which one's your favorite, Jason?
-I'm a garlic guy.
-Garlic.
-Garlic on everything, really.
-You can smell it.
It's so vibrant.
-Yeah.
Yeah.
We try to use -- So, this is, um -- -Wow.
That's really good.
That's a margarita right there.
-Yes.
Isn't it?
Garlic is made with real garlic cloves, organic garlic cloves.
-Garlic is phenomenal.
It's really the most powerful, like, sort of forward flavor.
-Mm-hmm.
-That is really, really good.
-Thank you.
-You sell this in a set, right?
You can get like one of each?
-We do.
-How could you decide?
-I know.
Yeah.
So we do trios.
We do them all singly in multiple sizes, and then we also have, like, gift trios.
-And you can order these online?
-Yes.
Mm-hmm.
-Okay.
Perfect.
Why do you think people love your product so much?
What's the appeal?
Because you can get salt anywhere, right?
-Mm-hmm.
For sure.
I mean, I'm a teacher who just kind of fell upon this based on an experiment, so I think anybody could do it.
Anyone could see themselves doing this, whether it's salt or creating their own company.
I just kind of am figuring -- I'm still figuring it out seven years later.
So I think the story makes, you know -- Anybody's dream could be a reality.
I think we also create a really awesome product and it's local and sustainable and doesn't use a ton of resources.
So environmentally wise and taste-bud wise, it's a hit.
-For other entrepreneurs out there that are thinking about starting a business, what's been your biggest takeaway, the biggest lesson that you've learned?
-Not being afraid to reach out and ask for help.
Sure.
-Because people are very willing to help, and when they hear the story, they're like, "Oh, that's so cool!"
Like, they actually want to then be a part of it also.
So I would say not being shy about saying the business that you're thinking of starting or starting and -- So, you know, spreading the word.
And then also, like, asking everybody that you know for help in whatever avenue that you need.
♪♪ -I had such a great time with Amanda and crew.
And what an awesome story.
From one chance encounter with an eavesdropping chef to creating a business valuable enough to attract over 100 interested investors.
Just goes to show you that at any moment your whole direction in life can change if you're just receptive to it.
For more information, visit our website and search episodes for Sea Love Sea Salt Company.
♪♪ Next time on "Start Up," we head to Garden City, Georgia, to meet up with Dave Myers, the creator of the Amphibian Air, a company that invites the public to ride and pilot an FAA-certified amphibious trike over the waters of Savannah, Georgia.
Be sure to join us next time on "Start Up."
Would you like to learn more about the show or maybe nominate a business?
Visit our website at startup-usa.com and connect with us on social media.
♪♪ -♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ Got a long road ahead of us ♪ Before we pay our dues ♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ Before we pay our dues -...to this, as well.
-Is -- Anything in it?
-Nope.
-[ Laughs ] You!
-[ Laughs ] -Was he trying to do that?
♪♪ ♪♪ -Spectrum Business partners with small business across the country to help them achieve their goals.
With high-speed Internet, phone, TV, and mobile services, Spectrum Business provides the tools to keep you connected with your customers.
Spectrum Business.
No nonsense, just business.
♪♪ ♪♪ -Vistaprint, a proud sponsor of "Start Up" and small businesses everywhere.
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