Epic Entrepreneurs

The Rise of Sourhouse: Building a Sourdough Startup in a Rising Market

• Bill Gilliland

Share episode

Erik Fabian transforms everyday sourdough challenges into innovative kitchen solutions with Sourhouse, born from his own bread-baking frustrations during the pandemic. 

What makes this entrepreneurial story particularly compelling is Eric's thoughtful approach to business building. Rather than rushing to market during the initial COVID sourdough craze, he spent two years perfecting his product. This patience positioned Sourhouse to capture sustainable growth rather than riding a temporary trend.

Eric shares valuable insights about bootstrapping versus venture funding, explaining how staying lean and focusing on brand-building has allowed his small team to grow profitably while maintaining creative control. 

The conversation tackles the delicate balance between entrepreneurship and family life, with Eric revealing how he incorporates his children into the business while setting boundaries that protect family time. 

For anyone considering starting a specialty brand or pursuing crowdfunding, this episode delivers practical wisdom about market timing, building community around your products, and creating a category where none previously existed. Eric's story proves that even in established industries like kitchenware, innovation opportunities await those willing to notice overlooked problems and craft thoughtful solutions.


ABOUT ERIC:
Erik Fabian is a homebaker, dad and co-founder of Sourhouse. Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Sourhouse envisions a world where people gather daily to share homemade sourdough bread and other fermented foods. So Erik and co-founder Jennifer Yoko Olson design tools that simplify sourdough baking and inspire people to make more bread.

Thanks for Listening. You may contact me at https://billgilliland.actioncoach.com/

All the best!
Bill

Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com.

All the best!

Bill

Speaker 1:

Hey there, thanks for joining this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I've got Eric Fabian from Sour House, and boy does he have a cool story, so I can't wait for us to jump in. Hi Eric, hey Bill, thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for having me Tell us what Sour House is.

Speaker 2:

Sure. So at Sour House we make and sell tools for sourdough home bakers. At Sour House we make and sell tools for sourdough home bakers. So we launched as a Kickstarter campaign back in 22 with a device, that's a countertop appliance that keeps sourdough starter warm at kind of an ideal temperature. So to make bread baking easier.

Speaker 1:

we sell jars and we sell some other accessories, all with this kind of goal of encouraging more sourdough baking and more sourdough bakers. Yeah, so I mean, how did it come about? I mean, I don't think you just wake up one day and say I'm going to make this sourdough, what did you? What did you jar?

Speaker 2:

It's like a jar that keeps it to proper temperature, right, yeah, so, goldie, yeah, this device, goldie, that's the kind of our hero product. It's like a jar that keeps it to the proper temperature, right, yeah, this device, goldie, that's kind of our hero product. It's the warmer. And then we make a variety of starter jars. Yeah, I guess I was a sourdough baker no-transcript and I just remembered, you know like, what it was like to create my first sourdough starter and the challenges I had. And I had this idea for a little warm spot to help warm up sourdough starter. The thing, if you're not a baker, sourdough starter is like a slurry of flour and water that has all the microbes that people use to puff up and flavor sourdough bread, and those microbes are happiest and most active in like 75, 82 degree Fahrenheit range we call it the body lock zone. So most people's homes are a little cooler than that. And so I just kind of had this idea for this device that could help people warm up their starters.

Speaker 2:

And I was talking to a bunch of friends I had during COVID I had become, we had moved to stay with some family. We had a very young. Our second child had been born a couple of months before that, so I basically became a stay-at-home dad and I was kind of itching for adult conversation. So one of the I was talking to friends and one of my friends is an industrial designer Her name is Jenny and she got interested in the idea and in sourdough and the community and so we just ended up working on it and it was a kind of a nights and weekends thing for the next couple of years.

Speaker 2:

So we literally started right at the beginning of it, like March 2020, the idea kind of came up and and then it took us a couple of years to get to our Kickstarter campaign and by then we had a Goldie as well as our a couple of jars kind of ideas for that and the prototypes. And then we raised. We ended up raising uh, about $150,000 from over a thousand backers on a Kickstarter and another crowdfunding platform and that was the start of it. And, uh, now we've been uh selling for a few years now and, um, mostly e commerce. We do some wholesale through retailers. Folks like Williams Sonoma would be our biggest retailer in the United States. We sell internationally. We just did our second Kickstarter campaign for a new product last year that we're about to fulfill here in late March of 2025. And then we'll be bringing that out to the public a couple months later.

Speaker 1:

That's a cool story. That's a great story and interesting and it's a nice mixture with your marketing background and then an industrial designer to help make the thing work and look cool. Yeah, you know, if you go on the website and we'll make sure everybody has the website so they can check it out but it does look cool. You know, it's got a sleek, smooth, cool design. It's interesting. I didn't think about it from an industrial design standpoint, but it's the very thing I want to talk. Let's talk about Kickstarter and how do you do that? Let's let's see what we can learn about that. That seems to be a good thing. Tell us what you've learned by going down that path.

Speaker 2:

Well, I have an advantage because my wife was an early hire at Kickstarter. So I have kind of been around the community of Kickstarter for years and years and years and seen it's kind of like rise and the different, like generations of it. I am somewhat, I guess, old school because of that and I sense I feel like the Kickstarter's fundamental purpose and kind of contribution to the world is to create a platform for new ideas and things that are perhaps untested, and so Kickstarter is a space to just to get a kind of read on the market, see if people are interested in these things, whether you want to do a small little kind of batch of something kind of precious or you want to kind of you have a bigger idea. You just want to see what the size of the market is. Um, I think it's also, um, even though today it's used a lot more for pre-selling, um, I think using it as a, as a platform for um, raising the funds to do a first round of production in a lower risk kind of way, I think it's still a good tool for that and um, you know, and it can just help expand your audience to some degree if you're in a category that you know the kickstarter community kind of overlaps with in some way.

Speaker 2:

I would say that um, today kickstarter kind of another craft funding camp kind of platforms have taken on this like um air of of kind of there's a lot more like kind of commodity driven, like you know kind of pre-selling of preexisting products. Sometimes you'll see larger brands coming in and just like using it as a marketing platform and you know these are all fair ways to use it. But what I would kind of encourage people to ignore is this idea that you have to lose money on a Kickstarter campaign or just try to break even. I don't think, unless you're a large company, that makes sense. I think you should try to create campaigns that do that are profitable and I think that's still possible If you can ignore that. Some of the professional ecosystem that's grown up around Kickstarter that be a little. It can be expensive and, you know, maybe a little predatory if you don't have experience in business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, give us maybe your top couple or three tips on how to do a Kickstarter campaign profitably.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean all this stuff is pretty well mapped out on the internet now, but the main thing is you want to bring an audience to kickstarter, so you want to start to build that audience ahead of your kickstarter campaign, um, through you know list building and you know various ways.

Speaker 2:

Um, you also uh, you know want you want to create fun incentives that make sense. Um, you know, whether through creating different tiers of rewards for the campaign or looking for ways to incentivize people to show up early with, like limited edition kind of reward tiers or something like that. And then I just think you should try to like make it fun and personal and like you know the the you know like the video making and stuff and personal and like you know the the you know like the video making and stuff and imagery and everything's gotten a lot more professional. But I think, even just coming with a sincere kind of pitch that's well thought out, that maybe it has a lower production value If it feels like it's real people behind it. I think there's still people who are on the Kickstarter platform that want to help new ideas and young businesses succeed and like take pleasure in that, and so I think you know if you have an idea like that, you know take advantage of that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's a. I think I think that's great advice. I love it. I mean, it's always a better idea to be sincere, right and and and just and, to just be honest. All right, let's switch gears a little bit. Um, let me get your thoughts on some, on some business and some of the, some of the things that you've learned along the way. I mean, you guys, it sounds like man, between you and your wife and your business partner, you've got a really wide range of experiences here, range of experiences here. So that's got to be one thing that's been helpful. But let's say you were starting over again.

Speaker 2:

Is there anything you would do differently? Well, I mean, it took longer than I thought. I thought we would get our Kickstarter campaign out in like three months and it took two years and I heard that feedback from people but I didn't believe it up a little bit. But the I think the confluence of factors actually ended up helping us because, you know, I had more, you know theory, I wasn't working, so I wasn't distracted by my regular work.

Speaker 2:

And then COVID obviously created a context for sourdough and, while we didn't capture like the huge spike of demand that happened in 2020 and 2021 with our product itself, it did create a context where I could sell in the idea of the product and in building a business, potentially at that time to people like my wife and to the initial stakeholders. You know, it's like friends and family and, like you know, those other baker friends who were showing to it and getting feedback from it's like everybody was like, oh yeah, sourdough. I have some sense that this is popular right now. I could see why you want to make a business with it. So it's you know, I might have changed my timing expectations a little bit, but I think that the main thing is like looking for those moments where not necessarily where you feel like you should be in market actually is a good time to start a business, even if you might not catch it, and I think I could probably apply that to other other initiatives if I were to do it again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean I like that. I mean people always say, well, I've got this idea. Well, is anyone else actually doing something like it? Because if they're not, it's probably not a market. And so, yeah, I mean it's very rare when you create an entirely new market. So I think what you just said was brilliant, like, hey, the market's there. The time seemed right in 2020, 2021, but maybe 2022, in 2020, 2021, but maybe 2022, 23 was better.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, there was definitely other you know bread brands that had huge spikes during that time, sold out and had all these inventory issues and had a different kind of set of challenges than you have a couple of years later. But then they had to fall off and they had to deal with like how much do we scale and when is this going to end? And, like you know. And then then you know, had to deal with maybe downsizing and stuff that we were able to sidestep. Um, you know, maybe we would be multi-millionaires now if we had gotten it out earlier. I don't know, but the uh, but the but I think it is a different kind of environment. We did end up building out like we are building a category because of it and it's like I do feel like we have a lot of you know kind of open space ahead of us. Like our device Goldie was like the world's first like device dedicated warming sourdough starter, and you've seen other devices like that come to market since after kind of proving that there is a market.

Speaker 2:

And I think, in general, bread baking even though people have done it for a thousand years um, and particularly sourdough, has been somewhat neglected within the kind of the you know, kitchenware retail space for a lot of years. Um, if you go into Williams, Sonoma, there's a beautiful shelf of like dessert baking tools you know very prominent of. You have your kitchen aid, mixers and all this kind of stuff but there's no bread shelf. At least it has, it hasn't been, and it's just starting to kind of appear now. And so one thing I'm very excited about, and what the it's kind of been proven to me over the last couple of years, few years, is that, um, there is a sizable market that's been untouched, um, for bread baking and, uh, you know. So I think, as a category, we are trying to grow this category and I think it's kind of a floatable boats kind of situation and I am seeing other brands start to come into it, which is kind of giving us more reassurance that there's some legs here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, that's great. I mean, it seems like the category is growing, so that's good. I mean it's new and it's growing, so that's awesome. I mean it's new and it's new and it's growing, so that's, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

So what do you think some of the misconceptions people have about running businesses are? I imagine there's a lot. The one that I kind of probably react against is, like you know my background's in marketing. I've worked for, you know, popular brands like Moleskine and I've worked for tech startups, and you know I moved down this area from New York City so I've been in and I've, you know, companies I've worked for have had offices in Silicon Valley.

Speaker 2:

So it's like within that kind of world, you know, there's a sort of default to trying to create a fast growth, vc funded sort of situation. And, um, and I've seen companies that you know who've taken VC money or got, you know, sold to private equity and as soon as you uh sell your business to those kinds of stakeholders, uh, the pressure ramps up really fast and you have to. You have this um kind of like incentive to grow fast, perhaps faster than you should, and to take, you know, kind of like very black and white risks which may cause good ideas to crash and burn. You know, and and so definitely I think you know we're bootstrapping what we're doing. We, you know we're focusing on building a brand in a space that's typically considered to need a large amount of money to build brands, because you do have to buy inventory and whatnot. And, uh, we're doing it with just staying very lean, like we have. We're a very small company jenny and I are still like the only full-time people and we have a whole bunch of consultants and agencies and stuff to help us. But, um, but we've intentionally stayed very lean. We we're very virtual.

Speaker 2:

We rely on platforms like Shopify and 3PLs and these kind of things that enable a more kind of dispersed business model nowadays and we're able to create a profitable business that is growing and in a space that's growing, without taking this, like you know, kind of like all or nothing risk that I think comes with you know, vc backed stuff and, and I think that you know, perhaps you know we're in a moment where people are seeing the attraction of like the smaller, you know kind of less sexy business and you know people are looking to kind of try to cash into that by.

Speaker 2:

You know you see MBAs right now coming in and trying to like buy plumbing shops and, like you know, manufacturing, because they feel like this is, you know, something that has cashflow and, um, I can see the attraction to it, cause I also feel that you know that those those kind of more solid business models, um, you know, or have a more reasonable lifestyle and are kind of more solid businesses.

Speaker 2:

But I also think you need to build a brand and I also I think you also need to make good products and and so, as a person that's coming from like a marketing background and is a brand builder, you know, I feel like in today's world, you know, with everything changing so quickly, with AI rising up with you know, blah, blah, blah, all these stories you hear it's like one of the few moats you still have is building a good brand, and I think that starts with a really good product and you know it also, you know, starts with the people that you bring together, if they really believe in the story and the mission and the kind of culture that you're trying to create.

Speaker 2:

I don't think that everything you know. I think you can build businesses that have an operational advantage and I think you can build brands, and I think those are kind of different strategies, but I am skeptical of people who are coming into this like bootstrappy cashflow type business with just the operational mindset and not thinking that, like the product has to be special and that the story has to be special and the relationship with the product has to be special, and that the story has to be special and the relationship with the community has to be special, because that really, I think something that adds value to the world.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, not a hundred percent. I mean, there is kind of this we see it because we have a lot of clients that are in that, in that space, where the it's sort of the, the, the boring businesses that are, you know, that have cashflow, and people are looking to buy them and build them and sell them, and that's that's a thing. But but I also say, along the way, you have to build the brand. So I a hundred percent agree with you and I like what you're doing. So what do you attribute your growth to so far?

Speaker 2:

Well, so we're in a good space. It's a growing space like the. If you look at, like google search terms for sourdough, you know, obviously there was a spike during covid and then there was a, and then it kind of moved into a seasonal pattern. So there was like a spike in 2023, that kind of matched covid, and then um, actually this last december, um, the spike in the us like doubled the covid period and you know, I can only speculate why. I have some ideas, but but nonetheless I can tell that we're in a growing space at the moment, um, so that helps a lot and um.

Speaker 2:

But I also think that we, you know, really care about the product that we're making and the and the people that we're kind of customers and the people we collaborate with, and we, you know the and we have a bigger idea that we're making and the and the people that were kind of customers and the people we collaborate with, and we, you know the, and we have a bigger idea that we're trying to push um, uh, push out into the world with, uh, you know, the idea of kind of encouraging more sourdough baking. You know we're not just making another you know tool commodity where you know we, we have a kind of a mission against it, because we think that sourdough baking is good for us in a variety of ways it's good for our bellies, it's good for our wallets, it's good, um, you know, sourdough baking encourages a sense of generosity, and I think that's something that's needed more of in the world today. And so, um, I think that the uh you know by, and I think people can tell that there's like a level of care and commitment to what we do. Um, even though we may be small and scrappy and not be able to always answer an email as fast as maybe a larger team or something like, at the end of the day, we're very responsive and we, we, you know care about the people we work with and we sell to.

Speaker 1:

No, I love it. I mean, I think people buy in either buy into what you're doing or they're repelled by it. Either way, it's fine because you've got a. There's a big enough market for pretty much everything. Yeah, it's unbelievable. So this whole thing started you. It seems like you're pretty balanced, or at least looking for balance, uh, with kids and family and all that. So I mean, how do you sort of balance?

Speaker 2:

your business and personal. Yeah, I mean that is one of the harder things. And like the uh, because I'm not able to. I still have young kids, so I like I cannot put the same amount of time into this as I could when I was like my twenties and thirties, and um and uh, I uh. Sometimes it's frustrating but I also take it as a success, like if our strategy works, even if we execute on 50% of it, then I feel like it's a pretty good strategy. Um and the um.

Speaker 2:

And then you know I take pleasure in being able to be home and you know I like working from home in general. But, like you know, being able to pick up kids and, you know, be around them is like super nice. And my kids have been involved in the business. Like you know, when I was like naming the company, naming the first products, getting feedback on it, like my older son, you know, I'd ask him for feedback and he's been around that kind of thing his whole life, and so I like being able to kind of share, share that to some degree with them. But you know it's hard, but you know that I always to to kind of make those trade-offs. You know I don't travel as much as I probably should and when I do go away, you know it's just like you kind of miss the kids and you know I look forward to maybe someday where I can like bring the family with me more. But it's an ongoing kind of set of trade-offs, I think yeah, but you've, I mean, but you've set your rules.

Speaker 1:

I mean, that's what I tell everybody, that's right yeah, yeah well, yeah, yeah, it's hard, make your rules right. Yeah, make your rules. But you know the demands are there, so they go. Let me uh, you know epic is a acronym, so let me uh, get your sort of quick fire. Maybe a word or a couple of sentences on each letter in Epic, um, and I'll. I'll just go through them real quick. So E is education. What are your thoughts on education?

Speaker 2:

Uh, I am a person who really likes learning. I think you should always be learning.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. How about P for planning?

Speaker 2:

Um, I am a believer in plan, uh, but assume your plan is going to go wrong. Um, so I'm more of like planning and like an outline form and then kind of like improvise around the bullets plan and then improvise.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Yeah, I love that. Good, I is for inspiration.

Speaker 2:

I take a lot of inspiration just from, you know, looking around like we're in the baking space. So I look around. You know I talk to bakers, people who love food. You know we're just like you know we're food loving people, so I'm very fascinated by people's excitement. For you know the history of food and you know things that you things that tasted and experienced. So I get just, I think, a lot of inspiration from talking to people. Now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I do think the whole food sector has grown amazingly, certainly in my lifetime, and in particular in the last 10 or 15, 20 years. I mean it's been crazy. So I do think that's interesting and C is commitment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there is. I've learned this lesson repeatedly in my life because I've started a bunch of things and a lot of them have been sort of successful. This has been the most successful thing I'd say I've done. But there's always been a point when I've kind of like just decided to go all the way in on something and I feel like the world does sort of bend to kind of support you when you're fully committed to it. Like people who have resources show up and like people are like okay, this is a real thing. Um, I don't think you can build things half fast. Like you can be careful, hedge your bets and research and do all that kind of stuff, but there has to be some kind of deep level of commitment to what you're doing to make it really work.

Speaker 1:

Man, 100%, and I do think the world same thing and people are either attracted to it or repelled from it either way, and the people who are attracted are really attracted. I mean, it comes across to me just reading the website talking to you that there is this level of commitment and passion around it that creates an energy that's attractive, and I think that's amazing. What do you wish somebody had told you?

Speaker 2:

Well, the you know the trade-offs of like balancing your time and managing your energy is like, at this phase, that that's something probably would have been helpful to know, like if, if, if, if you could somehow communicate to people who aren't parents, like me, you know, 15, 20 years ago, or something like like what the responsibility of parenthood is like, in some sort of visceral way, I think it would have motivated me even more so to try to do things and get things going, because it's it is a lot of work. So I think I, you know, yeah, just like how to how to manage your time and balance, balance your energy. I think is is what I'd probably yeah, and I don't know how to.

Speaker 1:

Maybe they'll listen to you and hear when they when they when they hear it here, but you can't know until you've done it and I mean I guess I guess you could, you know, foster some kids or something in your family.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you'd get some aspect to that if that was happening in your family. So, yeah, look, thanks for sharing all this. This has really been, this is really good and I think it's really impactful and I love what y'all are doing, and so if somebody wants to get involved or get you know, get a hold of you where's, where's the, what are the best places?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so you know, sour House has our website is SourHouseco and we have run all the social media platforms life at Sour House, mostly Instagram. We also have a Facebook group for bakers and people who are into fermentation, and then we've also been doing a variety of things since Helene to support recovery and relief in the region. Relief in the region we were working on at the end of last year, an initiative called 1% for Asheville, which we joined along 17 other local businesses and ended up committing a percentage of our profits in November, december, to various charities and ended up raising over $48,000 from these companies that were directed to relief efforts and about $48,000 from these various, you know, from these companies that were directed to relief efforts, and about 30,000 additional donations were raised and over 500 and something hours of volunteer hours were committed from this little group. And you can go to 1%netforashtralorg and see that list of companies that and you know kind of organizations that were donated to.

Speaker 2:

And you know we're still in this period where you know a lot of recovery is happening in the region and particularly in the business community. I think a lot of recovery is happening now. So, you know, I encourage you to support those companies that were part of that initiative, because they, you know, need it as well. And then, you know, consider doing follow-on donations to the kind of charities that these companies decided to give to, because it's very much like neighbors helping neighbors. Neighbors know what's going on around here right now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what's that website again? Give it to us again 1% for Asheville.

Speaker 2:

So it's. You can I have the domain in a variety of ways?

Speaker 1:

but if you spell out one percent uh for ashevilleorg, you'll get there yeah, or search for one percent for ashevilleorg okay yeah, that's good, all right, cool, yeah, I think, uh, yeah, check it out, check it out and uh, there are a lot of ways to still be involved, support those companies and continue to support. We've got a lot. We've got a long way to go here in the western North Carolina area. Yeah, we're, we're, we're open and we're for business and we're and we're going, but there is still a lot, a long time on the cleanups and putting people back to back to whole again. So, thanks for all your efforts there.

Speaker 2:

Appreciate what you all have done yeah, you too, and then you know for people listening. Thanks for your help as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I really appreciate it. So thanks for being on there. So until next time, all the best.