Laureen Asseo
Laureen Asseo.
- Laureen Asseo began Fresh n' Lean in 2010 and regularly worked 20-hour days at the company's onset, learning the business from every angle.
- Asseo also built Fresh n' Lean without the help of outside capital, forcing her to be pragmatic about growth opportunities. Fresh n' Lean is now an eight-figure-revenue company.
- Asseo recognized the potential in the direct-to-consumer marketplace when customers were still adjusting to the idea of having goods and services shipped to their homes, and leveraged the trend to grow her business substantially.
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As an 18-year-old college student, sleep was an afterthought.
But I wasn't going to frat parties. I was working up to 20 hours a day getting my organic meal delivery company, Fresh n' Lean, off the ground while earning my bachelor's degree in apparel manufacturing and business management from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
I started the company in 2010 out of my one-bedroom apartment in Redondo Beach, CA. A decade later, Fresh n' Lean has 220 employees and operates out of a 55,000-square-foot facility in Anaheim. We've delivered 7.2 million meals since 2010 and are set to bring in $40 million revenue in 2019.
Here are the key ingredients that guided my company's success.
1. I recognized the need for convenient, nutrient-rich meals and ran with the idea
The impact of unhealthy eating hit far too close to home for me.
My father faced a health crisis due to his diet - he was eating a lot of heavily processed foods and focusing on convenience instead of quality. He was forced to make drastic lifestyle changes, and thankfully, after he replaced processed food with nourishing organic meals, his health recovered.
Seeing his progress inspired me to prepare organic meals for other people, and Fresh n' Lean was born.
At the time, I wanted everyone to have the same opportunity my father did, regardless of their location or socioeconomic status.
2. I performed every duty imaginable
As an 18-year-old, I had a lot to learn about meal preparation and delivery, as well as running my own company.
I understood sourcing and manufacturing and distribution from my education and various internships with clothing manufacturers in Los Angeles - those lessons were helpful. But food production was a new space for me.
So, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work, performing any task that was needed and relying on a small team of employees who assisted me in getting the company off the ground.
I created the recipes, handwrote labels, and packed the food in bulk-bought Tupperware containers. And then I'd drive around locally on weekends and personally deliver the meals. We started shipping meals overnight through UPS that year, expanding our reach to the continental United States.
I also handled customer service, answering emails and phone calls as people became interested in our service.
Within a few months, the company had outgrown my apartment. We started renting a shared commercial kitchen one day a week, and then two days a week, and within a few months we were renting the space five days a week.
We maintained a small team early on - it took us five years to reach 25 employees. But we hired strategically, filling key positions such as an executive chef in order to ensure the quality of our meals. My brother Thomas also joined Fresh n' Lean and helped spearhead our administration and accounting efforts and build our business strategy.
That early perspective and experience was vital as I built Fresh n' Lean, helping me understand each employee's responsibilities and duties and giving me great appreciation for their contributions to help the company reach its potential.
3. I didn't take on outside capital - meaning I had to be smart about risks
Fresh n' Lean was a lean operation in its early years, by choice.
We grew methodically, maintaining our small, passionate team as we bounced from one rented kitchen space to another. I wasn't interested in taking on outside capital - I relied on personal savings instead of upfront funding because I believed our business model was sustainable and preferred flexibility.
That lack of outside capital forced me to be thoughtful and pragmatic about growth opportunities. I couldn't blindly throw money and resources at every challenge that emerged.
Unrestrained expansion wasn't feasible. Patience was key.
For example, I dreamed for years of building our own kitchen and manufacturing area, but I had to wait until the timing was right to proceed. We kept outgrowing the kitchen spaces we were renting, and none of those facilities were adequate long-term solutions for us. We had no other options - the project became a necessity. Luckily, by the time that we broke ground, we'd acquired enough capital to diminish the project's risks.
We opened our custom kitchen and manufacturing facility in early 2019, and it's been everything I hoped it would be. But if we had rushed the process, it could have jeopardized the company's outlook.
4. I adjusted to emerging consumer trends
At the time Fresh n' Lean was created, direct-to-consumer shipping for food wasn't widely embraced. People still generally weren't comfortable with the concept of meals being sent to their homes, and phone technology was still emerging.
Consumer trends have shifted significantly in the past decade, in large part because of Amazon, the ultimate driver of our instant gratification society. Amazon has made the possibility of getting anything shipped to your house a common thing.
We had few direct competitors at the time of our launch. The popular meal-kit companies Hello Fresh and Plated weren't available in the United States until 2012 - same with the grocery-pickup company Instacart - and other brands such as Blue Apron were regionally focused. Companies like Grubhub, and later, DoorDash, saw huge popularity delivering food from local restaurants.
We stood apart from other brands by offering fully prepped organic meals instead of kits or takeout, and Fresh n' Lean entered the marketplace ahead of other similarly-focused brands like Thrive Foods Direct.
As some companies in the direct-to-consumer food space have struggled or shuttered, Fresh n' Lean is positioned for continued growth. We've expanded our retail offerings in grocery stores such as Whole Foods locations in southern California and opened our first on-the-go retail store in 2019.
Fresh n' Lean's meals have also diversified due to consumer demand. We started as a vegan company before adding animal protein and launching Paleo and Keto meal plans.
5. I stayed true to my vision
Producing organic food is more expensive and comes with more thorough logistics and regulations - but when you buy organic food, you're purchasing peace of mind. You know exactly what you're eating - no added chemicals or hidden ingredients. It means your food was produced under humane conditions, free of pesticides and hormones, with a reduced environmental impact.
We could have saved money by cutting corners and using lower-quality ingredients, but saving money was never our focus. Fresh n' Lean's efforts are about so much more than saving a few pennies. Eating organic is a way of life, a value system. Cutting corners would only diminish the quality of our product and undermine customer loyalty.
And 7.2 million meals later, cutting corners is not in our plans.