Will Anderson loves business. When he speaks about valuations, mergers and acquisitions and barriers to entry, he lights up. Will doesn’t have your average health food entrepreneur story, but it’s a good one. After earning his MBA From Fordham GSB, Will provided valuation services in the Tech, Media, and Telecom space with Deloitte’s Advisory practice. He worked with Fortune 500 companies to value their assets for the purposes of mergers and acquisitions. Will realized his true love lay in CPG through working with one of his favorite clients, Constellation Brands, a beer, wine and spirits company. “Food brings so much joy into people’s life,” he says.
What impacted Will most while working in financial services for these successful companies is how they are able to create value for people. He was inspired to do the same.
Will always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but it wasn’t until he visited Brazil in 2012 that everything clicked into place. He discovered the açaí berry, which has been a staple of the Amazonian diet for thousands of years. He recognized this super berry as his path towards creating value. From a business perspective, he found everything he needed in açaí: it was a niche product that he could gather straight from the source and Americans had just begun to develop a taste for this powerful superfruit.
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Today, Will knows the ins and outs of the açaí industry. He visits the Amazon river basin every few months with the objective of learning as much from the locals as he can. He now knows the best location for sourcing açaí and intricate details about the soil. He tells of the 2 different species of açaí berry and how it came to be so popular in the United States. He knows that a Fair-Trade system is embedded in the industry and that producers are enthusiastically upgrading their manufacturing standards to be able to supply their product globally.
Today, Will’s Açaí of America is growing like wild berries. In 2017, he was knocking door-to-door selling açaí to New York City delis and cafés out of his own truck. In 2018, they acquired nine new distributors because the demand for their product was just that strong. Will feels great about his successes as he is living his personal dream – using his business acumen to create value for everyone involved. His customers are receiving the best açaí, their customers are receiving the healthy superfood benefits, and the producers have thriving businesses.
Will has a strong desire to see people, especially fellow entrepreneurs, live up to their maximum potential so he is generous with his advice. The main guidance that Will has for people getting ready to take the leap into CPG entrepreneurship is to be very careful about choosing the first step. What are the structures of the industry? What are the barriers to entry? Do you have enough target volume? What is your niche and how will you leverage it? Once that first step is clear, they must be persistent and tireless in achieving your goals.