Nov 29, 2021 · 48m · how-i-built-this
Live Episode! Tofurky: Seth Tibbott (2019)
0:00 / 0:00
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Recorded live in Portland, this episode of 'How I Built This' features Seth Tibbott detailing his improbable journey from an environmental naturalist living in a treehouse to founding Turtle Island Foods and creating Tofurky, a pioneering brand in the plant-based food industry.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 40.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.8 Guest teaching 1.6 Guest disagreement 0.5 Guy pushing back 1.2
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 44:24 Seth firmly rejects selling out to private equity
When Raz suggests Tibbott could secure multi-generational wealth by cashing out, Tibbott rejects the premise entirely, stating he already feels rich beyond his dreams and refuses to yield control of the company mission.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 44:01 Guy challenges Seth on refusing private equity offersRaz directly challenges Tibbott's refusal of private equity, arguing that after living in a treehouse and earning very little for a decade, taking a huge buyout is the obvious financial move.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:53 Seth educates the audience on tempeh fermentation scienceTibbott explains the technical biological specifics of making tempeh, outlining how soybean cotyledons are inoculated with Rhizopus oligosporus mold under controlled incubation temperatures.
Guy holds their own ▶ 1:44 Guy provides extensive market context on alternative meatsRaz exhibits strong subject-matter expertise by citing market developments, including Beyond Meat's IPO, Impossible Foods' valuation, and shifting consumer trends among flexitarians.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Listener Question Solicitation for How I Built This | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Raz opens the episode with an overview of the plant-based food industry, quoting market context like the Beyond Meat IPO, Impossible Foods' valuation, and shifting consumer demographics. The tone is introductory and narrative-driven. | |
| Picky Childhood Eating and Becoming an Outdoor Naturalist | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks open questions about Tibbott's childhood, early career aspirations, and anti-corporate mindset in the early 1970s. Tibbott answers with humorous self-deprecation about wanting to play second base for the Washington Senators. | |
| Discovering Vegetarianism Through Diet for a Small Planet | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Raz prompts Tibbott to explain tempeh to the audience. Tibbott gives a detailed breakdown of the Indonesian fermentation process involving Rhizopus oligosporus and incubating conditions, while Raz playfully interjects on hippie commune tropes. | |
| Founding Turtle Island Foods in Forest Grove Oregon | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Raz explores the origin story of Turtle Island Soy Dairy. Raz jokes about the obscure appeal of tempeh in 1980 and questions who the early buyers were, while Tibbott lightheartedly terms them 'early adopters.' | |
| Securing a Commercial Kitchen in an Abandoned School | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Raz challenges Tibbott's description of a vacant school kitchen, clarifying that it was just a regular commercial kitchen rather than an innate 'tempeh kitchen.' Tibbott explains his unconventional pitch to the school board. | |
| Subletting to Clowns and Living in a Treehouse | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Raz inquires about Tibbott's survival strategies during the early 1980s. Tibbott shares the eccentric story of subletting spare classrooms to a piano-tuning clown duo and building a treehouse to live in for seven years. | |
| Financial Hardship Existential Doubts and Finding Lifelong Support | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Raz presses Tibbott on the existential dread of earning only thirty-one thousand dollars over nine years and turning down a twenty-five thousand dollar buyout. Tibbott defends his choice by pointing to his mission-driven fulfillment. | |
| Relocating to Hood River and Inventing the Tofurky Roast | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Raz guides the narrative toward the invention of the Tofurky roast in collaboration with the Robels. Tibbott details the original holiday kit complete with cranberry stuffing and eight tempeh drumettes. | |
| Launching Naming and Refining the Tofurky Product Line | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Raz asks how retailers reacted to a thirty-dollar frozen vegetarian roast in 1995. Tibbott explains the pivot away from a corporate persona to embrace a whimsical brand name, noting customer enthusiasm via prepaid feedback postcards. | |
| Capitalizing on Free Media Exposure and Reaching Profitability | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Raz asks whether late-night jokes and public ridicule felt insulting. Tibbott explains that free media exposure in major national newspapers served as their primary marketing engine until reaching profitability. | |
| Product Expansion into Deli Slices and National Distribution | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Raz probes why Tibbott refuses private equity buyouts or equity dilution despite rapid mainstream growth and factory expansion needs. Tibbott firmly explains that staying family-owned preserves their moral mission. | |
| Reflections on Persistence Timing and Trying to Be Less Stupid | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz poses his signature concluding question on luck versus skill. Tibbott concludes humbly, attributing their staying power to persistence, timing, and trying to make fewer mistakes over time. |
Statements from this episode (18)
Tibbott built his first tempeh incubator in a fridge with Christmas lights.
“So I started making tempeh for friends and family, and there were retreat groups that would come out, so they wanted some tempeh, and I got an old refrigerator, and I strung Christmas tree lights up inside.”
Tibbott sold his early batches of tempeh for seven dollars.
“Five pounds of tempeh, you know, would bring in seven dollars.”
Tibbott: Forest Grove Co-op Rented Kitchen for $25 a Month
“So I went to the local co-op, Forest Grove, and asked if they would rent me their kitchen at night, and they said, yeah, we can rent it out to you for 25 dollars a month.”
Applegate Natural Foods ordered 1,000 pounds of tempeh weekly in 1981.
“So in April of 1981, a distributor called Applegate Natural Foods out here in Tigard called up and said, we need you to make us a thousand pounds of tempeh a week.”
Tibbott: Turtle Island Foods grossed about $1,300 monthly in early 1981
“We were grossing, like, 1300 dollars a month at that point”
Tibbott rented four trees for $25 a month to build a treehouse.
“One of my employees, Amber Yesick, had a,
Piece of land right outside Hewsem, and she offered to rent me four trees for 25 dollars a month.”
In 1986, a tofu company offered $25,000 to buy Turtle Island Foods.
“And actually, in 1986, I had an offer to sell the tempeh business to a local tofu company, and they offered me 25,000 dollars for the business.”
Tibbott leased a 5,000-square-foot facility using a $160,000 family loan.
“There was an old tortilla factory in Hood River, which is 10 miles from Houston, and we rented out 5000 square feet of this 26,000 square foot building, and I borrowed the 160,000 dollars from Bob.”
In 1994, chef Hans Robel sold 25 to 50 stuffed tofu roasts.
“In 1994, I was delivering tempeh to him, and he was making, it was around Thanksgiving, these stuffed tofu roasts that He had been working on, and he was selling them about to 25 or 50 a year, and they were a dome of tofu with stuffing in the middle”
Tibbott adopted the name Tofurky from a Portland sandwich maker in 1981.
“Okay, so I didn't invent the name Tofurkey, right? In 1981, when I was delivering tempeh around Portland, there was a Tofurkey sandwich, T-O-F-U-R-K-E-Y, and it was being made by King Harvest, local sandwich maker here in Portland.”
Tibbott: Turtle Island sold 818 Tofurky roasts in 1995
“I mean, we put self-addressed stamp postcards in every Tofurky that year. We sold 818.”
Tibbott: Tofurky was one of the first frozen products sold online
“You know that Tofurky was one of the first frozen products ever to be sold on the internet.”
Tibbott: Natural food marketing lacked humor before Tofurky's controversial launch
“All of the natural food marketing wasn't very whimsical, or funny, or fun, and this was like fun, but it was also in the early days people kind of took offense to it a little bit, because you were taking on an iconic American meal, and a holiday, and everythin…”
Tibbott put The Washington Post on hold for The New York Times.
“At one point, I had to put the Washington Post on hold to talk to the New York Times.”
Tibbott: Tofurky is stocked in over 27,000 stores worldwide
“What we're seeing right now is the mainstream, you know, plant-based foods, and we're in 27,000 plus stores worldwide.”
Tofurky refuses to sell outside equity to maintain independent mission control.
“We haven't sold equity yet. You know, we'd like to keep our equity so that we can keep the mission at the center of our lives, and so that nobody can tell us what we can do or can't do.”