Opinion
Holden: Naming a Business After Yourself Shows a Lack of Humility
“Anybody who names a business after themselves is probably not a very humble person.”
What-if
Holden: 2008 Recession Was Essential to Securing First Lease and Talent
“Without a recession, there's no way a landlord would have taken a chance on us. There's no chance that I would have found smart, motivated people that needed jobs or were out there and available.”
Assertion Supported
Luke's Lobster cut operations to one shack before reopening 12 locations
“We ended up shutting everything down besides one shack, and now we've got Sifu Company back up and going. We've got 12 shacks up and going.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pandemic hit Luke's Lobster in March when annual cash reserves were lowest
“We were a very seasonal business to begin with. Like we make most of our hay, Memorial Day to Labor Day. And this couldn't have happened at a worse time for a business like us, because we're kind of at the end of our rope to begin with. We're just at the end o…”
Assertion Partly supported
Luke Holden: 70% of US seafood is consumed in restaurants
“So in the U.S., about 70% of the seafood is consumed within restaurants, and so when you completely take that out of the supply chain, you're left with a complete imbalance, and we knew that heading into this.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Luke Holden predicts Luke's Lobster grocery volume will top 1M units
“Our grocery branded business in 2009, we probably did around 200,000 units between two different SKUs will be over a million units this year.”
Assertion Supported
Luke Holden: Maine faced a huge glut of oysters and bluefin tuna
“It's not what it was last year, but on the flip side, yes, there's a huge glut here in the state of Maine for things like Oysters, which are typically consumed in, in restaurants and bluefin tuna, which is almost exclusively served in, in restaurants.”
Disclosure
Holden's Father Borrowed Against 401(k) to Match $15,000 Initial Capital
“So, I had about 15,000 dollars in savings. My dad, I said, could you match this and be fifty-fifty partners with me? He says yes. A couple years later, he told me he literally borrowed the money against his four-oh-and-k.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Luke's Lobster Sourced Seafood Directly From Fishermen to Secure Unit Economics
“Working directly with a processor, working directly with fishermen, there was no middleman from day one. So we had access to the best quality product at the best price, and our economic model was, we needed volume in order to be successful.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Seafood Processors Face Severe Working Capital Squeeze Between Fishermen and Buyers
“In this business, a lot of our vendors, folks that were selling lobster tails and lobster mints and lobster bodies and lobster leg meat, things that we're not using at the restaurant group, they all want to pay in 30 or 45 days, but the fishermen need to get p…”
Disclosure
Luke's Lobster Funds Ocean Foundation Research Into Carbon-Sequestering Kelp Aquaculture
“A great example is the kelp business that we've been investing in. So kelp sequesters carbon, and we've been putting funds through the Ocean Foundation to go out and do the research to understand how that type of aquaculture can positively affect the environme…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Holden's Craigslist Co-Founder Ad Received 500 Responses in Days
“And I got, like, 500 responses in a matter of a couple of days.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Supplier Father Gave Luke's Lobster 90-Day Payment Terms to Float Cash
“We were, and luckily he didn't make us pay for the first 90 days. So that really helped cash flow in the beginning.”
