Oct 4, 2021
Ben Conniff Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Luke's Lobster started his career almost accidentally by answering a Craig’s List ad. The rest you could say is history. Ben’s experience as a freelance food journalist, having written for Saveur, GQ, Tasting Table and others certainly gave him a strong background to what customers wanted and what it would take to make Luke’s Lobster a name for itself. His ability to be “hands on” in every aspect of the business has been one of the catalysts to their growth. What he has learned and has taught his team is resilience, grit and determination through the highs and lows of running and building a business. Ben works as a leader, as a mentor, as a team player and most importantly as voice of integrity and values as he supports both his and Luke’s dream to make Luke’s Lobster a name that everyone knows.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- How a life-long love can become a fulfilling future
- Why hiring a team with consistent values and work ethic has long term benefits
- What does “keeping it simple” have to do with a successful business
- How you can expand your business and maintain integrity
- What it takes to maintain consistency when major change takes place
- How growth does not have to mean compromising standards
- Why risk plays a role in pursuing new ideas
- How a crisis can force a business to pivot and even expand
- Why taking the hard path can lead to growth of a business
- How the food industry must take a look at improvement in order to sustain
- Why taking a hard look at a businesses footprint from all angles is crucial
- What steps can be made to make an environmental statement
Bio:
Ben Conniff is co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Luke’s Lobster, an international seafood company and restaurant group based in Maine that opened its first restaurant location in New York in 2009. His business partner Luke Holden came up with the idea for Luke's Lobster while working as an investment banker in Manhattan. Born and raised as a lobsterman in Maine, Luke missed the simple, delicious lobster rolls of his youth while living in the city and saw an opportunity to bring a classic Maine-style roll with better lobster to New Yorkers at a fair price. Luke put an ad on Craigslist for a partner and found Ben, who joined to get the business started while Luke kept his full-time banking job. Their lobster shacks expanded quickly to other US cities and eventually to Japan and Singapore.
In 2013, Luke's opened its own lobster production facility, buying its lobster directly from lobstermen and lobster co-ops and handling it through every painstaking step from ocean to plate. They now bring seafood to guests in their lobster shacks, in branded grocery products around the country, and directly to consumers through their online market. Luke's is a Certified B Corp and credits its success to prioritizing its core values of Taste, Transparency, and Purpose, and its unwavering commitment to supporting its team and stakeholders.
Ben was also once a full-time and now a part-time writer, having authored the Luke's cookbook, Real Maine Food, and published in Saveur, GQ, Food52, Smithsonian, Tasting Table, and Yankee Magazine.
Resources:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Luke’s Lobster
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lukeslobster
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/luke’s lobster
Websites:www.lukeslobster.com