Succeeding as an underdog

Many of us have probably come up with a business idea and thought ”I think we’re on to something!” – but how does one go from dreaming to making it a reality? We asked Calle Rosengren and Amanda Larsson, the founders of Färsking, to tell us more about their journey.

Hey there super-entrepreneurs Calle and Amanda! They say that successful people start their day with a nutritious breakfast – is that why the first product you launched was a granola?

Hello! Haha – we’ve heard that too! But that’s not really the story behind our journey – we had a course in high school where we learned how to manage a business. One on our team was going to make granola at home for their younger brother and we quickly realized that there aren’t any nutritious alternatives for kids when you look at different cereal brands on the market. That’s when we first felt like we were on to something!

So Färsking is the result from an idea you got in high school, what made you feel that this was something to pursue after graduating?

Many people showed their support on the way, and the idea of making a healthy alternative for a young target audience was something that many appreciated. But we also felt an extra level of determination from dealing with others saying ”Nice idea! But you kids can’t do it for real”. That was like pouring fuel on our fire and we really wanted to prove the skeptics wrong while also developing products that we felt could completely change the market.

How do you succeed being an underdog on a huge market? Can you share a few insights on your success?

Well, we both feel that we’re just in the beginning of our journey, but there are a couple of things worth mentioning. Endurance of course, but also what we like to call a mix of being a bit naïve and confidently humble. If we had known what we were getting ourselves in to we might not even have started; it’s a bit like opening a book and then realizing it’s 10 000 pages long. If we had seen the whole book in the beginning we might not have started reading it cause it would’ve been too big of a challenge. This, combined with being confident enough to believe that we can develop better products than what’s currently offered while also acknowledging that it’s not a weakness to ask for help when we need it. The key is to just take the first step even if you don’t know what to expect – everything usually works out one way or another!

But how does one even start if they have a business idea?

With one foot in front of the other, haha! Start with having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish – what’s the goal and how can you get there. You don’t need to have all the means ready at the start, we sure didn’t, so instead we started working backwards. For us we knew that we wanted to launch a product in grocery stores and based on that goal we could identify what we needed; such as a warehouse, a manufacturer and so on. There’s always going to be unexpected issues to deal with so the best thing is to just go for it – and deal with issues when they appear!

Working closely with a friend can have its pros and cons. What have you learned during the time you’ve worked together, do you have any rules?

Agreed. Respect and honesty has been really important for us. We are like night and day with many different preferences.We think it’s essential to establish clear mutual goals and to manage our expectations on our ourselves as well as each other. We also do feedbacksessions every now and then where we are honest about what’s working well and what’s not working at all. The key here is to treat each other with respect and try to see things from the others one’s perspective, even if you don’t agree at first in time you might see that there was something behind the feedback.

What are your thoughts on food, snacks and drinks with a younger target group, any emerging trends?

Young people are more aware than ever. We have a growing issue in Sweden with kids not moving around as much and eating less healthy options, but there are many great initiatives highlighting this. With endless information available in our phones we can see how youths are becoming more dedicated and informed about what they eat and how it affects their body and our planet. Ice cream, candy and pizza is still enjoyed on occassion, but for everyday life we can see that lower sugar content and plant based products are gaining importance.

Lastly – what’s most important on the breakfast table?

Färsking Granola, of course!