Josh Hix of Plated

Josh Hix co-founded Plated in 2012. However, his entrepreneurial journey goes all the way back to 2003, when he started building his first tech product along with many other business endeavors to help him pay his way through college. This experience before going to Harvard Business School was extremely valuable for him, as it let him meet amazingly smart people, learn from his own mistakes, and then, evolved, co-found a successful business in 2012.

However, even with this long journey, Josh Hix says he couldn’t avoid mistakes altogether. Hix founded Plated with his partner, Nick Taranto, right out of the latter’s apartment. They wanted to be disciplined about building this product, so for six months, they were building and planning, and learning anything they could possibly learn about their niche to ace the product.

How did they stay sane? Hix explains, “you do have to care about what you’re building to get through the tough days, so we thought about what we cared about and what interested us – health, wellness, and nutrition.”

Within those six months, they were looking for places where the things they were passionate about intersected with an unsolved pain of an end user. And that’s where they found an opportunity to create Plated.

Unfortunately, passion alone doesn’t pay the bills. That’s why Hix and Taranto found themselves in debt with maxed-out credit cards.

They knew back then it was time for them to turn to investors. It wasn’t an easy path for them, though, as to get their first “Yes,” they had to go through 200 “No’s.” Finally, they met a group of angel investors from their niche who got their product and their passion and were ready to make an entrepreneurial leap of faith with them.

What is their advice to other early-stage startups looking for startup financing options?

It might sound cliche, but Hix recommends not to give up: eventually, if you have a great product, one of those doors is going to open for you.

In 2014, Josh Hix participated in Shark Tank with Plated. He shares his experience in this episode and explains that this was a fun life experience and later led them to raise capital. 

Millions of households watch Shark Tank, and participation there brought brand recognition to Plated, which is something every startup needs and has to pursue.

While building the product, Hix says he didn’t really have time to analyze what the future holds for food tech. However, after the acquisition, he took some time off, looking for his next adventure. At that time, he realized that the future of food tech was ever so bright. He believes that new successful businesses will emerge to improve and innovate the supply chain, the “better for you” lines of products, and logistics for perishable food.