Gluten-free pasta.SIGNE LANGFORD/The Globe and Mail
KARL MOORE – This is Karl Moore of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, Talking Management for The Globe and Mail. Today, I am delighted to speak to Steven Singer, who is founder and [former] CEO of Glutino, which is one of the first companies to [move into] the gluten-free marketplace. [Mr. Singer has recently gone on to found startup Live.Love.Snack].
Steven, you are a serial entrepreneur, what is the heart of an entrepreneur? How is it different than the heart, the mind, of a corporate type?
STEVEN SINGER – I think very ambitious, very energetic.
I think everyone is ambitious and energetic in their own way, but I think entrepreneurs, we don't just think about things sometimes, we actually do them. We actually take our idea from idea to action.
I feel that is probably one of the greatest things an entrepreneur could do is you've gotta take that jump. You have to take that leap, and you are going to make some mistakes, it is bound to happen and it's going to be scary at times and you hope the scores are bigger than the little mistakes you make and you will end up ahead and try to be different.
But I think entrepreneurs are all about that energy and that passion, and making it happen and not being afraid of taking that step. And that is one of the things I do, I like to think big and not be too crazy but at the same time balance that "think big and take action" approach.
KARL MOORE – So where did the passion for gluten-free and now healthy snacks, where did that come from?
STEVEN SINGER – Gluten-free really came from understanding the market all over the world and seeing that it was coming to America and somebody had to be that brand. There were a lot of smaller gluten-free companies that were mom-and-pop type shops [for] people who had children who were eating gluten-free.
So they had like a baking mix and a cookie mix, and they were all great people and all great things, but there was no business – call it more ambitious approach – to really being that one big brand. And that is what drove us, being that one-stop shop in gluten-free, the category leader, the category captain as they call it across the market.