Today, I am sitting with Stuart Macdonald, the founder behind Manilife, the world’s first provenance led peanut butter brand. They source all of their hi-oleic peanuts from a single family-run farm in the Córdoba region of Argentina, and sell across the UK’s major supermarkets (estimated company valuation of close to £13 million ). He started the business in 2015 at the age of 25. After importing 1,000kg of peanuts across the Atlantic, his manufacturer bailed. He heaved a tonne of peanuts to his bedroom, phoned 45 mates, sourced a rugby club kitchen and made 4,000 jars by hand.
Stuart’s conviction, tenacity, and “fuck you” energy is what struck me. It's palpable and arresting.
—--- QUOTES FROM STUART-----
“I would say just start… 24 to 27 is the best time on earth to start a business. Even if you fail, you’ve learned more than in any job… you can win via ENERGY. If you start later, you have more experience, but your energy is less, so you have to win through smarts.”
“When I was about 16, I got diagnosed with quite a serious illness… Wilson’s disease… from that moment on I basically developed a bit of a chip on my shoulder, LIKE… “The fuck you” attitude. There was always this sense that, if I didn’t go do something a bit out of the ordinary… if I wasn’t able to take a bit of a risk, then I’d bottled it.”
“Quit your day job as late as you possibly can. For those 11 months I was getting in at six, doing the day job, and leaving at seven.”
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