Creating sustainable, traceable, ready-to-cook, high quality seafood is what Salty Girl Seafood is all about!
Laura Johnson and Norah Eddy are co-founders of the start-up company based in Santa Barbara, California. Both women graduated from UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management in 2014 with a master’s thesis working to improve the Galapagos lobster fishery.
As a natural born seafood lover, Laura is originally from Chicago where she did her undergrad at Colorado College and soon after moved to Alaska to work as a guide. Norah studied Marine Biology, was a field scientist and has worked in the marine field since the age of 17.
Let’s get to know these headstrong entrepreneur businesswomen some more!
What made you decide to attend UCSB for your masters program?
“The Bren School at UCSB is really unique because it’s different than a traditional fisheries program, it focuses more on management and you do science as well but learn about policy, economics and put it in a management side.”- Laura
“It was the perfect interdisciplinary study I was looking for and it was perfect for applying a study in whatever field you work for.” – Norah
How did the name “Salty Girl Seafood” come about?
They both laughed as they mentioned that they started off with a “dorky” name, but it was actually Norah who came up with the name “Salty Girl” and they have settled into it ever since. “The names in this industry as so generic and there’s no ‘Salty Girl’, so when people hear that, it just sticks.” – Norah.
What would you say was the butterfly effect of your business?
“I think we’re still waiting for that to happen,” joked Norah, but they both did agree that so far, having their retail line was their butterfly effect and it really resonated with them, when they hit the retail market and consumers started to connect with the brand, products and what the brand stands for.
Another interesting fact about Salty Girl Seafood is that they have hired over 20 interns! “We are UCSB, front, back, side to side, and all around,” said Norah as her and Laura talked about hiring interns in both undergrad and graduate who have done a wide range of work from sales, marketing, to looking into fisheries and sustainability content. They both try to work closely with UCSB programs such as TMP and marketing. They are both eager to have interns join their company and learn from them.
How was it when you started your company and approached either the first chef or first fishery about working with Salty Girl Seafood?
“Oh God, it was so hard,” Norah recalled, as they both remembered going through their first list of phone calls and reminiscing on the difficult business people they had to endure when trying to expand their company. Laura jokingly said, “I’m surprised we started a business based on those first phone calls we made”.
Who was your first customer?
It was UCSB, but also Brian from “Georgia’s Catering.” He couldn’t have been a better first customer. We have a handful of chefs that got us to where we are today.
Where are the fisheries that you work with located?
The fisheries we work with are from here in Santa Barbara, all along the central coast, Morro Bay, Louisiana, and Alaska.
What do you really want people to know about Salty Girl?
“I think the most important thing is that we want people to know we are a mission-driven company” said Laura, “The reason we started the company was to drive change in the seafood industry and support sustainable fisheries.” Norah added, “We do a lot more outreach and education than we thought we would, which has been good for our consumer audience who may not be familiar with what we do but know our brand.”
“A lot of people don’t acquaint what they see in the aquarium to what they see in a restaurant or their plate.” –Norah
One of the most unique things about your company is that it was founded and run by women, which we don’t see a lot of in today’s business. How do you feel about paving the way for future businesswomen in the world?
“How much time do you have?” Norah joked. “I feel that this past year of my life has been coming to a re-understanding of what it is to be a woman in the workforce, which sounds corny but being a female entrepreneur and female business owner is difficult. I think being a female company in what is a heavily traditional male and old-school industry we have this really unique mindset in that we have this unique brand,” said Norah. “It’s awesome to be a role model for change and potentially help other women and prove women can do start-ups too, but that isn’t to say there hasn’t been really hard parts about that. I read that 0.3% of seafood industry executives are women. We do get talked down to a lot and get pushed off to the side,” added Laura.
One thing that they both agreed on as well is that they both had to prove themselves a lot more than their male counterparts. They were also very pleased that they’ve had male interns be so comfortable with taking direction from them and love being a part of something that is women owned and operated.
Like what you read? If you want to participate in creating a more seafood-friendly world, both Norah and Laura want you to know that the best way you can help is by buying their sustainable products. Salty Girl is also “1% For The Planet” in which one percent of their annual sales to a nonprofit! To learn more about company, where to purchase their products or follow them on social media, visit their website!