Cofounders Becca Millstein and Caroline Goldfarb are on a mission to make premium tinned fish everyone’s favorite appetizer. From sardines to salmon, each tin is ethically sourced from responsible fisheries and aquaculture farms. In addition to quality and flavor, sustainability is at the forefront of Fishwife’s priorities.
Becca first encountered tinned fish while studying abroad in Spain and realized that the market in the States was lacking. Taking back the derogatory term for women who were considered brash or unladylike, Fishwife launched in December 2020.
Since then, Fishwife has introduced countless Americans to the health benefits of tinned fish. At the start of 2024, Becca made an incredibly successful appearance on Shark Tank, where she landed an investment from Lori Greiner and Candace Nelson.
Recently, we caught up with Becca to learn more about her journey and hear her advice for fellow entrepreneurs.
1. Why did you start Fishwife?
I started working on Fishwife during the first chapter of quarantine in April 2020. Like most folks during lockdown, I’d started preparing and consuming 100% of my meals at home. Tinned fish had made it so easy to throw together a delicious, healthy, and affordable lunch or dinner. I was originally exposed to the wonders of conservas while studying abroad in southern Spain and had witnessed the elevated culinary culture that existed around tinned seafood.
Cut to my trips to my local grocery store in Southern California in May 2020 — walking down the canned seafood aisle and seeing nothing that really resembled food at all, let alone the culinary delight of Spanish or Portuguese conservas.
While it was the culinary culture around tinned seafood in other nations that originally sparked my interest in this very sleepy category, it was the innumerable health benefits, the sustainability opportunities, and the convenience of tinned seafood that convinced me to start Fishwife. Additionally, I’d recognized a growing excitement around the category, led by food personalities like Anthony Bourdain, Alison Roman, and David Chang — all bolstered by the rise of natural wines and the more elevated eating-at-home culture that it encouraged.
2. What obstacles did you face along the way?
Building a sustainable canned seafood supply chain is not for the weak of heart! Especially during the height of a global pandemic and supply chain crisis. To avoid the complexities of importing during COVID-19, I began by working with a North American cannery. However, North American canneries are generally very small, and we sized out of the first one about 6 months after we started working with them, leaving us without product for two months!
3. What lessons do you have for other entrepreneurs?
Do everything yourself for the first year of the business. This allows you to familiarize yourself with the full scope of your business so that when you ultimately hire someone to take over, you at least have a base-level understanding of their role. It also allows you to form deeper connections that stand the test of time with journalists, buyers, and influencers.
4. What’s on the horizon for Fishwife?
So much! We’re launching a few genuinely stunning products this year that will have a transformational impact on our business…and make our customers very happy! We’re also doing a lot of thrilling collaborations, both in the tin and out of it. We’re growing a lot in retail and are excited to find creative ways to bring the brand to life at the grocery store level.
5. How do you keep work/life balance? What drives/inspires you?
Ha! Running this company is the honor and privilege of my life. I happily contribute most of my time to running the business, but I feel so lucky to do it and it never feels like work! I spend all Saturday outside, usually in the mountains or the ocean. I’m driven by the prospect of transforming the identity of an entire product category. I’m driven by the idea of “premium-izing” the canned fish category so that people are willing to pay more for sustainable, high-quality, and ethically sourced seafood.