This week’s smallest social media drama is about olive oil
Impersonation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but not in the world of start-ups.
There was drama in the olive oil industry this week — and it unfolded on LinkedIn, the online haven of startup feuds, exaggerated and self-mythologizing odes to #founder culture.
An angry post from olive oil entrepreneur Andrew Benin caused a stir in a small corner of the internet food world, in part because it raised a slippery question: who owns the squeeze bottle?
Mr. Benin is the CEO and co-founder of Grazaa direct-to-consumer start-up launched in 2022 which sells olive oil in squeezable, forest-green plastic bottles designed for optimal drizzling and Instagramming. Whole Foods sells it, Enjoy your meal gave it a rave and Magazine Food & Wine called it a “cool kid olive oil.” If The Wall Street Journal noted this year that Graza hit a “sweet spot” in the market with its two extra virgin olive oil bottles, the Drizzle ($20) and the Sizzle ($15).
After quality and shipping issues over the past holiday season, Mr. Benin addressed more than 30,000 customers in an unusually sincere and detailed email. That gesture, along with posts on Graza’s blog (the “Glog,” as the company calls it), painted a picture of an enthusiastic founder.
Then, as he wrote this week LinkedIn, he faced what he called “#copycat culture.” In the post, he mentioned a competitor’s new olive oil, which also comes in a squeeze bottle and is marketed as something to drizzle over pizza.
“While friendly competition has always been welcome, I consider this a blatant disrespect and choose to voice my displeasure,” Mr Benin wrote. He tagged the company, Brightland, and the founder, Aishwarya Iyer, and added a photo of the squeeze bottle in question. “#Founders know this day will come,” he wrote, adding, “Personally, I think it’s okay to get mad when people rip you off.”
Some Twitter users said Mr Benin’s post was the start of “the olive oil wars”, but it should be noted that the row was one-sided. Ms Iyer and Brightland have not spoken publicly about the call. (Brightland declined to comment on this article. Graza did not respond to requests for comment.)
Reception to Mr Benin’s post seemed mixed, with many of the comments on LinkedIn chastising him for stirring up unnecessary drama. “With all due respect, you didn’t make the squeeze bottle,” says Alison Cayne, the founder of Harbor kitchen, wrote. “Chefs and home cooks have been using it for decades.” The FAQ section of Graza’s website even says as much.
“Get used to it,” Ju Rhyu, the CEO and co-founder of Hero Cosmetics, wrote in a tweet about what she called “olive oil copycat-gate.” She included four photos of products that appeared to mimic one of her own company’s products, the Mighty Patch.
“I think it comes with the territory,” Ms. Rhyu said. “It means you achieve a certain level of success, if there are copycats. It’s something we absolutely try to defend against, but it’s not easy.”
Ms. Rhyu said she first heard about the olive oil imbroglio on LinkedIn.
“I thought it was bad form, calling out another founder who is an entrepreneur and really reviving this category in a way,” she said of Mr Benin’s name, Ms Iyer, who founded Brightland in 2018, in his post. She added that the post was an “overreaction” in her opinion.
Mr. Benin seemed to regret going after a rival. Hours after his original statement, he posted a follow-up to LinkedIn with an apology to Ms. Iyer and his team at Graza. “I was heated and reacted badly, and learned from the variety of comments everyone left today,” he wrote.
For some online, the cold-pressed social media drama has been a welcome distraction from the more pressing concerns outside the artisanal olive oil niche community.
“Frankly god bless the olive oil war, this is exactly the kind of ridiculous startup-brain-worms low-stakes drama the world needs more of right now,” tweeted Helen Rosner, a New Yorker staff writer who covers food. “No villains, no victims, just top-notch public ego folly.”