Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen Sutton.
Hi Stephen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
As a young boy in Upstate New York, I probably was not too different from many rural kids playing in any body of water I could find, hunting for any type of aquatic life to catch and examine. Like many of those, I later thought it was time to grow up and make money in college and took an opportunity to work on Wall St. after my freshman year. I hated it. Armed with the knowledge of what I didn’t want to become, I used the rest of my electives to become barely qualified to work at making an impact in the world of seafood that the little kid in me always loved. After stints as a conveyor belt laborer, harvester and lab manager at a shellfish facility, I landed a job with NOAA participating in marine fisheries and helping to develop data-driven wild fish catch management. I saw smart, thorough and somewhat sustainable management of a limited natural resource, but I also learned that US fisheries only provide 5-10% of the seafood we eat! From there, I headed for a Master’s Degree and consulting career in international aquaculture throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia, farming shrimp in Thailand, fish in Panama and Mexico and beyond.
I raised money, found a technology partner and started TransparentSea officially in 2020 in an effort to bring my fishing, marine science and aquaculture experience home. We started a shrimp farm in a warehouse in Los Angeles against all odds and have taken satisfaction in being able to be transparent with customers about our product story and are beginning to reach the ultimate goal of teaching them about a better way forward.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road, but I’m not sure how many entrepreneur stories are smooth. Being first is hard, and as the only registered shrimp farm in California, there have been plenty of firsts. We had to figure out how to get this permitted, built in a pandemic with a small budget and very little help from engineers and architects working remotely. Then, we had to build a team that could learn to grow the product with an even tighter budget. Once we grew some shrimp, the moment of truth was to find out if anyone cared enough to pay a price that could keep us in business. We still face challenges every day, but we have built a team that lets us feel that we have passed the most harrowing of times.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about TransparentSea?
We are an indoor shrimp farming technology designed to reduce the impact of seafood procurement on the environment and produce clean, traceable seafood for increasingly educated consumers. We produce one of the only environmentally green-rated shrimp products in the United States. While already much more low-impact and efficient than wild shrimp fisheries and traditional farmers, our mission is to continue to find more ways to be resource and cost-efficient, scale and then pass that savings onto the customer.
Our shrimp (technically prawns) are sold via retail on our website and in some markets around Los Angeles. We sell the majority by volume to some of the best restaurants around Southern California.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson has been not to get too high or too low, no matter what happens.
Pricing:
- Wholesale Prices range from $16-$23/lb
- Retail Prices range from $18-$29/lb
Contact Info:
- Website: www.transparentseafarm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transparentseafarm/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TransparentSeaFarm
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/transparentseafarm/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUFj0FcPjltdeA0VPRn5I4Q
Image Credits
For the photo of Steve looking at the Shrimp, “Photo by Daniel Zox” For the Photo of cooked prawns with sauces in cups “Photo by Simon Tan”
