Interview with Justin Gill – Founder and CEO of Bachan’s
“[Bachan’s] instantly filled that purpose bucket for me. I had really big ambitions and I wanted to show my daughters what can be done in this life if you're passionate about something and you work really hard for it.” On this episode of The Irresistible Factor, you’ll hear the story of how a multi-generational family recipe turned into a national brand that grew from 1.5 million in revenue to 6.5 million in just about a year! Justin Gill is the Founder and CEO of Bachan’s, a Japanese barbeque sauce brand with flavors such as hot and spicy and yuzu.Bachan is a Japanese American term of endearment for grandmother. Justin named his company after his own Bachan, who taught him how to make the sauce when he was a kid. Justin and his family would make big batches of the sauce and pass out bottles of it to clients in their family’s landscape business, making it “a local legend”. Everyone loved it so much that he knew one day he had to bring it to the market.Justin talks about the importance of their ingredients and the tough conversation that could have taken him down, but instead fueled his commitment to his incredibly high standards as their tagline proclaims: “Our ingredients matter.” We also spend time digging into his latest challenge, transitioning from operator to CEO, and his careful, thoughtful innovation process. He shares my belief that over-innovating and distributing too quickly is dangerous for brands.Tune in to hear more about Justin’s incredible story of the already soaring Japanese Barbecue Sauce that is Bachan’s! Listen to The Irresistible Factor’s Interview with Justin Gill, Founder and CEO of Bachan’s. Here’s what you won’t want to miss from our conversation:
- How to keep yourself and your team motivated
- Bachan’s growth trajectory and distribution status
- The process of building an executive team
- His long term goal for the company
Links mentioned in this episode: Justin Gill on LinkedIn Bachan’s The Irresistible Factor Podcast Sawtooth Group