Always Be Curious: Interview with Eran Mizrahi, Co-Founder and CEO of Ingredient Brothers

I recently went one on one with Eran Mizrahi, co-founder and CEO of Ingredient Brothers.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Eran: Growing up in South Africa was fundamental to who I am today. And growing up in a time of change, seeing the country evolve around me as it slowly broke free of so many of the restraints that were holding it back, definitely influenced my outlook on life.  

That transformation extended to my career as well, where five of my mentors at Deloitte were black women, heralding in this new era and bringing with them the reminder that things can be different if we make the effort to change it. Today, more than 10 years later, those experiences are still with me. 

Apart from those transformative years for South Africa, the single biggest decision that paved the way to who I am today has to be my decision to drop out of business school and attend culinary school. It was an experience that shaped my future and helped me to run towards a slightly different goal when I returned to business school. 

But I only saw the fruit of these formative experiences after I left Deloitte, when I worked at Plated and then Nuts.com, and was shown just how beautifully an intricate knowledge of business practices could mix with a love for the culinary world. 

Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?

Eran: During my time at both Plated and Nuts, when I sat on the buyer’s side of the table, I noticed the divide between suppliers and their clients. I saw how much the existing norms and status quo of the buyer-seller relationships inhibited so many opportunities. Because brokers are so often seen as mere middlemen in the larger picture. 

But I knew how much value could be added to inventory management and overall growth if a company’s sourcing partner was tuned into the true needs of the company and not merely fulfilling orders. 

So it was out of that idea that Ingredient Brothers was born. 

The advice that I would offer others is the same advice my father offered me when I asked him how I could find the next big idea. He told me that you had to go do the work, and in the midst of the regular grind, you’ll find the idea you’re looking for. 

Great ideas rarely come from sitting idly and waiting on the sidelines for them to present themselves. They come to you when you’re in the thick of things, when you’re working and staying curious enough to see the gaps in the world. 

Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?

Eran: My own answer and my advice for others go in two different directions. With Ingredient Brothers, I had the luxury of inside information. I was already a part of the industry and I could validate my idea based on what I was seeing around me every day. I saw the gaps that my idea would fill. 

For others, who don’t have the privilege of inside knowledge, it all comes down to finding the cheapest way to validate your idea with potential customers. Start on a small scale, running a “Beta” version of your idea from your garage or basement and see what the market reacts to. Because the most reliable validation comes from customers. 

Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?

Eran: There are so many steps that I’ve taken, along with my amazing team, to get Ingredient Brothers where it is today. But the most important ones are focus and learning how to say no. 

In the early days of any start-up, it’s easy to feel that you have to embrace every opportunity that comes your way to grow your business. But that’s a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Success isn’t a giant leap to the top of the mountain. It’s a thousand small steps taken over time. And saying no helps you maintain the steady momentum that helps you keep direction. 

You have to stay focused and follow only the opportunities that are aligned with your goal. As those goals expand over time, you accept more varied opportunities. But right at the start, focus is what keeps your business grounded. 

The next piece of advice is to take planning seriously, something people don’t do nearly enough. People are often afraid of planning because it’s where you have to face your limitations. But coming to terms with those limitations, especially when it comes to financial planning, is what gives your plans the levity they need to come to fruition. 

Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?

Eran: I think the biggest thing is to speak to your customer. You need to find ways to speak to your early customers to really understand what they need and who they are so that you can create that persona in your head and really understand how they think. Then you use that persona to build your approach for the next person. 

Your customers are your biggest resource, and no matter how big a marketing campaign is, it’ll end up being entirely ineffective if it isn’t addressing the needs of detailed customer personas. 

And a big part of understanding your customer personas is understanding their journeys. For instance, the customer journey for an Amazon customer looks vastly different from a seasonal wholesale buyer. With a business such as ours, where orders are placed in 12-month cycles at times, it’s important to stay visible to your customers. Whether it’s through LinkedIn or email, we keep on sharing information and touching base as often as possible to stay in touch throughout the interim periods. 

So it comes back to what I said about planning: your sales and marketing approaches need to talk to your customers and be planned around actual customer insights. Otherwise, it just won’t be effective. 

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Eran: Listening to your employees and the people you work with, building on their strengths, and developing their skills. Learning to really listen to hear what’s being said even if it isn’t being said. I think that’s the key to effective leadership. Identifying the information in the silences as well the conversations. And that’s only possible when you interact with your people and pay attention to them. 

The second thing that leads to effective leadership is learning how to hand over control. When the leader is the final authority in every single operation and transaction then the leader becomes the bottleneck. That’s why it’s important to develop your team to a point where they can experience a degree of autonomy that frees you up as a leader and allows the business to run without you. 

And finally, radical candor. Learning how to be straight-up with your team, not having to sugar-coat concerns or issues. If your people know you care, that your words are born from a positive place, they’ll welcome direct feedback and embrace the possibility of improvement. 

My own diverse cultural background helped prepare me for leading a multicultural international team, but it’s my eagerness to really understand people and connect with them that makes the real difference. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?

Eran: Number one, always be curious. If you're curious, you'll move things forward and you'll solve problems. Once you become complacent, things begin to stagnate. When you stay curious, you introduce a continuous element of progress to the arena. 

Number two, don’t take no for an answer. If you really believe in something, find a way to make it work. See “no” as a challenge that needs to be solved, not a door that’s closed in your face. 

Number three is one I borrowed from Neale Donald Walsch: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” If you're not feeling a little bit uncomfortable, you're not pushing yourself hard enough and not extracting your full potential. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Eran: The best advice I received was from one of my dad's friends. He told me, “Eran, you're going to make thousands of decisions in your life, but there are only going to be five that matter. Figure out which ones those are. And don't overthink the rest.” 

Looking back at my own life, it’s easy to identify those big decisions so far: going to culinary school, deciding to go back to business school, and starting Ingredient Brothers. So that means I have two left, right? 

Seriously, though, keeping that in mind and not sweating the small stuff changed my outlook on business and on life. And for a piece of advice made in passing, it’s made a gigantic difference in my life. 


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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