Founder update: Building a mission-driven brand

Hi PB community,

This time of year, I'd usually be working closely with our farmers, planning the roll-out of the next harvest. While I’m missing those interactions, I'm making progress on ensuring PB’s continued success, and keeping our farmers informed along the way.

I've been thinking a lot about the business I built with my team, and especially how we built it. Our mission and values are fundamental to who we are, and to ensure PB's continued integrity, it's important to be clear about why we do things the way we do. I want to share some of those behind-the-scenes insights.

Coming from a fresh produce background, I’ve always believed farms have important stories to tell. Many have stewarded the land for generations, carrying forward deep wisdom and a love for growing delicious food with care. This belief has stayed close to my heart and shaped PB’s mission from the start: to bring super-fresh, regional favorites straight from climate-conscious farms to home kitchens, giving the world’s perfect food – from a nutritional, planetary, and culinary perspective – the love it deserves. 

Our mission naturally led me to farmers who were already pushing boundaries – prioritizing healthy soils, climate resilience, and high-quality, differentiated crops. I’ve loved learning about the role of specialty beans on these farms and how farmers rely on practices like intercropping and cover cropping for weed management, natural fertilizers (like chicken manure), and beneficial insects for pest control. And by making connections within my farmer and breeder network, PB’s lineup became truly original – showcasing both newly bred varieties (like Classic Flat White and Southwest Gold) and long-standing regional favorites (like Bayo and Chaparro) with incredible cooking traits that farmers were excited to grow.

Introducing home cooks to the ease of bean cooking has been such a privilege. Before we launched, beans were prized in exclusive culinary circles, but many home cooks felt intimidated by long cook times and presoaking. Our commitment to freshness allowed us to popularize a new approach to cooking beans – one where you could skip the soak, use an Instant Pot, add aromatics to do most of the flavor work, and use simple recipes to bring nourishing yet indulgent meals to your table. This sparked a whole new generation of bean lovers, and helped us grow – something I'm incredibly grateful for.

Even though the PB community was growing, I felt both peer and financial pressure to scale. Opportunities to land on retail shelves came my way, but they would have required shifting my sourcing philosophy to meet retailer demands – prioritizing certifications and consistency over relationships and transparency. Ultimately, it would have meant compromising my values.

That experience made one thing crystal clear: my focus had to remain on putting farmers and home cooks first, leaving powerful retailers at the bottom of the list. I realized that being on retail shelves – no matter how glamorous it seemed – wasn’t essential to my definition of success. Instead, I put my energy into engaging with the PB community and fueling our growth in a different way. This led to our Pilot Project, which then gave way to our beloved Bean People membership, and collaborations with other like-minded brands. We built an ecosystem free from the pressures so many small brands face, and got to stay as close as possible to you, the home cook. 

This journey has been about trial and error, and returning to what matters. And it’s what’s leading us to our next evolution. For me, stepping away from the day-to-day of PB feels like the next right step. In my next role, I’d love to further amplify the voices of farmers and bridge the gap between home cooks and our food system – in an even bigger, more focused, way. And rest assured (some of you have asked!), any future owner of PB will uphold its core values of authenticity, connection, and unwavering transparency. I will make sure of it.

More to come,

Lesley

PS – Our current lineup of beans still has plenty to offer – stock up before they sell out.