Overview of How to beef up your business, with ButcherBox CEO Mike Salguero
In this episode of Masters of Scale, host Jeff Berman talks with ButcherBox founder and CEO Mike Salguero about how a painful first startup taught him the value of control, constraint, and grit—and how those lessons helped him bootstrap ButcherBox into a major subscription business that started with grass-fed beef and expanded into a broader meat brand now sold in retail, including Target. The conversation is part startup story, part leadership case study, and part reflection on building a company that can scale without losing its values.
Mike Salguero’s entrepreneurial path
Salguero’s entrepreneurial instincts showed up early:
- Delivered newspapers as a kid
- Ran sales jobs in college and after graduation
- Started small side hustles like T-shirt sales, including a successful “Boston” St. Patrick’s Day shirt and a viral-ish anti-Bush shirt in 2004
He eventually moved into real estate development, earned an MBA at Babson, and launched his first major company, CustomMade.
What he learned from CustomMade
CustomMade began as a listing service for custom woodworkers and later pivoted toward a marketplace model backed by venture capital from firms like Google and First Round Capital.
Why it struggled
- Custom work requires lots of direct communication between buyer and maker
- Many makers were not tech-savvy
- The platform fee model pushed users to bypass the marketplace
- The business had raised money around a marketplace vision, making it hard to change course
The big lesson
Salguero says he lost his integrity by letting investor pressure shape decisions after realizing the model wasn’t working. The experience taught him:
- Don’t let fundraising lock you into the wrong business model
- VCs may be fine with failure, but founders have to live with the consequences
- Bootstrapping can preserve more freedom and clarity
How ButcherBox started
After CustomMade was acquired by Wayfair, Salguero shifted quickly into a new idea: delivering meat to consumers’ homes.
The origin story
- He and his wife were trying to eat healthier
- He was already buying grass-fed beef
- He wondered if meat could be delivered like other subscription products
A key early breakthrough came from connecting with the former head of operations at Omaha Steaks, who introduced him to a Wisconsin facility that could both cut and ship meat.
The Kickstarter launch
ButcherBox launched on Kickstarter as a test of demand:
- Goal: raise a modest amount and validate the idea
- Result: the campaign significantly overperformed
- Timing helped: a Consumer Reports cover story on grass-fed beef appeared just before launch
That early traction confirmed product-market fit.
The product and business model strategy
Salguero and his team made several smart constraints that helped the business work:
- Started with a curated subscription box
- Limited customer choice to species, not endless customization
- Focused on profitability from the first box
- Avoided overcomplicating inventory and fulfillment
When customers said they wanted more than beef, the company expanded thoughtfully into:
- Chicken
- Pork
- Later, seafood
The key was offering “better-raised” animal protein while keeping the model simple enough to scale.
Why ButcherBox stayed bootstrapped
Salguero did not take outside funding for ButcherBox.
Why not
- Bad experience with venture pressure at CustomMade
- The business became cash-efficient
- Subscription revenue created a positive cash cycle
Why that mattered
He argues that if he had raised money in 2015, he likely would have spent heavily on Facebook ads right before the market for meal/subscription startups collapsed after Blue Apron’s IPO and stock crash.
Instead, constraint forced discipline.
Growth strategy: affiliates and operational rigor
Rather than buying broad ads, ButcherBox grew through:
- Nutritionists
- Paleo bloggers
- Health-focused influencers
- Affiliate-style partnerships with recurring commissions
That approach aligned incentives and supported long-term customer value.
Operationally, the company obsessed over unit economics:
- Negotiating box costs
- Reducing shipping and packaging expenses
- Staying profitable on the first box
Culture and hiring philosophy
One of the strongest themes in the episode is Salguero’s approach to building teams.
The “barbell strategy”
He says early-stage companies need two very different types of people:
- Gritty builders willing to “hack through the jungle”
- Experienced operators who bring maturity and systems thinking
The mistake he made at CustomMade was hiring too many polished, process-heavy people too early—people suited for a road, not a jungle.
What he values
- Hustle
- Grit
- Resourcefulness
- A willingness to do whatever is needed
He also emphasizes that younger founders should not believe they have to do everything themselves.
Values, transparency, and B Corp certification
As ButcherBox grew, Salguero wanted a way to lock in the company’s values beyond his personal oversight.
In 2020, ButcherBox became B Corp certified, formalizing its commitment to:
- Ethical sourcing
- Environmental and community impact
- Stakeholder responsibility beyond just shareholders
He sees this as a safeguard against mission drift and a way to keep the business accountable as it scales.
Retail expansion and industry impact
ButcherBox originally grew as a direct-to-consumer subscription business, but Salguero says retail is essential for building an iconic brand.
Why retail matters
- Most customers still buy groceries in stores
- Being in retail increases brand recognition
- It complements the company’s online marketing
Target and beyond
ButcherBox entered Target as a key retail partner and has since explored additional retail opportunities.
Broader impact
Salguero believes ButcherBox has helped push the meat industry toward:
- More transparency
- Better sourcing standards
- Greater availability of grass-fed and pasture-raised meat
He sees the company as both a successful business and a force nudging the industry in a healthier direction.
Key takeaways
- Constraint can be a strength: limited choice and tight economics forced smarter decisions
- Bootstrapping preserved flexibility: Salguero avoided investor-driven pressure after a bruising first startup
- Team composition matters: early-stage companies need both grit and experience, but in the right order
- Timing matters more than many founders admit: the right product at the right moment helped ButcherBox take off
- Values need systems: B Corp certification helped make the company’s mission durable
- Retail and DTC can coexist: a strong online brand can benefit from physical shelf presence
Notable insight
“When you get on a road, you kind of need people who know how to drive cars. If you just go for the car drivers, then you lose the hacking culture.”
This captures Salguero’s central leadership philosophy: build with the right people for the stage of the company, and don’t let polish replace scrappy execution too early.