Fishwife CEO Millstein on Delegation and Scaling a Tinned Seafood Brand
Fishwife co-founder Becca Millstein has been discussing how to let go of day-to-day tasks without losing connection to the work she values most as the tinned seafood brand scales.
- Founded
- 2020, by Becca Millstein and Caroline Goldfarb, per the company
- Origin inspiration
- Millstein's time in Spain in 2015 and conservas culture, per the company
- Cannery locations
- Washington State, Spain, Denmark, and Scotland, per the company
- Customer count
- More than 1 million, per the company
- Sourcing standard
- MSC or ASC certified fisheries, per the company
Becca Millstein, co-founder and CEO of Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co., has been speaking publicly about the challenge of delegation as the premium tinned fish brand she launched with Caroline Goldfarb in 2020 continues to grow. Millstein has pointed to a balance between stepping back from certain tasks and staying close to the work that drives the company forward.
Fishwife was born from Millstein's time living in Spain in 2015, where she became drawn to the culture around Spanish and Portuguese conservas, per the company. She and Goldfarb launched the brand with a mission to make premium, sustainably sourced tinned seafood a mainstream pantry staple in the United States, the company says. The brand now works with canneries across Washington State, Spain, Denmark, and Scotland, and sources from Marine Stewardship Council and Aquaculture Stewardship Council certified fisheries, per the company.
The company says it has served more than one million customers and offers a range of products including smoked salmon, sardines, albacore tuna, mussels, mackerel, and anchovies. That supply chain and product breadth reflect an operational complexity that a co-founder accustomed to hands-on oversight must navigate as headcount and SKU count grow.
Why it matters
The tinned fish category has moved well beyond niche status in the United States, and Fishwife has been among its most visible brands, building an audience through direct-to-consumer channels and a strong social presence. Founder-led CPG companies frequently reach a structural inflection point when growth requires the person who built the brand from intuition and taste to start functioning as a full executive, delegating the work that once defined the role. How Millstein manages that shift has implications not just for Fishwife but for the broader wave of DTC food brands founded on a distinctive point of view. The willingness to discuss the tension openly signals a maturing organization rather than one still running on founder energy alone.
What to watch
Whether Fishwife pursues broader retail distribution or outside capital as it expands its cannery partnerships will be the clearest signal of how far Millstein intends to scale the company beyond its current direct-to-consumer base.
Featured on @cpglatest: see the post
Sources
Related coverage
Wepa Coffee Co. Builds Around Puerto Rican Coffee Heritage and Cultural Identity
The Puerto Rican coffee brand anchors its positioning in origin-specific arabica and cultural identity, marketing around community through a direct-to-consumer channel and a branded merchandise line.
Wepa Coffee Co. Builds a Consumer Brand Around Puerto Rican Arabica Heritage
Wepa Coffee Co. is turning Puerto Rican arabica coffee and the brand's culturally rooted identity into a retail-ready CPG business.
Wepa Coffee Co., a Puerto Rican arabica coffee brand, sells whole-bean and ground versions of its flagship
Wepa Coffee Co., a Puerto Rican arabica coffee brand, sells whole-bean and ground versions of its flagship 100% Puerto Rican arabica starting at $14.00, as well as a cold brew pouch line at $16.99, according to the company's website.