Best friends from college, we started off with similar finance careers in investment banking and private equity.  After a number of years in the workplace, we ventured off to earn our MBAs from two of most distinguished business schools in the world.  During that time, we searched for meaning in the next chapter of our careers.  We fell in love with feeding the world through food and that's when we came across aquaculture and Pacifico in 2013. 

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Based in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, Pacifico Aquaculture is a leader in sustainable aquaculture that produces premium striped bass. The company is the world’s first and only producer of ocean-raised striped bass. Pacifico’s striped bass are sold through well-known distributors, food retailers and restaurants across North America.

 

Pacifico was founded to address the global protein shortage due to population growth that will reach 10 billion people by 2050, requiring 100% more food than today.  Aquaculture provides a solution as the most sustainable animal protein while reducing pressure on wild fish stocks.  Pacifico serves the US market by truck with a low carbon footprint and is prized within the culinary community. 

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We started with a vision and keen appetite to do good.  Like many founders, entrepreneurs and business owners, our journey was everything but straight.  We bootstrap funded a wildly complex and capital intensive business from friends and family.  Over the course of 8 years and lots of time on the ground and on the water in Mexico, we scaled a pilot crop of baby fish into a full blown commercial level aquaculture operations with proprietary technology.  Part of that process we built the worlds first Striped Bass "RAS" hatchery, obtained the largest aquaculture concession in Mexico, put together an in-house sales team and pushed the envelope with first ever certifications for Fair Trade, American Heart Association and MBA Seafood Watch.  After endless bumps in the road, we grew revenue by 100x to more than $20M, fish count by 50x to more than 5 million at sea, and grew our employee base from 30 to 300. 

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In 2017, we partnered with Butterfly Equity, a Los Angeles based private equity firm in specializing in seed-to-fork food investments.  Alongside Butterfly, we oversaw the business as Co-CEOs through 2021 and hired a seasoned aquaculture veteran to replace us in our day to day duties. 

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In our current chapter, we are keen to bring our experience from Wharton, Harvard, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, various private equity firms, mining in Africa, aquaculture in Mexico, sales and distribution in the US and our vast networks to table.  Our passion is investing in businesses that are well poised for the future and share our values and virtues.  All while creating long term value for our investors, businesses and communities.  We love what we do!