Exclusive Interview with Andris Lagsdin, founder of Baking Steel
Who would have thought pizza and bread would be the key all along? From a family-owned business just outside Boston, to engineering the perfect Baking Steel product. This one's all passion.
Energy. Enthusiasm. Excitement. Optimism. Probably the best few words I'd use to describe Andris. I remember back in 2019, a colleague of mine, Max, at Agora interviewed Andris to see if he was interested in selling the business. When I asked Max a few weeks later, after he made an introduction, "Does Andris want to sell?" Max responded: "Absolutely not, this is his baby."
I don't want to say it's very rare, but it's certainly not common to find a founder who has managed to align a deep-rooted passion and enjoyment for their work, while carefully compartmentalising the 'fun stuff' from the 'boring stuff'. In Andris' case, the fun stuff comes in the form of a round, dough-based, tomato sauce-infused deliciousness: pizza.
"Dad, what do you do for work?"
While Andris had spent a good chunk of his working life in restaurants and hospitality around the Boston area (including under Todd English), he eventually started working at his father's company. Andris' dad had built what you call a 'flip pad', a rear stabiliser steel part that goes on the back of a John Deere (to put it simply), and Andris, along with his brother and about 30 other guys, were all-in on helping Dad build the business.
When Andris’ son Cooper was four, he asked Andris a simple question: "Dad, what do you do for work?" Andris didn't have an answer. And he realized he couldn't teach his son to live with passion if he wasn't living it himself.
A couple of years and dozens of pizza parties later (Andris at the helm, a few stones broken along the way), a Wall Street Journal article stopped him cold. It was covering Modernist Cuisine, a new book by former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, which claimed steel was the only way to hit the temperatures a real pizza crust needs.
That Friday night, Andris ran out to the plant, grabbed a piece of steel and brought it home to make pizza that weekend. Seven minutes later... "boom, a crispy base," he said. Andris described it as "one of those ideas that just didn't go away in my brain." Having sparked a thought to combine experience in the industry to trialing a run at the product, Andris looked to Kickstarter (which wasn’t that big then), to raise his first MVP.
"I thought I could maybe sell 50 a month with a boost on Kickstarter."
"Now I can tell my son I have this passion, and in the meantime I'm working for the family business," seemed to be Andris' goal for the time being. A Kickstarter success story, Andris set a modest $3K goal to get enough product out for 100 units. Instead, he raised $38K.
Then came a review from Kenji López-Alt (a food 'influencer' before influencer days), describing Baking Steel as a game-changing product. That's when Andris realised he had a legitimate concept and business on his hands. At around a quarter of an inch thick, the original Baking Steel was born.
Legally bound to his father's business still, his commitment to Baking Steel continued to grow. A few years later, on 1 April 2018, Andris officially launched Baking Steel Company independently. What's more? That's also the day Andris decided to quit drinking. Not because he had a "drinking problem," he explained, but because he knew he needed to make a change, and it felt like the right time for a lifestyle shift.
After a couple of patent applications, BakingSteel.com became official. Unlike many domains, it is quite literally both the brand name and the perfect description of the product, which is admittedly a valuable asset to own. Not that Andris pays much attention to it. He explains his job is "to keep building the brand," and not get defensive against copycats unless he has to.
The emphasis on organic value vs paid
Andris' experience as a founder resonates far more with exciting content and organic value than it does obsessing over CAC and PPC until your brain diffuses into dust. At a time when social media either wasn't a thing, or certainly wasn't what it is today, and influencers weren't the same, Andris believed building good written content, shooting videos and creating a community around pizza (and bread) was the best way to spread value.
His philosophy remains much the same today. He continues to run a slow-and-steady approach to growth, never having raised a penny from outside investors. Today, Andris still runs pizza classes, both in person and over Zoom, and continues writing content, something we shared a mutual passion for.
His new 72-hour dough recipe bag has been a huge success. Amusingly, he accidentally misspelled "legendary" on the packaging. Turning what most people would treat as a disaster (or a reason to fire the editor) into an opportunity, Andris, always "on the front lines," sent an email campaign asking customers to "spot the spelling mistake." It generated thousands of replies and conversations with customers.
It's what "makes us human," he says. "I make a ton of mistakes, and there are a lot of people that don't want to take a leap of faith... even on some very obvious ones. I just tell people to take a leap."
The push to Amazon. Is it worth it?
While Facebook and Google have been important growth engines for Andris over the years, he's very pragmatic about how much to spend, how to manage inventory and what his growth goals are. There's never been a "let's scale aggressively" mentality, because maintaining a grip on growth and customer feedback is important to him. He’s always paid close attention also to his affiliate channels, managing those carefully (also because what makes better content than pizza content?), and is always excited to collab with any brands in the space, something he’s done lots of over the years.
What about the marketing budget? He'll often pull back on budget to keep a pulse on brand efficiency, while allowing the organic multipliers of everything happening outside paid marketing to do their work.
Around a year ago, Andris launched Baking Steel on Amazon, something we'd discussed with him for years as a major opportunity. Going omnichannel had always been part of the plan, but waiting for the right time required patience. Despite concerns around fees and net margins after Amazon takes its cut, the organic value of Amazon, not to mention the paid opportunity, has been well worth the increased conversion rate.
To be public-facing as a founder
After preaching about my own challenges as both a writer and founder, particularly deciding whether or not to become more public-facing (God, I fucking hate LinkedIn), Andris and I spoke about whether that was ever comfortable for him.
"I wasn't a great writer, but I've become more comfortable with it, and I think the more people learn about me, the better. That's the bottom line."
Whether it's shooting content, teaching classes, writing articles or even removing agencies for a year just to get back on the front lines and reconnect with the brand, Andris embodies what a truly founder-driven brand looks like. Although he did say, "you can probably find someone to replace me," I think his modesty outweighs reality. It takes a face, a following and a strong community to build something organically without placing a giant emphasis on paid marketing.
A quick Q&A with Andris
Q: Pizza or bread? You have to give one up for life.
A: Oh man, that's a great question. I'd have to give up bread.
Q: What's your favourite pizza?
A: Probably a simple Margherita. Simple tomatoes, simple cheese and a really good three-day dough.