The FruitGuys has created a new non-profit project to support its long-standing hunger relief mission. The FoodWorks Fund, a fiscally-sponsored project of Community Initiatives, provides direct …
chris mittelstaedt
Founder Chris Mittelstaedt on the Covid Recession in the WSJ
The FruitGuys Founder, Chris Mittelstaedt was recently interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about the economic effects of the Covid-19 crisis on small businesses. Read the full article in PDF …
Coming of Age
I owe the birth of The FruitGuys to the creative power of, well, desperation. It was 1997. My wife, Pia, and I had been married for a year and were living in a small one-bedroom apartment in San …
How to Resolve a Customer Crisis
(Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column, "Eureka," on Inc.com.) Every business makes mistakes. What you do next is the difference between losing customers forever and gaining lifelong …
The Bank Scam That Hit My Business
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column Eureka on Inc.com FruitGuys founder Chris Mittelstaedt explains how hackers got into his company's bank account--and how not to let it happen to …
Is This Your Employees’ Idea of Service?
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column Eureka on Inc.com When an employee flipped off a key customer, this CEO realized his company had a culture problem. Here's how he fixed it. Many …
Getting (Big) Things Done
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column Eureka on Inc.com For too long you've served as Chief Fire Extinguisher. It's time to step back and start working on building your business. Are you …
5 Employee Morale Killers
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column Eureka on Inc.com I discovered my first lesson in how not to motivate people at the bottom of a kitchen sink. In 1986, when I was 16 years old, my …
Method’s 4 Rules for Staying Innovative
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column Eureka on Inc.com Eric Ryan, co-founder of method home products, reveals the four things his company does to keep the creativity flowing. At 36,000 …
Competitors Who Bully — and How to Fight Them
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column Eureka on Inc.com Bigger, wealthier rivals can and will stack the deck against you. And they will involve lawyers. How will you respond? I recently …
The Stealthiest Start-up Killer
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column Eureka on Inc.com It's the threat you never see coming. In fact, even after you crash and burn you still might not recognize it. Sometimes the biggest …
How to Manage Entrepreneurial Personality Disorder
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt’s column Eureka on Inc.com One side of you loves risk; the other side of you can't stand it. Here's how to use your multiple personalities to your advantage. I …
Best Problem-Solving Tip: Don’t Be Afraid to Break Stuff
Reprinted from Chris Mittelstaedt's column Eureka on Inc.com Sometimes there are problems simply too thorny and overwhelming to solve the usual ways; they require you to think differently. But …
Hybrids vs. GMOs
Dear FruitFriends, In the following article, Heidi Lewis writes about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and more specifically what they are (and are not) relative to food. The FruitGuys has …
Getting Back Up
I’ve always been a pretty active person—something that made coming down with a random medical condition all the more humbling. About a month ago I had an acute onset of achalasia, an uncommon disorder …
Pest Policy Questioned: Panelists say Quarantines Unfair to California Farmers
The Light Brown Apple Moth is an indigenous pest considered harmless to crops in New Zealand, Hawaii, Australia, and the UK, all countries that are free to export fruits and vegetables to U.S. markets …
