Cooks Venture: bad luck or bad model?

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"Matthew Wadiak, who helped found the meal-kit delivery service Blue Apron, said he plans to improve the poultry system by producing heirloom, pasture-raised, slow-growth birds in the Ozarks. The system will also aim to mitigate climate change through its farm practices, he said.

The company, Cooks Venture, is marketing itself as a food firm rooted in "regenerative agriculture and transparency."

"I think Americans got addicted to cheap chicken, and that's not necessarily healthy" for consumers or the growers involved, Wadiak said about industry practices. Wadiak is the founder and chief executive officer of Cooks Venture."

This was from a 2019 article as Cooks Venture was getting off the ground.

The company raised $152M before abruptly shutting its doors in late 2023.

From a fantastic series by Axios this spring, in the aftermath:

To launch Cooks in 2018, Wadiak acquired a chicken breed, several buildings and poultry houses, 800 acres and two Oklahoma processing plants from the defunct Crystal Lake Farms. He paid eight figures to West Liberty Foods of Iowa for the assets.

Money went to renovate a processing plant, run a second plant, revamp its genetics operation, as well as its hatchery, and build a network of contract growers.

Cooks' target market was a tad murky and changed over time. Its proprietary breed of chickens were to be sold to retailers and high-end restaurants, but also direct to consumer, a la Blue Apron.

"Cooks Venture was the one opportunity that the world had for a better breed of chicken and a better farming system." - Matthew Wadiak

I will never dance on the grave of a company that failed. Full stop.

But I will definitely peel back the layers to see what I can learn.

And this one is absolutely an ogre with its many, many layers.

Let's dive in.