Trusting your (lactose-intolerant) gut

INC. THIS MORNING Trusting your (lactose-intolerant) gut Good morning, Here’s a fun fact: Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder and CEO behind wildly successful yogurt company Chobani, is sensitive to dairy. It’s one reason Chobani--which started in [an abandoned upstate New York factory]( in 2007 and has since become one of the biggest privately-held companies in the U.S., making [$1.5 billion]( in annual revenue--is branching out into alternative milk. Specifically, oat milk. While the company made the announcement Monday, the move has been about a year in the making, according to Fast Company, which got the [behind-the-scenes]( story about it. The decision is fascinating. Oat milk is growing rapidly, from $6 million to $40 million in U.S. sales over just the past year, according to Neilsen. But that pales in comparison to almond milk ($1.3 billion), soy milk ($194 million), and coconut milk ($98 million). And don’t forget about other alternatives like rice and pea milk. So if you’re Chobani, why choose oats from the seemingly infinite list of options? The most important reason, according to Fast Company, is the taste--and that’s where things get interesting, because barely anyone outside of Chobani has tasted the company’s new oat drinks. Instead of outsourcing the manufacturing, Chobani spent $50 million to retrofit a plant it owned in Idaho. Instead of conducting focus groups--standard practice in the food industry--Ulukaya kept nearly all of his taste tests in-house. And those tests were almost purely subjective, especially when it came to Ulukaya’s own judgments. “With Hamdi, you have to look for that smile and twinkle in his eye,” Amrish Chawla, Chobani’s director of research and development, told Fast Company. “It tells you right away if he thinks the food is there.” In other words, the company is making a huge bet on this product and it’s not relying on any of the conventional indicators to know how U.S. consumers will receive it. Wanting to control your supply chain is one thing. Trusting your own judgment so deeply that you don’t care what the “average” consumer might like? You have to seriously trust your gut. (“Lactose intolerant or not,” Fast Company humorously noted.) Chobani’s timing is also noteworthy. The company certainly didn’t invent oat drinks, but it could be the one to popularize them. It reminds me of Apple, one of the world’s most famous late adoptors, which almost never creates the first version of any groundbreaking tech. Instead, it aims to make the smoothest version of the tech, banking on its resources and ease-of-use to immediately capture any market it enters. A late adoptor who turned a simple dream into a billion-dollar company. Someone who trusts his instincts so implicitly that he seeks no outside input, even from customers. I’m talking about Ulukaya, of course--but the description also sounds a bit Steve Jobs-esque to me. SPONSORED CONTENT [Ex-Under Armour Execs are making the best jeans of 2019]( How? By taking tried-and-true denim and infusing it with a touch of athletic stretch. After years in athletic apparel, Revtown’s founders decided to take the best parts of workout clothes-- think comfort, flexibility, and durability--and apply them to denim. The result? [Crazy comfort and solid style at a killer price.]( HERE'S WHAT ELSE I'M READING TODAY: [TikTok]( meteoric rise is under threat, and the app is looking at ways to shake off its ties to China. --The Wall Street Journal Bill Gates just topped Jeff Bezos as the [world’s richest man]( (again). --CNET If you’d invested $5,000 in [Tesla’s IPO]( you’d have $102,050 today. --The Motley Fool [WeWork]( may lay off thousands. --The New York Times Business, meet comedy: Saturday Night Live just put bread company Sara Lee in a [hilariously uncomfortable position](. --Jezebel [The TV and movie streaming era]( is finally here, and even Netflix is starting to experience sticker shock. --The New York Times The Chick-fil-A Foundation is ending donations criticized by LGBTQ activists after [years of backlash](. --Business Insider And finally, I wrote about [how to ask your employees to work on the weekends]( without getting an eye roll. --Inc. --Cameron Albert-Deitch Reporter, Inc. How are we doing? Send me ideas and feedback for Inc. This Morning at [calbertdeitch@inc.com](mailto:calbertdeitch@inc.com?subject=) or on [Twitter](. [Click here]( to forward to a friend. This email was sent by: Mansueto Ventures 7 World Trade Center, 29th Floor New York, NY, 10007, [Unsubscribe]( • [Update Profile]( • [View in Browser]( • [Privacy Policy](