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Alumni Spotlight: Nat Harrington ’17 (Business Administration)
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“I think the two most important pieces of advice I could give are to start small and to not be paralyzed by your product or service being imperfect, it will get better over time if you work on it.”
Nat Harrington ’17 (Business Administration) founded a business in 2015 and has never looked back. Partnering with his wife, Giselle Harrington ‘17 (Communication), they’ve grown a delicious local business in Rochester.
What’s the origin story for Nat’s Nuts and how did your time at Roberts play into it?
Nat's Nuts was born in the Miner Hall Dorm kitchen as a fundraiser for a mission trip with the Enactus team. I would have never had the reason to start Nat's Nuts if it wasn't for my involvement in Enactus.
We traveled to Huehuetenango, Guatemala to open a coffee shop that would employ Guatemalan orphans and young mothers.
For the first three years of roasting nuts, you would have only seen us at farmers markets, festivals, and small craft shows. We spent countless weekends getting up before the crack of dawn to set up and serve delicious nuts.
In early 2019, Giselle thought it would be a good idea to put the nuts in resealable standup pouches and offer them to retailers in Rochester. I didn't think the idea would take off... but as per usual, I was wrong. Giselle designed professional packaging and we landed our first wholesale account. We started putting most of our effort into wholesale in early 2020, which happened to be the only way we could sell nuts as there were no farmers markets, or festivals to attend.
In 2020, our wholesale accounts grew from a few to about 30 and we started renting commercial space for our kitchen. In 2021, we grew from 30 to 70 wholesale accounts and moved from our 240 sq. ft. kitchen to a 500 sq. ft. space. 2022 was a monumental year for us as we started selling nuts outside of just New York. By the end of 2022, we had partnered with over 1000 wholesale accounts in every single state and a few in France and Canada. In December (our busiest month) we moved from our 500 sq. ft. kitchen to a 2000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility. Our most recent development is a partnership with Whole Foods, which blows my mind.
How many bags of nuts have you sold?
In 2022 we sold 75,000 bags of nuts, which comes out to roughly 18,000 lbs.
For context, here’s the University of Notre Dame’s football stadium:
When full, the stadium holds a little over 75,000 people.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a business?
I think the two most important pieces of advice I could give are to start small and to not be paralyzed by your product or service being imperfect, it will get better over time if you work on it. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t and make adjustments!
And, think big! Nat’s Nuts is proud that our products will be sold in Whole Foods Market in Rochester effective April 12. In March we also launched a new flavor – salted caramel cashew!
What was your favorite thing about your time at Roberts?
The people. The students, faculty, administration, and even Campus Safety all made my time at Roberts as special as it was.