Behind Every Food Product Is a Founder Following Up

I now have a fixed slot in my calendar every day. Not for product development. Not for sales. Not for strategy. For follow-ups!

Because apparently, if you want to pay people to work with you…you must first chase them.
These are seasoning houses and flavour companies we’ve been speaking with for Humble Yeti.
Some conversations involve multiple people. Mid-level teams, Senior leadership; Multiple email rounds.

My products are already in the market and there are actual opportunities to build together. And still…follow up. Wait. Follow up again. Wait.
“Just checking in.”
“Any update?”
“Wanted to understand next steps.”
Another 4 days. Another reminder.

At one point I started calculating: Follow up today. Wait 48 hours. They reply.
I respond in 24 hours. Silence again.
Half the week disappears.

And I found myself asking:
Am I missing something? When you’re building from zero, I understand. You’re unknown. Unproven. Maybe not worth prioritising. But when you already have a brand, products, customers… what exactly is happening?

And this is the part I still struggle with.
How many follow-ups are reasonable?
One? Three? Five?

At what point does persistence become noise?

Because sometimes these aren’t cold emails. These are conversations after multiple exchanges. Product discussions. e-Meetings. Samples.
Senior people copied.
Even conversations at expos.
“Sorry, missed it.”
“I’ll personally look into it.”
“We’ll revert.”
And then… silence again.

I’m all for patience. I understand teams are busy. I understand priorities shift. But somewhere I also feel responsiveness is part of professionalism. Especially when someone is trying to give you business.

One thing this experience has taught me though:
Building products is not only creativity.

• It is patience.
• Documentation.
• Waiting.
• Following up.
• And continuing anyway.

Behind every product that finally reaches a shelf, there are often dozens of emails nobody sees.

Founders quietly nudging conversations forward.
Trying to keep momentum alive.
Trying not to let ideas die in inboxes.