Creating A Premium Retail Brand with Barth and Mary deRosa

At Founders Nextdoor, we believe that entrepreneurship is hard work, day in and day out. We believe the most amazing entrepreneurs are ordinary people living in every community. And those people, your neighbors, are the people you can learn the most from regarding how to run your business. Because just like you, they have mortgages to pay and families to feed, yet they manage to create amazing businesses that make the world a better place.

Today on the show, I’m interviewing two such founders. Barth and Mary deRosa, the husband-and-wife team who’re the owners of Secolari. Secolari is a retail chain of gourmet olive oil and vinegar that has four stores in Maryland and DC. Now if this is the first time you hear about them, you’re probably like…”Olive oil? Seriously? That’s basically a commodity, right? How can anybody make money selling olive oil?” At least that was my first reaction. But I’m telling you, this business is no joke. Barth and Mary started it in 2011 and since then, business has been booming. And if you look them up on the internet, you’ll also see that they are truly loved by very passionate customers. So what’s their secret for making a successful business in a product category that seems to be highly competitive and offers little differentiation? You’ll find out in this interview.