Conversation with Stefan Olsson of Stacky's

Stefan Olsson is the serial entrepreneur who after a long career in media and online determined it was time to make a real impact, and decided to fix plant-based foods. He’d do so not by imitating meat, but by offering a convenient, great-tasting, healthy food at a reasonable price. This is how Stacky’s was born.

What is your background, and how did you end up founding the company?

I started out as a software engineer, and together with (my now co-founder) Macs Moser and another colleague we ran a company within a Swedish media house named MTG (Modern Times Group) in the late 90s. Lots of crazy projects such as websites for TV3, ZTV, SMS voting systems for reality shows and of course the e-commerce site CDON, which back then actually sold CDs.

In the early 2000s we started looking at online gambling, but since we could not pursue this within MTG we left and started a poker network. This way I got to know Per Hildebrand who is a well-known Swedish poker player. Together we built up the company Global Gaming with the main brand Ninja Casino. All in all I was the CEO of that company for 10 years and listed the company on Nasdaq First North in 2017.

In 2019, Macs and I sat down and thought – what do we do now? We wanted to make a difference and plant-based came out on top of the list.

What did you think about the plant-based space in 2019?

That plant-based was “very fanatical” so we wanted to find a humorous touch on the whole thing. Looking back, what we did was a bit over the top with cooking videos filmed in a fake Russian bunker (and by now problematic in so many ways...), but it raised the attention from well-known chefs, nutritionists and so on.

At a get-together in 2021 we realized just how many additives and strange ingredients there were in all the products we used and sold. And for some reason everyone tried to imitate meat – badly and costly.

Our chefs said ”We can do better” and this was the turning point. We killed the original idea and gave our chefs the product brief: Use ingredients that everyone knows, use as few additives as possible and give it a unique taste that stands on its own to help people in their everyday cooking. Stacky’s was born.

So what is the problem with plant-based?

What we realized back in 2021 was that a whole industry was stuck in trying to imitate meat and other produce. Why?

This was similar to the insight we got when we first came into the gambling industry: the norm then was to get customers to deposit and then make it as hard as possible to withdraw. By turning that thinking upside down (i.e. offering immediate withdrawals) we created trust and better customer experience.

Existing plant-based products might work for the ones that already have made a conscious decision, but the general public will try it once, notice that it doesn’t taste quite as the original, that it is pricey, and they will never try it again. This is of course not just us guessing – multiple studies of actual purchases in for example the U.S. has shown this behavior.

So in short, we’re trying to tackle the problem of getting the other +90% of the population to eat more plant-based. Changing our diet has a much higher impact than let’s say buying an electric car. And if we’re going to succeed in doing this we need to create easy-to-use, great tasting and healthy food, at a reasonable price.

And what’s your approach to solving the challenge you outline?

We’d like to see Stacky’s in every kitchen and household. And a few years back, this was what every investor wanted to hear – focus on retail. But that is very resource-intensive and with recent years of Covid, war and inflation we early on decided to focus on foodservice.

In Sweden over 3 million meals are served in public schools, hospitals etc every day. This was where we started to focus and now we have 60+ of Sweden’s 290 municipalities as our customers. The sales process is long, but what we bring to the table is a clean label, great tasting product made from Swedish produce. We tick a lot of the boxes, and are — kitchen by kitchen — pushing out the imported soy.

In 2024 we also announced our first industry customer, Salico/Picadeli. The driving force for them to get rid of the extruded soy is the same as for the schools. This allows us to reach another group of customers – people on the go. And early this year we announced a cooperation with Sweden’s largest producer of ready-to-eat meals, Dafgårds.

Any major learnings along the way?

We have realized that every single new product and brand in the food industry is facing more or less the same challenges: production and overhead costs while growing volumes that can support the overhead.

So, for the last two years we have been negotiating with the owners of the factory in Mantorp, Sweden to buy the plant. It allows us to secure our own production, and we’ll be providing services to anyone else as well, from co-manufacturing to sourcing, logistics, and more. Sort of like food-as-a-service.

This way we will make a much bigger impact. We need to work together — many brands — in order to change the status quo of the food system.

Is there anything unique about what you do, like the tech you use?

We don’t like the term FoodTech and don’t use this ourselves. Stacky’s secret lies in the way we take care of the produce and our flavoring. And by creating a close relationship with our suppliers and customers, we secure the resources we need and the knowledge of what is in demand.

With the acquisition of the factory, we are able to scale – both our own brand as well as others and quickly develop and launch new products based on customer requests.

What impact do you think Stacky’s will have if you manage to scale up?

Huge. If we look at Stacky’s sale today I’d say that half is going towards replacing soy-based products. Here the impact in terms of CO2 emissions might not be extreme, but when you account for nutrition, food sovereignty and taste, it’s a big thing.

The other half is even more exciting. Early on we saw how our customers used Stacky’s as an ingredient in their normal recipes: Bolognese, lasagna etc. Often in two servings on the same meny: as a 100% vegetarian option or the same with some added meat, i.e. the 50/50 or hybrid trend.

Again, we’re not that fond of putting food into categories – we always try to talk about the meal and recipe. But when you do the math of starting to reducing the meat content by 50% together with large companies producing ready-to-eat meals or serving many thousands of customers every day like for example Sodexo, Coor, Compass here in Sweden do, the impact is huge and not limited to the few percent that has committed to a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle.

What’s your business model? Sounds like B2B, right?

We focus primarily on B2B at this stage and are currently listed with all the large wholesalers in Sweden. Through these we reach 60+ municipalities, a number of regions/hospitals, prisons, and large private groups such as e.g. Sodexo, Coor, and Compass.

All our salespeople have backgrounds as chefs. This allows us to work our way into each customer’s recurring menus, and that way we build a sustainable recurring revenue. We’re now at the point where customers, especially the municipalities, recommend Stacky’s to each other.

What’s your focus market? And how big is it?

While we have sent samples and are in talks with wholesalers in other countries, Sweden remains our primary market. One could argue that our product competes only within the 2 billion SEK ($200M) segment of plant-based in Sweden, but with the traction we have with customers we feel that is the lower bound with a 2-3x growth until 2030.

What’s next for Stacky’s in the next couple of years?

We have a very exciting H1 2025 where we’ll acquire the factory and expand our team from 5 people to 12-15 people in total. On the numbers side of things, this takes us (over the upcoming year) to a company turning over 30-40MSEK ($3M to $4M) annually and with black numbers.

There are a number of possible routes to take from there, but the most interesting one from my point of view is to look at going public with the company in maybe 2027, creating a platform on which to acquire more upcoming brands and share the internal production and services.

Stacky’s will continue to grow and launch products based on customer demands. For instance, we’re adding a 50/50 kebab to the product line this year. And we’ll be in a few more markets.

How much money have you raised so far?

Since inception in 2019, we have raised about €2M from our existing shareholders. As all entrepreneurs know, the line from A to B is never straightforward, so that is the cost of us getting to the point where we are today.

Right now we’re raising €1M to finance the acquisition of the factory and take us into the black. Additional funding beyond this would be connected to the acquisition of more brands, expansion into new markets or as part of an IPO.

What asks do you have from anyone reading this?

We strongly believe in networks. Without the network of our initial chefs Johannes Wahlman and Mattias Larsson we would not be where we are. Or Håkan Christensson, former CEO of Culinar and with long experience from AAK who now can step in and help with sourcing and other production related issues.

On a very practical level:

• Right now we need to close this round. i.e. investors are needed.

• We want to strengthen our board at the Annual General Meeting in May/June – what can you bring to the table? Maybe you have experience from listed companies?

• We need to find a sales-oriented CEO for the factory in Mantorp (Sweden), based nearby or ready to make a move.

How can people get in touch with you?

Anything goes – I’m at that age where I appreciate a regular phone call, but email and LinkedIn are great too.