What we learned from the LinkedIn spat between two trendy olive oil brands

The world of trendy, Instagrammable olive oil brands got heated this week.



If you’re not familiar with this particular corner of the business world, let me catch you up. Five years ago, a spate of olive oil brands hit the market promising high-quality products in beautifully designed bottles delivered to your doorstep.



One of the earliest players was Brightland, which launched in 2018 with a California olive oil in an elegant ceramic bottle; it eventually snagged $6.83 million in VC funding to spur its growth. In 2021, another brand, Graza, came out with Spanish olive oil in a plastic squeeze bottle similar to those familiar to the hot sauce category and garnered $2.8 million in capital. (In the intervening years, many other brands were founded, including Prmry, Kosterina, Branche, and Goldi, offering olive oils from different regions of the world in an array of distinct bottles.)



This week, tensions flared. Brightland launched a pizza oil in a plastic bottle similar to Graza’s. Andrew Benin, Graza’s CEO, took notice and wrote an explosive post on LinkedIn attacking Brightland and calling out its founder, Aishwarya Iyer, for creating a copycat product. The post sparked a passionate discussion among Graza’s customers and other entrepreneurs. Most argued that Benin was wrong for calling out a competitor—especially since squeeze bottles are already widely used in the food industry. Graza arguably borrowed the concept from Sriracha.



Within 24 hours, Benin apologized for his original post, saying he had let his emotions get the better of him. Iyer, on the other hand, has stayed silent throughout, and declined to speak with us for this story. (We reached out to Benin for comment but he did not get back to us by the time of publication; we’ll update the story if he does.) While the kerfuffle appears to be dying down, it does provide some intriguing insight into the role of design and packaging in the world of consumer startups.



These olive oil brands are an extension of the direct-to-consumer movement that emerged a decade ago. Their goal was to take a product previously seen as a boring commodity—olive oil—and create an engaging brand around it, much like Warby Parker did with eyewear and Away did with suitcases.



And while clever design and branding has always been important to the success of consumer packaged goods, it has taken on even more significance in a world where many consumers discover products online. Brightland is available in a selection of “shoppy shops” and Graza is now at Whole Foods, but both brands began on the internet. Their founders were keenly aware that they would have to capture people’s imaginations with packaging aesthetics before they could entice them to taste the oil. And given their VC backing, they were under pressure to grow quickly and capture market share.



When Brightland debuted, Iyer told me she wanted to create bottles that were so beautiful, people would want to leave them on their kitchen counters and give them as gifts. Last year, Brightland partnered with artists such as Marleigh Culver and Lilian Martinez to create limited-edition bottles that were small works of art. Besides creating a new aesthetic experience around olive oil, Brightland’s strategy meant that consumers loved sharing images of their bottles on Instagram, which served as free marketing.



Graza seemed to take the opposite approach. The brand’s playful bottles suggested you weren’t supposed to be too precious about the olive oil. Last year, Benin told Fast Company that the packaging encourages customers to actually consume their olive oil, rather than saving it for special occasions. And while Graza’s bottles are fairly common on the sauce aisle of the grocery store, they were unusual among olive oils at the time, so they too became Instagrammable.



Given how crucial the packaging has been to the success of each brand, it made sense that Benin saw Brightland’s new bottle as a direct threat to his business or, in the words of his original LinkedIn post, “blatant disrespect.” But as many other startup founders pointed out, Graza didn’t have a patent on its olive oil squeeze bottle; Brightland had every right to create its own version.



Indeed, most successful consumer brands have had to deal with competitors with similar products and designs. Allbirds, for instance, actually had patents on its wool sneakers but has nonetheless seen copycat products by everyone from Amazon to Steve Madden. In some cases it has taken legal action against them. Warby Parker and Away compete with cheaper “dupes.” At one point, there were 189 DTC mattress brands competing with Casper.



Ultimately, however, the most successful brands haven’t relied entirely on design to succeed. Warby Parker, which has grown consistently and is now a public company, is known for its trendy frames and attractive stores. But it has also stayed focused on creatively solving problems for its customers: It was the first brand to offer at-home try-ons, and over the years has opened a large network of stores that offer eye exams and contact lens fittings. It also has a compelling social mission, donating eyewear to those in need. This constellation of qualities has allowed it to stay ahead of the dozens of other eyewear startups on the market.



In other words, beautiful design is necessary but insufficient to thrive as a startup. And to keep moving forward, you need to keep improving your product and deepening your relationship with your customer. It’s a lesson that Benin himself has taken away from this experience. In his apology, he said that he would like to return to the brand’s vision of getting high-quality olive oil to as many people at the best price possible. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how this cadre of new olive oil brands continues to improve our culinary experience.