It’s freezing on Long Island Sound, but oysters are hot.
Jeff Northrop (Photo: Andrew Hetherington/Bloomberg Businessweek)
Hot on the heels of news that Alan Sterling is selling his shellfish beds, comes this Bloomberg Businessweek profile of Westporter Jeff Northrop. He left a New York hedge fund so he could — sell oysters.
After graduating as an economics major a couple of years ago from Columbia, Jeff turned down a chance to enter his dad’s watercraft sales and fishing guide business. He became an analyst at Exis, but realized the environment was not for him. Half a year later, he was gone.
At the same time, Businessweek said,
Northrop’s father discovered his family owned a sizable acreage of oyster beds near their Westport property. His father had been selling mollusks to local restaurants, but Northrop suggested expanding the business by offering oysters to posh Manhattan restaurants.
With $100,000 of his and his father’s savings—plus $35,000 from a former Exis colleague—Northrop incorporated Westport Aquaculture (now called New York Oyster Co.) in July 2010.
Jeff caught a break when Midtown restaurant Lavo became a customer. His company now supplies 35 restaurants, including Daniel and Balthazar.
Jeff told Businessweek his company will sell $450,000 worth of oysters this year. Now he’s looking to raise money to invest in sustainable fish farms. His goal, he says, is to create “the world’s first aquaculture hedge fund.”
Jeff’s made plenty of good business decisions lately. But if he thought trading in a 3-piece suit for oyster apparel would free up some time, he was wrong. He still works over 100 hours a week — just as he did on Wall Street.