Dan Kaplan’s Heartstone Farm offers a range of food products by mail.
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Heartstone Farm comprises 500 acres in Charleston, a community in Penobscot County with a long history steeped in agriculture.
At first, Dan Kaplan, founder of the farm, wanted to be able to raise grass-fed cattle and provide high quality beef to his customers. Now, the operation is filling over 750 orders a week and grossed roughly $6 million in revenue last year. “It’s become more than a farm,” says Kaplan.
Maine consumers may be familiar with operations that deliver steaks or other meats straight to the doorstop. Butcher Box and Good Chop are some of the better known companies that provide this service.
Now Heartstone Farm, a Maine-based version of those retailers, is in the throes of expansion, adding a range of new products.
Heartstone started by offering beef products but expanded by offering poultry, pork and an assortment of pies and soups. Customers are from New England and as far away as Ohio and Virginia.
“My customers asked for more products,” says Kaplan, a serial entrepreneur and former media executive.
Kaplan’s motivation for creating his business is centered on flavor. “It tastes like the beef from when I was a kid,” he says.
Demand is fueling the success of Kaplan’s business.
Now that Heartstone Farm has morphed into a business that both raises animals and sources livestock from other farms, an important challenge has emerged — finding the right livestock.
“We’re not going to be buying commodity products,” Kaplan says.
Instead, the livestock comes from small farms. Not all the farms are in Maine. About half of the livestock come from Maine and the rest from elsewhere in New England. For example, turkey comes from a family farm in Vermont.
Heartstone also pledges to help small farmers. For many Maine livestock producers, getting the product to a consumer who is willing to pay a decent price is the biggest challenge. Heartstone is taking on that challenge. Heartsone pays a premium to the producers.
To fuel Heartstone’s growth, Kaplan turned to the crowdfunding platform StartEngine. The campaign raised $822,000 from 475 investors, some of whom are Heartstone customers.
“It was a really good experience,” says Kaplan.