JULY 1997
Vol.6, NO. 3

The brains
behind
the birdseed

Anderson

Dave Anderson and Keith Nelson, makers of Feeding Time birdseed cakes, still await the market's judgment as they go into full production this month. But their drive to develop new products is not likely to fade away soon.

The entrepreneurial partners met as co-workers at a paint equipment and pressure washer manufacturing company. They had at least one thing in common: neither wanted to work for someone else the rest of their lives.

"I mentioned to Dave one day that I was going to leave the company and open up a specialty deli in Stillwater," says Nelson, whose family owns a bar and cafe in Withrow, Minn. "That's when I found out Dave was a baker from way back, and he'd been in the restaurant business."

Soon after, they set out to run a deli and bakeshop. For the specialty cakes they wanted to make, they couldn't find commercial designs, so they fastened large cookie cutters to a baking pan. Their proprietary pan design led to a business in birdseed cakes.

Nelson was ripe for a new venture. He had spent almost 25 years in industry, at 3M as a pharmaceutical specialist, Kroy Industries as a quality engineer, and Diversified Industries as a quality director. In between, he worked at his family's bar and cafe and studied for a business degree.

"I was burned out with company politics and wanted to go on my own," Nelson says.

Anderson's entrepreneurial drive started at a young age. His parents wanted him to stay and work in Cambridge after high school. "I'm kind of the black sheep. I wanted to get out of town and I roamed around. He hitchhiked "to every state in the country ... I held 11 jobs in a year." He went on to obtain a degree in marketing and spent seven years in fundraising, 20 in the bakery and restaurant business, and six in production. "I've been in management jobs since the age of 19. Everything I've learned I'm drawing on now."

Anderson keeps a notebook by his bed and files away the good ideas he dreams up. Adding Christmas tree ornaments to Feeding Time's line of hanging birdseed cakes is an idea that came to him at three a.m.

His creative tension traces back to trauma he experienced as a toddler, Anderson says. Born out of wedlock, he was shuffled around to neighbors and relatives until the age of two, when he was placed at the state orphanage in Owatonna. The year there until his own mother was able to adopt him "screwed up my childhood," he says.

As an adult, he researched records from the Owatonna school. "They had records of my IQ tests. When I entered, I tested at 180; a year later I was down to 75 and they wrote I was retarded." His scores went up again after leaving the school. "Everything there was by assembly line ... there was one toy for 36 kids."

Through his difficult experiences, Anderson learned to train his mind, so he could leave his present situation and create a new one. His active intellect has produced a file box full of product ideas.

"I have a strong belief in God," Anderson says. "I know that what you lose in one area, you gain in another."