Luke Holden grew up in Maine, working with his father to catch lobsters at Tenants Harbor. When he was older working as an investment banker in New York, he found himself craving lobster rolls like those he ate as a child. In the city, however, Holden could only find expensive, high-end lobsters “drowning in mayo and diluted with celery.” That same year he decided to open his own chain of lobster shacks called Luke’s Lobsters with his partner Ben Conniff. In order to capture the fresh, authentic taste of the lobster rolls he ate growing up off the coast of Maine, Holden managed his company by overseeing and owning almost every step in the production of his product. To do this, he uses a strategy called vertical integration that essentially
