fishwife how a pandemic d2c brand transformed canned seafood into a national trend
Fishwife is the Los Angeles-founded tinned seafood brand that turned a commodity category into a premium lifestyle business, growing revenue from $6 million in 2023 to an estimated $7.6 million in 2024. Founded by Becca Millstein in December 2020, Fishwife rebuilt an American tinned fish aisle long ceded to two legacy monoliths through cultural pull, curated sourcing, and pack design built for social sharing rather than shelf-only presence.
How did Fishwife start?
Becca Millstein discovered conservas culture, premium tinned seafood treated as a delicacy, during a semester abroad in southern Spain. During COVID lockdown in 2020, she began incorporating tinned fish into her meals at home, recognized a gap in the American market for well-branded, sustainably sourced tinned seafood, and launched Fishwife direct-to-consumer in December 2020 with co-founder Caroline Goldfarb.
Millstein's prior career was in marketing and brand partnerships at Atlantic Records. Goldfarb, a writer and social media strategist, brought the brand's early editorial voice. Goldfarb exited the company roughly a year before Millstein's April 2024 interview with Fortune, reported by Yahoo Finance on April 12, 2024, following what Millstein described as a "messy" cofounder split. The brand name dates to the 17th century, when it referred to the daughters and wives of fishermen who sold the day's catch at market; the founders reclaimed the term as a marker of brash, outspoken women in food.
How much revenue does Fishwife generate?
Fishwife reported approximately $6 million in revenue in 2023, according to Millstein's statement during her Shark Tank pitch in Season 15, which aired in early 2024. Revenue grew to approximately $7.6 million in 2024, according to Shark Tank Blog's update published July 24, 2025. The company has not publicly disclosed 2025 or 2026 figures.
Why it works: the growth curve from $750,000 in 2021 to $2.6 million in 2022 to roughly $6 million in 2023, reported by a case-study newsletter published December 25, 2025, was built on zero paid advertising for the brand's first two years. Millstein ran the brand's social accounts personally and seeded product to micro-influencers rather than paying for reach, which kept customer acquisition cost near zero while the brand built an audience that legacy tinned-fish producers had no channel to reach.
Where can you buy Fishwife?
Fishwife launched DTC-only in December 2020. By the Shark Tank pitch in early 2024, distribution had reached approximately 1,800 retail doors, according to Fortune's April 2024 report. National distribution includes Whole Foods (the brand's first national retail partner, January 2023), Target, Costco, Kroger and its regional banners, Wegmans, Publix, ShopRite, and Sprouts, plus specialty retailers and platforms including Amazon, Thrive Market, and Instacart.
That DTC-to-specialty-to-mass sequence, executed without losing the brand's premium positioning, is the distribution playbook most DTC food brands study Fishwife for directly.
Fishwife's advantage is design and cultural positioning, not sourcing exclusivity. The packaging, illustrated by LA-based designer Danny Cohen, was built to be photographed and shared before it was built for shelf standout. The brand drove the #tinnedfishdatenight trend on TikTok, converting canned fish into an aspirational social format that generated organic reach without paid media spend.
The collaboration strategy extends that cultural signal. Fishwife has run co-branded SKUs with chili crisp brand Fly By Jing, priced around $39 for the collaboration tin according to the April 2024 Fortune interview, plus artist-edition tins and content partnerships with writers who produce sea-related literary content for the brand's Instagram. Each collaboration keeps the brand in cultural conversation without requiring a new core product.
How did Fishwife grow the tinned fish category itself?
US canned seafood sales were measured at $2.6 billion in 2021, expanding toward $2.7 billion by 2023, according to Circana data cited in Retail Dive's coverage. Leslie Zane, CEO of Triggers Brand Consulting, told Retail Dive that Fishwife's harder achievement was not taking share from legacy players but growing the category itself by bringing new, younger buyers into tinned fish for the first time.
Fishwife sources from small-boat fisherfolk, sustainable aquaculture farms, and micro-canneries across multiple regions, including Idaho-farmed trout, Galician sardines, and North Pacific tuna. Whole Foods' seafood sustainability standards, which Fishwife cleared for its January 2023 national launch, function as a third-party credential the brand does not have to pay to promote. The competitive set now includes Scout, José Gourmet, and a growing wave of premium conservas entrants, all following the category Fishwife built.
Becca Millstein founded Fishwife in December 2020 in Los Angeles with co-founder Caroline Goldfarb, who later exited the company. Millstein's prior career was in marketing and brand partnerships at Atlantic Records.
How much revenue does Fishwife generate?
Fishwife reported approximately $6 million in revenue in 2023 and grew to approximately $7.6 million in 2024. The company has not disclosed 2025 or 2026 figures publicly.
Where can you buy Fishwife?
Fishwife is available at Whole Foods, Target, Costco, Kroger and its regional banners, Wegmans, Publix, ShopRite, and Sprouts, plus Amazon, Thrive Market, and Instacart. DTC sales continue through fishwife.com.
Was Fishwife on Shark Tank?
Yes. Fishwife appeared on Shark Tank Season 15, which aired in early 2024. Millstein pitched for $350,000 in exchange for equity and secured a deal with Lori Greiner and Candace Nelson.
What makes Fishwife different from other canned fish brands?
Design-led brand positioning, multi-region curated sourcing, a DTC-to-mass distribution sequence, a cultural collaboration strategy, and the largest organic social media footprint in the premium tinned fish category.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
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