Incremental entrepreneurship

“Focus on the mile you’re in, not all 26,” he says. “Think small first — write a sentence about what you want to do and build out from there. I always wanted to start something on my own, but I would’ve been completely overwhelmed if I had tried to strategize about where I am now.”

That’s how Masse went from a career in brand strategy to one of bread strategy as founder and head baker at Small State Provisions: by taking one step at a time.

After graduating from the UB School of Management, Masse spent more than a decade in media and marketing, beginning as an assistant brand strategist at Horizon Media in New York City before rising to brand group director, working on accounts like DISH Network and Weight Watchers. 

From there, he moved into social media and food media as vice president of global community engagement at The Feedfeed, one of the world’s largest community powered food media brands, and later took on a role building custom content partnerships for Hoffman Media, focusing on their flagship title, Bake from Scratch.

“That role was a contract-based position, so while I was there I started baking out of my house — literally two loaves at a time in my home oven,” says Masse. “Connecticut has a rule that allows you to bake out of your home but caps revenue at $25,000 before you have to move into a commercial space. We hit that during our second year.”

Next, Masse has built-up Small State Provisions from a 200-square-foot commercial kitchen to a 2,500-square-foot space and now to two locations, one in Avon, Conn. and the other in West Hartford, Conn.  

As an entrepreneur, Masse says the 12-hour days that begin at 2 a.m. aren’t the biggest challenge he’s facing. It’s being able to let go a bit and learn to lead the team to the end result that propels the vision of the business.

“The longer I do this, the more I learn that it’s not something I can sustain on my own,” he says. “You have to be able to lead the people under you, and it’s becoming much more about how I build the team around me to be able to be as successful as possible.”

Looking back now, with the daily reality of running a bakery — planning production schedules, maximizing efficiency, managing resources — he said he wishes he could go back and retake his operations course with Professor Natalie Simpson.

“It would be a completely different experience today,” he says. “I love the operational side of things, trying to figure out how we can make things more efficient, how we can make them faster and how we can kind of tweak things to get to where we need to be.”

As he’s expanded his team and optimized production, Masse has built more time away from the bakery into his weeks. When he’s not running his business, he can often be found traveling with his husband, Michael, or simply spending time at home with their two dogs. 

Masse has more miles ahead, in running both his business and marathons. And he’ll take them one at a time.

Written by Kevin Manne