Adam Bent

NATURE-INSPIRED VISION. Adam Bent’s journey from a nature-loving child to the co-founder and CEO of Scout Canning is a testament to his deep connection with the environment and his commitment to sustainability. This connection to nature would later become the cornerstone of Scout, a company dedicated to crafting delicious, responsibly sourced seafood.

Scout Canning, co-founded by Adam in 2018, was born out of a desire to disrupt the seafood industry and address its rampant unregulated practices. Adam envisioned a brand that would reconnect consumers with ocean health and climate action through high-quality, ethically sourced seafood.

Scout, a certified B-Corp, has since become a trailblazer in the tinned fish movement, available in over 6,000 stores and recognized for its mission-driven approach. “We set out to create a brand that would get consumers back to ocean health and climate action through really delicious seafood,” Adam reflects. For Adam, the success of Scout isn’t just in its millions of sales, but in how it has influenced consumer behavior and pushed larger brands toward more sustainable practices.

Adam’s entrepreneurial journey began early. With young parents whose busy lives impacted their diet, Adam became acutely aware of the importance of food and nutrition from a young age. “By the time I became a teenager, I was really hyper-focused on food and nutrition,” Adam recalls. While many of his peers in his arts-focused high school were drawn to the entertainment world, Adam found himself increasingly interested in business and climate change. “I remember when Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth came out and I could not believe what I saw. It changed my life.”

Rather than attending university, Adam took a leap of faith and joined a small travel startup right out of high school. Though the concept wasn’t his passion, it provided invaluable experience. After six years, Adam sought to align his career more closely with his passion for sustainability, leading him to roles at UrbanSpoon and Provender. At UrbanSpoon, Adam witnessed firsthand the power chefs had in shaping consumer behavior, a realization that would later influence Scout’s approach.

Adam’s journey into the retail space began with the founding of thisopenspace and Uppercase in 2016, platforms that allowed emerging and global brands to access short-term commercial spaces. While successful, conflicting views with his co-founder eventually led to a strained exit. Despite these challenges, Adam took away crucial lessons about leadership, co-founder alignment, and the importance of shared values.

SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS. Scout’s mission was clear from the start: to create a brand rooted in sustainability and diversity. “As a queer founder, when it came to designing the business from its earliest stages, everything from our team structure to our board composition to the product mix… it’s all about diversity,” Adam explains. This commitment to diversity was reflected not just in Scout’s team and board, but also in its approach to products and partnerships, including a focus on underrepresented but familiar species like lobster, mussels, and trout.

Adam’s identity as a queer founder is deeply intertwined with Scout’s ethos. He has always placed a high value on cultural fit within his team, often prioritizing it over specific skills. This approach created a dynamic and inclusive workplace, which Adam believes was one of Scout’s superpowers. He also feels a strong responsibility to support other queer founders, using his platform and experiences to help pave the way for those who might not have the same advantages.

Reflecting on his entrepreneurial journey, Adam advises new founders to “incorporate a failure mindset into your toolkit… you need it to offset the blind optimism that keeps you going every day.” He believes that startups should be viewed as experiments, acknowledging that things often won’t go as planned. “Eventually, you’ll have that outcome that you want, it just might not look like what you thought it would today.”