From Boardrooms to the Bay: Why We Traded Suits for Waders

The unlikely journey from The Knot, Wine Enthusiast, and Brooklyn's Kinjo to the mudflats of Oysterville.

The most common question we get on the tide flats isn't about the oysters. It's about us.

"How did a team of tech founders and advertising executives end up farming shellfish in the rain?"

It wasn't a straight line, but it was the right one.

The Background Before Willapa Wild, our team spent decades building global brands and digital experiences. Antony Barran and Cora spent their careers in the high-stakes world of advertising, learning that a brand is nothing without a promise of quality.

Our partners, David Liu and Carley Roney, are the co-founders of The Knot, the iconic wedding platform that changed how millions of couples plan their lives. They built a business on the belief that for life’s biggest moments, every detail matters.

The Spark: A Meeting of Palates Our connection wasn't just forged in boardrooms; it was forged at the table. Antony and David met while serving together on the Board of Wine Enthusiast.

Spending years guiding one of the world's premier authorities on wine and spirits taught us a vital lesson: Terroir is everything. Just as the soil defines a great Pinot Noir, the water defines a great oyster.

David and Carley took that obsession with ingredients a step further by opening Kinjo, a highly successful omakase restaurant in Dumbo, Brooklyn. In the world of omakase, there is nowhere to hide. The seafood is either perfect, or it isn't. They brought that uncompromising restaurant-grade standard to our partnership.

The Pivot We eventually found ourselves drawn to the historic charm of Oysterville, WA, on the Long Beach Peninsula. We looked at the pristine waters and saw an opportunity to do something tangible.

We traded our spreadsheets for tide charts. We swapped our suits for waders.

We didn't just want to "buy a farm." We wanted to apply the same rigorous standards we used in business and hospitality to aquaculture. We wanted to grow an oyster that could stand up to the wines we studied at Wine Enthusiast, satisfy the chefs at Kinjo, and offer an experience worthy of the customers who trusted The Knot.

The Mission Today Today, Willapa Wild is the result of that pivot. We farm by hand, not because it’s efficient, but because it’s better for the bay. We restored the native eelgrass and mothballed the dredges.

We bring the same obsession with quality that built our previous careers to every single oyster we harvest. It turns out, the distance between Silicon Valley, Brooklyn, and the sea isn't as far as you think...it’s just a lot muddier.