Exceptional

Ben Harris with
the Drop Scale
Growth Driver: Digital, technology and analytics
A recipe for growth
Drop’s smart kitchen scale and recipe app is the first in a
line of connected kitchen products — and understanding
how customers use it is central to Drop’s growth strategy.
words David Craik
Drop was founded in Dublin in 2012
by Ben Harris, Jonny McCauley,
Jack Phelan and Tim Redfern. In
November 2014, the company launched a
smart kitchen scale and interactive recipe
app that wirelessly connect with each
other, helping home cooks to make perfect
dishes — anything from chocolate whiskey
cupcakes to chickpea and quinoa burgers.
Drop has attracted the attention of
major retailers including Apple, Harrods
and Target, and the Drop Scale is now
available in Apple’s retail stores in the US,
Canada and the UK. Exceptional spoke to
Ben Harris about the birth and growth of
the company.
How did you become an entrepreneur?
From a young age, I wanted to work for
myself. When I was 4, I saw a paperboy and
asked my mum what he was doing. She said
he was selling newspapers, so I gathered all
the old editions I could find and went door
to door offering them to my neighbors.
Even though the papers were out of date,
they still bought them!
My parents were both entrepreneurs,
so I grew up with it all around me — that
understanding that someone could start
20