An immigrant from Turkey turned Greek yogurt into an American snack food (2013)

I'm a Turkish immigrant as well, and I read this story from time to time for inspiration. What Ulukaya has accomplished is truly remarkable.

For us hacker types, I think the most relevant tidbit is this:

Making the product, which Ulukaya registered under the name Euphrates, was the easy part. It was much harder to run the factory, hire the right people, handle sales and marketing, and secure wholesale buyers.

This is similar to what you hear from startup founders: making the product is relatively easy compared to the "business stuff" such as hiring, marketing, sales and so on. What is not clear -- to me, at least -- is that did the making of the product simply appear easy because it was enjoyable, and vice versa?

This part is interesting too:

In 2005, Ulukaya received a piece of junk mail, from a local real-estate company, advertising the sale of a yogurt-and-cheese factory that had closed down. He went to see it.

I don't know if this is proof that junk mail is common because it works. Maybe it is. But think about how much sheer luck was involved here. He got some junk mail, which he happened to browse (out of boredom?) or maybe he was just staring at it while thinking about something else and it suddenly piqued his interest. He then leveraged that luck by actually going to see the factory. If he had not, then Chobani would probably still be a small-time producer of yogurt today.

The narrative here seems contrary to how I remember it, though I'm no analyst of the grocery sector. I don't live in the U.S. anymore, but in the 2000s, I remember Greek yogurt being popular, but don't remember this company Chobani. There were basically two kinds of "Greek yogurt": the Greek brand Fage was the higher-priced "authentic" brand, and then Trader Joe's, Safeway, etc. had lower-priced "Greek-style" brands that differed partly by origin and partly by the use of thickening agents like pectin. Chobani's dominance from my memory seems like a more recent thing, after the style had been established. But that may vary regionally as well; I lived in California.

I really wish this had happened to Labneh instead of Greek Yogurt. Same basic type of food, a thicker yogurt, but it's a little thicker and drier than Greek yogurt and has a different taste, one I vastly prefer. Add a touch of olive oil and it makes an amazing dip with some Lebanese style pita bread.

Someone take this and run with it, I would like to be able to find Labneh in all grocery stores, next to the Greek yogurt.

I really liked Chobani for a while but they seem to have real quality issues and after throwing out a few too many cups I switched back to Fage, which I seems to be able to control their cultures better.

Also good: Tillamook greek yogurt - go Oregon!

I love yogurt, but Chobani is probably the worst example of a good yogurt product. Sugary and yucky, just like the awful stuff made by Dannon and Yoplait.

I guess I don't understand American tastes; yogurt is supposed to be tangy, not sweet. I don't mind there being sweet varieties, but it's hard to find anything that isn't full of sugar, or is "low fat" or "no fat" (meaning, again, more sugar) or "creamline" (meaning unappetizingly slimy).