Trying to be Jamie Oliver or Mario Batali at home can get expensive. Walk into a Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma store and you might need to take out a second mortgage to pay for fancy knives and cookware.
Misen–a startup founded by three former tech startup dudes and passionate home cooks–is on a mission to be the Everlane of cookware. The brand wants to create high-quality knives and pans, but cut out middlemen retailers to get rid of inflated costs.
So far, customers seem to be digging the idea. The brand first launched a chef’s knife made from premium steel, selling it for $65 on Kickstarter, a fraction of what a top-notch knife costs at a speciality shop. That 2015 campaign generated more than a million dollars in pre-sales.
Now, Misen wants to bring the same approach to pans. The brand wants to create a set of five products–including skillets and sauce and stock pans–made from 3 millimeter 5-ply stainless steel, which is known for creating better heat distribution and retention. One skillet costs as little as $50, while $260 gets you all five of them. The brand is has launched another Kickstarter to bring this idea to fruition, and has already raised more than $560,000.
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