For Jason Janson, starting a business in his early 40s, once his children had graduated, felt like a risk he could take. But on the flipside, there was no backup plan or option for failure.

“This has to work,” he says.

In mid-2021, Janson launched what he and his wife, Cecilia, only somewhat jokingly call “the Shrimpire” or, as his business is actually named, Broadwater Shrimp Supply Co. & Seafood Market.

Every Friday and Saturday, or until sell-out, he would set up outside Revival Butchery in the Village of West Greenville with his coolers brimming with fresh head-on, unpeeled white shrimp from the Lowcountry. 

A Charleston native, Janson spent 25 years in historic restoration painting before moving to Greenville and changing industries, but living on the coast meant always having fresh seafood. He had a shrimp guy and a crab guy, as is common practice, rather than buying freshly caught seafood from a grocery store or market. By 2015, Janson decided he wanted to become the shrimp guy for other people.  

But he wanted to do it better.

“I don’t want to be the sketchy guy on the side of the road,” he says.

The plan was to downsize to a small Park Circle apartment in Charleston, save as much as possible until he could quit his job, and rely on his wife’s income to keep them afloat while he got his startup off the ground. He was on track to do that until COVID-19 hit. Moving to Greenville allowed the plan to move forward, and Broadwater Shrimp was officially born.

He would load his truck with coolers, drive to Charleston on Wednesday or Thursday, and be back ready to sell on Friday at Revival. That was then. 

Now, a little more than a year later, his operation has grown far beyond what he originally intended to include a seafood market in a fully outfitted trailer that pulls up to the Travelers Rest Farmers Market on Saturdays. He sells out each time.

He also works with a growing list of restaurants who’ve discovered his operation and value his commitment to quality over quantity.

“I slowly started learning just selling shrimp wasn’t going to cut it,” he says.

Always fresh and never frozen, he added tuna from Charleston and Florida, day-boat scallops from North Carolina and on up to Massachusetts, and salmon from Scotland — the only product not sourced domestically but that he defends staunchly as the best salmon in town.

“I started saying yes to everything,” he says. “Next thing you know, we are a full-fledged mobile seafood market. Now my goal is restaurants. I want more restaurants. I have about five regular ones and quite a few private chefs.” 

His sourcing trips early in the week to prepare for the weekend market and restaurant needs have become more complicated.

“This week was three states, two hotels and not a lot of product,” he says. “It’s a lot of work. This time of year is a little wacky. White shrimp go away. Brown shrimp come in and are smaller. Old school people love brown shrimp. But nobody up here really wants them. I’m now having to source from multiple places.” 

With his wife as the bookkeeper, Janson worked to allocate the funds to expand as rapidly as the demand seemed to be dictating. He says she reminds him regularly that even after the trailer purchase and buildout, they are making money, which he reinvests into the business. The next step is to figure out what he should be making and then actually pay himself for the first time. That will be soon, now that the most recent need — an industrial vacuum sealer — was saved for and purchased.

Bottom line though, he’s living his dream, and no amount of money can change that.

“I love meeting all the people running the fish houses and boats,” he says. “It’s a rough group, but they’re the nicest people in the world once you get in.”

He’s now part of helping support the family-run fishing industry that is at risk for extinction.

“It’s a dying breed. Nobody wants to get into it anymore,” he says. “It’s generational. Some of the folks I work with are sixth generation and their kids don’t want to do it.”

He hopes he can help keep these family operations afloat, because most people inland can’t get fresh seafood on their own.

“We want to get it directly from the source and bring you the best product as possible,” he says. “Every day there’s a problem — the weather, I can’t find shrimp, and restaurants expect a certain thing at a time and certain way. It’s just me. It takes forever. But I love it. I’m doing something I really wanted to do.” 

As for what’s next, he says expanding his trailer offerings will be the plan, but also a brick-and-mortar location is a distant goal. The way Broadwater Shrimp has fast-tracked since the beginning, it could be sooner rather than later.

“I’m not interested in investors,” Janson says. “I really want to pull this off on my own. I created this business, and it’s actually working. There’s no going back.”

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