How a Restauranteur Started the Hot Sauce Revolution, with Dave Hirshcop

Before the release of Dave Hirshcop’s famous Dave’s Insanity Sauce, the market for hot sauce was a vastly different place. At the time, Dave owned a restaurant and played around with the idea of making a super-spicy hot sauce in order to regulate unruly patrons. The result was the creation of the famous hot sauce, which has since expanded to other product lines, including pasta sauce. 

Dave Hirshcop is the owner of Dave’s Gourmetn, Inc. Dave is an experienced entrepreneur with a rich history of evaluation markets, purchasing, manufacturing, marketing, financial management, and sales, just to name a few. 

This week G. Steven Cleere is joined by Dave to talk about starting the “superhot” hot sauce trend, the emerging CBD trend, and what’s next for Dave and his sauces.

  Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

[2:52] How Steve first met Dave: in a straight jacket!

[3:52] The hot sauce market was different when Dave began, and how Dave came to make Dave’s Insanity Sauce

[5:25] Why Dave’s hot sauce got banned from a show, and how that helped in marketing

[09:32] Where did Dave go product-wise after making got sauces and pasta sauces?

[12:48] The effect of natural food trends on sales of hot sauce, and Dave’s thoughts on eCommerce

[17:50] Dave and Steve discuss Trade Shows and the emerging CBD trend

[21:14] The use of ghost pepper in hot sauces and a description of the Scoville scale

[24:39] What are the successful building blocks of a good brand?

[35:50] The upcoming plans for Dave’s Gourmet Specialty Foods, and discussion about food trends

[42:33] Dave’s advice for upcoming companies and brands 

  Subscribe and Listen on:

iTunes

  Resources Mentioned in this episode

Dave’s Gourmet Specialty Foods

Dave Hirshcop LinkedIn

  Connect with Steve

Kitchen2Shelf 

About Me

NexxtLevel Marketing

 

Sponsor for this episode

Our podcast was brought to you today by Kitchen2Shelf, the educational arm of NexxtLevel Brands. Kitchen to Shelf provides online and in-person courses and workshops for CPG entrepreneurs at any stage of growth. 

Whether you're an early-stage startup, a local growing business, or if you want to just expand your distribution to a national level, Kitchen to Shelf can help you learn what you need to know to grow.