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Dave Hirschkop is the Founder and CEO of Dave's Gourmet. He started an off-beat taqueria in Maryland called Burrito Madness where he created the “hottest hot sauce in the universe” as a way to control unruly drunk patrons—and ended up garnering national attention as a result. He knew he was onto something when customers started coming in droves for the exceptional flavor and heat. And so: Dave's Gourmet was born.
Building on his ability to think outside the box, Dave focused on expanding his unique approach to other specialty food categories. He noticed a lack of variety in the pasta sauce category and aimed to design an inventive set of sauces that would be delicious while containing the highest quality ingredients he could find. This led to more than seventeen prestigious Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation awards, including “best in category” and “best in the industry".
Over 20 years later, Dave and his team continue to work tirelessly to save the world from blandness and banality—one delicious and innovative product at a time.
Dave talks about wearing a straitjacket at a Fancy Food Show event and how he started making and selling hot sauces
Why Dave decided to expand into making pasta sauces and other product lines
How consumer trends in dieting have impacted the sales of Dave's Gourmet
The e-commerce side of Dave's Gourmet
Dave's thoughts on the differences between Expo East and Expo West
The building blocks to a successful brand
How Dave uses social media and digital marketing to grow his business
The future line of products for Dave's Gourmet and the conflicting information in the food industry
Dave's advice to aspiring product entrepreneurs
When creating a new product, every entrepreneur needs to let their target audience know what makes their product better or superior to other products. It is not enough to simply start making and selling your product before doing enough research: you must show value for the product and give consumers a strong reason to buy.
According to Dave Hirschkop, increasing the value of a product could mean adding a special spice, including a certain ingredient, or improving on the packaging to differentiate it from other products in the market.
In this episode of the NexxtLevel Brands Podcast, Dave Hirschkop, the Founder of Dave's Gourmet, joins G. Steven Cleere to share his strategies for successfully launching new products. Dave talks about his hot sauce company, the building blocks to a successful brand, and how he handles e-commerce.
Our podcast today is sponsored by Kitchen2Shelf, the educational arm of NexxtLevel Brands. Kitchen-2-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-2-Shelf can help you learn what you need to know to grow.
Visit their website to get access to some free tools that can help you understand where your business stands.
Contact them today to find out how they can help you grow your brand and expand your business to reach its full potential.
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