The Startup CPG Podcast

Sam Davis-Allonce
The last magical part of hot and saucy is really me being able to talk to people and, like, explain to them my thought process in developing the flavors and just kind of like, pouring in. My own personal passion about the brand and the sauces, I really feel like kind of takes it over the edge for people. So that is something that we are definitely going to be doing for the end of this year and going into next year. So my goal is also to get into restaurant spaces, do food service sizes as well, so that I can sort of take it back to my roots and be able touch people in that way as well.

00:54
Grace Kennedy
Hello, startup CPG listeners, and welcome back to the podcast. This is Grace and I am here with another founder feature. Today I am talking to Sam, a former chef and now founder of Hot and Saucy, a line of delicious and innovative hot sauces. Sam has had a whirlwind of a few years. She not only launched hot and saucy in the middle of the pandemic, but she has also had two kids, moved to Atlanta, and then seen hot and saucy grow at an exponential rate. I love chatting with Sam and I hope you enjoy listening to this interview. As always, let me know what you think. Hello. Welcome back to the startup CPT podcast. This is Grace and I am here with another founder feature.

01:44
Grace Kennedy
Today I'm talking to Sam, who is the founder of Hot and Saucy, which is a line of truly delicious hot sauces made from a wide variety of ingredients. But welcome to the show, Sam. We are so happy to have you here.

01:58
Sam Davis-Allonce
Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here also.

02:01
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. So just to start us off, I'd love to hear who is hot and saucy in the founder's words. And why did you decide to create this brand?

02:10
Sam Davis-Allonce
Yeah, I always say that I, like, accidentally fell into CPG. Prior to starting the company, I was a chef in New York over ten years, worked in tons of great restaurants. I also did private chefing for like some celebrities and athletes and had my own catering business. So it was busy, intense. I also did consulting, did a lot. 2020 was like the height of my career or what I thought I was coming off of. Why did food festivals magazine features? It was supposed to be my year. And then Covid happened. In addition to some life changes, on the day that New York City shut down was the day that my husband and I found out were expecting our first child. And I also stopped working that day. It was, you know, end of work for me. So while were in lockdown.

03:02
Sam Davis-Allonce
I was having this progressing pregnancy and was having insane cravings for spicy foods. I would send my husband out into the madness in Manhattan during the time just to get me hot sauce, and he'd come back disheveled, tired. Like, I found these for you. And I hated everything. Everything was either too spicy, blow out your palate, way too spicy, in my opinion, or too vinegary. So I was like, well, I'm home. I have time. I'm just gonna make sauce that I like. So I used vegetables. I liked ingredients. I liked made sauces that made me and baby happy. Then I was like, well, I will make an Etsy page. I'll sell them to, like, my mom and friends, make a couple bucks, whatever.

03:47
Sam Davis-Allonce
And I think with the power of social media and people being home and on their phones, we had a few, like, really crazy viral moments. I officially launched the brand in August of 2020 with three flavors. And by December of 2020, were asked to be on hot ones. So literally, hot ones is they have, like, their own universe of followers, and it's just a great brand that literally blew us into the stratosphere. And I've been playing catch up with hot and salty earth.

04:20
Grace Kennedy
Wow, that is crazy to go from, yeah, August little pandemic business to now we're on this huge show that celebrities are going on and trying our hot sauces. And just to give a shout out, my favorite of your hot sauce is the black garlic hot sauce. I'm, like, obsessed with that one, and so delicious. So going back a little bit to your development of these hot sauces, obviously, you were making them in your kitchen at home. How did you get them to a point where you could take them out of your home and get them on a tv or a YouTube show?

04:58
Sam Davis-Allonce
It was being forced to, you know, I had no choice. When that first PO came in, I was like, oh, I have to get this done. So I was very fortunate, I will say, to find a co packer who was willing to take me on and work with me in 2020, because everything was shut down, no one was taking on new customers, and they were willing to do what needed to be done for me, and I was very appreciative for that. Grown past them, obviously, but it literally was what I needed at the time. So I very quickly had to scale. In the midst of all of that, I ended up relocating from New York down to Atlanta. So I was able to rent space in a commercial kitchen.

05:41
Sam Davis-Allonce
I was going in all hours of the night making sauce, bottling, labeling, packaging, you know, shipping out orders. But this co packer definitely helped me with, like, the large pos, anything over about 10,000 units. But honestly, up until a year and a half ago, I was still making sauce, bottling, labeling, doing everything on my own for, like, smaller amounts that were needed.

06:07
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. Wow, that is a lot of work, I'm sure. But I suppose coming from the restaurant industry, as a chef, you were kind of. Maybe that was kind of familiar to you, to be.

06:18
Sam Davis-Allonce
Yeah, absolutely. You know, being able to scale a recipe, being able to cook in, like, larger formats, it was fine with me, but with, like, the new life changes. So now I have two babies doing that while postpartum and, like, having to run back and, like, pump, and it was madness. It really was. But I think all of that madness is what kind of kept me going. I was like, well, I can't stop now, right?

06:44
Grace Kennedy
No time to stop and think about how crazy it is, exactly what you're doing. You just have to keep going. What was your reaction when you had your first, as you said, viral moment and you suddenly got all of these orders that maybe you weren't expecting?

06:59
Sam Davis-Allonce
I just thought it was wrong. I was like, wait a what? How do people know about this product? I mean, older millennials? So, obviously, I was around with, like, the inception of social media, but still not really into it, you know, like that personally. But you see sort of other brands really benefit from social media. So when it happened to me, I was just like, what? This is real? Like, people really do find out about products on social media. They follow your pages based on someone else's review of it. So, yeah, it was really great and organic. I really like the fact that, like, for the first few years that this business has been around, it really has been like, organic growth. Word of mouth. And, yeah, I just think that keeps it more, you know, authentic and true to who I am.

07:53
Grace Kennedy
Absolutely. And I think that's something customers and consumers are looking for, is a brand that feels authentic to person who created it and getting to know the person who created it, versus this monolithic, huge brand where you have no idea who works there or what they're all about. So you mentioned about a year and a half ago you started working with a co packer or a co man. So how was the process of moving from your own commercial kitchen to working with a co packer?

08:25
Sam Davis-Allonce
I mean, physically, great. Here, take it. You do it mentally. It also, like, cleared up some mental fog and got rid of some anguish and stress. But it was fairly easy. The manufacturer that I work with, they're amazing. They're committed to growing with me and my company. So they're very flexible. They're very understanding. Initially, they allowed me to be the crazy owner, the hardline chef who wanted to come down and taste and, you know, check out the quality of the ingredients or whatever. They've been great. They really have been great. And I feel like it was sort of seamless taking the product from my hands to their hands. And the customers, I don't feel have noticed the difference. I feel like, if anything, they're more happy with the product because it's more consistent, you know?

09:16
Grace Kennedy
So, yeah. And how did you find this manufacturer? How did you get connected?

09:20
Sam Davis-Allonce
I literally called every single Gofacker in the United States. I mean, were home. We had time. I had time and opportunity. I spent a lot of days and nights googling and doing my due diligence and calling and begging and pleading, and they had come really highly recommended. But again, everyone was just not taking on new customers. So when they responded and said, hey, you know, we're opening up, we can take you on, it just was like Christmas, I'm sure.

09:57
Grace Kennedy
But it does go to show that patience and doing your due diligence and waiting for the right partner is so important, because, as you said, this changeover was seamless and it's been great and you love working with them. Whereas if you had just gone for maybe the first person to say yes, you might not have had such a successful changeover from your hands to theirs. So I think that is, although a lot of work and energy and time, it seems like it's been worth it for you so far. So returning to what you're saying about the organic growth, hot and saucy, what have you been doing to over these last four years, keep up that momentum of people just discovering hot and sassy. How do you keep up the organic growth momentum as you've grown to, you.

10:43
Sam Davis-Allonce
Know, I hate to say it, we haven't done much marketing this year. I've been telling people that I have to stop resting on my laurels, but being on hot ones twice, we've had just like a lot of really great and unexpected press placements. So over the holidays, were a part of Oprah's favorite things list. Any holiday, you know, that happens or whatever, we're always included on a listen. So I think just a lot of frequent press hits have kept us just in people's face. In addition to just launching into some retailers, you know, that has sort of expanded us to just, like, different demographics, different cities that I probably wasn't getting online customers from.

11:30
Sam Davis-Allonce
But this year and especially next year, we really have a more planned out marketing strategy where we're gonna hit who we're gonna target and not just sort of taking what comes to us and rolling with that.

11:45
Grace Kennedy
It's amazing how much press you've received, though, because I was looking at your website and I'm like, oh, wow, they must have really put in a lot of work to get all of this press. So how do you get on, like, an Oprah's favorite things list?

11:59
Sam Davis-Allonce
Literally, when I tell this story, like, I feel like people don't believe me. I ignored their emails for quite some time. I thought it was spam. I literally thought it was spam. Cause I was like, there ain't no way in hell that these people are emailing me. And, you know, the times we live in now, like, you just don't know. God bless their team. Love them. But the emails they sent had, like, different fonts. You can tell that parts of it were copied and pasted. And I just thought I was like, oprah's not gonna send me an email that has copy and paste in it or different colors, different fonts. So I ignored it.

12:36
Sam Davis-Allonce
And then I got this call, and I normally don't pick up calls that I don't know, but I just happened to pick it up and they're like, hey, have you been, like, getting our emails? And I was like, oh, crap.

12:48
Grace Kennedy
Oh, my God.

12:50
Sam Davis-Allonce
But how they chose me, I have no idea. So that just really speaks to, again, word of mouth, just being talked about in places that I would have no idea. But how someone in that company knew about hot and saucy was able to talk about it enough to convey it to the people who choose for the list was really amazing.

13:14
Grace Kennedy
That's amazing. And I love that story because you do get a lot of spam, you know?

13:19
Sam Davis-Allonce
Oh, my God.

13:20
Grace Kennedy
In this day and age.

13:21
Sam Davis-Allonce
Yeah, people are always trying to sell you something like, hey, we can put you inside a vogue if you paid $10,000 for this. So it really came off as just something that wasn't.

13:33
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, that is so funny. And I literally, when I looked at your press page, I was like, oh, they must be working with, like, a pr agency or something. They have so much press, but people are just spreading the word about hot and saucy, which also speaks to the quality of your products and that they are genuinely really delicious. So, yeah, congratulations on all of that. And I also wanted to return to something you said about retail expansion, obviously, you've been growing into that as well. I saw that, you know, you guys have expanded into target. So how have you been approaching that retail growth and standing out on shelves when there are a lot of hot sauces on the market and especially the legacy hot sauces. Right. Everybody knows what they're going to get if they choose a tabasco.

14:22
Grace Kennedy
So how have you approached both getting into retail and then also standing out on the shelf once you're there?

14:28
Sam Davis-Allonce
Well, getting into retail, I think, was always my plan. Just even when I started developing the sauces, there really is, like, a clear distinction of, there's a ton of hot sauces, but there's a clear distinction between what's on grocery store shelves. So there are, like, the red chili based vinegary types, delicious, love them, will always reach for them. But you have, like, that flavor profile, and then you have the more daring ones, but they all still kind of have the same ingredients, the same, you know, you're going to get, like, a fruit and habanero. You know, you're going to get, like a milder jalapeno or Serrano. So I automatically knew from the jump that my flavors were, like, insanely unique. Then when I was thinking about the branding as a chef, you know, you're really used to, like, just playing the back.

15:26
Sam Davis-Allonce
I was always, like, an amazing number two in my career, but never really held myself on the forefront. So I kind of promised myself, like, if I'm really gonna do this, I want it to be, like, as bright and bold and funky as me. I want it to have, like, my personality. I put my friggin head on the bottle with, like, you know, my curly fro. I just wanted it to be fun and look really what I thought would be, like, a representation of me. So I picked colors that I loved, and unknowingly, all of these colors are kind of colors that don't exist on, like, labeling for these hot sauces that are already on shelf. So automatically when you see our sauces, your eyes go directly to them, the colors of the labels.

16:14
Sam Davis-Allonce
And then I think what is really great about our sauces is the discoverability about them. So people are really curious when they see these flavors, like collards and ghosts. I'm like, there's collard green hot sauce, sweet potato. What in the world? So they're really curious about these ingredients. So that's, like, the next step, way before they even taste in it. So they love it. You know, they love how it looks. They love the names and then when they taste it's just like, oh, I'm so. What is this? I love it. The old adage, you eat with your eyes. I just really feel like when people see the label and sort of get the feel of it in comparison to bottles that are on the shelf, I mean, it's a no brainer.

16:55
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. And have you been doing or worked with any sampling agencies or done sampling or demos yourself at some of your retail locations?

17:03
Sam Davis-Allonce
Not yet. It is something that I absolutely want to do. I feel like the last magical part of hot and saucy is really me being able to talk to people and, like, explain to them my thought process and developing the flavors and just kind of, like, pouring in my own personal passion about the brand and the sauces, I really feel like kind of takes it over the edge for people. So that is something that we are definitely going to be doing for the end of this year and going into next year. And we've just developed some packet, you know, smaller format packets. So my goal is also to get into restaurant spaces, do food service sizes as well, so that I can sort of take it back to my roots and be able touch people in that way as well.

17:55
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I love that. And I mentioned this to you before we started talking, but there is a restaurant near where I live in Philly called honeysuckle provisions for any of my Philadelphia people listening, but they stock Sam's delicious hot and saucy sauces also, because the chef at Honeysuckle used to be, you were saying, your sous chef. So I love some of that circularity of your restaurant experience with your now CBG experience all coming together, and it's super fun to see. And I'm like, they should put one of your hot sauces on their sandwiches.

18:32
Sam Davis-Allonce
I love working with them and any type of collaboration they want to do, I'm there.

18:37
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. And I love everything they do at Honeysuckle provision. So now this is just becoming an advertisement for their restaurants, a double advertisement here. So another thing I wanted to ask you about, partially just because I love this idea, but I know you did a collaboration with Miller High Life and created this dive bar, hot sauce. So could you talk a little bit about how that came to be and then also your approach to this partnership and working with partners in general?

19:12
Sam Davis-Allonce
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people always tell me I'm too humble, but it really still does shock me, and I really do have to pinch myself. One, that people even know who I am. Let's start there. But two, the fact that this brand, this just, like, idea I had has gotten into places that I never have been able to walk into as myself in that so many people who I just don't personally know about my hot sauce and love it and, you know, like, love the brand, it's just, it's mind blowing to me. So they reached out to me and I checked my email and, you know, I was, like, insanely flattered, but it was really sort of, like, serendipitous because as a chef, like Miller high life was one of the my drinks of choice after a very long day on the line.

20:07
Sam Davis-Allonce
So it really was like a great sort of synergy. They wanted something that sort of gave you the feel of drinking champagne and beers in your favorite sort of watering hole, dive bar. So I approached it with trying to bring in the flavors and the essence of dive bar food in the hot sauce. So it has smoky chipotle peppers, a lot of, like, black pepper, lemon juice to sort of give you the feel of, like, you know, lemon pepper, chicken wings, the smokiness of being in a dive bar. It has sort of like that acidic, sweet taste that would remind you of like a wing sauce or ketchup. So it really worked out. And the high life is cooked into the sauce also. And when I tell you that thing has been selling, people are loving it.

20:58
Sam Davis-Allonce
I think it's just such a cute idea. And to have a sauce that really celebrates this amazing drink and a place where we all love to go to or maybe have all been to our youth or even now, it's just a nice celebration of dive bars, I think.

21:17
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, it's so fun. And I, too, love the whole idea and just the vibe, and it feels like it goes so perfectly together. So I know you mentioned that you are not the hugest social media person, but given that these amazing brands like Miller High life and like, Oprah's favorite things are able to find you, how do you try to show up on social media and make yourself and hot and saucy known to not only these brand press and collaborators, but also your potential customers, consumers? What's your approach to that?

21:54
Sam Davis-Allonce
Yeah, I mean, it's something that I definitely have thought more seriously about this year. So we sort of came into 2024 with, like, this new look. So I'd hired a creative director to just, like, really polish out our brand guidelines. We did this amazing photo shoot that really gave a cohesive, like, personality to the brand, to where it didn't depend so heavily on me telling the story. I feel like the images, the colors, everything can sort of tell that story for me. The past four years, I have launched a business, had two kids, tried to figure out how to be a mom, a wife, a business owner. So it was just a really crazy period of transition on so many different levels for me. But this year, I feel more like myself, you know what I mean?

22:48
Sam Davis-Allonce
And I have made a promise to myself that I am going to be more customer facing, be more forward facing on social media. So I've started. Haven't done it as windy yet, but started doing videos, trying to be just very honest about the journey, honest about my thoughts and what's happening with the business. And, yeah, I'm just trying to really tell, like, a very authentic story and just show people that behind this delicious sauce is still a person who's, you know, just trying to figure it out. Honestly, with the help of. I call my customers hotties. With the help of our hotties, they have helped take this from a simple idea to a full functioning, almost seven figure business.

23:39
Grace Kennedy
It's amazing. It's so, to hear you list everything that you've done in the last four years, I'm like, I'm already tired myself, but so, thinking of that, what are some of the resources that you leaned on during this time of intense and change and transition as you've grown this business grown, two children, what are the things that have helped you get through such a crazy whirlwind?

24:06
Sam Davis-Allonce
I mean, definitely my family, my husband, my mother, my sister, just everyone in my, you know, inner circle, they've heard me scream, cry, you know, rant, rave, be excited. They really have supported me every day in this journey. But also the fact that I'm just like, I don't know if I could go back to a restaurant. You know, I'm getting older. I don't know if my back could take it. I don't know if my knees could take it. Like, this has to work out because what am I gonna do? And that's as real as it can get. I'm just like, this has to work out. Cause I cannot do any more. 18 hours, days standing up.

24:43
Sam Davis-Allonce
But really just trying to not let the voices in my head dissuade me from doing this and just being hopeful that the love and the admiration that people have for this sauce will carry on and that the people who've not heard about it yet, have not tasted it yet will feel just the same. I mean, my hopes are that it definitely becomes brand that is on the shelves you're used to seeing. It becomes a legacy brand because it's so different, it's so unique. I definitely think it could stand the test of time next to the big dog, so to speak.

25:21
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. And I think those are great resources and ways to keep going. And I, too, understand. I briefly worked in the restaurant industry myself, and I definitely can't go back.

25:31
Sam Davis-Allonce
Yeah, I love it. I miss it. But, like, physically, a woman of a certain age.

25:37
Grace Kennedy
Right. It takes a toll. It takes a toll. It really does. I really understand. So thinking then, of, obviously, you've mentioned some of the challenges, some of the whirlwind of running a business, but what are you most proud of over these last four years and sort of is a shining north star for you?

25:59
Sam Davis-Allonce
Yeah, I'm proud of the fact that in a sea of no's, I still have been able to keep this business afloat. We are totally bootstrapped, and I've been able to figure it out and rise to the occasion of every expenditure that has come my way. But also just the fact that, like, I was able to take what felt like the most insane idea and really just run with it and not let the outside noise, not let my inner. What the hell are you doing, girl? Thoughts sort of get in the way and just really the consistency. Like, I know when I started, the bottles look crazy, the logos weren't there, the Instagram pictures were a little grainy and didn't look great. But the fact that I was just able to stay the course, I am really proud of.

26:53
Sam Davis-Allonce
Cause I know that a lot of people don't make it that far because of that fact. They'll stop just way too early.

27:01
Grace Kennedy
Absolutely. I think there's some stat out there that's like, most startups fail within two years. And I think just the fact that you've made it for and have all these amazing opportunities really speaks to your persistence and your talent, honestly, in creating this delicious product and also being okay with being imperfect at first and making changes. And I think that's something that also stops a lot of people from even ever beginning, is like, well, I don't have the perfect label, I don't have the perfect this, and you just never know what's gonna happen. So I love that. And one very important question I have for you is, are your kids old enough to try your hot sauces yet?

27:41
Sam Davis-Allonce
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So I have a three year old who's about to be four and a just turned two year old, and they are absolutely obsessed with our mildest flavor, garlic and pepperoncini. But literally nothing gets eaten in my house without garlic and pepperoncini. So fries, noodles, chicken nuggets, anything they want. The garlic and peppercini.

28:05
Grace Kennedy
Oh, my God, I love that. And I bet they're gonna have the most amazing palates as they get older, if that's what they're.

28:11
Sam Davis-Allonce
I hope so.

28:11
Grace Kennedy
Starting off with I hope so.

28:13
Sam Davis-Allonce
I hope so. Those poor kids. You know, I used to come home covered in, like, pepper dust. We'd all be sneezing in the car.

28:20
Grace Kennedy
Oh, my God.

28:21
Sam Davis-Allonce
So they have really been through it with me as well.

28:25
Grace Kennedy
So, yeah, it's a family business.

28:28
Sam Davis-Allonce
Absolutely.

28:29
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. And so what does the future look like for hot and saucy the next year, the next few years? What's coming down the pipeline?

28:38
Sam Davis-Allonce
Definitely more retail. My goal is to really have a hot and saucy footprint in sort of every region of the country, because we do really good business online to, like, these sort of, you know, obscure places where I'm like, how do they know about me in Oklahoma? But really to just get, like, a retail presence in each region of the country, to still have a super robust d to c, even though I'm hoping to, like, sort of flip it, do more wholesale than d to cite, and then obviously break into the food service, you know, in restaurant world, I feel that little chef part of me still wants, like, the sauce to be in restaurants. So we have packets, dip cups, gallons, half gallons available.

29:27
Sam Davis-Allonce
I'm really going to be hitting the ground going into these restaurants and really trying to sell it, because I just feel like that's the best way to do it. It's the old school way, but really, it is the best way to start relationships with these restaurants and get us in there and, yeah, just to not fail, you know, to stay afloat, to not drop dead in the process, to.

29:50
Grace Kennedy
Maybe have a vacation.

29:52
Sam Davis-Allonce
Yeah, you know, that's what I was gonna say. I was like. And maybe at some point just really stop to enjoy it.

29:59
Grace Kennedy
Yeah. I think it's so easy as a founder to just keep looking at the to do list, to keep focused on just what needs to happen rather than looking back and seeing how far you've come and celebrating all of the wins and allowing yourself that momentous to really celebrate. So I hope you take that as well. So as we wrap up, I love to ask, just how can our listeners, how can the startup CPG community support hot and saucy?

30:24
Sam Davis-Allonce
Definitely. So if you are near a target or super target, definitely pick us up on the shelf. We are also national in public, so that is my southeast people, when you go get your pub sub, grab a bottle of hot and saucy to go with it. You can follow us on Instagram. We always have like really great and fun, you know, contests on there. Like I said, we call our customers hotties and we just have a lot of fun on Instagram. The handle is hot and saucy co and yeah, just see us, buy us, retweet, follow. Just stay engaged with us.

31:00
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, absolutely. And if you like mild, try the garlic and pepperoncini. If you like a little spicier, try the black garlic. And then there are many other flavors that you have. Or try the dive bar hot sauce. Yeah, see which one floats your boat. But if you're like me, the black garlic's for you. Yeah. This was so much fun, Sam. It's so much fun to learn about hot sauce and your journey and all of the above. And I can't wait to see where hot and saucy goes next.

31:30
Sam Davis-Allonce
Thank you so much. Startup CPG has been a really great resource. You all have helped me. I've asked tons of questions on the Slack channel has also been very integral in helping us grow in scale. So I appreciate you all as well.

31:44
Grace Kennedy
Yeah, I love to hear that. Well, thank you all for listening. And yeah, check out hot and saucey and have a great day.

31:50
Sam Davis-Allonce
Thank you so much.

31:53
Grace Kennedy
All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, it would help us out so much if you left a five star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I am Grace Kennedy, the editor for startup CPG, so feel free to add me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack. I'm always on the hunt for new and exciting brands to feature, and if you're a potential sponsor that would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipstartupcpg.com. And finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our community on Slack and you can sign up via our website, startupcpg.com dot.