My name is Ron and I’m proud to be the founder of Fartley Farms, a small-batch hot sauce company based out of Columbus, OH. Being in the same city where CaJohn’s originated gives people a certain level of expectation when it comes to hot sauce, but we feel like we’ve held up pretty well here at the start of our journey.

Growing up in the 1970’s, in the Washington DC area, I do not remember seeing hot sauce in our family pantry or in the DC suburban restaurants or grocery stores that we frequented. This doesn’t mean it was not out there.

We start with sourcing our key fresh ingredients from local and regional farms and suppliers to reduce our carbon footprint. Our pepper supplier is only a few miles down the road from our facility. Our labels are made from recycled paper and of course, our glass bottles and PET lids are recyclable.

We are still a tiny company with a small warehouse on one side of town and separate office space on the other. Will, Rose & I spend almost every weekend from April 1st through the end of November on the road, trying to build brand identity.

I had been sitting on the idea since the early 2000’s, after making a few batches of sauces from the garden harvest. I was living with my uncle and godfather, Chris, and we would plant and tend to the garden.

Tim from Pepplish Provisions (Queens, NY) started his hot sauce venture in 2015 shares the funny and exciting stories of starting his hot sauce company on the podcast.

I've always been a hot sauce and spicy food lover, but I could never quite find just the "right" sauce for my tastes, so I started making my own for myself and family. After a while I started to get offers from strangers to buy my sauces so I started a small business from that.

We are a husband, wife and kids team working towards growing our home nursery business into a self-sustaining hot pepper paste food manufacturer located in Hillsboro, Oregon. Chamorro by marriage, we started our small online business by growing and selling live Guam boonie pepper plants, which are very hard to come by in the mainland.

Jolene Collins of the Colorado based artisanal sriracha company Jojo's Sriracha talks about why she decided to start her business and why her motto is love hard, give a fuck!

I had an uncommon start-up journey. In 2008, a friend of mine and I decided to make a business. We focused on events and parties. Therefore we catered, delivered drinks, rented equipment, and so on. Hell Yeah!

About a year ago I made too much Hot Sauce on my night off and decided to give it away on a local Facebook trading site. Next thing I knew I had people asking for more and more and more.

I have always like spicy food, but it wasn’t until 2012 I considered growing my own chillies. After a friend got me into growing superhots and experimenting in hydroponics, I was addicted!