We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katie Polivka. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katie below.
Katie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the toughest parts of scaling a business is maintaining quality as you grow. How have you managed to maintain quality? Any stories or advice?
Maintaining quality of our fresh, hand-made salsa is the most important process of our entire business. It’s the reason we went into business, to deliver our flavorful salsa in it’s purest form to our customers. Learning to scale batches of salsa to meet customer demand was challenging at times, but we finally got the ratios right! At this moment, we are still a small business, so I personally hand-pick every ingredient that goes into our salsa, as well as taste every batch we produce.
Katie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
In December of 2019, when Tom and I were newly dating, Tom made me a batch of his famous hand-made salsa. It was the best salsa I’ve ever had and I was hooked (both on Tom and the salsa). Every few weeks, he’d make a new batch, and I thought, “Boy, this guy sure likes making salsa.” Turns out, he knew how much I loved it and he made it for me as a way to show me he liked me. It worked. A year later, we had relocated to Colorado for Tom’s job, and I asked him what he thought about us turning our delicious salsa into a local business. On January 1, 2021, we officially filed with the Secretary of State, and Trailhead Salsa was born!
Our salsa stands out from other local salsas because it’s not cooked or processed in any way. We’ve figured out the right ratios of ingredients, the correct texture and the best peppers for the different heat levels. We’re most proud of how far we’ve come in a short time; within the first year of operations we participated in five farmers markets and are on five store shelves! We have loyal customers that will follow us on social media just to find out where we are selling and drive across town or even from Denver to buy our salsa!
We are incredibly dedicated to producing a delicious product, ensuring each container of salsa is as perfect as the last. Our motto is “Never a bland moment” and we live by that statement every day!
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
My favorite sales story is when we were in business for only six short weeks. I was beyond excited and ready to go; I woke up thinking about salsa, talked about salsa during the day, and fell asleep dreaming of salsa. Or more exact, dreaming of our salsa being in stores. So once our business licenses came in the mail, I was pumped to get it out in the world! Farmers markets weren’t starting for months, and a friend of mine suggested I visit a local coffee shop that sells breakfast burritos. So one day, I put a container of salsa in my handbag and headed up to the coffee shop. I ordered a coffee and a burrito, and asked the employee what kind of salsa they serve with their burritos? She reaches under the counter, pulls out a massive jar of Pace and says “this bad boy right here.” I pulled out my container of Trailhead Salsa and asked her if the manager or owner was around to see if they’d be interested in serving it instead. Luckily, both were available and came to talk to me. They told me they love salsa and would share the container and let me know if they were interested. They contacted me a couple of days later absolutely raving over my salsa and said they couldn’t wait to serve it! I was beyond elated (and still am, to this day).
Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to cold call businesses. You won’t always get a Yes, but it will always be a No if you don’t ask.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Tom and I met through an online dating app. The plan was to meet for an early dinner on a Sunday evening, so the foyer of the restaurant was empty, being that it was barely dinnertime. The hostesses (there were three) asked me, “how many?” and I said, two, but I’m waiting for someone. I was so awkward, I just knew they could tell I was there for a first date. I stood there staring at my phone while the minutes ticked by, sure I was being stood up. A few minutes late, Tom comes rushing through the door, sees me standing there, comes to give me a hello hug and says “Nice to meet you.” I was so embarrassed that the hostesses now had confirmation that this was, indeed, a first date. But once they sat us at our table, it didn’t matter anymore because we lost ourselves in the conversation and each other. At the end of the date, Tom walked me to my vehicle and asked me on a second date, and now we’ve been married for a month.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.trailheadsalsa.com
- Instagram: @trailheadsalsa
- Facebook: @trailheadsalsa