Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephen Paprocki. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Stephen , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I just wanted to make Black Garlic for a “Wing It Wednesday” sauce while i was a chef. Once i found out through trial an error how to produce it. I decided to test the market by selling it to local chefs, and farmers markets. Over time we developed other Black Garlic products and are now wholesaled in Multiple states and are in stores like HEB and Central Market in Texas.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was a chef for a long time. I always wanted to be an owner, I just didn’t know if it would be a consulting company, food production manufacturer, or a restaurant or food truck owner. I started working at a restaurant in upstate NY when i was 15, I came to San Antonio, TX in 1996 and my first job here in SA was at Las Canarias and La Mansion Del Rio Hotel. I worked many years there and left after becoming Executive Sous Chef and Omni Hotels Task Force Chef. I wanted to take a break and find a company to work for Monday-Friday and have weekends and holidays off. I got a job as a Chef Manager with Eurest with Compass Group. I loved my time there, but would beta test many different projects on the side. My girlfriend at the time and wife now: Elizabeth, would tell me after she learned i was making Black Garlic, that this is what i needed to spend my time on. After a bit of time i joined and accelerator program called Break Fast and Launch though LaunchSA.org and the rest is history. When we started Texas Garlic Inc/ DBA Texas Black Gold Garlic we wanted to source from local farmers. We now have 42 contracted farmers in the USA, 18 are in Texas and the rest are in California, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. We started producing 180 # of Black Garlic a month, we not produce 3,000lbs every nine days.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In February 2020 we hit at that time a record breaking month of just wholesale alone at a little over $40k in sales for that month. When Covid hit in March 2020 we did $0 in wholesale sales. When all restaurant shuttered it was like Black Garlic was removed from all menus. We pivoted to going back to farmers markets in Texas. We actually put in all major markets in Texas: Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and New Braunfels. Those farmers Market sales gave our business a life line and let us concentrate on pursuing more online and retail sales. When Covid ended, our Pivot actually increased our Month to Month and Yearly Sales. We are very blessed to come out the other end of Covid stranger as a company and more of a diversified sales brand.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding my business started small. I invested maybe $1,000 on equipment, rent and utilities. I started small and would work the farmers markets on the weekend. I didn’t just jump into my company 100%. I used the farmers markets to get true feedback on my product and also what clients were buying or what they would like to see next. That is how our product line grew. I boot strapped my company over the years, took out loans or borrowed money from my father when i needed to. Like many small start ups, we boot strapped, put all $ back into the bushiness and worked 7 days a week to gt us to where we are today. Many days i would still have to do odd jobs just to pay my personal bills, so i would not take a check out of my new company.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.texasblackgoldgarlic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com › texasblackgoldgarlic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com › TexasBlackGoldGarlic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com › txblackgarlic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur7TVOKDIoQ

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