We were lucky to catch up with Jon Meyer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

The list of true risks I’ve taken in my life is pretty short, in fact, list is the wrong word because that word implies multiple risks could be listed. In the eternal nature vs nurture debate of what shapes a person’s personality, I’ve had a lifetime of both sides of the debate working to entrench a staunch risk aversion into my ethos. The idea of starting a small business might as well have been as laughably improbable as visiting the Moon. While I had discovered a real joy in the puzzle involved with developing hot sauces with great flavor profiles, I had zero intention of attempting to make a business out of it. No question, starting my small business was the first, and probably the biggest risk I would, and will ever, take. In my defense, I did put up a fight. Close friends who had enjoyed helping consume my home brews had long harassed me to try out vending at the local gardener’s market—I successfully resisted their votes of confidence for several years. Eventually, enough friends had started to show support that I began to believe people would actually enjoy the recipes I was making, but the unknowns of small business still felt overwhelmingly risky. Keep in mind I am a scientist by training, so I have no experience in the business side of a business. Initially, I was very unsure of how far to dip my toe into those dark and murky waters of small business, where failure might would lurk. It seemed like fate, or a stroke of luck, when I randomly met a man at a backyard BBQ who seemed equally serious about sauce as I was. We traded home brews—hot sauce from me, and BBQ sauce from him—and talked for an hour. Turns out, he did know the business side of a business, and shortly after the introductions, Lev and I combined forces to start Bear River Bottling. The blend of experience and passion seemed like a good justification to take on some risk and try to turn a hobby into a business. While Lev has since moved on to focus on his other businesses, I am grateful that his early guidance and mentorship provided me with a degree of confidence that would continue to fuel my business risk taking going forward. I now believe that life should have some calculated risks; calculated being the key word. Starting Bear River Bottling, meeting and befriending so many self-minded friends, and experiencing the joys and hardships that come with small business is a tangible payoff before the paycheck. I am now joined in this journey by three close friends-turned-partners who have bought into the idea of the joys that small business can offer. I owe a debt of gratitude to the many friends and family that pushed me beyond my comfort zone and helped give me the confidence to accept the risks.
I love the fact that Utah is one of the most entrepreneurial states in the union. We have a lot of small business owners in the Beehive State. I assume there are lots of folks like me who are nervous to pursue their dream of small business due to the risks involved. I hope that others might be inspired by my transformation into a more risk-accepting person and decide themselves to pursue their dreams The joys of operating my own business are very fulfilling so even before considering the paycheck, so, was the juice was worth the squeeze? I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Well, maybe a very large buyout check, but that’s it.

Jon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I own Bear River Bottling, a Cache Valley operation crafting over a dozen seriously flavorful hot sauces, BBQ sauces and of course, a fry sauce. Out of necessity, I began making my own spicy condiments when I moved to Utah and was disappointed to learn most local eateries felt black pepper was sufficiently spicy. I was pushed into a small business by friends who had long supported my hobby-turned-passion. What began at a small 6-foot farmers market table now has been recognized with national awards and ships some of Utah’s finest fiery flavors across the country. The craft hot sauce industry for many years has been chasing after hotter and hotter peppers and sauces. A cold war of hot sauce that was reaching the point where fiery fans were literally burned out by the military-grade pepper spray branded as hot sauce. I am proud that Bear River Bottling is part of a paradigm shift in the industry towards a more flavor-focused market. It is truly a renaissance with both old-school sauce masters and young guns alike experimenting with a rainbow of unique and unusual ingredients towards the goal of concocting the perfect balance of flavor and fire. I’m grateful that BRB has had the opportunity to represent Utah in the national craft sauce scene and whether someone is after mild or wild, I’m grateful that we’ve been able to introduce many Utahans to the joy of spicy food. We take extra care to make folks feel comfortable with whatever level of spicy they want. All too often, we see people turned off by the machismo of spicy food fanatics, so for us, it’s important to not gatekeep and make people feel comfortable. We like to have fun at the sample table, so I am just as happy to connect with someone who believes a jalapeno is dangerous as I am to spin stories of the hottest experiences I’ve had with a fellow chilehead.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We manufacture our entire lineup and that’s a special process for us. It was important for us to be involved in the sauce making process because that’s where we find inspiration and connect with the flavors and food pairings. The businesses’ roots are in micro-batch, homemade recipes, so it was never a question for us to not manufacture everything ourselves. Starting out, we had absolutely no clue about the processes. But we slowly acquired the knowledge and equipment solutions that would allow us to increase our product and efficiency. Some of the most interesting lessons we had to learn was how to craft a sauce around a stable supply chain of ingredients as well as how to scale up a recipe. It turns out that the outcome is affected just by scaling up the volume thanks to longer cooking times, greater evaporative loss, and temperature impacts to flavor the longer a sauce cooked, so we learned as we went and adjusted the order of operations where needed. I’m very glad we make our sauces; I’m even more glad that we scaled up slowly and didn’t try to jump into the deep end right out of the gate.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Most of our initial growth came from special event booths and individual interactions with customers, which was perfect for us seeing how obsessed we are about talking sauce. Utah isn’t the first state you’d think of when it comes to spicy food or BBQ, but it was clear from the onset that there were a ton of like-minded people seeking the same things we had when we started out so we knew if we were patient and executed a cohesive strategy, that we could carve out a place in the market. At first, this approach meant harder hours and greater efforts for sales, but by hitting the pavement hard each weekend, we were able to connect with the consumer in a way you can’t achieve through any marketing or online advertising campaign. For us, we always want to be welcoming to anyone that interacts with our brand. We strive to always be inclusive and to demonstrate our gratefulness for the opportunity to share our sauce. This approach has been tremendously helpful in overcoming the hurdle of selling our sauces in retail environments, where we found consumers were fairly hesitant to try an unknown brand at a much higher price point than the very cheap, mass-produced sauces that have populated shelves for generations. I think by connecting with people at our booth, and being dedicated to a grass-roots style of growth, we were able to create a communal experience for our customers who were just as far down the rabbit hole of craft sauces as we were. I have a dozen market friends who bring me their home brews and trade sauces. We talk about growing peppers, about recipe ideas, and about other flavors from around the world that we’ve stumbled on. With that, we are very active in social media groups. We believe every comment or like is an opportunity to connect with the consumer. We believe that high tides raise all ships, so in addition to showcasing our own product line, we also talk up other deserving brands because the industry’s success and expansion will lead to our success and expansion.      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bearriverbottling.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bearriverbottling/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BearRiverBottling