We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dave Decay. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with dave below.

Dave, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I was originally brewing cider in the early days of the pandemic, but pretty quickly realized that I didn’t like working with the volume as much, and I really didn’t need to be drinking that much cider anyways. My wife threw the idea of fermenting hot sauce, which is one of my all time loves of life. I had no idea that you could do this. Awesome.

I found a great video on fermenting peppers with a brine and gave it a shot. I found some of my favorite recipes through trial and error and started experimenting to see what worked, and didn’t. I was gifting bottles to friends, bringing it to parties, just getting peoples reactions when they ate my sauce. It was a lot of fun.

From there I started fermenting more and larger batches and bottling with the help of a friend in the business. Max Born of ChiliBeak. Through him I was able to learn a lot of the ins and outs of the process and the business. I started looking at it from a scaling perspective and one thing led to another.

Over the last year I have gone from production with a co-packer to a licensed kitchen with all the appropriate certifications. I worked hard to make sure I was completely above board so that when opportunity knocked I was ready. I have a background in software engineering and marketing, so I am pretty fortunate to have some usable skills when trying to market the sauce. In fact this is the sort of thing I need to keep me connected to the real world. So much of what I do is hypothetical. It’s all code stored on a server somewhere else and has real world implications, but it isn’t something that you can put in your hand and you can’t experience it. Hot sauce is both.

The original idea was to just have fun making some home style batches of fermented hot sauce, but it grew pretty quickly once I started putting myself out there. I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in some really great markets and shows. Sauce Lake City and the Ogden Farmers Markets were really successful, not to mention super fun. I’m looking to expand over the coming year to some other local markets and popups. I’m also looking for smart opportunities to sell my sauce in different locations to create some passive sales that will help build the company into a more stable position. Right now most sales are hand to hand and it’s a lot to keep up with. My wife has been very supportive and I 100% could not have survived the last year without her help. She has put in a lot of hours for “my vision”. It’s time to get an employee though…

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve had a number of different professions over the years, and I’m not afraid to take on new and exciting challenges. This has presented itself as quite the endeavor to keep everything on the up and up. It’s one thing to ferment sauce in your basement pantry and cook it in the garage so you don’t pepper spray the family, but it’s a whole other expectation when producing sauce to be distributed to the public. The product development, health department interactions, ingredient sourcing, designs, marketing, web programming, social media, registrations, markets, waking up at 5 a.m. on a Saturday (sorry, babe)—it’s so fun, but it’s a big dedication and definitely a big learning curve.

The more I have experimented, the more I have fallen in love with the whole process. Fermentation is so fascinating to me, and I really enjoy seeing how subtle changes can greatly affect the flavor. It’s a monthly science project that I’m still trying to perfect. I have six hot sauces and a notSauce (not hot sauce, haha). Six of them are fermented, and I also make a fresh Louisiana sauce. My preference is a good fermented hot sauce, but there’s always room for something fresh on seafood.

I offer a range of heat that has been well received. The notSauce is one of my top sellers and received a second-place award in the Savory Sauce category at the Utah Cheese Awards 2024. https://utahcheeseawards.com/2024.

I have two sauces that are more for the die-hards, and the rest are a range that most any palate can enjoy. The fermentation process provides a really expressive flavor profile that is unique in how it treats the flavor and the heat. They become one in a way that is really delicious and helps people push themselves into higher heat levels that they wouldn’t normally enjoy. It’s really fun hanging out in the booth with people testing their limits all day, and the little kids! Taquis have started the next generation of chili heads.

I’m happy that, a year in, it seems to be pretty self-sustaining. I’m stoked that the sauces I have produced have generated some good and bad responses, and created tons of conversations and moments with strangers. I look at this as something I can do as long as I want. Retirement is just a shift in priorities, and maybe one day I’ll get to do this full-time. I would love that.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

The first batch I made in my new commissary kitchen took me 9 hours to complete. I’ve never had any batch of sauce take me out the way that one did.

There was a freak snow storm and it complicated everything. I had this brilliant idea of doing a cook in one day by myself. Something I’ve never attempted.

Processing the sauce I had ran in to some issues because of my single blender. I was forced to give it some pretty serious breathing room once it heated up. This slowed everything down and I couldn’t really set anything else up to help move the process along. I ended up just moving on with the cook before I blended all of my product. Dumping it in my pot there was much more than I had anticipated. This was my first “pro” bottling session and I hadn’t gotten any of my estimations right.

It’s fine. Lets get this to temp.

All is well as we are getting close and I realize I don’t have the right tool to fill my bottles. New kitchen, not overly stocked yet, the new guy, and I gotta figure this out. I remember thinking that I can’t let this be my down fall. I’m going to get this batch bottled and it going to be marvelous.

I was fortunate enough to find something in the spot that worked out for me and allowed me to fill my bottles safely. This would have been a large burn if I hadn’t been able to complete the mission. Seems funny now, but that was a super stressful day. The sauce was so spot on though.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

this is a low brow operation. I’ve funded it 100% of the way and I thankful that it has started to pick up the pace. There has been a pretty substantial investment to get the right tools, locations, registrations, and other business costs to get it off the ground. I’m fortunate to be where I am and capable of dedicating the necessary resources. At this point I am able to keep ahead of the needs of the business and the initial investment is paying off. The resources to make sauce are pretty affordable, but to make the amount that is required I need to have nice things and a professional place to do it.

I do feel a sense of urgency to make this thing 100% solid and carry it’s own weight. I’ve put a lot of time and energy in to it and it’s exciting to see it start doing well. The energy I’ve put in to it I am definitely getting out and it gives me joy. I’m so happy when I’m working those late nights, pushing my wagon at 5am, or watching a group of kids all dare each other to take it up a level. It’s great.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dopaminedelivery.com/
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