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

Alright, Jessie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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.

Sidekicks Salsa started with a bit of kismet in the Summer of 2014. My best friend Danny Soza and I were asked to compete in a local chef “Salsa Smackdown” competition for a farmers market. At this point, we had both worked many years in the food service industry: I was front of the house management for 3 Birds, Lakewood and Danny was back of the house Sous Chef for Dante Bocuzzi, Akron. We had never worked together prior, but we were always a cheerleader for each other in our careers. When the invitation to join the competition came around, we thought it sounded like a fun afternoon and a great way to eat some delicious local foods. We made a low sodium salsa using a 3 citrus juice base (grapefruit, orange, and lime juices) and we won the Smackdown! We connected with many market shoppers– who were asking to purchase some of our winning salsa. We had at least a dozen people tell us to start a salsa company. The feedback sparked an entrepreneurial spirit in us and Sidekicks Salsa was born! We named our company Sidekicks because we felt like it described our friendship. Additionally, salsa is the world’s second most popular condiment. Many people in the U.S. eat it solely as a snack food ( I can’t blame them) but we love to show off how fresh salsa can be the perfect “sidekick” condiment for any recipe. It is our mission to introduce a super premium, healthy line of low sodium fresh salsas that pack a punch of flavor but skip the use of gums, fillers, and bleached sugars.

Jessie, 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 am Jessie Green the Co Founder and CEO of Sidekicks Salsa. We are a women owned business located in Cleveland, OH. We make a line of fresh salsas that are all heart healthy and low sodium rated. We have 5 incredible flavors: Mild, Medium, Hot, Extra Hot and Verde. Low sodium, and no added sugar ratings, have been the top priority for us. When we developed the recipes for our salsa flavors we made sure our salsas are all non GMO rated, vegan, gluten free and we never use any gums or thickeners. Salsa is an amazing condiment to eat as a snack food on its own, or to add into just about any recipe. But we want to offer a line of salsas that have a delicious taste as well as the health benefits. It always feels great to smash a ton of food that you don’t have to feel guilty about eating! But that tastes so good you almost think you should feel guilty about it, right?! LOL! That’s our mission: Salsa so good you’ll miss the guilt. :)

I have worked in the hospitality industry most of my life. I put myself through college by working in hotels and restaurants. I learned a lot about hard work, customer service, and discipline along the way. It takes an immense amount of organization to be a successful server (and to keep your cool). And even more to stay on top of your class schedule at the same time. I felt like I was constantly working in one way or another. It was a lonely and often stressful time for me. However, I came out of it all with a great work ethic, the ability to problem solve on my feet, and a deep love of talking to people about food and creating a memorable experience for them. Most of all, I developed a huge love of eating and trying new foods and recipe combinations.

I take all of this into Sidekicks Salsa with me. We worked extraordinarily hard to develop our salsa flavors. To make sure that they are all savory, crisp, fresh, and healthy. Our customers enjoy them as much as we do. I know that it truly makes my day every time I receive a positive email or comment on one of our social media posts. That is what this is all about: the customer connection and their enjoyment.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my Co-Founder, Danny Soza, at a game night party a mutual friend was hosting. I think of it as such a happy accident now because I almost didn’t go to the party. But my best friend was hosting and I did not want to let her down. Luckily, I met Danny and we hit it off as friends right away. We have a similar sense of humor and great love of eating food. Plus a competitive gaming spirit! He quickly became one of my favorite people to explore restaurants with and talk shop. Becoming business partners as well as great friends has come with a few growing pains, of course. But we always circle back to the laughter, food and fun.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Danny and I met our third business partner, Vanessa Whiting, on season 2 of Cleveland Chain Reaction. It is a local Fox 8 News show hosted by Kenny Crumpton. It is an incredible program Fox 8 hosts once per year offering local businesses a chance to compete for funding. I would absolutely recommend the show to any small local business looking for investment dollars. We competed for a chance to win an investor and mentor, and we were lucky enough to be named one of the winners for season 2. The program is run differently now, but during our season we had 8 weeks of classes with Jump Start in Cleveland, OH. Which culminated in an intense pitch day in front of 5 potential investors. Our classes focused on learning the financial aspects to running a small company, marketing, and social media.

Vanessa officially joined our company shortly after our win. We are now a 60% women owned company. With her partnership we were able to secure a production kitchen and purchase large scale machinery. It was essential to establishing our brand and ability to create the physical products we sell. We are yet a small company, but are growing steadily and looking forward to seeing what 2023 will bring.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sidekickssalsa.com
• Instagram: @sidekickssalsa
• Facebook: @sidekickssalsa
• Linkedin: @sidekickssalsa
• Other: Tik tok: @sidekickssalsa.com

Image Credits
Nikki Fiely photographer What Not Shop Photography www.whatnotshopphotography.com insta/facebook @whatnotshopphotos