Matthew, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

When my wife came over from the Philippines, she introduced me to pork belly. I soon discovered that bacon came from Pork belly and began experimenting making bacon.
At first we gave it away to family and friends and soon after we were told that we needed to start selling it.
After researching the permitting and licensing process which is very extensive and time consuming , we became a licensed meat processing plant and myself a process inspector.
We started selling at our local Farmers markets and are now selling on line as well as in several stores.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My background is in the Medical and legal field. It was only after meeting my wife, Jahama , who loves to cook did we venture into the food business.
What we have done is created a unique product of small batch, craft bacon.
This is not what you would buy in the store.
We have also created a Bacon Jam and sell Bacon on a Stick at our local farmers markets.
Consumers are looking for an alternative
to the generic store bought bacon that shrinks, shrivels and splatters when cooked.
We love it when we have many return customers who say “ we will never buy store bought bacon again”

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my partner, wife on line and flew out to the Philippines to meet her. From the begging she showed a entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for cooking which we have been able to turn into a small business with lots of potential.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The fact that we don’t produce generic bacon makes us stand out. We dry cure our pork bellies for 14 days and then cold smoke for 10 hours gives us a unique flavor.
Unlike most bacon manufacturers, we don’t put water in our bellies
This is done by the large companies to add weight, flavor, cure and seasoning.

Contact Info:

• Website: WhoLovesBacon.com
• Instagram: @eatwholovesbacon
• Facebook: Wholovesbacon

Image Credits
Matthew O’’Donohue