We were lucky to catch up with Morgan De Witt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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.

Salty Pop was an idea I had when I was 12. We were sitting on the beach in Destin, enjoying the day when inspiration struck. “We should open a popcorn store.” I had said. My family thought it was a great idea. On our drive back home to South Dakota, together we came up with a name, slogan, flavors, etc. As a kid who grew up with food sensitivities I knew I wanted to make our products with specific ingredients with a variety of options, so that we could have something for everyone. We wrote down all our ideas in our phones and didn’t act on it until 6 years later.
Over the years we’d occasionally talk about our popcorn business and if we were to open a store, but it never went any farther than that.
When I graduated high school I asked my parents if we should start Salty Pop and they said “Lets go for it”. So we did!
We went to popcorn school, spent hours researching and learning, started designing our logo and packaging, creating a business plan and so many other countless things.
We set to open March 2020. Then the world shut down…
We pushed through and within one year we outgrew our first production room.
So we moved to one double the size and kept on going.
Then, this spring my family decided to move to Florida full time.
I was so excited! It was always my vision to have Salty Pop here, as this place was the inspiration in so many parts of our company.
September 2022 we packed up all our equipment and drove it to Niceville to move it into our new store!
We opened October 1 and we have loved every second of it!! We love sharing our popcorn with our new community and can’t wait for what the future holds!

Morgan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

At Salty Pop, we are dedicated to making a difference, that is why all of our kernels are Non-GMO, gluten free, and vegan. Also the ingredients we use are all natural with no artificial colors. Our tried and true homemade recipes are crafted in small batches, guaranteeing you the incredible flavors you love.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Going into this we knew absolutely nothing. We had no commercial kitchen or food production experience. Everything we have made has been created from our imagination and tons of research.
We make all of our popcorn from scratch with homemade recipes we created through trial and error.
Our logo, packaging & products were all original concepts we designed ourselves before passing over to digital designers.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to go with the flow and save your ideas. I had many many times in the beginning where I would have a brilliant idea and I would try it force it, and it wouldn’t work out. But fast forward 2 years later, I had all the resources I needed to implement the idea and it worked out flawlessly.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My family and I started this company in South Dakota in 2020. We came to the Emerald Coast for vacation many times a year for my whole life, and always knew we wanted to live here someday, but thought it wouldn’t be for at least another 10 years.

Because we opened in the beginning of the pandemic we decided not to open a retail store and to wholesale to local stores instead.
It was very easy to get into local stores, shops, markets and cafés in SD. There were a few cases where I didn’t even know the store manager personally, because we only communicated through email. In most of our wholesale locations I didn’t have to do much to get an account, the stores placed orders once they tried our samples.

When we had some personal life changes, my family ended up moving here full time in 2022 and we decided to move the company with us. We opened our retail store in October 2022 in Niceville with plans to attend farmers markets and holiday events to create awareness and growth in our retail store.

However, not everything went to plan. I experienced a bit of culture shock my first few weeks of running a business here. Farmers markets turned us away, we had to apply for spots at holiday events, and lots of people simply never replied to my emails.

When the New Year came, I started to email businesses and try and create wholesale accounts. Very few stores would get back to me.
After a bit of frustration and a few conversations with my dad (and business partner) we realized I had to change my sales approach.
I needed to create a personal experience with the store managers to gain their trust in myself, and our company.
In February I loaded my car with sample bags and headed out to to visit all the stores I could think of.
It took a few weeks of receptive follow up, but I did start to hear back from store managers and owners.
I continued to visit their stores, whether they had ordered from me or not, just to “check in” or simply buy something from them. I wanted them to recognize my face and brand every time they saw me.
Fast forward to now, and they do! A few short weeks ago I was a popcorn sales person, and now we’re on a first name basis and we have personal conversations. While I have a lot to learn and a long way to go, this was a crucial step in growing our newly located company.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://saltypoppopcorn.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saltypoppopcorn/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saltypoppopcorn
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/salty-pop-popcorn-niceville