We were lucky to catch up with Sam Dziekan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, thanks for joining us today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

Yes! When we formed this company, we wanted to have a philanthropic aspect from day one. As you can probably tell from the name, Hook & Arrow, we love the outdoors. We grew up camping with the Boy Scouts, hiking, and fishing with our father nearly every weekend and as we formed this company, while locked indoors during COVID-19, we realized how important the outdoors were to us. Being able to get out and go hiking and fishing during COVID-19 really kept us grounded.

In October 2022, we partnered with First Descents, a non-profit dedicated to providing life-changing adventures to young adults impacted by cancer and MS. For this partnership, we released 2 sweet and mild hot sauces during Breast Cancer Awareness Month to honor women and men with breast cancer and donate 25% of the sales of these sauces to First Descents. Both Henry and myself have volunteered with FD in the past and have seen first hand how powerful their adventures are to cancer and MS survivors. Even as volunteers, these experiences were life changing for us. Our family has also been hit hard by breast cancer in both women and men. So when we had the idea of doing something for Breast Cancer Awareness, there was no question who we wanted to partner with. We developed a pink sauce, Strawberry, Ghost Pepper and a blue sauce, Blueberry, Ghost Pepper to match the well-known ribbons and then reached out to FD to pitch them about partnering on this project. FD loved the idea of this partnership and it has been a powerful experience for us since we launched these sauces. We have had the opportunity to spread their message to people who otherwise would not know about them and when we are done, we will be able to donate thousands of dollars to provide life changing experiences to the participants.

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?

Along with my brother Henry, we launched Hook & Arrow in April 2022. This brand came out of an interest in homemade fermentation projects and hot sauces. Henry made some incredible hot sauces that tasted like nothing I ever had before. This just felt like something we had to share with the world. Since launching we’ve won a number of awards and really earned our place in the hot sauce scene.

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

As brothers with no other siblings we were always very close. However, it wasn’t until we became roommates in New York City after college that we became best friends. Our strengths are very different but we have very similar interests, so we compliment each other nicely. Henry is the creative one, he is very artistic with a talented eye for photography and a great palette for developing recipes. I am the more technical and business oriented one.

As roommates we would frequently spend the evenings cooking good food while listening to music. Occasionally, we’d do a big project like make a turducken or homemade sausage. So, it was no surprise when 10 years later, Henry was leaving that same Astoria apartment to quarantine at my home in Branford, CT, that he brought some of his first hot sauce experiments. Someone said, “this is good, you should sell it” so we did.

We’ve always had an interest in running our own business but previous ideas never really materialized. This time we started with a great product and we had lots of free time. When Henry registered the LLC and started talking with kitchens and banks, there was never any question if I would be involved.

Hook & Arrow has been a fun ride so far with all the early success we’ve had and as an extra added bonus I get to spend more time with family.

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

We’re still a relatively young and small company and we have no formal cooking education, but we’ve both always loved food and loved cooking. When we decided to launch a business in the food space it was important for us to do our homework and learn as much as we could about the industry, we listened to every podcast we could, reached out to other sauce makers and friends and family who are business owners to ask for advice and feedback on what we were thinking of doing. We sent early samples to anyone who would take one. We incorporated their feedback. We looked at what was on the market and realized we could build a brand that could stand out. We created some unique but also familiar flavors that we knew would appeal to people. So when we finally launched, we looked like we belonged and our flavors backed it up.

We are very fortunate for the early success we have had. Within our first year we’ve won some prestigious industry awards including 1st & 2nd Place Screaming Mi Mi Awards at the 2022 NYC Hot Sauce Expo, we launched a partnership with an amazing nonprofit and started exporting to Japan. However, for us, it’s important to remember that a lot of people helped us get to where we are now and without them we would not be where we are. We know it takes a lot to start a company from nothing so we’re always happy to help other emerging brands get started, because it’s tough to do it alone.

Contact Info:

• Website: hookandarrow.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hookandarrow.co/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hook.n.arrowco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hookandarrow
• Twitter: twitter.com/hookandarrow
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hookarrow

Image Credits
Portraits photographed by – Cathy Dziekan All other images by – Henry Dziekan