We recently connected with Serrano Barnes and have shared our conversation below.

Serrano, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

Rise and popularity of specialty sauces. I feel like this is why we have had the success that we’ve had. We’re not a regular sauce company. We have flavors that spark nostalgia in our supporters. Flavors that take you to a place and time where everything was good. And for those that may not be familiar with the taste they are able to make their own moments and go from there.

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

Well, we’re Serrano Barnes and Dante Gorham and we’ve been taking the sauce game by storm since 2015. It all started while we were celebrating our 10 year reunion at Howard University (Shoutout #ForeverHU05). We had to make some vittles for the tailgate and I though it would be a good time to introduce The Got Damn Sauce to the masses. Needless to say, it was a hit and one of our closest friends told us, “It’s time to sell the sauce.” Even though sauce was so far from our minds, we decided to go forth with it and we’ve been in it ever since.

What had originally started off as two sauces, our Original BBQ and Pineapple Ginger Experience, Currently we’re at 14 and growing. The premise behind The Got Damn Sauces was to bring some untraditional flavors to the forefront. We have created our own staples and have adapted some flavor profiles from places we’ve been or things we have experienced. We have also created things that you would have traditionally had to blend in order to have like our Lemon Pepper Hot Sauce. We really provide people with the one stop shop approach to getting all the flavors you love in one place.

One of the things that we’re most proud of is the approval rate for our sauces. When we’re out in front of people at a market. We love to see them go down the line of trying the sauces only to say that “These are all gonna be good huh?” It great feedback and love when folks seek up out to make sure we stay on their shelves.

For those new to The Got Damn Sauce, give us a go! I sure we have something that you will love and wont be able to do without moving forward. Check us out on Instagram @thegotdamnsauce and via our website at www.thegdsauce.com

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Man, when the pandemic hit, we didn’t know what to do. We had just put together a plan to really take the farmers markets by storm. When everything got shut down we were at a standstill, but soon folks who rocked with us started sharing and we reached new customers and that year became one of our best years and pretty much engrained us in peoples homes moving forward.

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

So we met freshman year at Howard University in 2001. We stayed a few doors down from each other and been like brothers ever since.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thegdsauce.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegotdamnsauce/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegot.damnsauce/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegotdamnsauce