I was a single dad for many years. During that time, I would often get invited to parties and get-togethers, so I needed to come up with a budget-friendly dish to take. I decided on my homemade salsa and my recipe was a big hit. People were always telling me that my salsa was the best they’d ever had and friends encouraged me to start selling my salsa in stores. So, I started making batches and jarring it to sell to coworkers and friends. The demand for the product kept increasing and I thought I might really be on to something!
During 2 deployments to Afghanistan and a contracting deployment to Saipan I had opportunities to make this same salsa recipe for my peers overseas. This gave me even more unbiased feedback from people who weren’t my friends and family. During my last deployment, I was able to save just enough capital to start my salsa business.
I knew in my heart that I wanted to give it a go. I could work for myself and hopefully, as my business grew, I could offer jobs to others in my community. When I first started my business, I worked a lot of local farmers markets. Eventually, I worked up the confidence to ask produce markets if they’d sell my product in their stores. Once more and more people became familiar with my product, I felt like it was time to go bigger. I reached out to a couple of chain grocers, Lucky’s Market and Earth Fare, and both companies welcomed my salsa to their Florida locations. Once those stores were added, that brought me up to having Capt’n Tony’s Pirate Salsa in more than 40 retail locations!
Unfortunately, both Lucky’s and Earth Fare went out of business in early 2020 and that was a huge hit to my business. I’m still hopeful and working hard…I do weekend farmers markets, demos at local produce stores, and now I am excited to offer my products online. Thank you for supporting my business!
