Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Chi and Brad Armistead.
Hi Andrew and Brad, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
We’ve been friends for over 20 years and had worked in marketing on a variety of food and lifestyle brands. We decided to start Salivation Snackfoods when we came across a problem that needed to be solved.
Our close friend Dave was on the keto diet to help treat a serious health condition. It’s hard enough to stick to any diet, but the limited number of tasty dessert options that were keto made this particularly difficult for Dave. We knew he wasn’t the only one, and we decided to do something about it.
We started with America’s favorite dessert, the brownie,. W and we set out to make the most delicious low-carb, gluten-free dessert brownie one ever.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Neither of us is a trained pastry chef, but we set a very high bar for ourselves and knew we had to get the taste and texture perfect. After tons misfires, including a salted caramel explosion on Brad’s kitchen ceiling, we thought we had a pretty good recipe. We brought it to a pastry chef friend for feedback, and it took her 10 seconds to tear to shreds what took us over 200 hours to create.
We walked away with tails between our legs and called our friend the chef the next morning to see if she would help. She told us very honestly that she bakes with butter, white sugar, and white flour – ingredients we don’t use – so there wouldn’t be a fit. But she did introduce us to another pastry chef who liked experimenting with different ingredients… and it was a bonus that she used to work at the French Laundry. We learned the importance of talking to experts early in the process and asking for help when you it needed.
It’s also important to find partners you can count on, especially as a small company without deep pockets. We learned this the hard way when we worked with a manufacturer who cashed our checks but didn’t deliver any products (literally). More important than losing money was the lost time… we were debuting at the Metabolic Health Summit and needed to make 1000 brownies really fast. At the 11th hour, we found another manufacturing partner to make our brownies and ended up arriving at the show 1 hour after it started with brownies that were warm! We were so glad we made it because we were discovered by the Bristol Farms buyer at this summit!
Networking with other entrepreneurs has been super helpful. We’ve learned a ton from other entrepreneurs, and this has saved us a lot of time and money — two things you never have enough of as a small business owner.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Salivation Snackfoods?
With the help of pastry chef and keto experts, we created a line of delicious brownies and blondies that are only 3g net carbs – for the whole freakin’ thing!
Our pastries are keto, gluten-free, dairy-free and with have no added sugar, and we use a combination of natural sweeteners. We’re proud to have created something that is so low in net carbs and doesn’t spike blood glucose levels while making it taste a like a gourmet pastry.
And because we don’t use preservatives, you can find us in the refrigerated section of selected natural and upscale grocery stores in San Diego County, including Frazier Farms, Seaside Market, Windmill Farms, Boney’s Bayside, and Jensen’s Point Loma.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
As an entrepreneur, nothing brings greater joy than seeing a happy customer who enjoys our product and understands and appreciates why it’s a better–for-you option. When a customer thanks us for making our product, it makes all the hard work 100% worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.salivationsnackfoods.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salivationsnackfoods/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/salivationsnackfoods
