Michael A. here. Yes, Mr. Calm, the Suit, the sane one in the partnership. Well, that’s not completely true as I’m sure time will reveal. Just ask anyone who knows me.
But anyway, back to the “story”.
Back in the fall of ‘09 I suddenly became unemployed from my job as the COO of a healthcare company. No the business wasn’t suffering in the economic downturn (its healthcare!) and no I didn’t F-up or steal the petty cash. It was all about personality, ego, narcissism, etc... And none of it mine. Maybe someday I’ll tell you all about it. After 30 ish years in healthcare I decided to take some time and recharge my batteries, spend time with the kids, maybe reinvent myself? When we first told the kids I had lost my job, “Dad, you got fired?!?!?” And explained why I couldn’t sue the bastard “honey, that’s the way the business world is”. My daughter looked across the table an earnestly said “Dad, what do you like to do?” Wow, pretty insightful for an 11 year old! And that started me thinking about that reinventing thing. Oh, and we also got a dog because now “Dad is home and he can train it”. Someday maybe I’ll talk more about that!
But anyway, back to the “story”.
So here I am in February ’10, outside picking up dog poop, talking with my neighbor Rid. Rid is a great neighbor to have, a bit crazy (hey he shoots fireworks over the fence towards my house!) laid back (so I thought) friendly, easy going, blah, blah blah… and we have gotten along very well ever since they moved next door 8 years ago. Even more so since I got that snow blower this winter.
So we’re talking “Jeez, I (we) wish I (we) could do something different for the rest of my (our) lives. I’m (We’re) tired of _______ (healthcare, advertising, etc) what could I (we) do something that we’d really enjoy? “Well, we both really love food.” “Yeah, but we’re too old to become professional cooks, plus the pay and hours suck.” “And we really DON”T want to go in to the restaurant business, that really SUCKS.” And so the conversations went on for awhile. Then one day Rid calls me up and says “I got it…simmer sauces…we’ll be rich!” and that got my attention. Hey, I used to have a 6 figure + salary now I have a 3 figure unemployment check. “Honey, don’t quit your day job!”
So we start researching sauces, visiting grocery stores (well we pretty much do that everyday anyway, just ask our wives). Search the net (Rid’s an expert at that, he comes up with all kinds of strange s**t). But we couldn't find anything close to our idea. Actually Rid’s. He created the idea, give credit where credit is due! So we decided to start a company and give it a go. Of course, now we need to name the company. Days and days of Rid coming up with one name after another…finally I said, why don’t we keep it simple and just name it after our street? Next day Rid comes back and says your right, let’s keep it simple! So I created the name of the company. Hey, give credit where credit is due!
Gotta go pick up more dog poop but I’ll be back to continue the “real story”…
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