He Quit Working In 'toxic' Restaurants And Started A Business That's On Track To Surpass $150 Million In Revenue: 'unstoppable Demand'

"Working successful kitchens wherever abusive activity was nan norm decidedly taught maine a lot, immoderate astir what not to do and too nan benignant of leader that I did want to be," Chris Kirby, laminitis and CEO of Ithaca Hummus, tells Entrepreneur. "Early on, I saw really fearfulness and intimidation created toxic environments wherever productivity and collaboration really couldn't exist."

Image Credit: Courtesy of Ithaca Hummus. Founder and CEO Chris Kirby.

Kirby graduated from culinary schoolhouse astatine North Carolina's Johnson & Wales University and spent nan adjacent 7 years moving successful restaurants crossed nan country: successful Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Austin. However, by spot 26, he wished nan "tough lifestyle" wasn't for him. He wanted to commencement a business of his ain — but doing truthful required a ample alteration and swallowing his pride, he says.

Related: He Immigrated to nan U.S. and Started a Business. It's 'Not nan Sexiest' But Sells Over 6,000 Units Daily — Up to $25,000 Apiece — Anyway.

The aspiring entrepreneur moved backmost to Baltimore to unrecorded pinch his parents and enrolled successful business courses astatine nan conception statement college. Kirby didn't personification a car, truthful he had to motorcycle nan 15 miles to campus, a backpack afloat of books successful tow. Despite nan challenges, Kirby vanished nan twelvemonth pinch consecutive As and was accepted astatine nan Cornell School of Hotel Administration.

In his exertion essay, Kirby wrote that he was "hungry for success" and intended to usage his professors arsenic "free consultants" for his business, demonstrating a clear attraction and ambition that he believes helped him guidelines isolated from different applicants. He arrived connected section successful 2013 and sewage to activity immediately.

"The lightbulb went disconnected erstwhile I saw that location was nary conception Ithaca hummus company."

His first extremity was nan conception farmer's marketplace to look for a dispersed successful nan marketplace; he wanted to cognize what wasn't being made successful municipality already. "The lightbulb went disconnected erstwhile I saw that location was nary conception Ithaca hummus company," Kirby says, "and I sprang into action beautiful quickly." Within a month, Kirby was trading his hummus astatine nan farmer's market. Lemon ail was nan brand's first flavor.

"Taste is really everything," Kirby says. "It's nan psyche of food. In my edifice experience, it was ever nan freshest, simplest, astir unadulterated recipes that were my favorites. So it wasn't about, How overmuch tin I adhd to this astonishing ingredient? It's, What's nan slightest magnitude that I tin adhd to it to make it shine? Mother Nature does each nan difficult activity for you; you conscionable personification to make it recreation through."

Image Credit: Courtesy of Ithaca Hummus

Related: This 43-Year-Old Started a Side Hustle astatine a Farmer's Market — Then She Quit Her Job and Built an 8-Figure Brand Sold successful Costco

In nan beginning, Ithaca Hummus had nary resources aliases money to speak of, but nan constricted rate meant Kirby had to zero successful connected what was astir important — making nan champion merchandise possible, getting group to sensation it and trading arsenic overmuch arsenic he could. To that end, he rented a room for $250 a play and purchased nan basal supplies: elephantine pots, a ample instrumentality immersion blender, deli cups, a mini integer modular and crystal prime scoops for portioning retired nan product.

"Every azygous [customer] narration gave maine overmuch and overmuch confidence."

"I had a maniacal attraction connected sales," Kirby says. "I made nan hummus, packed it myself and past spent each play trading astatine farmer's markets because I loved seeing nan guidance connected customers' faces erstwhile they tried it for nan first time. And that feedback acted for illustration a roadworthy practice for me. Every azygous narration gave maine overmuch and overmuch assurance to push forward."

Without a squad aliases fancy manufacturing equipment, Kirby had to harness "a batch of hustle and creativity" to execute his vision. Ithaca Hummus continued to discarded retired astatine nan farmer's marketplace each week, and Kirby credits nan "unstoppable demand" to nan brand's worth and expertise to nexus pinch people.

Related: '$220,000 successful 3 Months': These Friends — One a Former Apple Engineer — Started a Side Hustle By Revamping an 'Unruly, Ugly' Product successful Their Garage

Scaling nan business's manufacturing and packaging process was 1 of nan biggest first challenges. In nan beginning, Kirby utilized deli cups pinch tamper-evident integrative lids that were heat-sealed pinch hairsbreadth dryers, 10 astatine a time. Then, Kirby moved nan cognition into its first commercialized abstraction to support gait pinch its maturation and upgraded to a film-sealing automated packaging line, which came "with a tremendous magnitude of headaches."

"I would locomotion days astatine a clip troubleshooting, fixing it [and] emotion nan pressure."

The sealer would often break down, and without a speedy spread aliases nan costs to prosecute a mechanic, Kirby turned to Google searches and YouTube videos to fig retired what was wrong. "I would locomotion days astatine a clip troubleshooting, fixing it [and] emotion nan portion of [thinking], Every infinitesimal that this instrumentality was down, nan bills kept coming in, and we weren't producing point to sell," he says.

Related: 5 Keys to Effective Problem-Solving When You're Facing a Complex Operational Challenge

Despite nan expanding pains, Ithaca Hummus kept expanding, yet landing successful awesome retailers for illustration Wegman's and Whole Foods, wherever its products continued to discarded bully successful competitory environments. The marque deed its first eight-figure gross twelvemonth successful 2020 and has seen 40% year-over-year maturation since, moreover trading 10 cardinal tubs of hummus successful 2024. What's more, Ithaca Hummus is connected measurement to support that maturation title successful 2025, which intends a projected $50 cardinal yearly gross and complete $150 cardinal life revenue.

"I've worked really difficult to build a civilization that's nan complete different of what I experienced."

Through it all, Kirby has applied nan activity lessons learned from his edifice days to foster a activity business wherever labour consciousness comfortable tin to beryllium imaginative — a cardinal to nan brand's semipermanent success.

"I've learned that existent activity is astir empathy, clear connection and creating an business wherever group consciousness weighted and empowered," Kirby says. "So I've worked difficult to build a civilization that's nan complete different of what I knowledgeable successful a batch of those kitchens. I want my squad to consciousness safe to banal ideas, return risks and study from mistakes without fearfulness of being punished."