“Working in kitchens the place abusive management was the norm undoubtedly taught me loads, each about what to not do and in addition the type of chief that I did need to be,” Chris Kirby, founder and CEO of Ithaca Hummus, tells Entrepreneur. “Early on, I noticed how worry and intimidation created poisonous environments the place creativity and collaboration actually could not exist.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Ithaca Hummus. Founder and CEO Chris Kirby.
Kirby graduated from culinary college at North Carolina’s Johnson & Wales College and spent the subsequent seven years working in eating places throughout the nation: in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Austin. Nevertheless, by age 26, he decided the “powerful way of life” wasn’t for him. He wished to begin a enterprise of his personal — however doing so required an enormous change and swallowing his delight, he says.
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The aspiring entrepreneur moved again to Baltimore to stay together with his dad and mom and enrolled in enterprise programs at the area people faculty. Kirby did not have a automobile, so he needed to bike the 15 miles to campus, a backpack filled with books in tow. Regardless of the challenges, Kirby completed the 12 months with straight As and was accepted on the Cornell Faculty of Lodge Administration.
In his software essay, Kirby wrote that he was “hungry for fulfillment” and meant to make use of his professors as “free consultants” for his enterprise, demonstrating a transparent focus and ambition that he believes helped him stand aside from different candidates. He arrived on campus in 2013 and set to work instantly.
“The lightbulb went off once I noticed that there was no native Ithaca hummus firm.”
His first cease was the native farmer’s market to search for a spot within the market; he wished to know what wasn’t being made on the town already. “The lightbulb went off once I noticed that there was no native Ithaca hummus firm,” Kirby says, “and I sprang into motion fairly rapidly.” Inside a month, Kirby was promoting his hummus on the farmer’s market. Lemon garlic was the model’s first taste.
“Style is absolutely the whole lot,” Kirby says. “It is the soul of meals. In my restaurant expertise, it was at all times the freshest, easiest, most unadulterated recipes that have been my favorites. So it wasn’t about, How a lot can I add to this superb ingredient? It is, What is the least quantity that I can add to it to make it shine? Mom Nature does all of the laborious give you the results you want; you simply must make it come by means of.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Ithaca Hummus
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To start with, Ithaca Hummus had no assets or finances to talk of, however the restricted money meant Kirby needed to zero in on what was most vital — making the perfect product potential, getting folks to style it and promoting as a lot as he may. To that finish, he rented a kitchen for $250 a month and bought the mandatory provides: large pots, an enormous stick immersion blender, deli cups, a small digital scale and ice cream scoops for portioning out the product.
“Each single [customer] interplay gave me increasingly more confidence.”
“I had a maniacal concentrate on gross sales,” Kirby says. “I made the hummus, packed it myself after which spent each weekend promoting at farmer’s markets as a result of I liked seeing the response on clients’ faces once they tried it for the primary time. And that suggestions acted like a highway map for me. Each single interplay gave me increasingly more confidence to push ahead.”
And not using a workforce or fancy manufacturing tools, Kirby needed to harness “plenty of hustle and creativity” to execute his imaginative and prescient. Ithaca Hummus continued to promote out on the farmer’s market each week, and Kirby credit the “unstoppable demand” to the model’s high quality and skill to attach with folks.
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Scaling the enterprise’s manufacturing and packaging course of was one of many greatest preliminary challenges. To start with, Kirby used deli cups with tamper-evident plastic lids that have been heat-sealed with hair dryers, 10 at a time. Then, Kirby moved the operation into its first industrial area to maintain tempo with its progress and upgraded to a film-sealing automated packaging line, which got here “with an incredible quantity of complications.”
“I’d spend days at a time troubleshooting, fixing it [and] feeling the stress.”
The sealer would usually break down, and and not using a fast repair or the funds to rent a mechanic, Kirby turned to Google searches and YouTube movies to determine what was fallacious. “I’d spend days at a time troubleshooting, fixing it [and] feeling the stress of [thinking], Each minute that this tools was down, the payments saved coming in, and we weren’t producing something to promote,” he says.
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Regardless of the rising pains, Ithaca Hummus saved increasing, finally touchdown in main retailers like Wegman’s and Complete Meals, the place its merchandise continued to promote properly in aggressive environments. The model hit its first eight-figure income 12 months in 2020 and has seen 40% year-over-year progress since, even promoting 10 million tubs of hummus in 2024. What’s extra, Ithaca Hummus is on monitor to take care of that progress charge in 2025, which implies a projected $50 million annual income and over $150 million lifetime income.
“I’ve labored actually laborious to construct a tradition that is the exact opposite of what I skilled.”
Via all of it, Kirby has utilized the management classes realized from his restaurant days to foster a piece surroundings the place staff really feel snug sufficient to be inventive — a key to the model’s long-term success.
“I’ve realized that true management is about empathy, clear communication and creating an surroundings the place folks really feel valued and empowered,” Kirby says. “So I’ve labored laborious to construct a tradition that is the exact opposite of what I skilled in plenty of these kitchens. I need my workforce to really feel secure to share concepts, take dangers and study from errors with out worry of being punished.”
