WEBVTT	#Elemental Media Engine(TM) 2.17.1.0

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For decades, the roster of
classic pizza toppings has

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remained the same.

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There's pepperoni, sausage
and peppers, olives,

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anchovies and, for some
people, pineapple.

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But in recent years, one
topping has quickly made

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itself a mainstay at pizza
shops across the country.

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Hot honey Mike's Hot Honey
is unique because of the

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kick that you get on the
back of your palate.

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I really had no idea that
this would become a business

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eventually. I just was a
fan of the combination of

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honey and chili peppers on
pizza, and was excited to

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share it with my friends.

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Once bottles got out into
the world and people started

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tasting it, I very quickly
realized that I did have a

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viable business on my
hands.

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After being introduced to
customers in 2010, Mike's

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Hot Honey quickly found an
opening in the $2.5 billion

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US honey market.

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The product is currently
sold in 30,000 retail and

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food service locations
across the country, and the

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company is on track to
bring in more than $40

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million in 2023.

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We think the key of building
a brand that's going to

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stand the test of time is
to build it around a strong

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core product, and we've
done that.

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I think it's really rare
for a business of this size

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to just sell one thing.

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This is the story of how one
man turned his hobby of

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making hot honey into a $40
million a year company.

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Even in college, Mike
aspired to work in the

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condiment industry.

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I had a chance run in with
Larry Raymond from Sweet

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Baby Ray's, and it really
inspired me.

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And I thought it would be
great to be a condiment man.

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And I thought, you know
what?

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This might be the life for
me.

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While studying Portuguese in
Brazil in the fall of 2003,

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inspiration struck.

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I was hiking with some
friends and on the last day

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of our hike, we descended
into a little valley and

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found a pizzeria there, and
there were jars of honey

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with chili peppers on the
tables for drizzling on the

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pizza. The first time I
tasted the combination of

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honey and chili peppers on
pizza, it blew my mind.

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I just couldn't shake the
memory of it and kept on

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thinking about it. It was
something that I realized I

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wanted to try to make for
myself, and maybe share with

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friends and family.

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Over the next six years,
just for fun.

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Mike tested new ways of
infusing the three

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ingredients honey, chili
peppers, and vinegar.

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He jarred hot honey at home
and gifted it to his friends

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and family. He moved to New
York and started a job in

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the music business, but in
his spare time, he worked to

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perfect the hot honey
recipe.

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Dialing in the flavor
profile of the product was a

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long process.

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It required a lot of chili
pepper consumption, which

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was quite painful at times.

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I used to go to the Bronx
Terminal Market and taste

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different varietals of
chili pepper, and I'd bring

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a carton of whole milk with
me to sip on in between

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tastes, which was a recipe
for a stomach ache.

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Then in early 2010, while
browsing the pizza blog

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slice, Mike noticed a
handle that kept popping up

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Paulie G.

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So I was thinking to myself,
who is this Paulie G guy?

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And eventually slice Blog
profiled Paulie and they

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said that he was going to
be opening his own pizzeria

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in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

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So when he first opened the
pizzeria, I went there to

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try it and met him.

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I started peppering him
with questions about his

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process for making dough
and how the oven worked.

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And by the end of the
conversation, he could tell

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that I was really into
making pizza, and he asked

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if I would be interested in
coming in as a pizza

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apprentice.

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Early on in his
apprenticeship, Mike brought

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Paulie the honey he had
been working on for years.

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And brought it in for Paulie
to try.

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He tasted it.

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He started drizzling it on
a hot soppressata pizza,

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which we later called the
Hellboy, and asked me if I

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could make it for the
restaurant to drizzle on the

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Soon customers were asking
to purchase bottles of

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pizzas.

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Mike's Hot Honey.

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At this time, I was making
Mike's Hot Honey in small

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batches, one gallon at a
time in the back of the

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pizzeria. I was using the
restaurant for production on

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Mondays when they were
closed, so I'd go there on

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Monday and spend a full day
in the kitchen just making

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batches of Mysore honey and
bottling.

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I started selling bottles
off the bar in November of

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2010, and shortly
thereafter I was lucky to

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have some press.

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It was something that
people really loved to

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drizzle on their pizza, but
they also loved to share it

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with their friends. So I
just wanted to get the

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product out into the world,
and I was selling it at

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virtually no margin, so I
was selling it for $6 a

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bottle. Very quickly I
raised the price, realizing

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that was not sustainable at
all.

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Pretty soon, I had orders
coming in from other

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restaurants, from specialty
retailers around the city

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and beyond.

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As his business grew, Mike
began driving around New

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York City delivering
bottles of honey out of his

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car. Then in 2014, a buyer
from Whole Foods said that

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they wanted to bring Mike's
product into their store.

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At that time, there had been
very little innovation in

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the honey aisle. It had
been pretty much the same

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for 50 years.

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We brought something new to
the honey aisle, which

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hadn't seen anything
exciting in quite a long

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time.

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In late 2014, Mike
reconnected with his college

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friend Matt Beaton, who had
just moved to the East

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Mike had something really
special with his hot honey,

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Coast.

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and so I reached out to him
and told him if he ever

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needed help as a friend,
I'd be happy to help him

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write a business plan, set
up QuickBooks, all those

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things you do in the early
years of the company.

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So I think we both just
realized that we would have

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a lot of fun if we gave
this a go.

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His skill set really
complemented mine, and I

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thought he was a great fit
to help me build the

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Matt became the company's
CEO, and the pair quickly

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business.

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realized that they needed
outside investment to scale

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their business.

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It was in 2017 when we
started to get some interest

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from some big customers
that required us to carry a

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bit more inventory, to be
able to service them on time

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and in full, and to to have
that inventory.

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We needed capital.

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And so it was about that
time that we started looking

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for investors. The most
good things don't come

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easily. And raising money
is not for the faint of

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heart. We heard no hundreds
of times, which can be

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discouraging because you
know you have something

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really special.

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Eventually, those no's
turned into yeses.

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Since 2017, Matt and Mike
have been able to raise

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around $12 million through.

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Three rounds of funding.

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Mike's Hot Honey not only
expanded with financial

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partners, but also with
brand collaborations.

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We recently launched a
potato chip with Utz, a

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mustard with my the French
Dijon company, and a frozen

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pizza with California Pizza
Kitchen.

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For brand awareness, the
company has provided neon

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signs of its logo for
restaurant partners to hang

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in store. Mike and Matt
carefully select which

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restaurants and shops they
choose to supply signs with.

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Partial to tastemakers.

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They want the customers to
see the neon signs as badges

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that the stores wear with
pride.

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We realized that our food
service customers made up

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the biggest drivers of
brand awareness for the

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brand. They see the brand
in the restaurant from that

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signage and then remember
us on shelf at retail when

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they're walking through the
honey aisle.

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It's a marker of quality.

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This is very similar to the
same strategy that lots of

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beer brands use in bars.

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There are roughly 50 neon
signs scattered around the

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country at Key Restaurant
Partners, and we've got

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quite a long wait list of
people who are waiting to

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have a sign installed at
their shop.

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As sales have grown, so has
the size of the Mike's Hot

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Honey team.

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Once we were able to secure
capital, we were able to

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start to build a team
around us.

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Our sales team has done a
terrific job to make Mike's

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Hot Honey broadly available
across the country, across