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This section of our site is called “Origins Of Top Businesses”.

It features interesting facts about the early years of well-known businesses. 

These facts are given to you for fun and inspiration. 

Fun because how many top businesses started out is really surprising. 

Inspiring because it will help you as a business owner see that if they can do it, so can you.

Today we want to present the story of this business in a different way than we usually do.

Plus, we’ll present some reasons why this business has succeeded.

 

Tell me what you think about this company…

 

• This business doesn’t use advertising.
• They don’t have a Facebook page.
• They don’t use Twitter.
• Their website hasn’t been updated since 2004.
• You can’t even order their product online.

They’re doing everything you’re NOT supposed to do.
Do you think they sound like they could be a success?

If you answered, “No,” then you’d be wrong.

I just described the Huy Fong Foods company.

They created and made one of the most popular sauces around today: Sriracha aka “Rooster Sauce“.

From the HuyFong.com site…

Huy Fong Foods, with its humble beginnings in Los Angeles, California in 1980, has grown to become one of the leaders in the Asian hot sauce market. When Huy Fong Foods started business, it was producing, by hand, their first chili sauce: Pepper Saté Sauce. This particular sauce was developed by the company’s founder. He was producing and selling this sauce in his native country of Vietnam before he arrived in the United States. Eventually, he formulated four more chili products: Chili Garlic Sauce, Sambal Oelek (Ground Fresh Chili Paste), Sambal Badjak (Chili Paste with Onions), and finally, Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, which is currently Huy Fong Food’s most well known and best selling items.

 

Some Sriracha Facts:

• “Like ketchup, sriracha is a generic term, its name coming from a port town in Thailand where the sauce supposedly was conceived. When people in America talk about sriracha, what they’re really talking about is Huy Fong’s version.” – BusinessWeek.com
• “David Tran, founder of Huy Fong Foods, fled Vietnam as a refugee in 1978. After 30 years of producing Sriracha chili sauce in Los Angeles, he’s altered the history of American cuisine.” – Griffin Hammond
• “In a matter of months, he had arrived at his rendition of Sriracha, a version of the Thai sauce made with hybrid jalapeño peppers (red or sometimes orange in color), vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic, and was delivering it to local markets throughout the city.” – Qz.com
• “Farmer Craig Underwood has a 25-year relationship with Huy Fong Foods. Only his red jalapeños go into Sriracha, and he doesn’t sell them to anyone else.” – Griffin Hammond
• ‘In December 2009, Bon Appétit magazine named this sriracha sauce Ingredient of the Year for 2010.” – Wikipedia.org
• “There are entire cookbooks written to celebrate Sriracha’s versatility; memorabilia ranging from iPhone covers to t-shirts and all sorts of other swag; a documentary in the works to chronicle its rise; and innumerable imitators. Sriracha sales last year reached some 20 million bottles to the tune of $60 million dollars, percentage sales growth is in the double digits each year, and it does all this without spending a cent on advertising.” – Qz.com
• “You’re pronouncing it wrong.. SIR-rotch-ah.” – Thrillist.com
• “McIlhenny (manufacturer of Tabasco) is working on its own version of sriracha to compete with Huy Fong.” –  BusinessWeek.com

I LOVE the story of how David Tran founded and created this sauce!

*If you do too, then click the links for the sources above to learn more.

Here’s a preview of the Sriracha Movie…

I’ll be watching this documentary!

Why Is Huy Fong / David  Tran Successful If He Breaks All The Rules?

There are many reasons, but these are the ones that stand out to me:

1. There is always an exception to every rule.

2. Tran accidentally tapped into a growing trend: hot sauces.

3. Sriracha has spread because of word of mouth.

4. Sriracha spread because it was tapped into the growing Asian cuisine trend.

5. It has been indirectly promoted by being put on the tables of most Vietnamese Pho restaurants, which are also growing in popularity.

6. It became a popular ingredient among sushi chefs, for their spicy tuna rolls.

7. Major businesses like P.F. Chang’s and Gordon Biersch began introducing sriracha-flavored dishes and dipping sauces.

 

If you have people who naturally want to spread the word about your product/service, have a product/service that will naturally be a part of more than one growing trend, and you also have major companies who will use and promote your product, then you can forget about the rules too!  🙂

If you don’t, then you better at least learn and stick to some of the rules.

 

Related article

• Origins Of Top Businesses: How Unused Shortcake Pans Led To The Creation Of Twinkies (baybusinesshelp.com)