Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Allonce
Hi Samantha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hot N Saucy began not so much as a dream but an idea that took off at the right time. I was a chef in NYC for over 10 years, doing catering, personal chef services for athletes and celebrities and working in high end restaurants. I was at the height of my career at the beginning of 2020 and then Covid19 hit. All my events were cancelled, opportunities disappered and I lost my job. To make matters more difficult, on the day that NYC shut down, myhusband and I found out we were expecting our first child.
As the weeks and months went on, my cravings for spicy food grew, and I’d have my husband go out and buy me hot sauces. Everything he brought back was either too vinegary or way too spicy. Nothing satisfied my tastes so I literally just made what I wanted to eat. I used vegetables that I liked and created something that is nothing like anything on the market. I knew that my friends and family would buy the sauces from a makeshift Etsy page, but with the power of social media it took off and became a hit. I officially launched in August 2020 and by the end of the year we were on the show Hot Ones. Since then, I have been trying to keep up with the growth of the company and it isn’t stopping just yet.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road but that is what has made this journey so worth it. I launched the company 2 weeks after having an emergency C-section and having my baby 3 months early. He was in NICU for 3 months and the major key growth of this company happened during that time because I was in survival mode. Having this company to pour into was so vital for me because, during that time of Covid, I could only visit my baby for 1 hour a day. this business kept me sane. I worked day and night on it.
I also am still bootstrapping Hot N Saucy with 12 credit cards. It is notoriously difficult for black women business owners to get any type of capital funding for businesses. This has caused me to have to be creative with how I spend on the business in every way and has prevented me from hiring employees as of yet or paying myself.
Aside from that, I think that anyone operating a business in the past 4 years has shared some similar struggles like supply chain, economy and inflation.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Hot N Saucy is a vegetable-based, vegan hot sauce that uses unique ingredients and combinations to create never-before-seen condiment flavor pairings. Flavors like Collards N Ghost, Sweet Potato N Habanero and Beet N Fresno to name a few have allowed us to stand out and stand alone in the vast hot sauce catergory.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Happiness is besides a hot cup of coffee in the morning overlooking a body of water (preferably the beach), is when I receive an email or review from someone who has truly had their mind blown from our sauces. When someone says, they have tried every sauce out there, or “doesn’t like XYZ, but…” it makes me smile because not only in the hard recent times that a lot of people are facing, they have spent their money, bought my product unsure if they would even really like it and we have managed to change their minds or make them a believer.
Pricing:
- Each Bottle is $10 online and $6.99 in major retail stores
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hotnsaucy.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotnsaucyco
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hotnsaucyco
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/hotnsaucyco
