Insights from Brock Giles, founder of High Mesa Chile

Growth isn’t one big break. It’s a slow burn.

Building a food company is less about chasing volume and more about compounding small wins: the repeat booth customer, the recipe tweak, the packaging refresh. Over time, those small wins compound into staying power.

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For founders who are:

• Testing new products in scrappy, low-cost ways
• Deciding between foodservice, retail, or e-comm
• Balancing margins, scale, and brand identity </aside>

Use local markets as testing grounds

Markets aren’t just sales channels, they’re real-time focus groups. Each event is a change to test SKUs, packaging, and flavor profiles.

What to do:

• Treat every booth like an R&D lab, not just a sales goal.
• Watch for repeat buyers. They’re your clearest signal you have product–market fit.
• Capture feedback, but filter it. Use it to guide iteration, not chase every comment.