The Client: (Me) Mighty Balls
The Project: In 2011, I started a food pop-up that I operated and grew over the course of five years, eventually opening a brick and mortar location.
The Results: Mighty Balls was a casual meatball eatery, founded by me, and a partner, launched using crowd-funding in the spring of 2011. Our menu was a build-your-own style, with a range of sauces from jalapeño jelly to a cranberry brown sauce. Our initial menu had three proteins (two meat based, one vegetarian), but as we grew, we carried six different “meatballs” with an infinite variety of combinations. We also grew to be fully half vegetarian, with vegan options as well.
We originally sold out of New York’s burgeoning pop-up scene, and very quickly became a keystone vendor, securing press in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Eater, and Grubstreet among others. In our first year, we were primarily operational four months out of the year, but we grew into a full-time year round operation, with several locations operating in tandem, and with two offshoot brands; Chutney, and The Poffertjes Man. Each unit was extremely lean and efficient, able to generate thousands of dollars of revenue a day, out of 60 square feet.
Concepted and executed from the ground-up, we achieved nearly a million dollars in annual sales in our fourth year of growth. As my original partner stepped away in our first year, I continued to operate and build the company, taking on new investment partners after I pitched and secured vc funding. As founder and creative director, I was responsible for the branding, recipe development, and operations, leading day to day management as well as working on big picture strategy. I also handled our space design and build-out, down to making most of the furniture myself. The brand closed after five years, and that breadth of knowledge has led me to since consult on several other start-up food concepts.
Why Me: Because I love food, I truly do. And I love exploring and experimenting with flavors. But also, I just love feeding people.
Core Capabilities: Concepting, Strategizing, Creative Direction, Space Design, Recipe Development, Operations, Budgeting, Project Management, Funding