Salida – Corey Folks and Sean Sorrin describe themselves as one-time clueless entrepreneurs – ski bums who hatched a business idea while working at a restaurant.
Today, the pair’s Epic Valley Salsa business continues to grow.
Sales to Arkansas Valley restaurants and on the Internet rose to 300 cases a month this summer, up from 50 cases.
“We started five or so years ago with a good product, a nice jar and label,” Folks, 32, said, but they hadn’t “a clue what we were doing. Neither one of us had formal business training on what it takes to manage a business.”
They became more serious this year and enlisted the help of a business coach in Denver. The consultations and the launch of a Web page made a big difference, though the smaller size of the business does not yet allow the pair to leave their day jobs.
Sorrin, 31, works as a rafting guide. Folks works as a waiter in Monarch.
The partnership started in 1998, when Folks and Sorrin, twenty-something ski bums, met through their work at Casey’s Restaurant at Mount Crested Butte.
They helped prepare the food, and “we got more positive feedback on our salsa than anything else, so I asked our boss if he wanted to go into the business with us bottling salsa, and he thought I was kidding,” Folks said.
The $1,200 in startup money the pair used came from an airport reimbursement check following the disappearance of $1,000 worth of Folks’ camera equipment on a trip to Costa Rica.
“When I got back and checked my post-office box, I had a $1,200 compensation check from the airport, and that was the money we used to start the business,” Folks said.
Today, Sorrin’s raft company, Clear Creek, and Folks’ restaurant serve Epic Valley Salsa as the “house” salsa.
Meanwhile, word of mouth helped the partners get the salsa into 10 Salida businesses, including restaurants, bars, hotels and Sunshine Market.
The salsa also is distributed by Colorado Gourmet Foods throughout the Western Slope. A jar costs about $4.50.
“We have a following and shelf space all over Colorado,” Folks said. “We’ve gone through 10 cars in six years. I put a ton of salsa – literally 1,500 pounds – in the back of a Civic.”
