They Started With an Instagram Account Called @Sauce. Now TRUFF Is in 17,000+ Stores.

Before TRUFF was a hot sauce brand, it was two college friends chasing side hustles and building an Instagram account called @Sauce. Nick Guillen and Nick Ajluni set out to create what they called “the Cîroc of hot sauce” and spent nearly two years perfecting their original recipe before it ever hit a shelf.

That audience became the launchpad. TRUFF is now in more than 17,000 retail locations nationwide, which is the kind of shelf presence most CPG brands need a decade and a distributor relationship built on favors to reach. They packed and shipped the first orders themselves.

And in year one, TRUFF landed a spot on Oprah’s Favorite Things — arguably the single most valuable endorsement a consumer product can get, delivered to a brand that was barely old enough to have a full product line. They’ve since made Oprah’s list multiple more times.

The sequencing here is the lesson: audience first, product second. Most founders build the product and then go looking for the audience. TRUFF already had people paying attention before there was anything to sell them.

Nick and Nick tell the full story — from @Sauce to Oprah to national retail, and their recent expansion into Mild Sauce and a line of Aioli and Dipping Sauces — on this episode of Starting Small.

Listen to the full conversation with TRUFF’s founders on Apple Podcasts