Listen to the most recent episode of Smart People Should Build Things: The Venture for America Podcast, a play.it original in collaboration with CBS!
So far on the Venture for America Podcast, we’ve heard from some of our favorite entrepreneurs — but we’re even more excited than usual to introduce this week’s guest. Joining host Jeremy Shinewald is our very own Brian Rudolph, a 2012 Fellow and the co-founder and CEO of Banza, a chickpea pasta company aiming to do for pasta what Chobani did for Greek yogurt.
When Brian began his Fellowship in 2012, he never imagined that in two short years he’d be the CEO of a company — or that he’d be doing business with his older brother Scott, who signed on as co-founder after Brian invented Banza in his Detroit kitchen. As a result of Banza’s participation in the Venture for America Innovation Fund, Brian was discovered by CNBC’s Restaurant Startup — a reality show in which contestants vie for investments to build their food ideas into real companies — and met one of his current investors, restaurateur Joe Bastianich. This unique opportunity forced Banza to scale production at a rapid pace, and pushed them into the culinary spotlight.
In this interview, Brian shares the trials and tribulations of perfecting a difficult recipe, scaling to service hundreds of grocery stores around the country, convincing his older brother to leave a stable job in private equity to join his one-man team, how it feels to be the first VFA Fellow to hire another Fellow, and what it took to create 25 manufacturing jobs in Michigan.
Want more Banza in your life? Check out Brian’s speech at our fourth annual Summer Celebration.
When Brian began his Fellowship in 2012, he never imagined that in two short years he’d be the CEO of a company — or that he’d be doing business with his older brother Scott, who signed on as co-founder after Brian invented Banza in his Detroit kitchen. As a result of Banza’s participation in the Venture for America Innovation Fund, Brian was discovered by CNBC’s Restaurant Startup — a reality show in which contestants vie for investments to build their food ideas into real companies — and met one of his current investors, restaurateur Joe Bastianich. This unique opportunity forced Banza to scale production at a rapid pace, and pushed them into the culinary spotlight.
In this interview, Brian shares the trials and tribulations of perfecting a difficult recipe, scaling to service hundreds of grocery stores around the country, convincing his older brother to leave a stable job in private equity to join his one-man team, how it feels to be the first VFA Fellow to hire another Fellow, and what it took to create 25 manufacturing jobs in Michigan.
Want more Banza in your life? Check out Brian’s speech at our fourth annual Summer Celebration.