Meet Austin Patry | Food Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Austin Patry and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Austin, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When my business partner, Sophia Karbowski, and I went to the grocery store for a snack, we would avoid the “center of the store”. This is the area of the store with common sweet and salty snack items, but we could never find something that was truly nutrient dense, genuinely clean and convenient. We would always end of in the produce section of the store buying fresh fruits and veggies, and in the nut butter section of the store buying some fresh nut butter.

A popular combination for us was dates with nut butters, and noticed on social media that we weren’t alone. We saw 10 random videos of dates with nut butter recipes amass to more than 20+ million views, but they were always for a refrigerated or frozen final product. There was no shelf-stable date filled with nut butter on the market that you could take on the go, so we decided to make it! We wanted to focus on limiting the amount of ingredients and make it extremely clean.

Now, we are seeing the vast opportunity of our product, but also future excitement of new ideas that involve innovating in the stagnant produce industry.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We created the first line of shelf-stable whole Medjool dates filled with nut butters. They taste like Snickers with only 3-4 real ingredients. We sell to retailers (grocery stores, coffee shops, juice bars, etc., and online channels). Our customers are people who believe food should be how nature really intended – clean with no additives.

I’ve been an entrepreneur all of my life. I was the kid collecting sea shells in North Carolina and bringing them back to Dallas, TX, to sell to my neighbors door-to-door. I did lemonade stands, worked as a hotel housekeeper to test different app ideas I had in high school, and never looked back.

I really began focusing on entrepreneurship during my senior year in college at Texas Christian University when I met my business partner, Sophia Karbowski. Together, we identified the need for healthier meals on campus and started an açaí bowl food truck called Rollin’ n Bowlin. For the next 5 years, we would grow that business to 8 brick-and-mortar cafés on college campuses around the country and employ over 500 students.

My motivation is a mixed bag of many things. My parents have always been entrepreneurial, so I think there definitely was both nature and nurture to help me be who I am today. I’m also extremely competitive, and I see life as a game, with happiness, family, love, and success being some motivating factors that make me want to do great in this world!

I’ve learned many lessons along the way, but here are the three most important to me (as of now):
1. JUST START! Never know where your idea will take you or how it will change.
2. Start with a niche market and focus.
3. Have patience. Success takes time.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Wow, a loaded question! It all depends on the time of year and what events are going on.

It I’d take them to the Fort Worth Stockyards to sip on some tequila and hang out at the Drover Hotel. We’d go to the farmer’s market and eat at Press Café and go to Scatt Jazz Lounge (maybe go to an improve show like Four Day Weekend before).

In Dallas, we’d visit the Dallas aquarium, I’d take them to Oishii on Wycliff for sushi, Royal China for some soup dumplings and José’s or The Mexican for Mexican food.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family – including my parents, brothers and my wife, Colby. I could right essays for days on how meaningful their support has been! I am who I am today because of all of these people, and I’m incredibly motivated to continue my entrepreneurial journey thanks to their support.

Texas Christian University (TCU) for giving Sophia Karbowski (my business partner) and I the initial support with our first business, Rollin’ n Bowlin’. We grew Rollin’ n Bowlin’ to a chain of 8 health food cafés on college campuses across the country from TCU, to Tulane in New Orleans to Notre Dame. This experience was an incredible start to our entrepreneurial careers.

Website: www.eatrealsy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatrealsy/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinpatry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eatrealsy

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AustinDanielPatry

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eatrealsy?lang=en