We had the good fortune of connecting with Jerrod and Christen Medulla and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Jerrod and Christen, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a passion for food and music. I started college at San Angelo State University, where I played rugby and really kicked off my songwriting. After a couple of years, I moved to Lubbock, Texas to finish school. I soon found myself in the middle of the Lubbock music scene and on stage for the first time. When a music promoter approached me at the end of that night to play a large festival, it was clear to me that this was going to be the start of my music career.
Around the same time, which is almost 20 years ago, I met my wife, Christen. She too shared the same love of music and food. She played tennis for Texas Tech and graduated with a Restaurant Hotel and Institutional Management degree. It has always been a passion and a dream of mine to reopen my grandparents Sicilian-American Restaurant. Christen and I talked about it for years. I found myself dreaming about every tiny detail. Coming from the industry, Christen often shared the pro’s and con’s in opening up a storefront. Of course, there were so many great benefits. But, in my circumstances, the con’s seemed to always outweigh the pro’s. “You’re a family man and your passion is music. So, there is a possibility that those things could be compromised going down this road”, Christen reminded me quite a bit. But she always included, “If you really want it though, let’s figure it out!”
We were in the kitchen one day, dreaming about the restaurant again, and without her saying it I said, “It’s just never going to happen, is it?”. She stood there for a second and said, “There has to be other people in your same position. No time or resources to open up a restaurant. I bet there are so many people who have great products, but no way to get it out there. There has to be another way. A way that you all can do something virtually”. And then it clicked. There was a major gap in the food industry. We knew we had to fill it.
Christen and I got on the phone with FDA attorneys, patent attorneys, designers and developers, and we got to work. We were creating a platform and application that provides a way for everyone to sell their made-from-scratch, homemade / homegrown or best of the best, local food and beverage items. All online and in one place. This platform would be a place for creators to sell their one of a kind, unique, authentic or specialty product. A place where they can go direct to consumer without having to compromise their quality of life. Farmers, Ranchers, Caterers, Cottage Bakers, Food Trucks, etc. would now have their Digital Marketplace, their virtual Restaurant, and consumers would now have a one stop shop to search for, and finally find and purchase those products. We names this connection tool and platform Tastebuddy.
It was important to us that Tastebuddy included the tools and resources that were valuable to the success of our sellers. So, it was the perfect opportunity for me to get deep into the operational side of things and open up my restaurant. I opened up Medulla’s Spaghetti and Pizza (est. in 1950) on Tastebuddy and became one of the beta testers, prior to launch. With old family recipes in memory and in hand, I decided that I would start off with my family’s fresh, made from scratch pizzas and I would sell them frozen. Everything is hand made – the dough, sauce, meatballs, sausage, everything.
The day we launched Tastebuddy, Medulla’s Spaghetti and Pizza was also launched. I remember being in the kitchen when it happened and hearing my phone go off. Ding after Ding. I finally walked over to it, and sure enough, they were all Tastebuddy dings. Notifications with orders I was receiving. I sold out of pizzas that week and every week after. I don’t know if I was more excited about our Tastebuddy platform being live and seeing all of the hard work come to life, or me finally seeing my dream of reopening my Grandparents restaurant finally come to fruition. It was a really proud moment for us!
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
For us, it has always been a spiritual journey. In everything that we have done and continue to do. I decided to pursue my music career full-time when Christen encouraged me to chase my dream after spending a couple of years in the Surgical Technology industry, working on an orthopedic team. That was almost 20 years ago. We both went into the Music Industry knowing that it wasn’t going to be easy and that there would be a lot of tough roads. Especially when neither one of us came from a strong financial background. Financially, we knew we would be doing it on our own. And we did. Our journey has definitely given me some great writing material! 99% of the songs that I write come from some sort of experience. Whether it be my own or from someone or something along the journey.
Christen’s background is in the restaurant and hospitality world, but she was quickly recruited into sales shortly after graduating, and decided that would be the career that she wanted to pursue. She worked her way up and ended up in software sales, which she loved. Between my traveling and hers, it was definitely tough to manage everything with two very little kiddos. But, we have a great support system and figured out a way to balance it all. When we founded Tastebuddy, we both pursued it as a side hustle for almost a year. Once development became pretty steady and we began to prepare for launch, Christen transitioned over to Tastebuddy full-time.
The journey into the startup world has certainly been what everyone has described it to be, and more. Everything that we learned throughout our careers really helped prepare us for so many of the struggles and positions that we would be in. From the decisions that we would have to make, to the roadblocks and all of the unknowns ahead. We had been through so much already, so we learned how to stay motivated, keep moving and pushing no matter what. “One of the biggest challenges in starting a business like Tastebuddy, is having to be the temporary “expert” in every single piece of the business. Jerrod and I are not social media or human resource or marketing experts. The hats that have to be put on until we were and are in a position to financially fill those spots, is difficult. You just do the best with what you know and have, or figure out how to find the answer”. The other biggest challenge that seems to be what many startups face, is funding. Which is why it was important to include as much as possible within our Tastebuddy platform to help our sellers and Food and Beverage creators. Christen and I understand the feeling of not being able to get to the next level or the next stage because of lack of resources.
All of the challenges seem to go away, at least temporarily, when you see your product come to life and immediately start helping people. We want to see everybody succeed, so we have given hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of analytics to everyone on Tastebuddy for free, so that you can succeed without the funding a restaurant needs. Creating a shop and opening up my digital restaurant on Tastebuddy gave me that sort of relief and financial freedom of not relying on a storefront restaurant or shop to be successful. I didn’t have to pour a bunch of money into it, or take out a loan for it. We’re in a different time, and the expenses and tools and resources required to open up a place was something that kept preventing me from pulling the trigger. Not to mention the stress of employees potentially not showing up to work. It just made sense to do it digitally. And now I won’t be spending a huge portion of my profits on marketing to weed out all of the large, corporate dollars and competition. We wanted to create a platform where the best of the best foods and beverages could be found. Not because someone paid big dollars to tell you their food is the best, but because it really is the best. It’s like everything is now on an even-level playing field.
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.
When friends or family come in town, depending on what they are in the mood for, our itinerary for showing them the best time usually includes a ton of places that are usually off the radar. We love to highlight the jewels and hidden gems that are often kept quiet. Like coffee from a family owned coffee shop that we go to in downtown Frisco, that you can’t just Google. A trip out to Lewisville for the best authentic salsa that you also can’t find online. We love going to special house concerts, and maybe one that I’m playing. Usually these unique house concerts will be paired with some really authentic, homemade food. We also love hosting dinners, so we’ll usually get one or two organized and go all out on a mix of great food, music and desserts.
We try to stick to local places, more of those hard to find, special spots. So, also depending on the occasion, we’ll pick a few of those, wander around a downtown or two, pop into a local winery and find ourselves on one of the patios, eating at a local favorite and listening to some live music. We’ll also decide is there is a specific vibe we’re all looking for – more of a sit down, listening room vibe or an all out concert. There are a few favorite venues – The Rustic, Granada Theater and The Kessler are all great. If you drive a little bit north of Dallas, Legacy Hall in Plano at the Shops of Legacy is a fun concert venue, surrounded with some great restaurants.
Christen is from El Paso, TX. so when it comes to really authentic Mexican food, we go to a place off of Lombardy in Dallas. It is about 45 minutes from where we live, but we’ll go and buy their salsa in quarts and freeze them. We love a celebration night at Nick and Sam’s in Dallas. Although they are a bit on the larger side, they’re still local and the experience is amazing in every aspect. Reunion Tower is a great experience, hotdogs at the Rangers Game and a Cowboys game are always great choices. We’ll throw certain events during specific times of the year on the itinerary as well.
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our Lord and savior Jesus Christ without a doubt is who we give all the credit of our visions, successes and dreams to. Without a doubt, none of it would be possible or come to light without him. Our beautiful kids, Sienna and Michael and our family who are tirelessly supporting us. We’re extremely blessed to have all of our tight knit friends and colleagues with us and by our side. Our customers and fans – they are the absolute best and without them, none of this works. Thank you!!
Website: www.tastebuddyfoods.com, https://app.tastebuddyfoods.com/shop/medullasspaghettiandpizza-1, jerrodmedullamusic.com
Instagram: instagram.com/jerrodmedulla, https://www.instagram.com/tastebuddyfoods/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrod-medulla-b1249556/, https://www.linkedin.com/company/tastebuddyfoods
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jerrodmedulla, http://twitter.com/tastebuddyfoods
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JerrodMedullaMusic/, https://www.facebook.com/Tastebuddyfoods
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtVOPA0CA8P9UkrQnVEdR3Q, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn9Nms5gLHR3LRABQ-avBdw
Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1SAy0dPUaT6fyPs5JuJIQN
Image Credits
Christen sitting, Steven Visneau Photography, Chris Fritchie Studios
