Meet Brock Giles, who started a hot-sauce side hustle while working in finance in the early 2020s; years later, his business was generating over $100,000 a month

Brock Giles initially worked in finance. Later, he made hot sauce and expected the business to remain a small source of extra income. After a few years, this became his full-time job. Its monthly revenue rose from $50,000 to more than $100,000.

He is the founder of High Mesa Chile Co. It is a Salt Lake City-based business that makes small batches of hot sauces and spicy cocktail mixers. According to Entrepreneur, he once talked about how the business grew from an idea into a company generating seven-figure annual revenue.

How did he lead the business?

His interest in food started at a very young age. He used to spend time with family friends from New Mexico. There, roasting and cooking chillies was part of their late-summer traditions.


He grew up in the deserts of Southern Utah. It also shaped his interest in roasted chillies. Later in his life, his interest in cooking with these ingredients grew. It led him to create High Mesa Chile Co.

He worked in finance after graduating from college. Then only he continued his side hustle and thought of it as a creative outlet that could bring in extra money alongside his corporate salary.

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How did farmers' markets help him?

Giles used the downtown Salt Lake City farmers' market and introduced the company's retail products there. He also used to attend local food trade shows and showed his products designed for food-service businesses.

He estimated that he spent around about a year searching for direction before securing a food-service distribution partner.

This helped High Mesa establish a more consistent source of revenue and build a foundation for its later move into retail.

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Growth also came with higher costs. Most of the money that was earned, used to go back into the business as it was largely self-funded.

However, the business grew with time and the monthly revenue rose from around $50,000 to more than $100,000 over the preceding couple of years.