They say the longer the soup cooks, the better the soup will taste.
If the saying holds true for the amount of time it's taken to bring
Dixie Dave's Wild Game Soup to market, then this will be a business success story.
"Trying to launch it for five years. It's been a lot of sacrifice," says 24-year-old company creator Cason Thorsby, who became an entrepreneur at the tender age of 19.
His Mount Pleasant-based company quickly found local sales success from one Birch Run restaurant. But it's taken just over five years to bring it to wider spread distribution, an accomplishment that's set to go off in the next several weeks as Dixie Dave's soups show up in outdoors stores -- the biggies like Cabela's and Gander Mountain, and Mid Michigan locals like Jay's Sporting Goods. Thorsby is quick to add, with a smile, that any other interested businesses frequented by wild-game loving consumers should give him a call.
After that, says Thorsby, the plan is to put the soups in natural food markets such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
"Because our product is healthy and natural, we're ideal for that market," he says.
Initially, four flavors will be sold. Buffalo Barley, Pheasant and Wild Rice, Elk & Wild Mushroom and -- Thorsby's favorite -- Gator Gumbo.
They're tasty, tasty soups, he says, but the ingredients that went into the business side of the venture were more bland.
There were business plans, logos, packaging to design, and permits to secure. There were trips around the state and outside Michigan to find manufacturers, regulatory hurdles with agencies like the FDA and USDA to jump, investors to woo, plus the linchpin of any commercial project: the money.
"Food gets really complicated," Thorsby says. "And a business like this is very capital intensive. That was one of the main struggles we had."
Dixie Dave's Wild Game Soup is a partnership between Thorsby and Chef Dave Minar, whose kitchen at his Dave's Restaurant in Birch Run, is where the product was concocted and perfected.
Minar's culinary skills and likeness go into the product. Thorsby's legwork and business school knowledge are other ingredients.
Minar is a celebrity of sorts in the outdoor world thanks to his regular TV appearances on the Outdoor Life Network. He also is certified to cook with wild game.
His face also is plastered on the package.
"(Minar) has the brand, the reputation, the following," Thorsby says.
Thorsby was a plucky 19-year-old sophomore at Central Michigan University when he came up with the idea for a specialty soup, asked around, and walked into Minar's restaurant in a pair of holey jeans and a t-shirt printed with some sassy wording about liking hot moms.
"When I first came up with the idea, I realized no one else was doing it. I thought it would be something people wanted. I thought I knew how to start a business. The problem was I didn't know how to make soup," Thorsby says. "So I needed a chef who knew how to make soup and knew how to work with wild game. People said, 'You should talk to this guy.'
After a two-hour conversation, they were business partners in a soup company and have been since.
Besides the partnership, a working relationship with CMU bubbled up that day.
Thorsby, who has earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from CMU as the soup project simmered, became business development manager for
CMU Research Corp., a new business incubator.
The job puts him in the position of helping people with business start-up ideas, a position he's been in for five years.
"I've had to do all this stuff for myself. I've had to learn it myself, the hard way," he says.
Now there are networks, resources, information, even precious funding connections, to get a business going smarter and quicker.
Finding the packaging for the soups was tough. The soups will be sold from pourable, box-like packaging, instead of cans so there is no risk of tasting tin.
However, finding a food manufacturer that could stay true to Dave's creation was almost a knockout blow. That alone took two and a half years.
"When this thing takes off," he says, "it's going to be a hell of a success story for CMU."
Kim North Shine is a Detroit-area freelance writer with a liking for venison sausage and duck meat fajitas.