In this episode of Small Business Origins, we talk to Tomball Economic Development Corporation's second success story: Shane Nobles, founder of Pain Train Salsa based in Tomball, Texas. We talk about so much, but the story of transitioning from being a coach to a salsa king couldn't be any more interesting than this.
Tune in to hear:
- How Shane first got inspired to make his own salsa while working as a bartender at Pappasito's (5:55)
- Starting out selling 49 jars at local farmer's markets in Tomball (9:40)
- Expanding to multiple farmer's markets across Houston and the scaling challenges (12:13)
- Transitioning the business from a side hustle while teaching to a full-time endeavor (20:14)
- Obtaining those first retail accounts with local grocery stores (14:12) and larger chains like HEB, Spec's and Central Market (22:56)
- The production process over time - going from home kitchen to commercial kitchen to upgrading with new equipment as the business grew (41:26)
- Managing the supply chain complexities selling a fresh, perishable product (44:55)
- Funding and building a new production facility to meet demand (48:35)
- Giving back to the Tomball community and local schools (36:25)
- Goals for the future including a "Welcome to Tomball, famous for creamy avocado" water tower (55:09)
Shane Nobles is a Tomball, Texas entrepreneur and founder of Pain Train Salsa. He started the business in 2014, selling jars of his homemade salsa at local farmer's markets. Since then, Pain Train Salsa has expanded across Texas, now selling in major grocery store chains while still maintaining Shane's commitment to an all-natural, handcrafted product.
Pain Train Salsa is a Tomball, Texas-based salsa company making ultra-fresh, all-natural salsas and avocado sauces. Founded by Shane Nobles in 2014, Pain Train started out selling at local farmer's markets and has grown to become one of the top-selling local brands across Texas grocery stores. Their flagship product is the Creamy Avocado salsa.
Tweetables:
"I have it shelf life tested in FSNS lab in San Antonio. I did it for 3 months. I was like, if it you know, we can't sell in 3 months, we're in trouble." (45:16)
"If you wanna buy Pace Picante Sauce, then, hey man, they got a whole section for you. But if you want the good stuff and I tell people I go, it's only expensive the first time you buy it." (30:51)
[00:00:01] John Kelley: Tell me your story. Not an all star. Do you remember?
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[00:00:06] John Kelley: You're now tuned into the Small Business Origins podcast. I love an origin story. Each week, we dive into the real stories of entrepreneurs and businesses from across the nation. Louisian, what's his origin story? Who started with just an idea, and they're now making waves.
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[00:00:31] Intro: Yeah. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Small Business Origins. I'm your host as always, John Kelly aka John the marketer on Instagram and TikTok, and you're tuned in. It's our nationwide search.
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[00:01:00] Shane Nobles: I am glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
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[00:01:18] Intro: So I can understand why it's delayed. But now, Tomball Economic Development Corporation has brought you here so that they can share you as one of their success stories. We'll kinda get into some of the things you've been able to do with their help. But we wanna talk all about you. And before we hop into that, we have to start out with a nice breaker question.
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[00:01:43] Shane Nobles: How do I recognize when I'm stressed? My cheeks get red like they are right now.
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[00:01:50] Shane Nobles: Yeah. It's just kinda it's it is the norm and stuff, but, you know, there's sometimes it's a good thing, you know. I think stress, if you handle it properly, you know, it's this motivating factor in getting you to go and go and go and go and, you know, and that's I crave it sometimes. It's it's weird to say, but you do tend to, to, you know, you like having that pressure, stress, you know, as long as you keep it in kind of a positive fashion.
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[00:02:44] Shane Nobles: Right.
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[00:02:56] Shane Nobles: Yeah. The beauty of, like, my life is so different than what it was, you know, just not 10 years ago. And, beauty of it now is a lot of times I find myself running into Planet Fitness for 30 minutes to an hour just get just walking on a treadmill doing the same thing I would be doing if I was riding in my van or or at the shop or whatever, you know, like, just doing work type stuff, you know, and, that's been something that I mean, I used to I coached for 20 years, so, you know, that was being in that environment is, you know, kinda comforting to me, I guess, so to speak.
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[00:03:54] Intro: And I think it's helping to just kind of relieve some of that stress off the top all the time. Definitely. Whether there's something specific going on or not. Yeah. Because it's just I don't know.
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[00:04:09] Shane Nobles: Yep. That that's that's so true. You know, I love like I said, I, you know, used to lift a lot more like to get in there. Nowadays, I do the old man workout. I get on the the treadmill, incline it a little bit, and then just go to town, you know, just just on a fast walk, you know, and, and it just gets my mind off other things, and I can, like, take care of business while I'm doing that.
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[00:04:34] Intro: Yeah. I love that. Andrew and I definitely have some really good gym conversations that turn into some cool business stuff. So
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[00:04:41] Intro: Awesome, man. Well, I'm gonna turn it over to you just like we do every single episode and and ask you the same question I ask every single episode. And that is who are you, where'd you come from, and how'd you get into entrepreneurship?
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[00:05:09] John Kelley: to be a doctor because I was there so long, but I
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[00:05:55] Shane Nobles: But I saw the what the ingredients were so I started, I decided I was gonna make my own. And that's when I started playing around with it. That's really where it all started. It's just that concept of, hey. I I think I can do this, you know.
