About Us
"It’s much better to try something and potentially fail the first time opposed to never taking that first step and wondering what might have been."
Anthony or “Antonio”, born in Genoa, Italy migrated to the USA at a very young age. Anthony grew up in Newark, New Jersey and later married and had two children, Anthony and Michael, who were raised in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Anthony and his wife relocated to Wilmington, NC in 2008 where he started to recreate his Nonna’s Gourmet Marinara to share with friends and family — ultimately launching Antonio Carlo Gourmet Sauces in 2021. His passions are family, cooking, entrepreneurship and sharing his family’s gourmet marinara sauces with everyone.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I grew up in Newark, NJ after my family immigrated from Genoa. We were living in poverty conditions, and at just 11 years old, I began working at a neighborhood auto repair shop to help my family afford groceries and basic necessities. My father’s work ethic left a deep impression on me. He worked as a janitor and walked miles to and from work seven days a week until he finally allowed himself the small luxury of bus fare. His perseverance taught me the value of hard work and determination which I’ve passed on to my two sons, who have both embraced those values with great success.
I wanted to build and develop businesses from a young age. After my first job as an auto mechanic, I opened my first business — an auto repair shop and gas station — in my early 20s, and continued to expand into other businesses, including my proudest endeavor: Antonio Carlo Gourmet Sauces.
Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food or beverage brand you are leading?
As I was nearing the end of a rewarding career in healthcare, my wife Kate encouraged me to share my Nonna’s homemade marinara recipe with our friends and neighbors in Wilmington, NC. Everyone loved the authentic taste and texture and how much it reminded them of childhood memories of meals they enjoyed in Italy with their families.
What began as a small passion project grew quickly. We started cooking and bottling the sauce — or gravy — in small batches, offering samples at the local farmers market. The response was amazing. Before long, we could barely keep up with demand. Kate and I spent every morning from 4 to 8 a.m. cooking and bottling jars in our kitchen before heading to work. That’s when we realized it was time to take the next step and produce our sauce on a large scale without sacrificing my Nonna’s quality and ingredients.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In the beginning of our business, we printed the jar labels on our small home printer. Not only was it a slow process, we realized during a rainstorm at the farmers market that the ink base wasn’t waterproof. Even though the ink was literally running off the jars, our customers still lined up, and we sold out of every jar that day!
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food or beverage line? What can be done to avoid those errors?
One of the first steps we took in the early days of Antonio Carlo was to establish a “home base” of friends and neighbors to help spread the word about our sauce around Wilmington. This word-of-mouth promotion helped gain us access into local farmers markets, Mom and Pop gourmet shops and local grocery stores before we looked to expanding outside of our local area. Scaling too quickly before a brand has the chance to grow organically and build momentum can be risky. It can lead to significant startup costs, strain resources, and can result in product discontinuation by major retailers if sales don’t immediately meet expectations.
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Honest feedback from friends and family is an absolute necessity when starting a new business. For us, we took note of every suggestion our neighbors and friends offered to improve the taste and texture of our sauce recipe. Once we felt like our marinara was in the right place, we began offering free samples to local food stores for their consideration, and I began offering cooking demos and tastings once stores began to carry our sauce. Showing that we were committed enough to invest our time and give away the marinara for free showed that we believed enough in our product that store stockers and managers could trust their customers would love it too.
Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?
Believe in yourself and your ideas. Document everything and develop a solid business plan. Start slowly and never give up in the face of adversity, setbacks and or disappointments (there will be many in the early years of a business!) Always stay focused and understand not only the risks and hurdles you will need to overcome but also the rewards that will follow. It’s much better to try something and potentially fail the first time opposed to never taking that first step and wondering what might have been.
As reprinted from Authority Magazine:
