Grillo's Pickles
Caught in a Pickle: Grillo’s Pickles
If you haven’t been to the Grillo’s Pickles website, you should. There, you’ll find the fantastic story of how this company began. We’ve copied part of it here to save you a click.
Grillo's Pickles began with a pickle cart, just a small wooden stand in downtown Boston, where Travis Grillo and his friends would sell two spears for one dollar. Travis would make the pickles by night using his family's 100-year old recipe - one he'd memorized from making pickles every summer as a kid. In the morning, Travis would bike to the Boston Common and set up the cart with his buddies. They'd hang out all day, urging people to try the simple Grillo family pickle. It was a small business but Travis worked hard for it. He made more pickles, biked more miles, and slept less hours than he ever had before.
Before he knew it, Whole Foods Markets and the Boston Red Sox asked to feature the pickles. Others promptly followed. Today, you can find Grillo's Pickles in grocery stores across the country.
PS&H started representing Travis Grillo and his amazing pickle company when it became clear that the back end of the company had to be as palatable as the front end. We helped him redomesticate his company from Connecticut to Massachusetts, documented the equity investments the company needed to continue to grow, established a profit interest plan for Grillo’s employees, prepared an operating agreement for the founders, investors and employees. In short, we helped button up the business so that Travis and the company were prepared to meet their inevitable success head on. This year, we’ve assisted Grillo’s with an investment from a private equity firm that is providing the additional working capital it needs to hire senior-level operations and sales executives and retain and ramp up a second co-packer, a project needed in order to meet increasing demands.
The Grillo’s story is one that we love sharing, and we want to help Travis and his buddies spread the word about their amazing, garden-fresh, all natural, and refreshingly delicious pickles. They are, in fact, the best pickles in the world. But please, don’t take our word for it. Try one for yourself!
