Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Koch.
Hi Christian, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida, and from the time I was about 12 years old, music was everything to me. I loved to sing, and I taught myself to play guitar and piano. As I got older, I started writing my own songs, recording music, and doing everything I could to pursue a career as an artist.
After graduating high school, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, when I was 19 to chase that dream. I spent the next several years writing songs, performing, joining a band, and learning as much as I could about the music industry. It was something I truly loved, and for a long time I believed it was what I was meant to do.
By the time I was 25, though, I had to be honest with myself. While music was still my passion, I realized I needed to build something that could become a long-term career. That led me to start thinking about business.
I come from a pretty entrepreneurial family. My older brother had already built a successful company, and I remember asking him how he knew what kind of business to start. His advice was simple: find something that’s missing in a market, or find a way to make an existing product better than what’s already out there.
That conversation stuck with me.
As I started writing down different business ideas, I kept coming back to one thing—my grandpa’s beef jerky.
Growing up, my grandpa would make jerky for our family, and everyone loved it. It wasn’t just us. Friends, neighbors, and anyone who tried it would always ask for more. We’d tell him for years that he should start a business selling it, but he never had any interest in doing that.
That’s when I realized maybe I should.
I asked my grandpa if he’d be okay with me using his recipe to start a company, and he immediately supported the idea. That’s when my dad and I started building what would eventually become Jerky Boys.
From there, it became a matter of figuring everything out from scratch. We worked through the USDA approval process, built our manufacturing operation in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and started introducing people to the product at farmers markets, local events, and anywhere else we could get someone to try a piece of jerky.
Our belief was simple: if people tasted it, they’d understand why our family had loved it for so many years.
Thankfully, that’s exactly what happened.
About a year after launching the company, my older brother gave some samples to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale loved it from the first bag, and over the following year he occasionally talked about Jerky Boys on his podcast. Then, about a year later, he asked if he could become a partner in the company.
That was a huge moment for us, but it was really the result of everything that came before it—my grandpa’s recipe, my family’s support, and a lot of hard work building the business one step at a time.
Today, Jerky Boys continues to grow, but our focus is still the same as it was on day one: make great beef jerky, stay true to our family recipe, and build a company we’re proud of.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, and to be honest, it still isn’t. Every stage of business comes with a new set of challenges.
When I started Jerky Boys, I didn’t know what it took to manufacture beef jerky or what it really meant to build a business from the ground up. I was learning both at the same time.
The biggest challenge in the beginning was getting USDA approval. There’s a lot more to it than most people realize. You have to develop a HACCP plan, provide scientific documentation to support your process, meet strict food safety regulations, and make sure every detail is in place before you’re allowed to produce and sell your product.
It took me about 15 months to earn our USDA grant of inspection, and I was denied twice along the way because I was missing documentation and had parts of the process that needed to be corrected. Those setbacks were frustrating, but they also taught me a lot. I was determined to figure it out, and eventually we got approved and were able to begin manufacturing.
Once we were up and running, the challenges shifted from regulatory hurdles to running and growing a business. We focused on listening to customer feedback, improving our processes, and finding ways to make the company better every day. I think that’s something every business has to do if it wants to keep growing.
One challenge we didn’t expect was how quickly we’d sell out. As the business grew—especially after Dale Earnhardt Jr. got involved—we struggled to keep up with demand. We’d make a batch, sell through it, and immediately have to start making more. It was a good problem to have, but it was still a challenge because customers don’t like hearing that the product they want is out of stock.
That experience forced us to improve our manufacturing process, increase production capacity, and build inventory so we could keep up with demand while maintaining the quality people expected.
Looking back, every obstacle has taught us something. Whether it was earning USDA approval, improving our operations, or figuring out how to scale production, each challenge made the company stronger. I don’t think the obstacles ever really go away—they just change as the business grows. The key is staying willing to learn and continuing to move forward.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Growing up, my grandpa always made beef jerky for our family. Every so often, he’d send a package to me and my siblings, and we looked forward to it every time. It wasn’t just us either—our friends, neighbors, and pretty much anyone who tried it always wanted more. It was one of those recipes that people never forgot.
As I got older, I kept thinking it was too good to stay within our family. When I was 25 years old, I asked my grandpa if he’d be okay with me turning his recipe into a business. He loved the idea, gave me his blessing, and that’s when my dad and I started Jerky Boys.
We built a USDA-inspected manufacturing facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and started making the jerky the same way my grandpa always had. In the beginning, we sold anywhere we could—farmers markets, local events, festivals—just trying to get people to try it. Our philosophy was simple: if someone tasted it, we believed they’d come back.
Thankfully, that’s exactly what happened. People kept coming back, telling their friends, and the business started to grow.
About a year after launching Jerky Boys, my older brother, Blake, had the opportunity to give some samples to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale loved it from the first bag. Over the following year, he’d mention Jerky Boys on his podcast from time to time, and we started seeing more and more people discovering the brand.
Then, roughly two years after we started the company—and about a year after Dale first tried the jerky—he told my older brother Blake he wanted to become a partner in the business.
That was one of those moments you don’t expect. Having someone like Dale believe in what we were building meant a lot to us. It gave us confidence that we were on the right track, but more importantly, it confirmed something we’d believed from the beginning: when people try the jerky, they tend to come back.
Since then, Jerky Boys has continued to grow. Today, our products are available online through JerkyBoys.com and Amazon, as well as in approximately 20 retail locations. We’re also proud to sponsor the No. 88 Chevrolet in the CARS Tour, another milestone that would have been hard to imagine when we were selling jerky at local farmers markets.
As exciting as the growth has been, our focus hasn’t changed. We still use my grandpa’s recipe, we still make the jerky with the same commitment to quality, and we’re still building the company as a family. At the end of the day, that’s what Jerky Boys has always been about.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’ve always believed that if you want to do something meaningful, you’re going to have to get comfortable taking risks.
That doesn’t mean making careless decisions. For me, it’s about doing as much research as I can, talking to people who have experience, and making the best decision with the information I have. At some point, though, you have to stop planning and actually take the leap.
I’ve done that a few times in my life. I moved to Nashville when I was 19 to pursue music without knowing how it would turn out. Years later, I decided to start a beef jerky company even though I had no experience in food manufacturing. Both decisions were uncertain, but I knew I’d regret never trying more than I’d regret failing.
Not every risk has worked out the way I expected, but every one has taught me something. I think that’s one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur. Failure isn’t the end—it’s usually where the best lessons come from.
Looking back, starting Jerky Boys was definitely a risk. It took more than a year just to get approved to manufacture our product, and there were plenty of moments where it would have been easier to quit. But I believed in the product, I believed in the people around me, and I believed that if I kept moving forward, eventually it would work.
Pricing:
- 2 – Pack – $29.99 (Original Beef jerky)
- 4 – Pack – $51.98 (Original Beef Jerky)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jerkyboys.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerkyboysjerky?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JerkyboysJerky/
- Twitter: https://x.com/Jerkyboys_jerky
