When we first moved from making Tantos in an apartment kitchen to dreaming about large-scale production, I had zero clue how to build a supply chain. I’m the kind of person who’d rather skip baby steps and go straight to the end goal. But going “full manufacturing mode” is a beast, and there’s no simple manual on how to pull it off, especially when you’re creating a brand-new product like puffed pasta chips. Still, I knew if we wanted Tantos to be a legitimate business, we needed a real supply chain from day one.
Teaming Up with the Right People
Finding a co-packer can be daunting, but I lucked out big time: my mentor, Mark, essentially built the roadmap for me. If you’ve been following along, you know he was guiding me through this process. He’d say, “Talk to these people about pellets and flavor development, and once that’s set, call me back.” When I finished each assignment, I’d circle back, and he’d bring it all together at his facility to make Tantos. It’s safe to say I couldn’t have pulled this off without him; Mark was not only a seasoned professional but also someone who genuinely believed in Tantos.
He gave me all the introductions I needed, starting with a pellet supplier and a seasoning house. For Tantos to happen, I needed a special wheat-and-water pellet, something no one was making yet. That meant convincing the supplier to co-invent it with me. There were countless phone calls, a little sweet-talking, and a whole lot of persistence. Eventually, they agreed. The results blew me away: the pellet came out better than expected. We then had to buy a commercial die from Italy for mass production, which cost a fortune and took six months to arrive. Talk about a leap of faith—but at least we had a pellet that could scale beyond Chef Joe’s tiny kitchen.
I expected co-packing to be full of hidden costs and complications, but sampling and development went shockingly well—partly because Mark was advocating for me behind the scenes. He wanted to be part of Tantos, and that opened a ton of doors. Usually, you might get blindsided by minimum order quantities (MOQs), ingredient lead times, or packaging snafus. While we did have some typical hurdles (like minimum orders for pellets, seasoning, and bags), it all happened pre-launch, so it didn’t delay an existing market presence.
Now that our pellets, seasoning, and packaging decisions were locked in, we were ready to schedule our first sample run—and ultimately, our official production run. Everything had come together: the right ingredients, the perfect flavors, and a process we believed could scale. It was surreal to think we’d soon move from test batches in our personal kitchen to churning out Tantos by the thousands.
We visited the facility for the initial sample run, producing around 1,000 pounds of product in about an hour, testing frying times, temperatures, seasoning percentages, and bagging speeds. The second we locked in our specs, we marked our calendar for the official Tantos production date, still four months away, but at least we had an end in sight. Our co-packer also handled nutritional labels, lab tests, and overall quality control. They’ve got a professional facility and a dedicated staff, so I was confident Tantos could scale without losing its magic.
Supply Chain Takeaways
People ask me all the time, “How did you build this supply chain from scratch?” Truth is, it’s part luck and part grinding, networking your face off and meeting the right people (like Mark) who can open doors. You can’t just rely on fate, though; you’ve got to keep pounding the pavement, asking questions, and chasing leads. Building a supply chain for a new snack brand is no joke, but it’s not impossible if you put in the work. Without the right introductions and a determined mindset, Tantos would still be stuck in Chef Joe’s apartment.
At the end of the day, don’t try to do it all on your own. Surround yourself with people who know more than you do. Whether it’s a mentor, a co-packer, or an industry contact, you never know which connection might hold the puzzle piece you’re missing. For Tantos, that puzzle piece came from a single mentor who believed in us and because of that, we’ve gone from an apartment-side gig to a legitimate snack brand with a fully functioning supply chain. And trust me, nothing feels better than seeing your product roll off a production line, knowing you built that pipeline from scratch.
