From Boring Marinara to Bold Sauce How I Built Riggs Sauce Company
I never planned to start a sauce company because I ran out of sauce.
But that's exactly how Riggs Sauce Company began.
During COVID, like a lot of people, I was spending more time at home, cooking more meals, and looking for ways to make everyday food feel a little less repetitive. One night, I made mozzarella sticks and when I reached for a jar of marinara and realized I was out.
What started as a small inconvenience quickly became an experiment.
As I thought about the sauces I'd bought over the years, I realized I kept coming back to the same conclusion: they were fine. Familiar. Reliable. They did the job.
But they were also forgettable.
I wanted something that still felt like traditional marinara. A sauce you could confidently use on pasta, pizza, meatballs, or breadsticks without a second thought. At the same time, I wanted it to have more personality. More depth. More character. Something that tasted like it had a point of view.
That was the beginning.
Building Something Better
The first batch was made in my kitchen with no grand plan behind it.
I wasn't thinking about labels, inventory, shipping, or scaling a business. I was thinking about flavor.
I wanted a sauce that felt familiar on the first bite, then revealed something more. Traditional marinara carries a certain comfort, and I never wanted to lose that. The goal wasn't to create something different simply for the sake of being different. The goal was to create a modern interpretation of a classic sauce.
Finding that balance wasn't easy.
Too mild, and it blended into the crowd. Too aggressive, and it stopped feeling like an everyday marinara. I wanted people to open a jar and immediately know how to use it, while recognizing that it offered something they weren't used to.
That balance eventually became the foundation of the brand:
Familiar, but uniquely bold.
A Marketing Mindset in the Kitchen
Long before Riggs Sauce Company became a business, I had spent time learning how products, brands, and customers connect.
I graduated from Iowa State University with bachelor's degrees in Marketing and Management, along with a minor in Advertising. That education gave me a strong understanding of how people make decisions, how brands earn trust, and why a product must deliver on its promise. I even took a class all about content creation in marketing which allowed me to further refine the brand guidelines, create new logos, images, and videos all for one day when I launched Riggs Sauce officially.
Today, I work as a Product Marketing Specialist while also running Riggs Sauce Company. That combination has influenced every decision I've made.
Product marketing teaches you that a good idea isn't enough. The product has to deliver. The story has to be authentic. The experience has to make sense from the moment someone discovers your brand to the moment they become a repeat customer.
That mindset pushed me to think beyond the recipe. The sauce couldn't just taste good. It had to be something people would genuinely want to buy again.
Testing Before Launching
One thing I believe strongly is that products should be tested thoroughly before they're considered finished.
It's easy to make one batch, love it, and assume it's ready. I didn't want to take that approach.
Food is personal. People have different tastes, expectations, and ways of using a sauce. If I wanted Riggs Sauce to become something real, I needed feedback beyond my own opinions.
So I kept refining.
I made test batches. Adjusted ingredients. Changed techniques. Evaluated texture, acidity, sweetness, and overall boldness. I paid attention to how the sauce performed in actual meals because a sauce can taste great from a spoon and still fall short on a plate of pasta or a homemade pizza.
I wanted it to succeed in real kitchens, not just my own.
Then came the first orders.
In the beginning, I was making small batches, labeling jars, packing boxes, and shipping everything myself. Every order was personal. Every piece of feedback mattered.
Customers shared thoughts not only about the flavor, but about the entire experience. How the product arrived. How it looked. Whether it felt premium. Whether they would purchase it again.
I listened carefully.
Some feedback confirmed I was heading in the right direction. Other feedback challenged me to improve. Both were equally valuable.
The Recipe Earned Its Place
The recipe that exists today didn't happen overnight.
It was built through years of incremental improvements.
I would make a batch, collect feedback, return to the kitchen, and start again. Some adjustments were minor. Others changed the direction of the sauce entirely. Along the way, I learned not to become too attached to a particular version simply because I had created it.
If people loved something, I paid attention.
If multiple people identified the same issue, I paid even closer attention.
That process not only improved the sauce, it strengthened my confidence in it. By the time I landed on the final recipe, it had been tested, questioned, compared, refined, and improved countless times.
That's the difference between making a homemade sauce and building a product.
My goal was to create a marinara that could stand alongside premium sauces while remaining versatile enough for everyday meals. A sauce bold enough to elevate a dish, yet familiar enough to become part of a weekly routine.
Growing Without Losing What Made Us Different
As Riggs Sauce Company continues to grow, I'm committed to preserving the principles that got us here.
Production may have increased, but the philosophy remains unchanged.
We continue to focus on:
Quality Ingredients: Sourcing ingredients that meet the same standards I expected from the very first batches.
Small-Batch Attention to Detail: Maintaining consistency, flavor, and quality in every jar.
Customer Feedback: Listening closely to the people who buy our products and using their input to guide future improvements.
Authenticity: Staying true to the original vision of creating a bold marinara that still feels approachable and familiar.
The same care that went into those first batches still influences every decision we make today.
The sauce still needs to taste bold.
It still needs to feel familiar.
And it still needs to be something I'm proud to put my name on.
That's important because my last name is on every jar.
The standard is personal.
The Core Values and Mission of Riggs Sauce Company
While Riggs Sauce started out of necessity, I knew I wanted Riggs Sauce to have more of an impact.
Our Mission: To challenge the standard in the jarred sauce industry. We aim to move away from bland, predictable options on the shelf by creating premium, versatile Italian-style marinara sauces that possess enough character and bold flavor to stand entirely on their own.
Our Values:
Bold Character: A firm belief that marinara sauce should never be a background ingredient; it should deliver a lively "wow-factor" to every dish.
Locally Made with Local Ingredients: Sourcing local ingredients as much as possible and keeping production in small batches here ins Des Moines, Iowa to ensure premium quality.
Constant Refinement: A dedicated commitment to customer service and feedback. Always accepting feedback on the entire customer experience to constantly refine our recipe, website, packaging, branding, etc. to deliver the best possible customer experience.
What Riggs Sauce Means Today
Riggs Sauce Company started with a simple frustration.
I was tired of boring marinara, and I believed I could create something better.
What it became is much bigger than that.
It's a product shaped by testing, feedback, patience, and a commitment to continuous improvement. It's a brand influenced by my background in marketing, advertising, management, and product development. Most importantly, it's proof that worthwhile ideas often begin in ordinary moments.
Before there was a final recipe, there were messy test batches.
Before there was scaling, there were boxes being shipped out of my house.
Before there was a brand, there was one simple question:
Can marinara be more exciting without losing what people already love about it?
For me, the answer became Riggs Sauce.
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