Hot Sauce Company to Asian Food Company
When I first launched our original hot sauces toward the end of 2015 on Kickstarter, hot sauces were everywhere - in the news, social media, and music. It was a great time, one where we were expanding to many locations, with various retailers.
Though I was seeing some traction, I moved home to North Jersey to grow WUJU. As fate would have it, I also had to start helping a lot at our family restaurants as my parents each developed some serious health issues.
Building WUJU and running my family restaurant together helped WUJU evolve. I saw greater potential in being a part of the broader Asian food market, rather than just hot sauce. The goal would be to challenge the norm of your traditional commercialized Asian sauces and food that have been on the shelves forever.
I felt WUJU could be the right platform because of mix of our products, story, and packaging. At the same time, the transition between our already curry, turmeric flavored hot sauces seemed to work organically. We had some relationships, and we'll use that to grow a true brand.
There's a lot more than the popularized Asian food that exists in this country and it would be amazing to help bridge that gap. Lastly, a critical reason hot sauces have been growing so rapidly is because of the rise in Asian and Hispanic-American population and their influences on food culture.
Let's make some changes not only in food, but also grow Asian culture in the U.S.
Larry Wu
Founder/CEO