Pepper – A Well-Seasoned Adventure
During the summer of 2019, two best friends recently graduated from college, Jake Aronskind and Matt Schkolnick, found themselves brainstorming business ideas together in one of their childhood hang out spots. They had had similar conversations in the same location for years and had always been partial to the idea of starting a business, so it was nothing out of the ordinary. The topic that particular evening centered around a disorganized GroupMe chat. Multiple times a day members of the group would post pictures of the meals they were working on, which resulted in innumerable questions about the recipe and process. Aronskind and Schkolnick knew there had to be a way to manage the chaos and spent the evening planning out a more efficient system. The result was an app which they simply called Cookbook at the time that allowed people to post their food and recipes Instagram style as well as the ability connect with other chefs to gain meal inspiration. Unfortunately, despite the excitement around the idea, life was too busy at the time to accommodate a business venture.
The idea lay dormant for about a year when, during the height of Covid, the duo decided to take a leap of faith and move forward with the project. It gained traction quickly and family, as well as angel investors, quickly brought the vision to life. After a few trial runs and a name change, Pepper was born. Thanks to the pair, thousands of people have a unique way to share their passion for food as well as learn new recipes, create an extensive online cookbook, gain cooking ideas from people all over the world, and even participate in cooking classes.
The company’s inspiring mission states that it works, “to celebrate the everyday chef making familiar dishes. To celebrate the seasoned chef sharing new creations. To celebrate friends and family sharing special recipes. To celebrate food photographers, creators, consumers, and everyone in between. To celebrate you. And maybe, just maybe, change the way you think about sharing food.”
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This story is a great example of how creativity and friendship can lead to real innovation. They took a simple problem and turned it into a platform that connects people through their love of food. Their journey shows how passion and timing can transform a casual idea into a meaningful community.
That’s such an amazing story! This is a great idea, I’m glad they decided to launch it! I think I’m going to have to check it out- I absolutely love that they decided to run with this idea during Covid, it turned out to be a great way to help lots of people connect over what they love during a time of isolation!
This is a really cool story as well as a great product and community they built. It was really cool to see how their idea grew over time. I think this is a great example of how they not only created a good product with the app to help people gain inspiration and receive recognition in their cooking but also foster a community at the same time.