Katherine Kervis

Katherine Kervis is the co-founder of Hitch, a hot sauce brand built on complex, global flavors that are hot enough to be interesting but balanced enough to cook with. She and her husband Matt started the business while living in Costa Rica, where he was making sauces from scratch in their garden. When they moved back to Oregon, they decided to turn the hobby into a company that could eventually fund a return to beach life.

The couple launched Hitch with a two-year plan to get into grocery stores and generate passive income. Nearly a decade later, the brand has reached roughly one hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars in annual sales and is carried in regional chains across the Northwest, with some trial runs in Kroger and Fred Meyer stores. Kervis manages marketing while working full-time as a vacation rentals marketing director, and Matt teaches culinary classes online.

Hitch has become a true family operation, and Kervis has grown tired of the endless weekend farmer's market grind. She called into the How I Built This Advice Line seeking a path to national distribution and, ultimately, an acquisition that would let her step back from daily operations without selling the business short.