Sriracha

David Tran fled Vietnam on a freighter in nineteen seventy-nine with a chili sauce recipe and no money. No advertising budget, no sales team, no distributor. Every condiment brand paid slotting fees to sit on supermarket shelves. Tran could not afford a single slot. So he skipped supermarkets entirely. He drove a van to Asian restaurants and left bottles for free. Owners put them on tables. Diners tasted the sauce, then asked where to buy it. There was nowhere to buy it. Customers called grocery stores asking for the rooster bottle. Managers placed orders just to stop the calls. Tran never hired a salesperson.