Heatonist Founder on Building a 'Hot Sauce Culture'

Before launching Heatonist, founder Noah Chaimberg had a background in digital marketing, working with major clients like Uniqlo and Mercedes. His entrepreneurial spirit showed early; at 15, he sold Pokémon posters on eBay and later attempted to sell catamarans in Vermont. His passion for spicy food was partly inspired by his grandmother, who once won a week's worth of groceries by eating an entire hot chili at a grocer's challenge in the 1950s. The Heatonist journey began in 2013, not with a storefront, but with Chaimberg selling a curated collection of small-batch hot sauces from a pushcart at various Brooklyn markets. This direct-to-consumer approach was born from his frustration with buying hot sauces without being able to try them first. The first physical tasting room opened its doors on April 20, 2015, at 121 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The pivotal partnership with the YouTube interview show "Hot Ones" began in 2015, when the show's team asked Heatonist to curate the lineup of sauces for its celebrity wing challenge. Since then, Heatonist has not only sourced sauces for every season but has also co-created the show's signature sauces, including The Classic, Los Calientes, and the infamous final sauce, The Last Dab. Heatonist has expanded its physical footprint beyond the flagship Brooklyn store to include an outpost in Manhattan's Chelsea Market. In a major retail expansion in 2024, the company brought its "Hot Ones" branded sauces to over 8,000 stores across the U.S., including major chains like Kroger, Publix, Whole Foods, and Walmart, making the fan-favorite sauces widely accessible. The company's annual sales reached $45 million in 2024.