~ I’m on a mission to share the joy of popcorn.

I began making popcorn in 2017 as a side gig and a way to help pay for my daughter's college tuition. As fate would have it, I met a retired airplane engineer who changed everything. He had a successful popcorn business and was willing to teach me the ropes. He built me a trailer from scratch, that I could pull behind my car. A 200 pound kettle and everything needed to make and sell popcorn was self-contained, making travel and setup a breeze.

So, I began popping at farmer’s markets and street festivals. I quickly realized that my passions had all come together. It was sooo much fun making popcorn ‘live’, and engaging with the community. Afterall, who doesn’t love a fresh, warm bag of kettle corn!

By providing these snacking moments of goodness I was putting smiles on faces and bringing the world joy, one bag at a time.

My daughter, Jessica, would help me whenever she was home from college. It was a great way to spend time together. She appreciated that this endeavor was to help pay for her tuition and pitched in to help whenever she could.

We also started playing with different flavor recipes at home. My popcorn was to be an artisanal delight. I challenged myself to infuse unique flavors into my popcorn. I also sourced non-gmo kernels that were grown specifically for their size and shape. They are big, round, and oh sooo delicious!

One day after an event, she said, “You know, people really love your popcorn. Why don’t you consider packaging it?”

What a grand idea!

In 2021, I entered a local, “Shark Tank” like competition and was accepted into an accelerator program. I went through an extensive course designed to help me launch a product. After a lot of research (and a ton of paperwork!) I crafted 3 unique flavors of popcorn and began learning about the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) industry. By 2022, Jess was done with school and working full time herself. We both spent our nights and weekends at a shared kitchen facility making, bagging, packaging, and transporting our popcorn to 6 local stores that agreed to give Pop’s a chance on their store shelves.

It was a dream come true! I had grown my ‘side hustle’ into a full-time manufacturing operation.

I left my job as a corporate accountant and transitioned to a CEO in the CPG industry, opening my own small manufacturing facility in Sterling, VA in July of 2023.

Our focus shifted to shoring up our operations, lowering our costs, and getting us ready to expand regionally here in the area.

I’m excited to report that we’ve seen a lot of growth since then, including providing popcorn to every world leader and attendee of the 75th NATO Summit in 2024.

More than just making popcorn, I love to engage the community with a smile and an encouraging attitude. Besides manufacturing, I still go to street festivals and outdoor markets, with my 200 lb kettle in tow, where I pop our signature ‘Heavenly Kettle’ popcorn, live.

When people think about starting a business, a lot of people think about the Tech industry, or about doing something really big and important. But, I happen to think it’s important to be able to stop and enjoy the moment. Enjoy where you are, what you’re doing, and what you are eating. My hope is that our popcorn allows you that opportunity.

Pop’s exists to help people feel the goodness in life, through the joy of popcorn. Our commitment is to offer handcrafted, small batch created and filled to the brim bags of flavorful popcorn to snack lovers everywhere!

I hope you’ll enjoy following me along this crazy journey… at least I know you’ll enjoy the popcorn!