This year marks the 15th anniversary of Choicelunch, the company that my husband, Justin, created with our dear friends, Keith Cosbey and Ryan Mariotti. I know this story has been told before, but after quitting the stable corporate jobs in technology that they held following graduation from the University of Notre Dame, these three took a huge leap of faith and ventured into a business they really knew nothing about.
In the early days it wasn’t easy, and the trio lived with my in-laws, Mary and Larry Gagnon, and set up their own version of “David Packard’s garage” in Keith’s bedroom to save money. They stayed up until the wee hours of the morning almost every night, coding and developing their ordering systems, and would wake up just a few hours later to get into the kitchen and manage the food preparation and delivery side of the business. It was a classic example of working in the business during the day, and on the business into the night. Justin, Keith, and Ryan have since worked every job in the company, learning the ins and outs of every facet of school lunch.
Over these past fifteen years, Justin, Keith, and Ryan have transformed what was Mary and Larry’s simple catering side hustle into “a healthy school lunch pioneer.” They started in a cramped corner of a catering kitchen with 8 schools and a handful of part-time employees, and today employ 200 people and deliver to 300 schools across California. If you ask the guys what gets them fired up every day, they’ll tell you it’s making life just a little bit less stressful for families just like our own. With our own four kids at a Choicelunch school, I’ve been able to experience in my own life what a gamechanger it is to not have to worry about lunch, and I love that the work that excites them also makes such a positive impact in our own lives and lives of our friends and family.
Having first embarked on the journey in their early twenties, there was no guarantee that their business would be sustainable. They had done their due diligence with market research and assessing the competitive landscape (as well as 20-something developers with no formal business experience could do). They’d spent months at a time together before traveling with their college a cappella group, but there’s really no preparation for weathering the storms of owning and working in a business together every day as friends and partners. As with any relationship, it started on a leap of faith and a commitment to each other.
Fifteen years later, Justin, Keith, and Ryan still work together every day, their desks just a few feet from each other. Really, it’s like a dream seeing my husband working hand in hand with his best friends each and every day. They’ve had their disagreements along the way, and their highly charged “productive conflict” debates are lore in their own company. They’ve become experts in being able to work through challenges and disagreements, and channel their ideas and passion in a productive way. They’re more brothers than friends at this point. These guys and their families are our family, a lovely extension of the lasting relationships that we are blessed to share our daily lives with. I couldn’t be prouder not only of what they’ve accomplished, but the way they’ve accomplished it.
Congrats on 15 years of awesomeness, guys! It’s been a joy to watch you grow.
