Good Stock founder wants you to love soup again
- Louisiana native Ben LeBlanc wanted soups he was used to at home but couldn't find quality versions of in New York City.
- He launched Good Stock Soups "in hopes of changing that."
- After going through learning pains, he now has two stores in New York and ships frozen soups to consumers almost anywhere.
Former finance pro Ben LeBlanc said an epiphany he had during his work day led to his food startup, Good Stock Soups. "I was going through a career change, and it was at that moment that I realized lunch was my favorite part of the day," he told CBS News.
The Louisiana native, who said he has always loved to cook and eat, wanted the soups he was used to at home but couldn't find quality versions of in New York City. "I started thinking about the broader space of soup," he said, "and realized nobody was making soup I thought was excellent. So we launched Good Stock in hopes of changing that."
He first put his recipes to the test in 2014 at Smorgasburg, the wildly popular outdoor food market featuring dozens of pop-up vendors in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His biggest challenge was figuring out how to go from making soup for 10 to 110.
"Our first day at Smorgasburg was a Saturday morning, and I was going to prepare all the food Friday. ... it turns out it doesn't take 10 times as long, it takes about 15 times as long," he said. "So that first night I got 45 minutes of sleep because I was cooking and cleaning and cooling and packing [everything]."
He now operates two stores in New York City -- one on Carmine Street in the West Village and another in Urban Space Vanderbilt, a food hall near Grand Central Terminal. His soups also ship frozen to almost anywhere so consumers "always have something delicious on hand."
He wants consumers to avoid having to turn to unhealthy or bad-tasting alternatives. "You don't need to make sacrifices late night when you get home from a long day of work," he said. "Let us help you and do that for you."
