Our Story

Dream Big "When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us." (Alexander Graham Bell). Growing up with a single mom and living off of one income; I grew up with different experiences than most. My situation helped me learn to use the available resources to my advantage. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial soul; with a knack for selling. You should have seen me selling bubble gum for a quarter in 4th grade. Growing up, I was always asked to share my mom’s homemade beef jerky by my friends. Eventually I began trading her product for other snacks that my friends would bring to lunch during school; never knowing that one day selling my family’s homemade jerky would the first step in my career path. Throughout high school I knew I wanted to attend college, but more often than thinking about what my studies would be, I was dreaming about playing football at the university level. Even though I managed to play varsity football every year in high school I did not receive a scholarship. The only thought that kept running through my head was that I didn’t try hard enough. My dreams were crushed. Fueled by my anger and disappointment over a bad football season, I decided to not join the wrestling team, and to try to find a job. After applying for a few typical teenager jobs with less than encouraging results; I sat down and began to brainstorm how can I make serious money? I’ll start my own business selling beef jerky using my mom’s recipe! I can’t believe it took me so long to realize that my family had a great product that was not being taken advantage of! I decided I had to give it a try. One week later the twitter account “@717MosesJerky” was created. Weeks went by and my “senior project” of selling the instantly addictive and spicy jerky was beginning to get more and more hype around my school. My company needed a new push to take it to the next level before the semester ended; I didn’t want the fire to go out! One day while sitting with my girlfriend Ashley watching television, a commercial gave me a new idea. If I could get someone famous to notice Moses Family Jerky on a social media website my company would get noticed by a whole new group of people. A few moments later I was already tweeting, and I knew exactly who to try to contact. I reached out to Scott Mescudi, my high school music idol. There wasn’t a day that went by that his music didn’t engulf my thoughts with happiness no matter the situation. I tweeted “@ducidni dude I’m 18 and trying to start my own company. I make the best jerky you will ever try and I want to hook you up for free.” Ashley who had been by my side throughout the entire process even began to have her doubts about this telling me “There is no way he responds to you, he’s famous.” After laughing her comments off I completely forgot about sending the tweet until I picked up my phone again. My notification bar was full of little birds! I was caught off guard by this, and decided to check twitter. Once I had logged on I knew exactly what had happened. Chills ran down my back! I had done it! Kid Cudi had taken his time to not only respond to my tweet, but to retweet me in general! I was shaking; my followers had already more than doubled! I was running around my house like a little boy. Tweets were coming in faster than I could respond! I had a hard time believing that strangers were telling me I was motivational and just sending money to my PayPal account asking for my product. It had spread faster than I could imagine. I was sold out within the day and my mind was blown! I had a new dream; I noticed the open door.