We’re looking forward to introducing you to Kelly Schexnaildre. Check out our conversation below.
Hi Kelly, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What is a normal day like for you right now?
Since I’ve switched from manufacturing physical products to writing custom sauce recipes for restaurants, my days are often filled with lots of ease and flexibility. I wake up around 6:30, make a 32oz French press, and get back in bed to read spiritual literature for 20-30 minutes. I’m currently reading The Heart of Buddha’s Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh. After that, I get ready for the day, often saving my workouts until the afternoon because my brain is at it’s best in the morning. I’ll answer emails and take care of odds and ends while eating my favorite breakfast: protein yogurt with homemade jam, peanut butter, and chocolate chips. If there’s hot sauce to be made, I’ll grab the ingredients from the store and do some recipe testing, and then I’ll spend the afternoon researching new flavors and pitching new restaurant customers. I usually go to the gym around 3-3:30 to lift weights for an hour, and then I come home and make dinner for my partner and I. The evenings are spent giggling, reading, or watching TV, followed by an early bedtime of 10pm.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Kelly Schexnaildre, and I’m a serial entrepreneur and hot sauce sommelier, a condiment connoisseur and restaurant consultant. I’m the founder of Merfs Condiments—a company I started in Denver in 2014 because I was deeply unimpressed by the thin, vinegary hot sauces dominating grocery store shelves. I believed hot sauce could be something more—something vibrant, flavorful, and good enough to put on everything. So I began crafting bold, small-batch condiments with real ingredients like roasted chilis, ripe fruits, and fresh citrus, sourcing everything I could from Colorado family farms.
Merfs quickly became one of the early pioneers in the craft hot sauce movement, and we grew from farmers markets to hundreds of restaurants and retail shelves across the U.S. and Canada. When the pandemic hit, I pivoted the business—sold our facility, embraced co-packing, and moved operations online. Merfs no longer manufactures or sells physical products, but instead creates custom signature sauces for restaurants that drive customer loyalty and retention.
Today, I also teach individuals how to make their own hot sauces—from iconic Merfs flavors like Electric Lime and Peaches + Scream to new recipes like our Sweet Corn Roasted Jalapeño—giving people the tools, confidence, and inspiration to make unforgettable condiments in their own kitchens.
Merfs is more than just hot sauce. It’s a queer-owned, Colorado-rooted brand built on the belief that condiments can be powerful—flavorful, fun, and deeply personal. Our sauces were never about chasing trends; they were about crafting joy. As a nonbinary entrepreneur with two decades of culinary experience, I’ve built Merfs around radical transparency, creativity, and community. I care deeply about sourcing responsibly, supporting local farms, and creating products that are as healthy as they are delicious. Whether you’re a chef looking to develop your restaurant’s signature flavor, a home cook tired of boring condiments, or a flavor nerd like me who dreams in roasted chilis, Merfs has something unforgettable to offer your table—and I’d love to help you create it.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
Growing up female, I was socialized to be pretty and small, to shrink and pander to men, to deny the wild parts of myself; the parts that make me unforgettable. I have always been loud and brave, I have always been queer, and I have always been something other than a girl, though sometimes I’m a girl too.
I’m growing into my skin, as it is, one day a time. Leaning into my divine self, my highest expression, and embracing authenticity at every turn. Not the authenticity of my ego (my name being Kelly, nonbinary lesbian, hot sauce entrepreneur etc), but the reality that I’m a energy being, the light of love, and my only job is to ascend, to be enlightened through the reflection of this mirror world. There’s no joy in comparison, no joy in the illusion of separateness, no seeking because everything is already here. I think a lot about unity consciousness and what it means that we’re all one.
I’m letting go of separateness, competition, comparison, ego, and all the daily frustrations that come from arguing with reality. Everything is what it is!
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yes. I almost gave up when COVID hit and restaurants shut down on March 17, 2020. I had spent years building Merfs from scratch, and it was a raging success—until the world, the restaurant industry, and my entire business model collapsed overnight. I tried everything I could think of to pivot, to adapt, to keep Merfs alive. But ultimately, I couldn’t make it work the way I wanted. I made the painful decision to stop manufacturing physical products.
For years after, the story I told myself sounded like this: If only you were smarter, you could’ve saved it. You could’ve figured out a way forward. Other people did—so why couldn’t you? I replayed every decision I made in those early days of panic and grief, convinced I’d messed it all up. I wondered why I hadn’t asked for help. I carried so much despair. It felt like I had been the victim of a massive, unfair loss—and that my inability to bounce back from it proved I was a failure.
Slowly, but surely, I was able to come out of this story and into the light, embracing that every failure, every wrong turn is the path to a new freedom. I know now that everything that has happened in the last five years, was meant to teach me, so that I could have a life that is ultimately more aligned with the things that I want and need.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
Right now I’m reading The Heart of Buddha’s Teachings by Thich Naht Hanh, and the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path are blowing my mind. I’ve been adjacent to Buddhist teachings for many years, but this is my first foray into the details. There are many spiritual guides, practices, and traditions that emphasize the practice of the present moment, but I often need the reminder to be right here. There is no other reality than the one that is this moment, and this moment, and this one. And by practicing right mindfulness, there is so much beauty to be experienced. I want to swim in the ocean of presence, constantly relaxed into what is right in front of me.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I live by the idea that all of life is a mirror that’s meant to teach us about us. There is no separateness between people and things and Earth, only unity. It’s the illusion of separation, fostered by our perception / senses, that causes all our strife. If I knew that being mad at someone else actually meant that I was mad about something within me, would I continue to stoke resentment and hatred? If I knew that denial of someone else’s human rights was a denial of my own, would I continue to pursue injustice? If I knew that the energy in any room was a direct reflection of my own energy, would I still feel isolation and exile? If I knew that my attitude determined every experience I ever had, would I change my thinking? Every ‘bad’ thing that’s happened to me has been an opportunity to turn suffering into joy. It is through this turning that I am changed and healed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.merfscondiments.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/merfscondiments
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/merfscondiments
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/merfscondiments
Image Credits
Zoomz Downard
McLeod9Creative
