Burn Pit BBQ: Veteran-Owned. U.S.A. Made. Crafting Premium BBQ Rubs & Seasonings.
For the 270th feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with Burn Pit BBQ and Co-Founder, Greg Fischer. Burn Pit BBQ is a Wisconsin-based, veteran-owned seasoning company dedicated to helping people grill with confidence and elevate every meal. We craft clean, high-quality BBQ rubs and seasonings with real ingredients, consistent flavor, and no gimmicks—just products that deliver results.
Founded by two veterans who turned their passion for backyard cooking into a mission-driven brand, Burn Pit BBQ gives customers the tools, knowledge, and inspiration to cook better at home. From all-purpose blends to specialty rubs, we focus on bold flavor, everyday usability, and honest craftsmanship.
Beyond great food, we’re committed to supporting the veteran community and empowering home cooks to grow their skills. Through content, recipes, education, and partnerships, we’re building a loyal grilling community that values authenticity, hard work, and good food.
We help people grill better—and give back while doing it.
"Together Talks" feature 270: Burn Pit BBQ presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
What separates you from your competition? What have been the biggest challenges? What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business?
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur? What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most? Share a decision that you made that was detrimental? What is your why?
Story of how it was created?
My buddy Ben and I started Burn Pit BBQ back in 2020, in the midst of COVID. People couldn't go out to their favorite restaurants to eat, so we saw a lot of people buying barbecue equipment, like smokers and grills, and learning how to use them for the first time. Ben and I had been barbecuing and grilling in our backyards for the better part of a decade, so we decided to start a blog to share what we had learned and provide tips for people who were just starting out.
That's essentially how Burn Pit BBQ began. We started by sharing recipes, tips, and advice on how to use smokers and grills. Eventually, that grew into developing our own lineup of products, including rubs, sauces, and seasonings, which we offer today. We continue to do both, creating recipes, blog posts, and tips and tricks for using grills and other equipment while also offering products for people who want to try them for themselves.
What separates you from your competition?
One of our main differentiators is that we're the backyard guys. We're not competition teams, and we don't go out there and compete. Everything we do is designed to relate to the person who's just starting out or someone who's grilling in their backyard and cooking for their friends, family, and loved ones.
When it comes to our products, we wanted to develop something a little cleaner than some of the products we saw on store shelves. It's important to us to have clean labels, so our products are gluten-free and contain no preservatives or additives like MSG. We focus on all-natural products, and we're also veteran-owned. I served in the Marine Corps, and my business partner, Ben, is currently serving in the Navy. That's an important part of our overall business and how we differentiate ourselves from some of the competition.
As we got deeper into the business, we started paying more attention to product labels. When we first started, we weren't necessarily looking at those details, but eventually, we began turning bottles around and reading the ingredient lists. We noticed that some of the legacy barbecue brands had products that almost looked like science experiments. There were so many ingredients that you couldn't pronounce or didn't know what they were. We wanted to do something a little different, so we decided to focus on cleaner, all-natural products that people could feel good about using.
What have been the biggest challenges?
One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to develop a product and get it into the marketplace. It's easy and difficult at the same time. It's relatively easy to find partners who can help you manufacture a product, but ultimately, it takes a lot of work to get that product in front of consumers. You have to convince people to try it, take a chance on a new brand, and then come back and buy it again when they run out.
Initially, our biggest challenge was getting our name out there and encouraging people to try our products. As we began scaling and expanding into more retail sales, we encountered a different set of challenges. You have to make sure your product is ready for the shelf and figure out how to make it stand out. When someone doesn't know who you are, you want them to be interested enough to pick up the bottle and at least turn it around to look at the label.
There's also a lot involved in refining our product sizes and ingredient lists and finding the right partners to help us grow. We've worked on expanding regionally and then nationally, and now that we're in some major retailers, we're focused on growing within those accounts. For example, we're currently testing with Walmart in Wisconsin, and our goal is to expand beyond the state. We're working with Walmart on that process, which involves a lot of planning and coordination. Expanding our presence with them and continuing to grow our retail business are major priorities for us in 2026 and beyond.
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business?
To understand how Ben and I got into this, it helps to go back to why we started grilling and barbecuing together in the first place. We met in college after I returned from serving in the Marine Corps. We ended up playing on the same soccer team, which is how we first got to know each other.
After graduating, we bought homes near each other, and we spent a lot of our weekends in each other's backyards, barbecuing and grilling. It gave us an opportunity to step away from our corporate lives and the stress that comes with everyday responsibilities. Grilling became a way for us to unwind, and over time, we developed a real passion for it and wanted to share that passion with other people.
Deciding to pursue the business full-time was ultimately a personal decision for me. I'd spent the better part of a decade working my way up the corporate ladder, but I eventually reached a point where I no longer felt that was the path I wanted to follow. I wanted to explore the barbecue business and see where that passion could take me.
In July 2020, I made the decision to leave my job. I called Ben and said, "Hey, man, this is what I think I'm going to be doing. Do you want to go in with me?" He said, "Yeah, let's do it." That was our first big step. I chose to leave my career behind to pursue this opportunity, and Ben was willing to join me. About a year later, he left his job as well, and we've been pursuing this business ever since.
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur?
I'd say one of the biggest lessons we've learned is that you're never going to have all the information you need to make every decision. You have to make decisions quickly with the information you have available. If you wait too long for the perfect situation, you're never going to get started or keep moving forward.
That's essentially the motto we've lived by: keep moving forward, make a decision, and then adjust quickly as needed.
Another major lesson has been learning when to say no to opportunities. When you're first starting out, you want to say yes to everything because you're trying to grow the business and get your name out there. However, some opportunities can become distractions and pull you away from your core vision.
Over the past few years, we've really had to develop the ability to turn down opportunities that don't align with our goals or the direction we want to take the business. Not every opportunity is the right one, even when it looks promising on the surface. Staying focused on what we're trying to accomplish has been an important part of our growth.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
I think what I appreciate most about entrepreneurship is the creativity involved in being a founder and building a business. There are a lot of day-to-day responsibilities that you have to manage, but there's also plenty of room to be creative.
That's something I may not have fully anticipated when I first started. I enjoy being able to think through new ideas, find different ways to approach challenges, and come up with solutions as the business grows. It continually challenges you to think outside the box. Overall, I really appreciate the creativity that goes into building and growing a brand.
Share a decision that you made that was detrimental?
There are a few decisions that come to mind, but one that really stands out is a rebranding project we went through about a year ago. We hired a company and spent a significant amount of money to help us refresh our brand.
When we first started, our logo and branding were pretty basic. Ben and I essentially looked at things and said, "Hey, this looks good." We asked someone with some creative design experience to help us with the logo, and then we let our bottler help select the labels. That's how we got started, and it worked for us in the early stages.
After being in business for about five years, we decided it was time to invest in a more professional rebrand. We wanted a new logo and a new look, partly because we had started seeing our bottles on retail shelves and realized we needed to stand out more. We wanted to hire someone who could help us accomplish that.
Ultimately, we gained some really good assets from the project, but I think we spent far too much money on it. We probably could have achieved what we needed without investing so much in the process. One of the biggest lessons I took away was that you don't necessarily need to hire a large firm to help with branding when you're still in the early stages of building a business. Sometimes, it's better to make small adjustments as you go rather than committing to a major overhaul.
The expense set us back financially, and we're still working to recover from it, although I know we ultimately will. Looking back, was it a mistake? Probably. We likely didn't need to spend that much money to make the changes we made.
That said, you learn from these experiences and use them to make better decisions going forward. The firm we worked with was great, and we had a positive experience with them. We were probably just a little too early in our journey to justify that level of investment. It's one of those decisions where, if we could go back, we'd probably approach things differently.
What is your why?
What continues to motivate us to grow and build the business is, first, that we genuinely believe in our brand and what we're trying to accomplish. Our goal is to help people who are new to barbecuing and grilling cook with confidence in their own backyards.
Another important part of our mission is giving back to the veteran community. Every year, we organize a fundraiser and donate a portion of our sales to local veteran nonprofits. We want to show that we're about more than just seasoning rubs and sauces. We're also about supporting our community and helping build others up.
That's a big part of what keeps us going. At the same time, anyone who starts a business wants to be successful and see it grow. We share that ambition, and one of our ongoing goals is to expand beyond our home state of Wisconsin, building a regional brand and ultimately growing into a national one.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
One moment that really stands out was when we pitched Burn Pit BBQ to Walmart through its Open Call process about a year ago. You go into a meeting like that prepared to lay everything on the table. You explain what you've been building for the past five years, why you believe your products would be a good fit for Walmart's shelves, and what you can bring to the retailer and its customers.
When the buyer on the other side of the table understands your vision, agrees with what you're trying to accomplish, and gives you an opportunity to move forward, it's an incredible feeling.
I think I can speak for both Ben and myself when I say that coming out of that meeting felt like someone else could finally see the vision we'd been working toward for so long. We'd spent years building something we believed in, and it was rewarding to know that someone else recognized its potential, too.
That was one of the biggest moments for us as a business. It showed us that we were creating something other people could see value in, and we take a lot of pride in that.
Charitable Contributions
As I mentioned, giving back to veteran organizations is an important part of what we do. Every year, we organize an annual barbecue fundraiser and choose one local veteran organization to support.
We invite backyard cooks to come out and prepare ribs, sausage, and other barbecue favorites. People can stop by to sample the food, participate in raffles, and enjoy the event while supporting a good cause.
Over the past six years, we've raised more than $35,000 through this small backyard barbecue bash. We're very proud of what we've been able to accomplish, and it's rewarding to see our passion for barbecue bring people together to support the veteran community.
Piece of Advice
I think the biggest piece of advice I'd give someone is to commit to the process, not necessarily the outcome. When you're first starting a business, it's easy to focus on sales and money because you have to make a living and keep the business going. That's understandable, but you also need to establish processes that will help you reach your goals more efficiently.
I know it can sound like a cliché, but focus on the process rather than just the outcome, and I believe you'll get much further, much faster.
My experience as an athlete, including competing at a high level, and my time in the Marine Corps have both influenced how I approach business. In those environments, there's a strong emphasis on training and repetition. You practice over and over because, when it matters most, whether in competition or in combat, you don't want to have to stop and think about every move. You want to be able to react based on the preparation you've done.
Some aspects of running a business work the same way, especially behind the scenes. You want to establish processes and systems that you can rely on, even when things change and you need to adjust on the fly. Having those systems in place makes it easier to respond to challenges and keep moving forward.
My time in the Marines and my experience as an athlete have both helped me along the way because they taught me to prepare for what's coming down the road, rather than focusing only on what's happening that day.
Promo Code
Purchase from their site, Burn Pit BBQ, and use promo code below: Together -> 10% off!
Community Callout
First and foremost, our families and spouses have been incredibly important to us. They've been with us since the beginning and have believed in our vision throughout this journey. My wife, Becky, Ben's wife, Megan, and our kids are probably the biggest sources of support in our lives. Our friends and extended families have also supported us from the start, and we're incredibly grateful for that.
From a professional standpoint, we're thankful for the people who continue to invest their time and energy in helping us grow. Mike and Joan Doble from Exploring and BrewPub have been instrumental in helping us put on our annual Backyard Bash, and we appreciate everything they've done to support that event.
We're also grateful to all the retail partners who have taken a chance on us, both here in Wisconsin and beyond, including Walmart. Having retailers believe in our products and give us the opportunity to reach more customers has been a huge part of our journey.
Another person who deserves a mention is Ben Moore from The Ugly Company. He's been a tremendous resource for us as we've navigated the process of launching into Walmart. Having people in the industry who are willing to share their experiences and help you along the way makes a real difference, and we're thankful for everyone who has supported us as we've continued to build Burn Pit BBQ.
In Closing
KLS wants to thank Burn Pit BBQ and Co-Founder, Greg Fischer, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
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