Franchesca Gonzales left the banking industry four years ago to start Fuel To Fit, a health-driven meal prep company that is now one of the longest-standing and fastest-growing meal prep companies in the Valley. Each meal is prepared using high-quality ingredients with macros and nutritional content in mind, and guests can customize their orders to be dairy-free; beef-, fish- or shellfish-free; low carb; and more. And every Fuel to Fit order is delivered by team members, not third-party organizations.
About a year ago, Gonzales opened a comprehensive retail marketplace that offers healthy grocery staples and unique, hard-to-find artisan foods, which customers can add to their delivery order.
“The inspiration for Fuel To Fit came from the crossroads I came upon while my banking career was coming to an end,” explains Gonzales. “I wanted to start a company that encompassed my desire to live a life dedicated to health — not only my own but others as well. So, I started doing research and creating recipes. The rest is history.”
Starting as a one-woman show working out of a shared kitchen, Gonzales has since expanded to her own 4,000-square-foot facility. She financed the business initially with very little savings and used all profits to help it grow, marketing solely by word of mouth for the first two years. “I would make meals and flyers, then go to multi-story buildings around the Valley that I felt would be good clients. I would start at the bottom of the building and work my way up, handing out meals and flyers and telling my new business venture to anyone who would listen,” she relates. “I still have some of these initial clients ordering from us to this day.”
Finding the right team to support the business’s growth and goals was one of Gonzales’ biggest challenges. “I have learned to seek out the right people who also take pride in their work and want to be a major asset to a company. On top of offering competitive pay we also work closely with each team member to help them to continue to learn and grow.” The loyalty runs both ways, and one result is a fierce attention to quality “because our entire team loves what they do and truly care about their work.”
Fuel To Fit’s success spawned a newly launched endeavor: Tasty Pet. “I hated seeing hundreds of pounds of fresh meats and veggies being thrown in the trash every week. So again, I started doing my research and in just a couple months we were able to launch a human-grade, healthy pet food line.” Each Tasty Pet meal is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by AAFCO Dog Food nutrient profiles for all life stages. And Gonzales created a pet feeding calculator that customers can use to enter their pet’s weight and life stage to determine exactly how much they need to be purchasing and feeding.
Photo courtesy of Fuel To Fit
