Perky Jerky: Beef Jerky and Caffeine in One Fix, or How To Launch a Business with Stuff You Spill on a Ski Trip

Perky Jerky

Spend any time in truck stops or bars or watching the commercials during football games, and you quickly realize that beef jerky is America's secret snack food of choice. Okay, maybe not so secret. And now, not only can you get Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger's line of beef jerky, you can magically combine your energy drink fix and your jerky fix in one bite. Perky Jerky, a new line of jerky with caffeine ("the first USDA approved all-natural caffeinated beef jerky") and guarana, is now on the market.

Who dreams up this stuff? Not the Steelers defensive line. Not their cheerleaders. Perky Jerky comes to us from Brian Levin and Matt Keiser, two entrepreneurs who, as the story goes, were on a ski trip when an energy drink spilled on an open bag of beef jerky. Instead of trashing the contents, they ate the stuff on the ski lift, got a serious buzz, and decided to market the idea. They are good at marketing: Levin was the co-founder and CEO of Mobliss, which built the SMS voting services for American Idol. Maybe, finally, an explanation for Paula Abdul's mood swings.