Beefy’s Own: Family-Run Business Creates New Market for Old-School Snacking
August 27, 2026
After he graduated from college in the spring of 2026, Ethan Bender wasn’t putting together his resume or starting his first job.
Just a week after graduation, Ethan was overseeing production at the business he started when he was 16 years old — Beefy’s Own. Inside the manufacturing facility in Derry, N.H., workers were busy frying potatoes in beef tallow, checking salt-and-pepper chips for quality, and sorting boxes for shipment as Ethan and his sister, Elise, checked on inventory.
With nearly a dozen employees, Beefy’s Own is currently producing about 2,000 bags of potato chips every day.
“Our dream is to become the tallow-based snack brand, and I know we can do that,” Ethan said.
It’s a big dream for a company that Ethan founded at the kitchen stove only four years ago.
With the support of “neighbors-investing-in-neighbors” through the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, the Bender family now has access to the funding they need to unlock a new phase of growth.
“Having the Community Loan Fund in our corner, we know that there's someone trusted we can go to that can help us out — help us get to that next level,” Ethan said.
With the support of “neighbors-investing-in-neighbors” through the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, the Bender family now has access to the funding they need to unlock a new phase of growth for their potato chip manufacturing business.
Synopsis:
Ethan was a teenager when he started a whole-food, animal-based diet for health reasons, avoiding overly processed foods and plant-based oils.
The only thing he missed was his favorite snack — potato chips, which have been fried in vegetable oil in recent decades. However, a few brands, like Sterzing Chips, founded in 1930 in Iowa, never stopped making chips with tallow.
While scrolling TikTok, Ethan discovered a video of someone frying potatoes in beef tallow. It was a lightbulb moment.
Beef tallow is rendered cow fat that can be used in cooking, with a savory flavor and a high amount of saturated fats.
Ethan couldn’t find similar chips for sale anywhere nearby, so he started cooking his own with 100% pure beef tallow, adding only herbs and spices. He quickly went from making chips at home to renting space in a shared kitchen and selling out small-batch drops online every week.
“We were the very first company to create this product,” Ethan said.
Still, the initial process was labor-intensive: Ethan made 100 bags in a 12-hour shift.
At this stage, most small food businesses find a professional manufacturing company to take their recipe and create, package, and distribute the product. However, the Benders couldn’t find anyone to help.
“No one would work with beef tallow — it was too complicated to fill up the fryers with a solid fat,” Elise said.
Ethan’s father, Andrew, helped them see the roadblock as an opportunity: it would be a barrier of entry for competitors. Together, they found a facility, purchased equipment, and spent more than a year learning how to make the chips at a larger scale.
Meanwhile, the siblings started posting on social media about the benefits of beef tallow, increasing Beefy’s Own direct-to-consumer sales. By the end of 2025, sales were up by a factor of 10.
Then, they hit another roadblock: the slow bagging process meant production couldn’t keep up with demand.
Last year, the process of bagging beef-tallow potato chips at Beefy’s Own looked like this: position stand-up pouches so an employee can press a pedal, releasing a set amount of chips into the pouches. Then, an employee manually puts the bag through a band sealer before it’s boxed and shipped.
The Benders knew what could make the process faster. But they didn’t have the funds for a new bagging machine.
Initially they filled out online forms for a business loan from large financial institutions, unleashing hundreds of calls and texts offering the Benders quick money with ridiculous interest rates and terms. Elise still gets spam calls every 10 minutes.
Even legitimate financial institutions didn’t lend to start-ups or understand their cash flow.
“A lot of bigger banks were just not even willing to take the risk,” Elise said. “We were profitable by the time [we were] asking for money... and we have a proven concept. To us, at least, it didn’t feel like there was a big risk.”
Finally, they connected with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s local lending team.
“It was clear that you were being very upfront with us — that was definitely a differentiator in comparison to everything else that we’ve come across,” Elise said.
The Benders got their loan, along with the “peace of mind” that comes with working with a local lender.
The new equipment, installed has allowed Beefy’s Own to switch to better packaging, saving money and ensuring the freshness of the product on route to customers.
“It really unlocks this next phase of growth that otherwise we just couldn't even possibly comprehend at this point,” Elise said.
Despite the challenges, Ethan and Elise say they’re proud to run a manufacturing company.
“The amount of time and energy that self-manufacturing has required from us just makes us want to make this company succeed and provide for all of our customers,” Elise said. “I think it's given us a level of resilience to just keep pushing on.”
We support local small businesses because of the impact they have on communities. They are the source of jobs and often are central gathering places that provide much more than goods and services.
Businesses like Beefy's Own are the heart of their communities. Investing in them brings returns that go far beyond their economic impact.
increase in daily output after loan
decrease in cost of supplies by moving to roll-stock bags, thanks to the new equipment
projected increase in jobs after loan
sales in 2025 vs. 2024
bags of chips produced per day
private (non-government) manufacturing employment in New Hampshire*
*Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau, New Hampshire Employment Security, 2024
Beefy's Own: At a Glance
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