Rynn Caputo, co-founder of mission-driven cheese business, on what makes a good entrepreneur
- Rynn Caputo, the co-founder of Caputo Brothers Creamery, has cried in her spilled milk. The pandemic has pushed the entrepreneur into more challenges than she could have anticipated, but her determination carries her forward.
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Rynn Caputo remembers one of her college business mentors saying that the best companies come out of the worst of times.
For the co-founder of Caputo Brothers Creamery, running her business has felt like living a survival guide.
Just a month after celebrating 10 years in business, Caputo has questioned more than ever why she and her husband, David, started their mission-driven cheese business.
“I look at people who work 40 hours a week with the assurance they they’re going to get a paycheck, and I envy them,” she says. “There are no mentors to call when you’re operating a business in the current climate because no one has ever lived through this before.”
Caputo Brothers Creamery has faced just about every struggle one could image in the past year. The pandemic drastically impacted their revenue, especially because many of their clients are restaurants. Straddling the uncertainty of COVID-19 and keeping her staff healthy and working, along with trying to find enough people to keep her business operating, is weighing on her.
But, Caputo says, she keeps going. She wakes up each day without anyone to answer to but herself. She doesn’t have someone dictating her schedule when she wants to pick her kids up from school or take her dad to a doctor’s appointment.
She can visit the five baby water buffalo calves that were born here, their mother’s providing milk for a cheese that’s unlike anything else found in the country.
She can load 9,000 pounds of beer cheese, her fourth in a partnership with Troegs Independent Brewing, on a truck that will ship her product to every Giant Food Store and enjoy the bliss of that moment.
And then she turns around, ready to put out the next fire.
“If people want to know what makes a good entrepreneur, it’s grit,” she says. “There are wonderful moments that make you look at it, and say, ‘This is why I’m doing this. This is why I’m working so hard.’ The other moments are just made of determination.”
About Caputo Brothers Creamery
Caputo Brothers Creamery, based in Spring Grove, is revolutionizing mozzarella. The company’s artisan cheeses are made in a traditional Italian style. Their milk is sourced from local, family dairy farms, where the milk is paid for at a premium to help sustain those families.
The business is named after Rynn and David Caputo’s sons, Giovanni and Matteo.