His old roommates might be surprised to learn, then, that Shive is now the founder of a rapidly growing food company.
Shive started Best Boy & Co., a gourmet sauce company, in 2007. The brand’s dessert sauces, hot sauces, barbecue sauces and more are now sold in eight different states.
All of the profits are donated to nonprofits focused on helping families or children.
“We’re starting to get enough value that we’re starting to make money,” Shive said. “And as soon as we start to make money, we start giving it away.”
So far, Shive has been able to raise between $10,000-12,000 for charities like the American Red Cross, the Enough Project and Doctors Without Borders.
“We have no employees. Well I’m the only employee but I don’t get paid,” Shive said. “I’m trying to run the business as effectively and efficiently as possible so that there’s more to give.”
Shive creates his own sauce recipes in his home kitchen in Fort Wayne. He then works with a packaging company that makes the recipes and sends the jars out across the Midwest and beyond.
Shive said he tries to use local ingredients as often as possible. He gets tomatoes from Red Gold and uses Upland beer in his bourbon caramel sauce.
“There are young — well, in my case, not so young — creative minds out there who have really great ideas,” he said. “Those ideas tend to germinate where they live or socialize or whatever. So if you buy local foods, those should be in keeping with the tastes of the community because that’s where all the influences come from.”
Shive said he hopes that Best Boy, a company named in honor of his dog, continues to spread throughout the country so he can send more money to charities.
“I want to be the Hoosier Paul Newman,” he said. “I even have blue eyes.”
