Daniel Mastin

I have a business idea I want to bring to life

In 2016 I started my first business, a catering company, "Papa Dan's Grill Catering Co." with intention to turn it into a full supper club. As many who started out in this space around the time I did, I had very limited resources and had to get creative with nearly every aspect of my business. After being laid off from my first full-time job. I started this business with my last pay check and the little bit of little money I got in unemployment. Shortly after I started Papa Dan's I found work at a brewery/restaurant and my business took a backseat until 2018. After a while of working in someone else's restaurant, I saw why I so deeply wanted my own, now with more context and color on the intricacies of the space. I decided to dive back in, it was a lofty goal as a full time supervisor and lead cook at the brewery, but I wanted the freedom and flexibility to cook what I wanted, how I wanted for who I wanted and who wanted me. I came into this space hungry, and I took the gigs I could get, on days off or after work. I catered some events, some bday parties, some holiday functions and a baby shower or two. I worked through car breakdowns, inclement weather situations and an eventual nearly life altering car-accident. I wanted to give up so many times, but I kept trying my best. In all honesty, Papa Dan's never took off the way I wanted it to, but it inspired me and drove me to continue on in other entrepreneurial endeavors and to work with others on how to build sustainable businesses. I learned so much about branding, marketing, product market fit, timing, time/bandwidth management and entrepreneurship as a whole. I am proud of my ability to create and strive for something in a very crowded and difficult space in a tumultuous time in my life. I am proud of my exploration into what food can be and do for people and how it links and binds people that may have never been in similar rooms. I am proud of the genuine connections I initiated and the memories made.