Red Clay Hot Sauce
Molly Fienning
Co-Founder + CEO
Meet Molly Fienning
Molly is Co-founder and CEO of Red Clay is the leading chef-driven Southern foods brand, thoughtfully crafting hot sauce, hot honeys and specialty salts using high-quality ingredients and elevated flavor profiles. With the mission of spicing up pantry staples using delicious Southern flavor and a kick of heat, Red Clay has a passionately engaged customer base across the country and has been named "Tabasco for the 21st century" by Food and Wine Magazine, a "hot honey to elevate your meal" by The New York Times and most recently, this year's "best hot sauce" by People Magazine.
Molly discovered Red Clay when she first enjoyed the Original Hot Sauce on oysters at her favorite Charleston oyster bar (where future-partner Geoff Rhyne served as Executive Chef and had been aging the hot sauce in small batch for his restaurant). She was an equity founding partner for 3 years before stepping into an active role as CEO in the summer of 2018. Since becoming CEO, Red Clay's sales have grown at a multiple of 2-4X for four years straight through partnerships with Publix, Whole Foods Market, The Fresh Market, Target, and more, and the brand has been featured on the Today Show (where Jenna Bush Hager called Red Clay her "favorite kind"), Vanity Fair, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Shape, Martha Stewart Living, Domino Magazine, T Magazine among other media.
Prior to Red Clay, Molly Fienning co-founded and served as Co-CEO of Babiators, one of Forbes' 100 Most Promising Companies and the leading sunglasses brand for babies & kids (with over 3 million pairs of shades sold). Babiators sunglasses retail in 3K+ doors and 45 countries, and have been featured in Vogue, the Ellen Degeneres Show, CNN Money, People Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and Inc Magazine.
Molly graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. She lives in Charleston and when she's not selling hot sauce, she's spending time with her two sweet boys, Sawyer and Fox.
What we do
Red Clay Hot Sauce was born when an acclaimed Southern chef met a passionate, adventurous diner.
While out for dinner a few years ago, Molly Fienning encountered one of Charleston’s culinary urban legends: a hot sauce that patrons were stealing right off the restaurant table. She was amused by the sauce’s lore and added a few dashes to her meal. The Fresno-based sauce was full of flavor, subtle heat and complemented every bite. Suddenly, Molly had become a hot sauce person.
The newly converted hot sauce fanatic begged the chef to visit her table and they traded stories about food, flavor and family. Having never been a big fan of hot sauce, she was enamored by the literally life-changing sauce Chef Geoff Rhyne had created. Within the year, they partnered to bring Geoff’s sauce to tables across the country – no subversive dinner thievery required.
Prior to Red Clay, Molly had launched a number of fast-growing brands including Babiators – one of Forbes 100 Most Promising Companies. What she saw in this next venture was Geoff’s authentic reverence for tradition, hard work and fresh foods – all things that define Red Clay to this day.
What people are saying
“Send sparks with Red Clay’s hot sauces.”
— Martha Stewart
“I've already done Hot Honey (as a favorite thing), but Red Clay is my favorite kind.”