The new position is giving him the opportunity to expand his entrepreneurial drive into pecans and find more time to chase northern pike through the ice on Lake Mendota.

Started as Christmas gifts

At first, he just gave the newfound concoction out as gifts at Christmas. But an annual family trip to Washington Island, about five years ago, convinced Rupert to turn the mistake into a business. He and three others were relaxing in a yard and, before they knew it, had devoured a 3-pound bag of the caramelized pecans. After some nudging by his family, Rupert created a simple website so customers could find him. But last year, he made the decision to expand into a retail space with a commercial kitchen, a move financed with $50,000 of his own and a $50,000 loan from the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative.

“It just kind of grew,” Rupert said. “I loved my job at Epic. It was super fun and super challenging, and we were growing at this super-fast speed, so there was no motivation to leave. But this idea kept growing and growing and growing.”

Rupert is being assisted on the project by his sons, Kellen, 23, and Colson, 14, and Jessica Benish, who left Epic to spend more time with family but is now the Nutkrack operations guru.