A 38-year-old started his hummus business with a $450 blender. This year, it’s set to bring in $50 million

After years spent in kitchens across the country, Chris Kirby was burnt out. 

The restaurant lifestyle was demanding and all encompassing, and the 26-year-old found himself not doing much else besides working and going to the bars after a long shift. 

“I kept waking up in the morning like, ‘Man, life has to be about more than this,'” Kirby, now 38, tells CNBC Make It.

Kirby decided that his life was in need of reinvention. He left his job, packed his bags and flew to from Austin to Maryland to move back in with his parents. He enrolled in a local community college with a plan. 

“I was gonna humble myself, move back home, do what I needed to do to get into a school where I could finish my bachelor’s degree,” he said. “I went from the ‘Work hard, Play Harder’ lifestyle to waking up at 5 a.m. to study and build my vision.”

After a year, he was accepted to the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. As part of his application, Kirby had highlighted his status as a non-traditional student — he would be enrolling as a mid-twenties undergrad — and explained that he hoped to use the school and his professors to help him fulfill his ambition of starting a business. 

More than 10 years later, Kirby’s plan has paid off in spades. Ithaca Hummus is sold in more than 8,000 retailers in the US and has raked in more than $150 million in lifetime sales over the past decade.

Here’s how he turned Ithaca Hummus from a farmers market pitch to a household name.