Matthew Kuplack beefs up childhood jerky business

Matthew Kuplack was just 11 years old when he started making jerky in his parents’ kitchen.

He then began knocking on his neighbors’ doors, selling his homemade jerky in brown paper bags. 

What started as a passion project of just a kitchen, a cowboy hat and a bicycle for Matthew Kuplack has since turned into a fully functioning business. Today, the 18 year old owns his own jerky store — Matt-Hat Jerky, located on Jennings Street in Bethlehem.

Matthew Kuplack said the idea of the business started with his grandfather’s recipe. Although he never got to try his grandfather’s jerky, he said his family was always trying to replicate it. 

“My dad made really delicious jerky a couple of times a year, and whenever he did, it was always my favorite,” he said. “I started making recipes with him and experimenting when I was around 10 years old, and I came up with my own recipe, similar to his in a lot of ways but still unique to itself.”

The nature of Matthew Kuplack’s company hasn’t changed much since. He said he still handcrafts his jerky in small batches, and he now uses a factory in Bethlehem to ensure its authenticity. 

Since first starting out, though, he’s made about 16 flavors of jerky, and he said he enjoys getting input from the people who try it. 

Matthew Kuplack said he grew up in several places, as his family loved to move. Most of his siblings grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but when he was accepted to the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts 14, their family moved to Bethlehem. 

He’s now a college student studying classical guitar at the Schwob School of Music in Columbus, Georgia. Still, he said he’s able to manage Matt-Hat Jerky remotely while at school.

As one of 10 siblings, he said he gets a lot of business help from his family — especially from two of his sisters, Kayla and Katrina.

“I really could not have done it without them,” Matthew Kuplack said. “The reason they got involved is because I made my recipe, and they had to come walk around the neighborhood with me, because my dad wouldn’t let me go. So, they would be with me to watch me and then they started selling and helping me make it, and then they were partners. They were there from almost the very beginning, so they deserve so much credit.” 

He said the first big step in starting his business was getting his product into a store. For him, the first store he was able to sell his product in was Smokin Joe’s Meat and Deli, located a few miles from his house in Jefferson Township, Pennsylvania. 

“I got into this store, and I started selling in that store really well, and I had to make more jerky,” Matthew Kuplack said. “Eventually, I hired an employee when I was 12 years old.”

When the business started to take off, Matthew Kuplack got his first factory outside of his house at 13 years old. He said he shared his first factory with his dad, who used the front space as his office. 

He said he had to redo the floors to make the space safe, make a dehydrator and manage 10 employees, all while being a middle schooler. 

Matthew Kuplack said he was known as “Jerky” while growing up, because his factory was just 200 yards from his school, and all his peers could see it. 

“I remember one time in middle school I brought a gallon bag of Slap Yo’ Grandma Spicy to school with me, which is insanely hot,” Matthew Kuplack said. “I had the whole entire lunch room in middle school coughing up a lung. But everyone knew about (Matt-Hat Jerky) always.” 

Matthew Kuplack said his main marketing channel is social media. At school, he said many of his friends help him film videos and other content for his brand.

Alexandria Kuplack, his older sister, said she holds many memories from the beginning of the business.

“Watching how hard Matthew worked initially, it was kind of crazy,” Alexandria Kuplack said. “When he was 11, he was getting up at five o’clock in the morning before school every single day to lay out the meat so that when he would get out of school, it would be dry and get packaged.” 

She said she’s learned a lot about the business side of her Matt-Hat Jerky, even though she was never technically employed by her younger brother. She also said she was always willing to help out, whether that was with assisting the packaging of orders, hiring or marketing efforts. 

“I feel like, over the years, I just kind of jumped in and out, wherever they need help, because obviously I just want to see him do well,” Alexandria Kuplack said.

She said her brother is super goofy, she said, and even though he is a young business owner, he still knows how to make the family laugh. 

“Anytime all of our siblings are hanging out together, we’re rolling on the floor, crying our eyes out, laughing and just, like, singing,” Alexandria Kuplack said. “He doesn’t take himself very seriously at all for somebody that has so much going on.”

Javier Ortiz is an employee at Matt-Hat Jerky. He said he saw the job in an advertisement on Craigslist and was hired on the spot. 

He also said he works closely with Matthew Kuplack and has found he’s a great person to work with. 

“He’s a very caring person,” Ortiz said. “He has a lot of empathy for his employees and is very understanding. He has an outgoing personality and is always consistent on making the customer happy.” 

Ortiz also said customers who visit the store typically only have positive feedback — for both the product and the business. 

“They usually say they love the product and that it’s the best jerky around,” he said. “People always think it’s a wonderful story about Matt, how he started the business at 11 years old.”