Scott Norton and Mark Ramadan were only college students when they created Sir Kensington’s, a $140-million-dollar condiment brand – with a backstory that’s completely made up.

These days, it seems like every brand – every start-up – is trying to tell a story about its authentic and humble beginnings. Scott and Mark went in the opposite direction when they had the idea to create a gourmet ketchup in 2008. They wanted to take on a juggernaut: Heinz. So, to stand out, they told a story about their ketchup that differentiated it from Heinz in every way. Sir Kensington was a fictional luminary of imperial Britain who invented his eponymous ketchup one night while dining with Catherine the Great. And the true story of how Scott and Mark grew and then sold the company to Unilever – it’s a real yarn in its own right.

This episode was produced by Alex Cheng, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Andrea Bruce.

Our engineers were Gilly Moon and Maggie Luthar.

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