BACKSTORY
Lawless Jerky was founded by attorney Matt Tolnick, who realized that he could bring more smiles to more faces through his jerky than through his lawyering. So Matt bravely left his practice to pursue his passion: creating artisanal, small-batch jerky with powerful and unique flavors…“A Braver Flavor™”!
Lawless Jerky offers seven, world-inspired flavors all carefully handmade with Harris-Robinette Beef’s 100% grass-fed, dry-aged beef. The only jerky that is dry-aged, our jerky is supremely tender — so good it should be illegal!!
MATT’S EXTENDED BACKSTORY
In 2002, I was a 20 year-old sophomore at Duke University. On top of my school work, I worked at Duke’s fitness center, where I worked out religiously. To complement my weightlifting, I guzzled protein shakes, which were economical. But after a while, and after destroying many blenders (which was not economical!), drinking shakes became a chore, and I turned to beef jerky as a protein-rich workout supplement.
Many of my college friends shared my love for beef jerky. Our dorm was decorated with dozens of different types of jerky bags that we’d collectively purchased and plowed through. Ready to take our jerky game to the next level, we all chipped in and bought a dehydrator.
From the start, I was the driver of the dorm’s cottage jerky industry. Despite my overloaded work and school schedule, I made time to experiment with the dehydrator. At first, I followed the directions that came with it, using ground meat to make jerky. It was AWFUL! Never a person wedded recipes or instructions, I broke free and started making jerky with lean steak. I created my own marinades and made jerky that was at least as good as store-bought jerky.
Fast forward to 2005: After Duke, I headed to law school in Los Angeles, where my Japanese roommates introduced me to Japanese food and culture. Still experimenting with jerky marinades and flavors, I achieved my first perfect beef jerky recipe: Japanese Curry. While I occasionally made jerky during law school, my focus was on becoming an attorney.
Fast forward this time to 2011. Working as a litigator, I found that law firm work wasn’t for me; it constrained my creativity, dampened my outlook on life, and negatively affected my personal relationships. When life takes a turn for the worst, we turn to the things that were always there for us. I turned to jerky with a passion unlike ever before, honing my recipes in the kitchen of a tiny Santa Monica apartment. Lawless Jerky was born!
Over the next year, my portfolio of perfected recipes grew. Friends, family, and friends of friends clamored to get their hands on Lawless Jerky™ bags. The premier jerky review website, BestBeefJerky.org, rated all flavors of Lawless Jerky with either four or five (out of five) stars, with Aloha Teriyaki and Sweet Sriracha both garnering the coveted “Best” distinction.
This feedback emboldened my resolve to focus on Lawless Jerky full-time, and I decided to mark my 30th birthday by putting Lawless Jerky on Kickstarter, where I sought to raise $12,000. After raising that amount in under 24 hours, and raising over $30,000 in total, I had the backing necessary to take Lawless Jerky to the next level. Now, in just over a year, we’ve expanded to six flavors and our jerky is for sale in over 200 stores nationwide!
Lawlessly yours,
Matt Tolnick