In Fall 2003, TurboChef was on the brink of extinction. The company was not making payroll. Debt was mounting. And existing management was struggling to keep the organization afloat. What TurboChef did have was a collection of nearly 300 patents centered around breakthrough speed cooking technologies. Building on that innovative foundation, Vista served as the internal brand and marketing team in concert with a team of talented professionals to turn the company around, unlock its potential, and create a brand and business from the ground up.

With speed, our TurboChef team gained velocity in the commercial food service industry by introducing a rebranded story, product line and differentiated platform.

The investments paid off quickly as well-known chains such as Subway, Starbucks, and Dunkin Brands adopted our platform across their entire enterprises. With a strong commercial footing, Vista turned its attention to the residential initiative evolving the back of house industrial oven into a coveted consumer kitchen appliance. Competing with well-known brands like Viking and Wolf, Vista guided TurboChef in the evolution of the products design, user experience, brand voice and multi-faceted brand and marketing investments that redefined the industry's status quo and generated significant enterprise value.

Undoubtedly, the speed cooking technology was highly-differentiated. And in a media world highlighting the power of appearances, it was difficult to illustrate the winning technology within. As the company's Chief Branding Officer who drove product design and development, Steve Beshara used design as a key differentiator. He hired the SF-based frog design team as well as Porsche Design from Austria to create a market defining design. The strategy was to create a beautiful, distinctive design that could be easily-recognized in the media, especially through live cooking demonstrations on broadcast television.

Starting with unorthodox market research, captured by 60 Minutes, the collective team created designs that showcased the exact demands and interests of the cooking consumer. The TurboChef oven became a media star by cooking live, real time, on leading networks including NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, and CBS's Martha Stewart Show.

People love real innovations they can use. And as a small company, we developed a powerful and influential recipe of market-leading individual personalities and organizations that saw the intrinsic power of the TurboChef oven. An oven that cooks at up to 80% faster than conventional methods with Chef-endorsed results proved fascinating to our partners. Together, we added interest and velocity to their brands and ours.