The Story

Everyday someone approaches me and asks, "how did you come up with this?"

Well, here’s the story.

Not too many years ago I found myself standing next to my grill in Austin, TX getting ready for a house party. As I began preparing for the festivities I was enjoying every part of it except the part that had to do with lighting the charcoal. I hated it! It was messy, difficult and it smelled like fuel and was the most unpleasant part of the evening. At that time I used both the metal chimney or lighter fluid to get my coals going and neither were a good experience.

Since I grilled a lot I was somewhat familiar and later inspired by all types of charcoal products both here in the U.S. and in Chile where I was born. But I never thought that one day sitting next to a grill the light bulb would come on. So after getting my coals going, and dishing out some good eats for my friends I began to ask myself, there has to be an easier way to do this! There has to be a more eco-friendly way to do this!

So, as I sat staring at my grill, literally, in my head I began to work on a concept inspired by some party libations (very vague concept at this point) with the premise being how the heck can I get air into a charcoal bag, maybe with a built-in chimney, maybe not, but they’re had to be a way. This is the point where people truly thought I had a screw loose and strongly recommended that I should focus on a different line of work. In any case, I pushed forward and developed a prototype that would be the first version of the product, One Light™ Charcoal now found on store shelves.

In order to spare my friends and family and keep them from worrying about the direction I had chosen for my life, the "idea" was rarely if ever mentioned in public. Everyone knew I was working on something, they just never really heard about it. It became an urban legend of sorts. FOUR years later and after many revisions!!!, and thanks to the help from a great team especially our wise leader and now co-inventor, Dave Wares, One Light™ Charcoal with the AirDraft™ System was perfected and ready to hit the market. The result was the first charcoal bag that lights itself by using air and paper through a built-in chimney, making lighting the grill easy and safe and without ever having to use harmful accelerants such as lighter fluid known to be a significant contributor to global warming. Hence our slogan The Green Way to Grill™.

During these four years of research and development we all learned many things about the BBQ industry, some good, some bad. Due to this new found knowledge we decided to build a company (Innovative Barbecue Solutions LLC) around this idea, One Light™ Charcoal, and other products that are in the pipeline waiting to see their day.

Felipe Correa

Co-founder / VP Business Development