While living on one of Portland's floating homes on the Willamette River during Covid, David decided to try and avoid having meat in the house or eating meat since his girlfriend was a lifelong vegetarian. Over time he tried a number of plant based meats available at grocery stores and felt  they were simply not as tasty, satisfying or healthy as he wished for. So, as a lifelong cook he began to experiment with healthy whole plant foods to perfect the meatless meals that would satisfy his protein cravings.

Success came little by little. Everyone he cooked for liked his Texas Vegan Chili, and his early tofu-based meat substitutes, encouraging him always to make more. He found that if you want to make a better tofu-based meat substitute, you can't begin after the tofu is made.... you need to start before that. David began to learn the ancient art of tofu making, from bean to cake. After he mastered tofu making, he began to experiment by making changes and additions to the process to create new, never tasted before tofu products. Several innovative techniques  plus his knowledge of old world meat curing with salt rubs and hardwood smoke led to the delicious, crispy, mouth-watering taste of the Bakon™ people across the USA love today.

David began selling at the Beaverton Farmers Market outside Portland, Oregon on a cold and rainy day in January 2021, then was picked up by People's Food Coop of Portland and expanded into the New Seasons Market chain of regional grocery stores followed soon after by the Market of Choice chain across Oregon. Customer response was overwhelming, and a few months later he partnered with longtime entrepreneur Jared Hansen to help found the company, Thrilling Foods, and to help make it capable of  bringing Bakon™ and other plant-based meat products to a global market.