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Cool Companies You Should Know (by Career Club)
Cool Companies You Should Know (by Career Club)
Chomps Interview with co-Founders Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali
Join Bob Goodwin, Founder at Career Club for a fast-paced and informative discussion with Chomps co-Founders, Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali. Chomps has been offering delicious, better-for-you meat snacks for several years and recently secured an $80MM in investment. If you're looking for a brand that values the environment, animal welfare, and nutrition, then Chomps is for you. Plus you'll learn about their company culture (7 core values) and much more!
This is our very first "Cool Companies You Should Know" episode where we feature executives from rapidly growing, well-funded companies who share their brand's purpose, their leadership and culture style, and the kind of talent they are looking for to fuel future growth.
#chomps #expowest2022 #careerclub #environment #animalwelfare #meatsnacks #betterforyou #nutrition #ccysk
Bob Goodwin: (00:14)
Hey everybody welcome. This is Bob Goodwin, founder of career club, and really excited to welcome you guys to the first episode of cool companies. You should know. We decided to start launching a separate LinkedInLive here, as well as podcasts to help feature companies that we're trying to encourage people to actively consider at career club. We believe that there are so many great companies out there that are getting funding. They've got momentum, they're hiring but oftentimes they're companies that you just may not have ever heard of. So as a way of showcasing those kinds of companies and helping them rise above sort of the ocean of, you know, online job postings, we've decided to create this series to help highlight the companies in this series. We'll be you learning things like what makes their brand unique and what's their purpose. A little bit about the company's leadership style, as well as the culture that they're building at the company.
Bob Goodwin: (01:11)
And then lastly, learning more about the kind of talent that they're looking to hire that could be functionally like sales or marketing, but could also be things like we need people that are with ambiguity. We need people that are very agile learners, things like that. So we're really excited to begin the first episode with the co-founders of chomps, Pete Malden, Nado, and Rashid Ali. And this conversation was taped just last week and we really hope that you enjoy it and would love any comments that you've got. I'll be monitoring the comments here during the live, but realizing that this was a prerecorded conversation. So with that let's get started and I hope you guys enjoyed the conversation, buddy. My name's Bob Goodwin, and welcome to our first episode of cool companies you should know about here at career club. We are often in encouraging people to explore fast young, well funded companies and today's guest at Chomps no exception to that. So without further ado, I would love to welcome Rashid Ali and Pete Maldonado to the show. Welcome guys.
Pete Maldonado: (02:17)
Thanks for having us.
Bob Goodwin: (02:19)
Awesome.
Hey everybody welcome. This is Bob Goodwin, founder of career club, and really excited to welcome you guys to the first episode of cool companies. You should know. Uh, we decided to start launching a separate, uh, LinkedIn life here, as well as podcasts to help feature companies that, uh, we're trying to encourage people to actively consider at career club. We believe that there are so many great companies out there that are getting funding. They've got momentum, they're hiring, uh, but oftentimes they're companies that you just may not have ever heard of. So as a way of showcasing those kinds of companies and helping them rise above sort of the ocean of, you know, online job postings, we've decided to create this series to help highlight the companies in this series. We'll be you learning things like what makes their brand unique and what's their purpose. Uh, a little bit about the company's leadership style, as well as the culture that they're building at the company. And then lastly, learning more about the kind of talent that they're looking to hire that could be functionally like sales or marketing, but could also be things like, uh, we need people that are with ambiguity. We need people that, uh, are very agile learners, things like that. So we're really excited to, uh, begin the first episode with the co-founders of chomps, Pete Malden, Nado, and Rashid Ali. And, uh, this conversation was taped just last week and we really hope that you enjoy it and would love any comments that you've got. Uh, I'll be monitoring the comments here, uh, during the live, but realizing that this was a prerecorded conversation. So with that let's get started and I hope you guys enjoyed the conversation, buddy. My name's Bob Goodin, and welcome to our first episode of cool companies you should know about, uh, here at career club. We are often in encouraging people to explore fast young, well funded companies and today's guest at Cho no, uh, exception to that. So without further ado, I would love to welcome rash Ali and Pete Malden to the show. Welcome guys.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having it.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Cool. So maybe just real quick, uh, if you guys don't mind just, uh, maybe kind of 30 seconds quickly on where you are and a little bit about your background, and then we'll get into bit of the story about the brand Rashid. Do you wanna go first?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure. Uh, Rashid Ali I'm, uh, based outta Chicago, Illinois. Um, it's where Pete and I originally, um, founded the company and, uh, it's where kind of critical mass of the team is located.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. And Pete
Speaker 2:I'm Pete Maldonado. I'm down here in Naples, Florida. Um, moved here end of 2013 after starting the business with, uh, Rashid in 2012. Um, I am the CEO. I can't really handle anything sales and marketing related, so that's what I'm doing from down here.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Cool. Well, you, you certainly got to Florida in time before, uh, the gold, so to speaks a good one. You, um, so what I thought we could do today is kind of cover, uh, three things. One would be just a little bit about the story about the brand, you know, kinda what makes it unique a little bit about your purpose, things like that, because you know, so many people today are looking for a brand that matters and you know, something that they can kind of get aligned around. Uh, and then I thought for the second part, maybe what we could talk about is a little bit about your leadership style and the culture that you guys are building at chops, because again, chemistry's really, really important. And then lastly, um, because career club is all about helping people find a career that to them, uh, little bit about the culture or the culture, but also the talent that you guys are looking for, whether that's sort of functionally or it might be more characteristics of folks. So, uh, just to get started, would love to hear a little bit about the brand story, you know, how you guys got started. And as I said a little bit about the, the purpose and what makes chomps unique.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Should you wanna kick it off this time? I usually do these so it's
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean, The idea of chomps really started as something completely different. We, we originally were, were trying to create something that, um, would compete with Omaha takes, but focused on grass fed beef and, you know, with any successful startup and successful entrepreneur, I think it's really your ability to pivot when, when you need to. And that's, that's what we did is, you know, Pete, um, had a great idea and, um, you know, the way we met it was interesting. We were just mutual friends. We were out at somebody's, it was like a poker night or somebody's birthday. And he was chatting about starting this company that was like Omaha steaks. And I was like, you know, that's sounds interesting. I, I, uh, I don't have a, a, a background in food or retailer or CPG. Um, just a, I was a operational consultant and I kind of talked to, to Pete about the stuff that I was good at. And he talked the stuff that he was good at. We're like, oh, wow. That's like completely different where we can kind of, um, kind of round each other out. And, you know, the next day he, he, he pinged me and, and, and we put together a partnership agreement and we were off for the races for the races. But on the original, the premise, we realized very quickly that shipping frozen without scale was a nightmare. And it wasn't something that we wanted to do, cuz it was the path to profited ability would require us to take so much upfront and capital to get what we needed to be, to be, to, to, to be profitable. So we at the time were making a multi-pack of sticks, that required refrigeration. Um, and when Pete was, um, Pete's a former personal trainer and when he was younger, he ate a, he ate loads, slim gyms. And you know, the, the idea was like, why don't we, why don't we clean it up? And, and, and for me to say that now there's so many different snacks stick options on the market. So it wasn't really this great idea, but at the time there wasn't right, you know, slim gyms and Jacqueline are still the, the key vote, the majority of the category. But at that point it was, it was, it was a new, fresh idea. So what we did was we took a crash course on the U S C a. We realized that every meat product has an establishment number. We researched each number and we figured out who the, who the right Comans in the space were that we're making a product that, that we thought we could bring to market. So we partnered with our current, our current partner today is actually the one that we originally found, um, back in 2012. Um, and yeah, I mean, I'll let you talk a little bit more about how we kind of really grew the business and the, the influence. Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we started this business, we bootstrap from the beginning. And so what I, I mean by that is we both put in$3,250 a piece, our partnership. And we started, we started literally, um, and we, we went, you know, so, and we used a lot of free tools initially to kind of establish, you know, market size. Is there demand, what are the trends look like? And so we use like Google trends, it's a free tool you go in there and kind of see what the search volume is. And so we were focusing then if you wanted to start really, really niche. And so we were thinking about, um, we were thinking about, uh, you know, CrossFit. It was paleo dieters, very small niche, high growth communities. Uh, are we getting feedback on my, from me too right now?
Speaker 1:I'm not sure, but let's keep going. We're good.
Speaker 2:Right. Um, and so, uh, so we started very niche. That was really how we wanted to start. And that's, I think that's key for a lot of brands, especially if you wanna start and you wanna bootstrap a business, if you wanna start in a much bigger, you know, bigger community and you want to hit the ground running now, that's when you start needing a lot of additional funds for marketing and all that. But I think, you know, we did it in a, in a different way. We were willing to put in the time and effort and just grind it out. And that's what we did. And so we, you know, kind of taught myself how to build a website. Um, initially on WordPress realized that wasn't the best. And then Shopify kind of started getting really big. And so we switched over to Shopify and we're still on the platform. It's, it's great. And it's, uh, very user friendly. Um, and then I, you know, I learned, um, I got a$99 Photoshop, um, uh, subscription that I can use to make, make, uh, actual packaging. And it was terrible. Um, It had had like literally cow hide in the background and that's what we launched with. Um, I'll try to send you some pictures after this. So you can, you can
Speaker 1:O O OG
Speaker 2:Chomps. Oh man. It was, it was brutal. But the thing about it is it, despite the, the terrible branding, the terrible packaging, all the things that we had going against us, it was, it pre proved that very quickly that there was demand for this type of product. Um, and it, wasn't just gonna be our moms buying the product anymore, which it was in the, in the first, the first few weeks there. Um, you know, but we turned a profit very quickly within just about, you know, the first, you know, couple months and, um, we've continued investing those profits and we're here today and we've, you know, we're, we're still a profitable business and that hasn't changed. Um, so,
Speaker 3:You know, I
Speaker 2:Think, you know, what we've been doing it for a long time, you've been doing it for years.
Speaker 3:The one thing we learned early on was the product has to taste good, right. Has to be made with the right ingredients. And, um, that, that, and it has to be a high, high, consistent quality. So that's what we focused on before, like Pete said, the brand was crap. Like I think the name CHMS is a, is a winner. But when you think about like, was it jumping off the shelf, was it creating a memorable experience? Like it wasn't all, it was, was an awesome tasting product that had all the right attributes. And we were, we were focusing a lot on just driving consistent quality. And, and, and that's the reason I believe when you look at our success today and the velocities and the repeat customers it's because now we have a brand that's really resonating, but the products it's still fantastic.
Speaker 1:So, so, so I did little bit of homework before our call today. And, you know, uh, seems like there were sort of like three pillars that the brand was sort of established around, you know, with, with respect to like nutrition environment, animal welfare. Do you guys mind talking about that for a minute? I think for listeners, that's the kind of thing that's like really important to people and maybe, you know, I'll let Peter which everyone you'll want, but you know how that also kind of ties into like the vegan trend,
Speaker 2:For sure. For sure. Yeah. I could, uh, I could touch on that. So you, you mentioned the three pillars and that, and nice work by the way. Cause that's, that's what we're all about. You know, it's the nutrition, the environment and animal welfare. And that I feel like what's happening is that checks the boxes for most customers today. And so, so the most discerning buyer, you know, these people are, are very educated. They know where they care about where their product comes from and the, and the way that the, uh, protein, especially how that source that source. We start hearing about how bad red meat is for the environment and how bad these animals are being treated. Um, you know, we've been doing this from, from the very beginning. Admittedly, we did a very bad job of articulating that though to our customers. I feel like over the years, we've gotten really good about, you know, establishing those three pillars and like why we do what we do. And we always kind of like, we knew what we wanted to accomplish, but it was, it's easier to kind of distill it down and kinda say, this is what we're focused on. Um, and that's really resonated with the customers, um, now to your point about the whole vegan trend, right? And the plant based trend what's happening is a lot of, a lot of people are actually switching from eating meat to plant based because they're worried about those exact things. Um, but what happens is if you, you actually do the research and you realize, you know, the way that we are sourcing, we're checking the boxes, you know, we're, we're making sure we have certified hu humane beef. We have the, you know, all we're using all regenerative, uh, regenerative beef as well. So we're making sure that there's, uh, you know, rotational greatest grazing all those types of things that are gonna be really, really important. Um, when you're, when you're raising, especially beef, I mean, in particular, we stay away from all the feed lots, um, and the over industrialized beef industry that's which we have here in the us. Um, and we, we went clear across the world to find the best possible beef that we could. And so we source still from Tasi Tasmania and Southern Australia. Um, and it's where it all comes from. We established a wreck relationships with the actual farmers and, um, and you know, we, we, we talked to our supplier even just, just yesterday. And so we, we just constant contact all the time and making sure that we have a really great relationship, especially in times, like right now, with all these supply chain issues, you wanna make sure that you're being prioritized and that you have a supply that you need to continue building the business.
Speaker 1:So has, has COVID interrupted any of that, cuz I know like New Zealand and kind of that part of the world got pretty locked down on some stuff how'd you guys sort of navigate that?
Speaker 3:I, I think it really comes down to the relationships you build over time. I think there's some folks in the space that they're doing spot buys, they're going through distributors. They're, they're just trying to get the, the best price. I think while we're always gonna push our, our, our partners to make sure that we're, we're getting a competitive price. We also are making sure that our volumes are growing gradually over time that we're not nickel and di them that we're, we're investing in the relationship just as they are. And I think as we got through, you know, as we got into the thick of COVID, it was twofold at the beginning, you know, we saw a pullback on foot traffic, into stores. So our, our, our, um, sales dropped. And so that's when we had to go back to our suppliers being like, Hey, you have to understand the situation. It's not forever. We need a little of flexibility to get through it and they completely got it, but also we didn't want them to shift the volume away forever and not allow us to get back. So they, we also kind to work with them, a lot of communication on when we're gonna ramp back. And, and, and then when you think about what happened last year and into this year where volumes and demand is soaring, it's, it's, it's allowing to also understand that, um, it's important to continue to grow with them and, and, and invest. And, and if they need to take price a little bit being, being reasonable and work with them to make sure cuz at the end of the day, when you think about like the, the animals they're trying to invest in, they need to have, they need to be able to buy the animals at the right price. So if you're trying to like pull back and dig your heels in, in the ground, you're gonna impact their abil ability to actually get to, to, to get the resources, to, to be able to, to meet our demand. So again, I think it's all about forming real partnerships, communication and, and doing what's reasonable and fair, right? At the end of the day, if, if you are just kind of nickel and di them, you're not gonna create sustainable relationships. Well,
Speaker 1:Let's use that as a, as a way then to kind of pivot into sort of like the leadership and culture part of the conversation. Cause I think that actually says a lot. Right. You know, we're talking about, you know, how you deal with your vendors and that, you know, you're not nickel and dining then, and you guys been with your vendors for a number of years now, right? I mean, you guys are not a startup, you know, like, you know, making product ment, like trying to get it shipped out this afternoon. So you guys been doing this for a while. Um, speaking more broadly about kind of leadership and then maybe using that as a springboard into culture that, that you're building at chop. Yeah,
Speaker 3:I think so it, I think Pete and I both have unique backgrounds in the sense that we don't come from food, retail or CPG. So when, when we in, in January, 2018 is when I kind of came full time and we were ready to open an office and start hiring folks. So Pete and I sat down and we tried to think about like, what characteristics and qualities do we have that allowed us to get to where we are today? And so, um, we, we created what we call the traits of a champion and it's seven key traits that we believe who are critical, um, for, for someone to be successful in this environment. And it really, you know, we, we hire around those values. We, we, we assess performance on a regular basis around those values. We challenge the team to think about things. And so, um, some of the key ones are scrappy, meaning, you know, it doesn't matter how big we, we are, how profitable we are. Um, at what stage of maturity we are, we always are gonna make sure that we're thinking about things from a scrappy perspective. Like we, we, we want to get things done fast. We wanna get done the right way. We also want to get it done efficiently and cost effectively. The other is game changer where we didn't know the way traditional, CPG approached things. We did what we thought made sense. And a lot of times we find out now that we didn't do it the way that everybody else approached it. So that game changer mentality it's like doing what makes the most sense that that's most effective, even if it goes against the grain is the right approach. And, and just because we've done something as certain way, doesn't mean we need to continue doing it. So we always want be, be, be thinking about things differently, challenging status quo and trying to drive, um, for, for improvement.
Speaker 1:Peter there, couple other qualities that rash didn't touch on that kind of resonate with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Uh, learner is a big one. Um, and so that's one of the things that we're challenging the team to do. So we have a very small team. We've got just about 30 people right now and we're, it's out. And if you think about where we're at in terms of numbers, we're way understaffed. Right. We just do a lot with a little and we always have. Um, and so one of the things that we've always tried to, to teach our, our, our team to do is think about like, who, who is it? That's our mentor out there? Is there a, is there a course out there? And so we actually we're about it. We want invest in these people. We wanna create, we, we call it the unicorn project because it's like, we really want to create unicorns and you don't care if somebody is in the, whatever you on the operations side and they want to get, they want to learn more about marketing. That's great. I mean, like let's broaden horizons. Let's kind of like get them, give'em the exposure they really want. Um, and one of the things that we're talking about this year too, is even, um, from a career path, like, what are your goals? Like? I like if we have, we have people on a team that eventually want to be in our position, they wanna be an entrepreneur. They wanna own a business. That's great. I don't, I don't, we don't care if they look at chance as a stepping stone where they can learn every little thing they do because what's gonna happen is they're gonna get so good at whatever they do. The business is gonna reap the benefits. And, and I think there's, there's a saying that I can, I don't can't remember who it is, but it's like, you know, train your, your, your team as, you know, to be as good as you possibly can so they can leave, but treat them so well. So they never do. Um, and that's exactly the, the mentality and we're, we're serious about it. We want, we wanna set time, time and, and funds towards helping people further their, their own career paths. And again, if that means that they're gonna eventually leave chomps, that's okay. That's not ideal, but that's, that's okay because that's, we, we understand that's going to happen. Yeah. Um, and I think if we all look back on it and we see some of our team eventually in our position with successful businesses as well, how could you get upset about that? That's, that's amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna make a book recommendation for you guys. If you don't already know it called work quake. Uh, Steve Kagan is the author and he was the, uh, original, uh, C H R O for LinkedIn. And it's exactly what you're talking about, Pete. Um, and he even uses the analogy of like a NCAA basketball where before coach Shatsky would be recruiting somebody to be there for four years, be part of the whole duke family, whatever. And also that changed, right? Because you only had to be 19 to go into the MBA. And all of a sudden it became like, no, use this for that year. You will get an experience here. Who'll be preparing you to be the number one draft pick better than anybody else. That's. I mean, it's a really radical change. He also uses an example of, uh, in an interview. This is bizarre in an interview, you know, where do you want to be working in five years? Like kind of assuming it's not here after you leave chomps, what do you want to be doing? It's like, that's a weird question, but it's exactly to your point. Like we wanna groom all stars, right. You know, kind of, you know, increase, you know, the DNA that's getting out into the ecosystem of that kind of mindset. I would also have to, cause you guys said didn't have any money cuz you guys didn't like go to run to the DC, you know, uh, angle and go raise a bunch of money. You guys, admittedly didn't have a bunch of CPG food, retail experience. I gotta believe no whining or some version of that. One of your core values, you guys should have every excuse of why it can't be done and you did, and you are. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, that is, you know, again, I think that's the ability to take, to receive feedback and, and do something about it is, is key, you know, and you know, we've, we've had, we, we feel like we've pretty good at hiring. We've had some, some issues in the past where we've, we've learned like, you know, we have to start figuring out can people receive feedback and we need to be able to do that prior to hiring them because that we've, we've made some bad hires and it's just, it's what happens, I think, with any business. Um, and you need to be able to spot that because if you, if you have people on the team that are reluctant or, um, pushing back or just not able to, to receive feedback and, and take it constructively it's, um, you're not gonna get very far with them. And so we had it rash. She and I have to be very quick about spotting that and, and moving on. So, um, cause again, you have it's that bad apple, you know, situation, they can just spoil a whole bunch and that becomes a toxic situation. You need to be able to clean it up fast. And
Speaker 1:I think, you know, in any fast growing company, I'm sorry, Rashi part of the deal. Go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So one of the things we do during the hiring process for every candidate now, the final step is a case. And so while we do the case, it's actually really an opportunity for Pete and I to challenge folks a bit, to see how they receive the feedback, to see if they're, if, if they're kind of like are, are going to like, you know, try to challenge back or justify why they did it or, or cause they, or they accept it. And sometimes it's more, sometimes it isn't. But I think for us, we've realized that it's very, I there's folks that are really good at interviewing, but when you actually give them a real world situation, that they be phased being able to respond to it. And then you coming with, with, with maybe some more knowledge that they didn't have, Hey, well, what if it was like this? How would it look and being able to think about it? I think it's allowed us to make sure that can they really be successful in this, in this environment. So I just wanted to have a it's a key. No,
Speaker 1:That's awesome. And case studies are great because it really does allow you to kind of see them in a quasi real environment, particularly the feedback that you're given. And that is a real environment. Yeah. And, and how well can you process that? So just kind of, you know, bringing this home and I think we sort of touch on some of these things, but as you guys, I mean, we haven't even mentioned this yet, but you know, congratulations on the PE investment by stride, you know, that's huge and, and obviously not only are you guys feeling good about the future, but they're feeling really good about the future and, and that's gigantic. I'm gonna assume that, you know, uh, at some point kind of building out the staff will be part of that as you guys think about building out the team and at the doesn't have to be, you know, in the next month, but just since you kind of look out and you're, you're planning next couple years, what, what kind roles are you guys looking for? And like, who's gonna be a really good fit at Chos yeah.
Speaker 2:Kick that off. Um, there's obviously many areas that we're focused on right now. One of them actually the role we just filled was innovation. Uh, if we can think about, cause we're very focused and we've stayed, stayed laser focused on these meats sticks, that's all we're doing. Um, but eventually we realize that for us to continue building this brand above and beyond, uh, you know, the multiple hundred millions. And if we want to get to that billion dollar mark, eventually we're probably going to have to, to, um, innovate outside of meats, snacks. And, um, that's exactly what we plan to do. And so we brought in somebody who has meat snacks, innovation experience, but then he's also got experience outside. Um, his name is Matt king. He's a, he's great. He's been amazing to work with. Um, but I think in general, what we're trying to do, so that that's a new function that, that we're, we're now hiring for and establishing. We never really had before internally, but in general, what we're trying to do is, is hire for bandwidth. We have a very small team and so what's happening is the people that we hire. They're great. And so they, they are continuously elevating, they're being promoted and they're growing, but now what happens is you never really have the junior folks and the team and the support, the support for everyone as they continue scaling. So we're realizing that we need to continue bringing in really good, younger talent that's, you know, early on in their career and we can kind of groom them to, to continue growing. So we're getting better about that. Um, but yeah, and I think one of the things that Rashid and I have always done has historically was we always operate very reactively versus thinking, you know, more strategically. And so that's one of the things that we need to be, be able to do better job of, cause we're just in the weeds all the time, even today, we're still in the weeds all the time. Um, so we need to be able to groom our team to be able to handle all the things, those things we can kind of work on the business and not in the us and all those, uh, all those good things. But that's, that's kind of what we've been, we've been thinking about right now, how the, how the team, uh, gets built out around that.
Speaker 1:And, and I guess it probably kind of falls into your domain piece, but like, are you guys looking to hire sales, people, marketing people? I, I know you said Matt with innovation, but you kind of building out some of those functional areas a bit more.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's, it's all of the above. So we have, um, we'll have people on the e-com side. So we're actually hiring for a, uh, a product, uh, product manager. So more like a developer, um, it person where bringing in someone on a e-com, um, uh, media buying side, um, receive, what other roles do we have open right now? I know we just talked, uh,
Speaker 3:Customer customer experience experience. I think later in the year, we'll start providing, um, needing some more regional sales manager, like support level individuals on the sales team operations. We have a current supply chain manager role open, we're launching a production manager, food, food, and quality safety manager. Uh, we have a director of people that we just launched actually yesterday. So if you think about it, Pete's exactly right in the sense that we need to create kind of that next level of support below all of our associates, because as people get promoted, you know, it's kind of that never ending. So we're like, do we create a leadership program or a rotational thing? Like, what does it look like? We're still trying figure out what what's the best avenue in. Cause we just know we need that support. Um, the other thing is, you know, for us to operate in this secure environment, we lean on a lot of third parties. So that's the other point is like at what point do we convert those to full-time employees and bring in, and that's where really like the, the director of people and culture, the, that HR resource, we let we leaned heavily on a, on an amazing third party. But now at our scale, we need someone that's really full time and, and developing. So it's as an example where like, there's a number of third parties that we're using that are phenomenal partners and we probably will still use them in some capacity. But if there's something to be said about having someone that's fully dedicated and focused on the business is really necessary as you start reaching certain milestones of growth. And that's where we're we're at right now.
Speaker 1:Got it. And then, uh, last question, are you guys cool with hybrid or do you need people to be like in Chicago or Naples?
Speaker 3:So at last year we did make the call. We're a hundred percent remote. There's certain positions like from an operational perspective, most of our infrastructure is in the Midwest. So right. It, it makes sense. Like having someone in the west coast is tough because, you know, if you're doing physical counts or certain things, you need them there. And then from a sales perspective, right. When you're gonna have that regional coverage, we're trying to make sure that we have the in the right area. But at the end of the day, it's more about the candidate, right? We, we hire from two perspectives. One is, can they do the job, right. That's kind of like table stakes. It has to be, then two is, can they meet, meet the culture? So if you find kind of that, that rockstar that does both, you know, it doesn't matter where they're at. It's, it's more about them getting the job done. Cause if you find the right individual can be anywhere and they'll still add significant value to Cho's. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well guys, thank you so much. This has been great. I I'm so glad we took the opportunity to do this. I learned obviously a ton about your company, your culture purpose behind the brand. I think so many things that you guys are sent to. So on point, not just from a consumer perspective, but also from a talent perspective, right, as you guys are looking to grow, these are the messages that I think the talent that you guys want are looking to hear. And, you know, this is a very organic conversation and for these things to just naturally come out, I think, speak volumes. So I'm really looking forward to, you know, this podcast getting out and, you know, socializing this, you know, with, with my follow, you know, on LinkedIn, it's about 7,000 right now. I'm pretty consistent with, I think, you know, this sort of CPG food retail, I've got a ton of that, you know, uh, as people that are following us. So, but in the meantime, you know, if there's ever a me thing that I personally can do to be of help to you guys, like I would love to love the purpose you guys, you know, are very trans a parent. I appreciate the humility of like, Hey, we're figuring some of this crap out on the fly, you know, and what got us here and what's going to get us, there may not be the same thing and you know, not having sort of that we're wizards and you know, we've already got it all mapped out in our heads. Uh, again, I think it's very refreshing, you know, from the kind of messaging that, you know, the, the talent that you guys will ultimately be, you know, integrating into the culture and helping build your culture, you know, or wanting to hear. So this has been awesome. I super appreciate it. Wish you guys the best and look forward to speaking with you again soon. Thanks Bob. Thanks guys.