00:44:49 · Pete Maldonado, Guillaume Moubeche
[00:44:49] S0: A few things. I think, you know, I would like to have more scale. From a profitability standpoint, we're we're in a... At a period of time right now where beef has never been more expensive. We're at an all time high. You know? So it's very commodity driven. I think there's things within, like, the... From, like, a supply chain perspective that we need to be able to fix and button up. I would say, like, just for instance, we went from one to seven facilities. We're actually greenfielding another from from building it from ground up. That'll be our eighth. We need to be able to consolidate and simplify those things a bit. But what happens is from a continuous improvement standpoint, there's a lot of low hanging fruit. Yields are suffering, which means margins are suffering. So we need this... It's margin improvement over time. So we need to be able to do that. And then I think also having, like, a second and third leg of the stool would be nice. I mean, we're very... It's it's simple, which I think public markets reward in a way, but I also think it's risky because if somebody... People were suddenly like, we're not eating meat sticks anymore, what happens? And so there's inherent risk there. So we need to be able to diversify and have, you know, just something else in the in the portfolio. So... [00:46:01] S1: And and more personal question, because I know we're almost like running out of time. Like, as a as a CEO, like, how do you level up and scale a bit faster than your business?
00:46:15 · Pete Maldonado
[00:46:15] S0: You're saying so so I can keep up with the business? Well, I I I... I'm not. I bowed out actually. So I bowed out a little over a year ago as CEO. So I was so I was CEO for ten years. Rashid was COO. After our private equity raise, we finally built a board. We never had a board before that. Our board board decisions were made via text between the two of us. You know? It was just like the two... Us two dudes. But then we brought in... Her name's Liz Carter. She's amazing. She started off as a board member, and then she's moved over. We hire her full time, brought her in as president and COO. When she came in as COO, me and Rashid Ali just became co CEOs. Did that for about three years. And then I decided I was... I needed to take a step back from the CEO role. One, because, like, it was just naturally happening, honestly. Like, Rashid is a a natural leader, but also in the the point in time where the business was, we were very... We were inventory constrained. So it was all based on supply chain and operations. We needed to fix that side of the business. We needed the whole entire business from sales. Every function needed to understand where we were, and having him deliver that message was super important. So what I was realizing is, like, doing a Gracie model. What decisions do I need to be involved with? Which ones do I own? What do I need to be informed of? And, like, our team is so stacked right now. We have so many experts that are better than not only me, but even Rashid. The two of us are just much less important... Well, it's less important to the business than we ever were. Right? And so I decided I'm gonna bow out because there's... Everyone else is better at making these decisions, and I'm moving to a chairman role. So I'm able to still do, like, the setting the vision, you know, maintaining that vision or or, you know, more high level strategic work and get out of the day to day.
00:48:07 · Guillaume Moubeche
[00:48:07] S1: Nice. How how do you feel about it? I did that a year ago, so I'm curious to know that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:13 · Pete Maldonado
[00:48:13] S0: Oh my god. Like, you you know how this is probably too. I'm super hands on and, like like... And in the beginning, like, I I hated it, first off. Like, it was like... I'm like, what do we do with my hands? Like, I I wake up in the morning. I wanna start, like, just going working. I'm, like, talking to people. But I I also... I had to control myself, and I realized that me making this announcement, guys, team, I'm stepping down because of this, this, and this. And then they keep hearing from me every single day, like, directly to each employ... Like like, who do I report to? Like like, I'm just creating con... My confusion is unnecessary. I need to be able to just step back and truly let let Rashid lead, and then he'll be my conduit, and I can just basically, you know, work through him. And that's how how it's been. We start... Before I actually did the the stepping down, we tested it a little bit where I was kind of like, hey. Listen. Like, I'm gonna kinda cut off a lot of communication. I want you to deliver these messages. I want... Like, so he and I would would align with what the messaging is, and then he would deliver it. That's kinda how we're working now. We're we're still connected at the hip, the two of us. We talk all the time, but it's just different. And I'm getting more and more used to it. I'm seeing the value in it now because I'm able to do things or think through things and just look a little more further down the road than we ever did because it was always about, you know, what's happening right now and being very reactive about things. So I... Yeah. What about you? What about you? What's what's it like for you?
00:49:42 · Guillaume Moubeche, Pete Maldonado
[00:49:42] S1: To be honest, I started like another business. [00:49:45] S0: Yeah. I'm I'm I'm... [00:49:47] S1: Eventually, you know, like after a year or so, like, was... At first, I I felt like it was time for me to become like a a professional triathlete. So I did three Ironman. I trained a lot. Like, I was spending my life doing this. And then I realized, okay, I'm I'm too old for that shit and and not good enough. So after that, I was like, yeah, I need to to just do other things, like learn to invest my money, and I started working a bit more in the... On the investment side and now, like, launching something. But, yeah, it's a it's a journey. [00:50:22] S0: Yeah. So same same here. You know, I started doing a bunch of the direct investing. I started... I'm I'm an LP in a couple different private equity funds. I'll probably move into GP status. I'm one of them. I'm getting, like, my hands involved. You know, it's funny. The more companies that I touch and the more that I... I'm investing in and our boards that I sit on, I'm realizing just how special Chomps is. And I'm, like, realizing, like, oh my god. Like, this is, like, we... This is a... Like, it's a true unicorn. [00:50:49] S1: I agree.
00:50:49 · Guillaume Moubeche, Pete Maldonado
[00:50:49] S1: I agree. [00:50:50] S0: And unicorn status now. It's, like, it's wild. Yeah. But I also... For me, was one of other things. Have three kids, three small kids. Rashid has the same, like, about the same ages. So it's... Mine are nine, six, and three. And I felt like, you know, I I missed a lot, especially with my oldest son. And and then I feel like I just wanted to to be able to spend more time with him, just be more of a, like, a good dad and, like, be... I I want my kids to be able to look back and just be like, yeah. My dad was there all the time. And so... And, like, I moved I moved out of the... In a separate office. I'm in my home office now. So the kids, they're... Hopefully, they're not home yet because they're they're loud. But but, yeah, I'm just like, I want them to to see me all day every day. It's just like it's the memories I want for my kids. [00:51:32] S1: Yeah. It's... Must be a fantastic feeling. [00:51:34] S0: Yeah. Yeah. That's [00:51:35] S1: good. So good. I know we're almost out of time. So the final question would be like, what what advice would you give, like, to someone who want to build, like, a business that can do a billion dollar himself?