· Peter Rahal, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: Yeah [00:00:00] S0: ... not a protein bar company. So, I'm going to just answer my question that I asked you the way you said it to me before, which I think was excellent, where you're like, "I have to be the best in the world at what I do in my category." And I was like, "Well, what's your category?" And you're like, "CPG." I go, "What does that mean?" You go, "Anything that you can buy in a store." [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: That's the size and scope of your ambition. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, we're competing with Nestle. I want to build the most important food company in the 21st century. [00:00:00] S0: And how big? What's the scale of some of these food companies? [00:00:00] S1: Nestle's 100 plus billion in revenue. They're real global as well. Pepsi's probably right around there. Real scale. [00:00:00] S0: So a couple hundred billion dollar companies. How many different products? [00:00:00] S1: Well, they have these enormous portfolio of brands. [00:00:00] S0: Yeah. [00:00:00] S1: And then hundreds of brands. And then those brands are different by cultures or geographies. [00:00:00] S0: They grow by acquisition or no? [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, mostly. [00:00:00] S0: Okay. Are you going to do that too? [00:00:00] S1: Probably it's on the table, but our core competency is the ability to build brands. So, I know how to create an identity and build a brand. So, for the next four years, five years, we'll probably just create brands, but I wouldn't rule it out later on.
· Peter Rahal, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: Probably it's on the table, but our core competency is the ability to build brands. So, I know how to create an identity and build a brand. So, for the next four years, five years, we'll probably just create brands, but I wouldn't rule it out later on. [00:00:00] S0: Okay, so tell me what you know about building brands and identities. This could be interesting. [00:00:00] S1: The analogy I think of as a brand, it's simply just a human being. So a brand has a name, it has mommy and daddy, it's the founders, its parents. Those parents have DNA. This brand, this individual has values, it has a vision where it's going, it has other traits, tone of voice, has friends. Who do you associate with? [00:00:00] S0: Hold on. Explain that part to me. Who do you associate with? [00:00:00] S1: So, who are you going to do partnerships with? So David, for example, David Protein, is a partnership with Huberman. That's an alignment. We wouldn't do a partnership with, I don't know, Miss Rachel doesn't make sense. I'm sure she's great, but- [00:00:00] S0: Yeah
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: Yeah [00:00:00] S1: ... just like a human, the social circle matters. And so in creating a brand, that identity, both from tone of voice, visual, what clothes it wears, who's its friends, its values, vision, you define that clearly and that there's like a North Star to it. The most important factor in building brands, it just takes time. So if you keep this identity, it can be dynamic in nature as it grows, but you are consistently doing that over time and with really great quality product and service. The timepiece is critical. You just have to be doing that over time. David's values are around intelligence, beauty, and discipline. And that's rooted in the story of Michelangelo's masterpiece, the sculpture of David. Those values are rooted in the symbolism of that masterpiece. And then the tool, the chisel, which is like this crude nail. But the meaning of a chisel is intelligence, discipline, and if you apply those things, you get a masterpiece, something beautiful. So that's the logic for David's brand and brand identity. So, if you have a crystal clear identity for a brand and its product offering, its position, the marketing actually becomes really easy. You just constantly hammer those points over and over and over again.
· David Senra
[00:00:00] S0: I want to tell you about the presenting sponsor of this podcast, Ramp. I have been reading a lot about SpaceX lately. SpaceX is one of the most valuable businesses in the world, and one of the main themes in the history of SpaceX is constantly attacking and questioning your cost. Ramp helps many of the most innovative businesses in the world do exactly that. The median company running on Ramp cuts their expenses by 5%. And one thing SpaceX has demonstrated is that a religious dedication to controlling costs can help actually increase revenue because you can pursue opportunities you couldn't otherwise. And we see that in the Ramp data, too. The median company running on Ramp also grows their revenue by 16%. So when you're running your business on Ramp and your competitors are not, you have a massive competitive advantage that compounds over time. Ramp is the only platform designed to make your finance team faster and happier. Many of the top founders and CEOs I know run their business on Ramp. I run my business on Ramp, and you should too. Go to ramp.com to learn how they can help your business save time, save money, and grow revenue. That is ramp.com. Deel is how the best founders turn the world into their talent pool. I've been studying how history's greatest founders operate for a decade, and one thing they all have in common is they understand that recruiting and hiring the very best talent is your most important priority. A players recognize other A players, which is why top companies like Ramp, Shopify, ElevenLabs, Uber, and DoorDash all use Deel. Many of the top founders I know have personally invested in Deel after using their product. And what they discovered is that Deel is the best company in the world at building infrastructure for global hiring. Deel will help your business hire, pay, and manage any worker anywhere in the world so you can retain the best talent anywhere and spend the rest of your time focusing on what you do best, delivering value to your customers. The founder of ElevenLabs has a great description of the value Deel can give your company. He said, "We built ElevenLabs to break down language and communication barriers.
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
With Deel enabling us to hire and support exceptional talent anywhere, we can accelerate our innovation and bring more voices, stories, and ideas to every corner of the world." Deel is trusted by over 40,000 companies and growing fast. Learn how they can help your business by going to deel.com/senra. That is deel.com/senra. How much time did you put into planning this brand identity for David? [00:00:00] S1: Six months, maybe. [00:00:00] S0: Okay, so then once you have this clearly defined set of qualities for the brand, and then you're saying, "Okay, then we just extend this over decades." [00:00:00] S1: Yes. [00:00:00] S0: Is the plan? [00:00:00] S1: Yes. You just hammer it. [00:00:00] S0: Okay. [00:00:00] S1: Keep going. [00:00:00] S0: How did you learn the importance of maintaining the same brand identity over a long period of time? [00:00:00] S1: Just studying, like just studying brands. If you look at the best brands, they're all old. And so time's a factor that's really, really important, and the consistency of that. And the thing is, there's an asymmetry where those brands are super fragile. So if you fuck around on quality or something else, it's over really quickly.
· Peter Rahal, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: Just studying, like just studying brands. If you look at the best brands, they're all old. And so time's a factor that's really, really important, and the consistency of that. And the thing is, there's an asymmetry where those brands are super fragile. So if you fuck around on quality or something else, it's over really quickly. [00:00:00] S0: The reason I asked that is because I was obsessed with this guy named David Ogilvy, and I've read every single one of his books. He built one of the greatest advertising agencies of all time, and he would hammer exactly what you... You sounded exactly like him if you read his autobiography or if you read Ogilvy on Advertising. And his whole thing was just like, people jump around too much. Like, you pick one brand identity, and you do it over and over and over again for decades. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: And you came to the exact same conclusion. It's like the best brands are the best brands because they did this for decades after decades. [00:00:00] S1: And it's fundamentally about the values of the brand. Like, for David, it's about intelligence, beauty, and discipline. [00:00:00] S0: Why'd you pick those three traits, though?