· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: Is that as a result of the fact that you ran out of supply? What happened there? [00:00:00] S1: The story of cod was we're creating our website and we're doing a comparison table. And the one metric we think is really important is how many of your calories are coming from protein. And on this chart, we were number one, and we were number one on everything. And for me, my investor influence, anything where I see a chart where it's all number one, I'm like, "It's bullshit." So we were like, "All right, well, we need to find something that's-" Number one, what has a better protein-to-calorie ratio than our gold product? And the only thing we found was boiled cod. And so in our comparison chart, we put boiled cod number one and David number two, and just left it there as like a dorky sort of comparison. And why it worked is like the juxtaposition between our bar and the cod is like signals convenience, it signals value, and like cod's pretty unappetizing. And then we're halfway through our first year, and I was like, it's like deja vu for me. I'm like, "This is super boring." Like another flavor. I'm like, "We need to do something bold." And so we're like, "Let's actually sell cod." And not like a stunt, like actually seriously sell fish. And so we did this boiled cod campaign, and it was funny because it was like- [00:00:00] S0: You like pain. Let me know.
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: You like pain. Let me know. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, it was like got in the frozen business, and it's back to our brand values. Like, it was actually a very intelligent thing because it centered the conversation around protein-to-calorie ratio. So, but did it in a way that wasn't sort of like, hey, like right on the nose. It was like a little bit of a riddle. And it's like 55 dollars frozen cod online. Like, no one really wants that. So we didn't have product market fit, but it functioned as a really great communication tool. [00:00:00] S0: So creating a product for marketing benefits. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, we call it product as marketing. I'm not giving up on it. Like, we're going to keep going. We're going to keep going on cod until we get product market fit. [00:00:00] S0: I don't think you will. I don't think you will, man. [00:00:00] S1: I know. It's funny because if you look at our website, it's like, protein bars, bronze and gold, pints, frozen ice cream, and then there's like RTDs, and there's like fucking fish. And it's weird, but like the whole food space is so fucking boring, to be honest. It's like they all say the same shit, they all do the same things. And so being a second time, I was like, "We've got to have some fun with it." [00:00:00] S0: Okay, so that was not in response to supply issues, because there was no demand for this frozen cod so far. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, no. It happened to work at the same time we were out of stock on some things, but no, it was independent.
· Peter Rahal, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: Yeah, no. It happened to work at the same time we were out of stock on some things, but no, it was independent. [00:00:00] S0: Okay, so let's go back to when I interrupted you because you started talking about pain. You said talk about building a masterpiece. What were you going to say there? [00:00:00] S1: Oh, it requires tons of discipline and intelligence, and it's done over time. And that's really what the brand David's about, is like finish your masterpiece and tap into everyone's inner excellence. [00:00:00] S0: But how do you apply it to building your company, though?
· Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S1: Well, I think I start with like the what is a company? So our strategy is like two fundamental things in a company. People, it's all about people, as cliche as it is. And I think about the organization as a product. So my focus is all about that. And then the second piece is product and mastery of the product. And when I think of product, I think of brand and product as the same thing. Like, the product is just the raw thing, and then the brand is like what it wears, like the exterior piece. But if you try to look at the organization as a product, a company's just a group of people aligned towards a mission. So if that's the most important thing, like what actions does a company do to make sure that it's done? So for us, when I think of mastery is like we have four processes in the company that ensure our organization is done right and culture is lived. So if people are everything, who you select is the most important thing, who you select into the organization. How do you train and onboard them? Three, how do you select the ones to get promoted and rewarded? And then how you terminate the ones that shouldn't be there. So those four processes are really critical to building the organization and scaling it. And so we spend a lot of our time refining our hiring process. Training and onboarding is mission critical, and then promotion as well, rewarding the right behaviors, and then firing. And those are all organized around our value system, which is the best way to align a group of people to make sure the right behaviors are matching what we want.
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: What are the behaviors that you want? [00:00:00] S1: We want truth seekers. People who have courage to seek truth. That's mission critical. You don't want biases in place. Foundational would be humility, which is I define as the freedom of pride and arrogance. So humility is really foundational, and it shows up like intellectually to be like, "I don't know what I'm doing. I need help." Like, I don't want to cover your ass culture where people are like, "I have this data, therefore my decision's good." Like, that's not really productive. [00:00:00] S0: Say more about that. [00:00:00] S1: You look at people from big corporate America come in, and then they will generate a bunch of data, surveys or whatever, to prove their experiment or cover their ass if the experiment goes wrong. [00:00:00] S0: It's like fake work. [00:00:00] S1: It's performative in a way of like, "I'm just doing this to cover my ass," versus focusing on the experiment and not worrying about covering your ass. Entrepreneurship is a very important value of the company as well, and that's like so anti. Like to any activity, like any performative activity and fearing of failure is like the opposite of entrepreneurship. You just can't have that as a company scales. And so you get a lot of people coming from different corporate environments that have that, like just protect their job. [00:00:00] S0: Are you able to recruit from other food companies? Because like you're so different. Most of these companies haven't been founder-led in, I don't know, half a century, if not longer.
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: Are you able to recruit from other food companies? Because like you're so different. Most of these companies haven't been founder-led in, I don't know, half a century, if not longer. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. We can and we do. There's a lot of good experience they have. You just sort of have to baptize them when they come in. So that's where the onboarding process is really critical. [00:00:00] S0: You baptize them? [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: What does that mean? [00:00:00] S1: You just have to teach them new beliefs, new values. If you just sort of throw them in, they're just going to take what they know and apply it. And so you really want to- Have them assimilate to the culture in a way, and so a very thoughtful onboarding process where you learn the values of the company. You learn entrepreneurship. We pack boxes, you learn humility, you learn all these things. It's really critical. [00:00:00] S0: Are the most talented people in your company the ones with no experience, though? [00:00:00] S1: The most talented people in our company are former founders. [00:00:00] S0: Say more about this.