The Exchanges

Q So, Brett, before that happened, right, what was your sort of thinking around the Dips business? Were you thinking, alright, this is really gonna be the thing that grows this overall business, and this thing is gonna be, could potentially be huge. Like, we should go raise money, we should turn into a brand, like, was that how you were thinking about it?

A Yeah, that's exactly it. How I was thinking about that we could raise capital and really grow this into, you know, a large player in the hummus and the dips and spreads category, that this could be a brand we could scale. And it was around that time that, you know, I had experienced the full service restaurant and was really struck by a couple things. I was struck by A, the, the authenticity of what Ted, Ike and Dimitri had started. Just the, the soulfulness Of the brand, and, and B, here was a way of eating that was satisfying and flavorful, and oh, by the way, it happened to be healthy, and I said to the guys, like, we need to bring this to a larger audience.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, that's exactly it. How I was thinking about that we could raise capital”

Q All right, so now you have to, you got to get the money to open this, this restaurant. Um, how did you get it?

A Yeah, it was, uh, you know, the, the guys had a lot of customers of the original Kava Meze restaurant who were some successful local business folks who would come to them and, and say, we want to invest in your next Kava Meze restaurant. And so we reached out to all of them. We got them all together at the original Kava Meze, closed for lunch one day. We mocked up all this food, put a presentation together, and we said, look, this isn't going to be another Cava Meze, but here's our idea. We want to take the great food of Cava Meze, put it in a fast health-based format, open two or three, prove that, that this, you know, has the appeal we think it will, and then look to scale it from there. And, and, um, that's what we were looking to raise money for. So we got everybody together at that original restaurant in Rockville.

AI assessment note: “customers of the original Kava Meze restaurant... who would come to them and, and say, we want to invest”

Q just weren't happy to be there. And like, it's very hard when you've got. 300 locations or thousands of locations of a, of a store. To make sure that everybody. Is on board, you know, everybody's got that Mediterranean hospitality ethos. And so. Tell me how you guys. Sort of think about. Employees and labor and, and why would somebody work at a Cava versus a sweet green or Chipotle?

A It ultimately comes down to whether the team members believe or not, whether we care about them. And it's other things like hearing where they're struggling. You know, we had this thing, um, we, we go out and we visit the restaurants. And at the end of my visit, I say, um, to the team, okay, I have a magic wand and I'm going to grant you three wishes. What are the three things that I can grant you? That's going to make your day completely better. What is like the bane of your existence when you wake up every day that you think about that's getting in your way here? And I remember like, I would go, I have like five restaurants in a row. They're like, Brett, people love our pickled onions, but man, my arm is so tired from chopping and slicing onions. I'm like, I hear you. And I got with Ted and worked on Ted because we had been looking at pre-sliced onions, but they were dehydrating too much. And so Ted worked with our, our produce suppliers and got a vacuum sealed pre-sliced onion for them to pickle in house that they no longer have to do that. And so It's very powerful. Um, we're trying to set them up for success, and if they feel that support, it goes a long way.

AI assessment note: “It ultimately comes down to whether the team members believe or not, whether we care about them.”

Q in the salon to work on your hair. And I think you may want to think about putting a lot of your energy in building a system where In which you can create a template for somebody who works with you to learn how to do what you do, because you can't scale yourself. You just can't do this, all of this on your own. Brett, what do you think?

A Yeah, that, that's absolutely right. I mean, you know, it's okay to, to want to have control and care about the details and be so focused on having everything come out as beautiful and as perfect as possible, but you do have to understand how you start to delegate and allow others to be an amplifier of you. I joke, I don't have very wide shoulders, so if I'm carrying the entire business on my shoulders, we wouldn't go very far. Right. And you need to be able to lean on others and be able to trust others that can help deliver on what your vision is. And you have to understand how to get comfortable with that. And again, I think we all have misses on hires, right? No one is perfect at hiring people. So it is trying to understand what's the right person for the role you're trying to hire for the right personality. And so I wouldn't get discouraged by that, that it's not this unattainable hire to find, but it's Bringing someone in, ultimately, that you feel the confidence and trust that you can start to delegate to, because otherwise, you, you just simply wouldn't be able to scale the business.

AI assessment note: “you do have to understand how you start to delegate and allow others”

Q I'd see that, and I'd say, oh, this, oh, he's now a grown man, so I don't think he needs it on his lunchbox. But, you know, I, I, I can imagine going to a gift shop and seeing these little patches or stickers or magnets and, and thinking, oh, that's cool. Is there, Brett, do you think there's something to that, to go into a, like a trade show?

A Yeah, that, that was going back to kind of my original question about instinctively, were there any kind of bricks and mortar places that you thought about going? Because, you know, Certainly what we've seen post pandemic, the, you know, cost of, of acquisition or just awareness on the internet or being a DTC brand has gotten really expensive and people have gotten back out in the world. And, um, even with the changes in third party data, privacy laws, it's, it's restricted the ability to drive, um, awareness online solely. So where are there potential bricks and mortar outlets that you can be in front of Where your consumer, your allerg, uh, parent that has a child with allergen issues or maybe have them themselves, um, are trafficking and where's that need state happening, whether it's target, whether it's a gift shop. I think often in any of these industries going to a trade show is such a great idea and just understanding the landscape, the lay of the land, what the marketplace is, what the potential avenues of distribution are, how it all works. I remember, um, When I was working with my wife on a snack food company, we would do that. We'd go to the trade shows, and it helped us really understand the industry and how it all worked and where our product or offering could fit within that.

AI assessment note: “I think often in any of these industries going to a trade show is such a great idea”

Q So you start to learn about what they're doing and why was it not working based on what you were, you were looking at?

A One of the things I learned in the snack food business is just how precise and how detailed you have to be. As Ted said earlier, it's, it's a pretty low margin business. And I remember walking in and saying, you know, how much does this tub of hummus cost us to make? And it was like, oh, you know, around two dollars. I said, well, like to the third decimal point, you know, uh, 100th of a penny, you know, including the label, including the seal, like making sure we have all of our costs down a little bit. Like Ted talked about what they learned in the, in the full service restaurant. And, and then how are we monitoring our batch production and our yields? And I remember the business was using just QuickBooks at the time and QuickBooks had a manufacturing version. And that was very relevant so you could build what's called bill of materials for those products to have a true understanding of every production you run, what the yield is, what the usage is, what the true costs are in the business. So, um, there was a lot of just experience I had gained through the snack food business that I was able to apply very quickly to that business to drive more profitability and efficiency.

AI assessment note: “making sure we have all of our costs down... how are we monitoring our batch”