The Exchanges

Q W, how did you get involved in the company? I mean, I know you were working since you were a kid, but But you went on to UCLA to study engineering, um, and then you joined the family business pretty soon after. How did, how did it happen?

A Yeah. So, you know, we all never really left the business, right? And so all throughout high school, you know, we were doing farmer's markets. And then when I would come back for the summer from college, uh, it was farmer's markets, you know, all through the summer as well. So, you know, one of the markets we would do is up in Tahoe area, which was about three hours away from the Bay area. And My sister and I would get up at three AM on a Wednesday and drive out to Tahoe, uh, you know, set up for a market, do a market there, then go to Reno, do another market there, and then come back, you know, late that night, um, back at the house at 11 PM or so. And so we, we never really left the business. And after college, I got a job at a local software company called Macromedia. And, um, even while I was working at Macromedia on the weekends, I was doing farmer's markets for the business. And then In 2005, Macromedia had just been acquired by Adobe, and I was starting to feel like I wanted to do more in the family business.

AI assessment note: “Macromedia had just been acquired by Adobe, and I was starting to feel”

Q And, and W, I mean, the year you joined, what, what was your product line? I mean, what were the things that, that the brand was making? Was the, was the curry paste and the spice mixes and what else? Was there anything else that you guys were making at the time?

A Um, she had started making a line of, of fresh meals that used to go out to the grocery stores specifically. And these were individual entrees with rice and lentils and chicken tikka masala, for example. Um, we had then the curry pastes and spice mixes, which were also in retail as well as food service, the bulk packaging. Um, and then at the farmer's markets, um, Whole Foods had approached us and they were just expanding. And a big part of their draw was the hot bars. Um, they were putting out, you know, just Really top quality international cuisine in their hot bars. And they were having a hard time with Indian food. So they approached us and said, hey, can you guys help us with Indian food? So we made a whole line of, of Indian food for them, for the hot bars as well.

AI assessment note: “she had started making a line of, of fresh meals that used to go out”

Q Now, meanwhile, this is absolutely amazing. Um, somewhere along the line, someone from Costco discovers you guys at a farmer's market. So I guess when your frozen meals were ready to go, you were actually able to get them placed into some Costco's pretty quickly, which is, which is huge, right?

A Yeah. Costco is really just an incredible retailer. I mean, when you think about Costco, I think the image of like a big box warehouse, massive volume, uh, Um, very sterile. I mean, that's, that's like the thought that comes to your mind, but they're actually one of the most thoughtful, you know, amazing partners that we have. And they really think about what they're putting in and they have incredible, they have an incredible ability to target actually down to the entire, to the exact store. So sometimes you'll see stuff that's, you know, specific only to five Costco's in the entire country. And so they saw that there was this growing Indian population and they said, Hey, can you guys put product into these five, six locations where there's a bunch of Indians? Um, and we'll see, you know, how it goes, and we just expanded from there.

AI assessment note: “they said, Hey, can you guys put product into these five, six locations”

Q But that same year, 2015, I read that you guys described the business hitting a wall. What, uh, what did that mean?

A You know, for us, the wall meant, you know, we're, we're a family business. We're, we're all in the family business, and each person was doing something different. And what would happen is, um, you know, I would go down or, or Sinjog or, or mom, and we would come back and have, Sold a new customer. And then we go to my sister who was operations and say, Hey, we just, you know, this so-and-so customer wants, uh, you know, 200 pallets of this item, this winner. And, you know, she would freak out and just say, Hey, look, we haven't planned this properly. Like we can't, we can't keep doing it this way. We can't just grow for the sake of growth and we need to plan things. And, and having that family connection, it was harder for us To do those things a little bit. And there was this, you know, need to separate the business from our family life. And, you know, we realized, hey, we could, you know, we, we need some outside intervention here to help us see this business to its potential, but more importantly, um, really to preserve, uh, to preserve a lot of our family.

AI assessment note: “the wall meant, you know, we're, we're a family business.”

Q Okay, so the business is growing, but, but then you guys have a A pretty major setback. You have this new kitchen in San Leandro in the East Bay of San Francisco Bay Area, but in 2000, a fire breaks out and does a lot of damage. So what did that mean for the business? I mean, that, that must have been hugely disruptive.

A Yeah, I mean, that was actually the summer of 2000, and it was pretty devastating, to say the least. Um, we had just built this kitchen. It wasn't that old. Mom had just had her knee surgery, and it was a pretty, it was a pretty massive knee surgery. I mean, she, anyone that knows her knows that she's sort of go, go, go, go, go all the time, and, you know, she sleeps like three hours a night. She's Going all the time, and that's what this business required from her. And this was the first time that I had seen her debilitated. It was, um, heartbreaking, yet at the same time, there was so much going on, and so much commotion, and so much this sort of need to, hey, what are we going to do? Like, how are we going to make this better? How are we going to fix this? That you really didn't have time to sit there and, and think about how terrible of a thing it was.

AI assessment note: “it was pretty devastating, to say the least. Um, we had just built this kitchen.”

Q Raz, and you're listening to How I Built This. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Raz. So it's around 2007, 2008, and Suki's decided to branch out from bottled sauces into refrigerated and frozen foods. Things like chicken tikka masala and lemon rice and samosas. But that raises the question, how are they going to get the money to support a whole new line of products?

A That's a great question. Um, you know, guy, uh, one of the themes I think of, of our story is had we known what we know now about how much money or how much time or how much effort a lot of this stuff takes, we probably wouldn't have started. Uh, but you know, at the time you don't know what you don't know, you know, you look at it and you go, gosh, we're doing these products, we're doing this, this and the other. And so, um, frozen foods can't be that, that much harder. And it's just, you know, we're already doing fresh. Let's just do frozen. And so we looked at a bunch of competitors and, and, um, I was sitting there and I said, gosh, you know, it would be so great. Indian food is so great with naan. It would be so awesome if, um, this frozen entree came with naan in it. So I called up five of my friends and I said, Hey, would you guys pay a buck more on the shelf if, you know, if you saw a product that had naan in it versus one that didn't. And they, you know, unanimously everyone was like, yes. And I was like, okay, let's do it. And let's put it in the stores and see what happens. And there was You know, my sisters had joined. I had joined. There was definitely a lot of, you know, fresh blood in the company. There was a lot of excitement. We saw a big path ahead, and so we're, we kind of took a lot of these opportunities and just said, let's do it, and we learned along the …

AI assessment note: “had we known what we know now about how much money... we probably wouldn't have started”