Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 90% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Ali: Chomps grew annual revenue from $400K to $4M in one year

Rashid Ali · How a side hustle became an industry leader (with Chomps co-founders) | Masters of Scale · Oct 3, 2025 · at 13:46

Rashid Ali, co-founder of snack brand Chomps, discusses the rapid revenue growth experienced after receiving purchase orders from Trader Joe's in 2016.

0:00 / 0:04exact quote · 4.7s

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“Yeah, so I think we had finished the prior year at about 400. We did about four million that year.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Chomps grew annual revenue from approximately $400,000 to about $4 million during the year the brand launched in Trader Joe's.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Published business profiles, retail case studies, and historical Inc. 5000 revenue records substantiate the claim. Prior to Chomps' retail rollout in Trader Joe's in 2016, the company generated approximately $400,000 in annual revenue in 2015 (with Inc. 5000 growth metrics reflecting an implied 2015 baseline of roughly $460,000). Following its 2016 launch into Trader Joe's, Chomps' revenue grew to over $4 million for the 2016 fiscal year.

Trader Joe's rolled out Chomps as its first major brick-and-mortar retail partner in 2016.
Prior to the 2016 Trader Joe's launch, Chomps generated roughly $400,000 in annual revenue in 2015 (with Inc. 5000 data calculating an implied 2015 baseline of ~$460,000).
Forbes and retail business case studies confirm Chomps concluded 2016 with over $4 million in revenue following the Trader Joe's launch.

Checked against

[1] substack.com [2] substack.com [3] horizonx.us [4] cspdailynews.com [5] forbes.com [6] facebook.com

"How Chomps Devoured The Competition" Forbes "Chomps" "Trader Joe's" 2016 400000 OR 4 million revenue "Chomps" "Trader Joe's" revenue 400000 4 million "Chomps" "Inc." "4,469%" OR "4469%"

assessed as of 2026-08-27

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

Chomps Trader Joe's

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More from Rashid Ali

Insight

Ali: Economies of scale automatically improving gross margins is a startup fallacy

“And there's this fallacy in that, you know, economies of scale will lead to an improved gross margin and it just doesn't happen.”

Rashid Ali Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 32:07 How a side hustle became an industry leader (with Chomps co-founders) | Masters of Scale

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Ali: The majority of early Chomps customers were female

“Well, I think we realized was the most of our customers were female.”

Rashid Ali Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 20:39 How a side hustle became an industry leader (with Chomps co-founders) | Masters of Scale

Disclosure

Ali: Chomps funded its $1 million Trader Joe's order entirely with debt

“I think we did friends and family. We did debt only.”

Rashid Ali Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 15:03 How a side hustle became an industry leader (with Chomps co-founders) | Masters of Scale

Disclosure

Ali: Chomps kept Trader Joe's as sole retailer for two years

“We were going to be the best Trader Joe's partner possible for two years. What did that mean? That meant that was our only retailer. We focused on e-commerce. We focused on scaling. We focused on like branding and packaging and who our consumer was.”

Rashid Ali Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 19:14 How a side hustle became an industry leader (with Chomps co-founders) | Masters of Scale

Prediction Partly held up

Ali: Chomps expects to reach $1 billion in retail sales in 2025

“So we'll do just about a billion in retail sales this year. That's nearly almost like doubling from last year.”

Rashid Ali Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 28:38 How a side hustle became an industry leader (with Chomps co-founders) | Masters of Scale

Assertion Partly supported

Ali: Over 90% of Trader Joe's products are private label

“I mean, 90% plus of the items are private labels. So they're Trader Joe's branded products. So for you to actually get a branded product within Trader Joe's, it's like, it's extremely rare.”

Rashid Ali Oct 3, 2025 ▶ 13:00 How a side hustle became an industry leader (with Chomps co-founders) | Masters of Scale

Ali: Chomps grew annual revenue from $400K to $4M in one year

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