StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Alejandro "Alex" Velez

Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Back to the Roots · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutivehostLinkedIn ↗backtotheroots.com ↗

Alejandro "Alex" Vélez Ramírez co-founded Back to the Roots in 2009 alongside Nikhil Arora while studying at UC Berkeley. The Oakland-based organic gardening brand creates home grow kits and organic seeds distributed in major retail chains nationwide.

7statements → 7claims → 4claims resolved → 25%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 1/5average debate potential →

1 supported 3 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 assertions · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Alejandro argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Whole Foods, Petco, and Nordstrom launched Water Garden nationwide together
“So we took that buzz and went back to Petco, went back to Whole Foods, went back to Nordstrom, and for the first time ever, those three retailers took this product on nationwide. So we had a national launch with Whole Foods, national launch with Petco, Nationa…”
Alejandro "Alex" Velez May 13, 2015 ▶ 13:19 How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015

Everything Alejandro "Alex" Velez said on My First Million that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Partly supported
Velez: Back to the Roots products are in over 14,000 stores globally
“And these amazing products, which are ready to grow, ready to eat products, a mushroom farm, a water garden, a garden in a can, and now organic breakfast cereal and breakfast toppers that are now sold in over 14,000 grocery stores around the country, and Canad…”
Alejandro "Alex" Velez May 13, 2015 ▶ 1:18 How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015
Assertion Partly supported
Back to the Roots reached every US Whole Foods in three months
“We put this in, in one Berkeley Whole Foods store. Within three months, we were nationwide with Whole Foods, every single store in the country”
Alejandro "Alex" Velez May 13, 2015 ▶ 6:53 How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Back to the Roots raised $500k in pre-orders before manufacturing Water Garden
“We had a 100,000 dollar goal, ended up doing 250,000 dollars in 30 days of pre-orders. We took that momentum, took it over to our website, another quarter million dollars. So this is half a million dollars of pre-orders without even creating the damn thing.”
Alejandro "Alex" Velez May 13, 2015 ▶ 13:06 How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015
Assertion Supported
Whole Foods, Petco, and Nordstrom launched Water Garden nationwide together
“So we took that buzz and went back to Petco, went back to Whole Foods, went back to Nordstrom, and for the first time ever, those three retailers took this product on nationwide. So we had a national launch with Whole Foods, national launch with Petco, Nationa…”
Alejandro "Alex" Velez May 13, 2015 ▶ 13:19 How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Velez: Back to the Roots is Costco's #1 organic cereal
“We're the number one selling organic cereal in Costco nationwide.”
Alejandro "Alex" Velez May 13, 2015 ▶ 20:26 How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015
Assertion Partly supported
Velez: Post, Kellogg's, and GM own 90% of $10B cereal market
“Three Goliaths, Post, Kellogg's GM, running the show. They own 90% of this ten billion dollar industry”
Alejandro "Alex" Velez May 13, 2015 ▶ 21:00 How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Velez: Whole Foods was the only grocer to respond to early pitches
“We took that same bucket, walked it into every single grocery store in like a 50 mile radius from Andronico's, every Andronico's in Berkeley and Oakland. We went to Farmer Joe's. We went to Berkeley Bowl. At the time, there was only one Berkeley Bowl. We walke…”
Alejandro "Alex" Velez May 13, 2015 ▶ 3:46 How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
How to Get Your Product in 10,000 Retail Stores - Hustle Con 2015 May 13, 2015 13m
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 300 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more