How I Built This with Guy Raz

Chomps: Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali

Jan 30, 2023

Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali, co-founders of Chomps, share their inspiring journey from failure to success in the meat snack industry. After bankruptcy, Pete pivoted from selling steaks to creating healthier meat sticks tailored for the health-conscious market. They highlight a game-changing order from Trader Joe's that catapulted their brand into major retailers, along with the challenges of scaling production while maintaining quality. Their resilience and innovative thinking turned Chomps into a $100 million success story.

01:25:19

Episode guests

Rashid Ali

Pete Maldonado

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

5min

From Bodybuilding to Business: A Journey of Resilience

21min

From Idea to Implementation: The Birth of a Meat Subscription Service

2min

From Poker to Partnership

5min

From Struggles to Success: Innovating Healthy Meat Snacks

5min

From Meat Sticks to Market: Building Chomps

17min

Navigating Growth and Opportunity

7min

Overcoming Financial Hurdles for Growth

4min

Navigating Growth and Partnership Challenges

19min

10.

Resilience and Opportunity: The Chomps Journey

4min

When steaks don’t sell you shift to sticks; that’s how Chomps was born. After several failed ventures—one of which left him bankrupt—Pete Maldonado decided to take another chance on launching a business. He partnered with Rashid Ali to start a mail-order service similar to Omaha Steaks, but with grass-fed meat that was more suited to the Paleo diet. When the partners couldn’t get that off the ground, they shifted to individually-wrapped meat sticks; one of the first in a long line of ‘healthier for you’ protein snacks. For several years, each co-founder tried to manage the business as a side-hustle, but the sausage hit the fan in 2016 when a surprise order from Trader Joe’s left them scrambling to produce a million sticks. Today, Chomps is available in major chains across the country and pulls in more than $100 million a year.

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