Advice Line with Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali of Chomps
with Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali
Executive Summary
Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali discuss Chomps' growth and their account of a possible contamination incident and recall. Their safety and nutrition statements remain attributed, not independent findings or health advice. They then advise three founders: Yadi of Yadi's Artisanal Empanadas on campus seasonality and distribution; Zachary of Noble Pies on preparing a retailer pitch and sustaining sales after getting listed; and Josh of Achigan on understanding demand before leaving a day job. The guests favor focused growth, customer evidence and patience. The closing includes a clearly labeled archive clip from their founding-story interview, not another current conversation.
Key Takeaways
Takeaway 1
Treat safety as a managed responsibility. The Chomps founders describe widening a recall and improving processes after a possible contamination report. Their statement that no metal or injuries were found is their account, not independent clearance. Recall scope needs qualified safety, legal and regulatory guidance, not a universal rule from an interview.
Takeaway 2
Separate a market observation from a health conclusion. The founders describe a protein-focused consumer trend and their hope of outlasting fatigue. The episode does not verify that the trend is permanent or that a product provides a clinical benefit.
Takeaway 3
Buyers manage risk, not discovery. To win Whole Foods or Target, show incrementality (new customers to the set), velocity, and repeat rate - ideally on one hero SKU, with a store manager advocating for you.
Takeaway 4
Getting in is the easy part. 'Getting into the retailer is honestly the easiest part of the process' - staying and performing is the job, so focus regions and channels one at a time ('a 13-year overnight success').
Takeaway 5
Evaluate ways around seasonality. The advisers consider Yadi's food truck, another site and distribution. Moving the truck may help, but permits, staffing, demand and costs still need checking; four quiet campus months do not have a simple guaranteed fix.
Takeaway 6
Measure demand before a full-time leap. Josh describes selling out a limited lure supply. A waitlist or small capacity test may reveal more than the sellout alone, while household costs and downside risk remain personal constraints.
Takeaway 7
Rashid says not knowing every difficulty helped them begin. That is his reflection, not advice to ignore safety, contracts, cash needs or other known risks.
The Conversation Breakdown
Update: the protein wave
The episode recounts: Thirteen years in, Chomps sits on the right side of the protein boom - GLP-1s and doctors telling patients to eat more protein included - while internally joking about the 'proteinification of everything.' Their bet: a cultural shift in how people eat, with room to win even after consumer fatigue sets in.
Update: the recall
The episode recounts: Last year a possible metal contamination - never found in any product - was traced to one packaging line, one evening shift, one of seven facilities. Chomps expanded the scope into a large recall: 'it felt like the world was ending even though it was so isolated.' No metal, no injuries, material cost still being tallied, 'one recall is one too many.' Guy compares it to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams' preemptive recall.
Yadi: Yadi's Artisanal Empanadas (SUNY New Paltz)
The episode recounts: A teacher of 23 years, Yadi resigned in 2021, went from kitchen to commercial kitchen to food truck (2023) to a SUNY New Paltz campus spot (August 2024), where sales jumped from about $1,500 to $3,000 a day (roughly $700K a year, profitable, team of nine). Her problem: campus closures leave four dead months, and she wonders about a second location versus distribution. Advice: use the food truck to chase foot traffic in the off-season, respect the 45-mile rule for a second site (Connecticut/New Haven), or build a commissary 'bagel model' supplying trucks, coffee shops and delivery.
Zachary: Noble Pies (Hudson Valley)
The episode recounts: Born in the 2008 crisis from his great-grandmother's recipes (50 pies sold from a roadside table in an hour), Noble Pies did $2.2M across three stores in 2025 plus about $200K in its first FreshDirect wholesale year, with capacity for 10,000 pies a week (triplable in six months) and a four-month frozen shelf life. His question: how to break into Whole Foods and Target. Advice: buyers manage risk - prove incrementality, velocity and repeat on one SKU; recruit a store manager as advocate; stay focused on one region or pocket of stores; and grow depth in existing channels before adding the complexity of distribution and trade spend. Guy adds: survey diehard fans about gifting/e-commerce.
Josh: Achigan (smallmouth-bass lifestyle brand)
The episode recounts: A fishing-podcast side project became Achigan ('one which fights' in Algonquin), the self-declared official brand of smallmouth bass - apparel, an online board game, and lures that sell out faster than the small office can make them; just under $100K last year, profitable but thin. Josh wants to go full-time but has a wife, two kids and a medical-distribution day job. Advice: Rashid and Pete staggered their own full-time jumps (Pete at roughly $400-500K in sales, Rashid around $20M); find the demand unlock behind the lure sellouts first, let the highest-margin product anchor, consider one founder jumping first - and Guy's line: 'when it starts to feel like doing this part-time is riskier, that's when you know.'
Closing: patient on the roller coaster
The episode recounts: Asked what they'd tell their 2013 selves: Rashid is glad they went in 'a bit ignorant' - advice was everywhere, but not knowing let them build it their way. Pete: be patient, stay focused, and don't get complacent on the good days, because 'the Chomps roller coaster' is never linear - terrible day or amazing day, nothing in between.
Archival clip: the 1.1-million-stick PO
The episode recounts: From the original Chomps episode: the Trader Joe's purchase order for 1.1 million sticks - larger than the entire previous year in a single PO - and Rashid retreating to build a spreadsheet and figure out how to fund filling it. Archival, not new content.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
Incrementality story
Sell the buyer on new customers brought to the set, not cannibalized shelf sales - if the brand you replace sells the same total, there is no point in the swap.
One-channel-at-a-time scaling
Grow depth in the channels that work, then add exactly one more; going wide too early (the '13-year overnight success') unravels a business with distribution complexity and trade costs.
Demand unlock before leap
If you keep selling out, you cannot see the ceiling; fix the constraint (contract manufacturing) and assess true demand before deciding to go full-time or raise.
Overcorrect-and-learn recall
Editorial synthesis from the founders' recall account: document escalation, traceability, expert decision-making and communication before an incident. Determine scope with qualified food-safety, legal and regulatory support rather than always widening it or minimizing it.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓Write your buyer one-pager around incrementality: who are the new customers you bring, on which hero SKU, with what velocity and repeat data?
- ✓If your revenue has a dead season, list every mobile or off-site version of your offer that follows your customers when your location empties.
- ✓Before adding a channel or region, name the one channel you'll deepen instead - and why now is wrong for both.
- ✓If you sell out regularly, quantify unfilled demand this month (waitlist, backorders, requests) before your next full-time or fundraising decision.
- ✓Review a recall plan with qualified food-safety and legal support: reporting routes, lot traceability, decision authority, required notifications and evidence-based scope. Do not base consumer-safety decisions on the episode alone.
Notable Quotes
“one recall is one too many”
“it felt like the world was ending even though it was so isolated”
“the proteinification of everything”
“getting into the retailer is honestly the easiest part of the process”
“we're a 13-year overnight success”
“when it starts to feel like doing this part-time is riskier, that's when you know”
“I'm glad we went a bit ignorant”
The One Thing to Remember
Prove you grow the category, not cannibalize it: Chomps won buyers with an incrementality story - new customers to the set - because a buyer's job is managing risk and velocity, not discovering brands.