Latest / The Breakout CEO / 49 - The Cost of Scaling a Marketplace With Misaligned Incentives

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49 - The Cost of Scaling a Marketplace With Misaligned Incentives · The Breakout CEO

• 0:00
  At scale, you know,
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  because we all have building companies
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  to scale for the most part.
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  You know, misalignment becomes
• 0:05
  the most expensive risk.
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  Growth will only amplify
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  amplify the cracks.
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  So your mission,
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  your partners, your customers.
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  They all have to be pulling of
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  in the same direction.
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  Welcome back to the breakout CEO podcast.
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  I'm your host, Jeff Holeman.
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  Very glad to be with you again today.
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  Talking with smart people
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  like Paul Roberts from Good Bites Paul.
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  So, so glad to have you on the show.
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  Great. Great to be here, Jeff.
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  You know, watch a couple of the episodes.
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  Love, love the conversation.
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  Excited to be here.
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  Well, the conversation is
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  is comes from the guests.
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  I mean, we get all these great insights.
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  And so we're lucky to have you
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  as we as we've had other guests
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  that have done really cool stuff.
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  So thank you.
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  Appreciate that.
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  Yeah.
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  So so you've done
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  I mean speaking of doing stuff as well.
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  Just jump right into that. Right.
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  You you've done a few things,
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  a few successful things
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  that led up to your current thing.
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  Let's we'll
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  get a few details on each of those and,
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  and get down to some breakout
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  moments here.
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  But,
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  tell me first, you know,
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  we talked a little bit
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  in our icebreaker questions
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  about family
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  and about how you like to talk
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  with your kids
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  and your your spouse
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  about the things
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  going on in the business.
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  How does, I know some people who do that,
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  some people
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  who are very much open at home
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  about business,
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  maybe sometimes business is happening
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  in the home.
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  Like,
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  how does that impact
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  the way that you
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  that that you think about business
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  where you've got these kids
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  and wife and everybody is is kind of
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  I don't know
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  if they're involved involved,
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  but they're they're involved, right.
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  Yeah.
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  They're involved because again, where I,
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  I just think as,
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  executives, CEOs, founders, this is
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  unfortunately a 24 over
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  seven job most of the time.
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  So you do take a lot of it.
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  You do wear a lot of it on your shoulders
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  all the time. Things are good.
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  You know, things are bad.
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  I think one of the biggest challenges
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  is making sure that that doesn't
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  bleed into the day. To day at home.
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  While you're talking about business,
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  you're talking.
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  I try personally to keep it
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  as almost teaching moments for the kids
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  of, you know, this is
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  this is how you can be an entrepreneur.
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  This is what entrepreneurs
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  do, is what CEOs do.
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  And I think,
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  you know, to keep it in
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  the House is more
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  from that teaching moment.
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  You know, and I try, like,
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  you know,
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  my wife will realize
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  I'm having a tough day.
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  She's like, all right, let it go.
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  You know, tomorrow's a new day.
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  Like, let's have fun as a family
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  and kind of put that aside.
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  Yeah, yeah. And that's.
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  That can be hard to do.
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  I mean, because,
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  like you said, you
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  we we are in this all day, every day.
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  And, you know,
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  I have my own small business.
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  But talking with the CEOs that I work
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  with and other businesses
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  like, like
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  there's a lot of your shoulders
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  and there's not always a lot of,
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  you know,
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  there aren't a lot of resources
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  necessarily to turn to, to offload that.
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  Right?
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  So you have to kind of
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  put it away for the evening.
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  It comes back out the next day
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  and it's still there.
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  Like how do you manage the stresses
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  and, you know,
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  maybe release the pressures
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  of of being a CEO.
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  Well, one thing I've learned
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  is that you
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  have to really focus on the variables
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  you can control.
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  There's so much of it
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  that's out of our control.
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  You know, I can fly over to India and sit
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  at the desk
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  of some of the developers and say,
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  move fast or move faster.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, it's it's
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  things are going to happen
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  as they happen.
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  I wake up every morning
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  with the to do list to try to,
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  to impact the business
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  ways that I personally can.
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  And try to let
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  people that I trust
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  and put in those positions
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  to do their job. Do their job.
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  You know,
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  are there times where we need
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  to kind of have a conversation of,
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  okay, we need to speed things up.
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  We need to do things better, of course.
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  But I personally look at it
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  as, you know, maintaining my sanity
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  by looking at the variables
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  I can personally put my finger on
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  and say, okay,
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  I can help the company grow
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  by doing this.
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  I can help the company scale
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  by doing that.
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  If I just sat all day,
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  you know,
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  for 18 hours a day
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  and looked at
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  every single little nuance of
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  what's going right, what's going wrong,
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  I think I would lose my mind.
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  Yeah.
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  Well,
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  so have you put other people in place
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  to take care of those things that you
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  that you don't have control over,
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  like other people can worry about that?
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  Or is it is
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  it just something
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  that, you know,
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  when the when the time comes
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  in this or situations, right.
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  You'll be able to take care of it.
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  How do you.
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  Because putting that off is not for now.
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  But a lot of times
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  those things are still there tomorrow.
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  Right?
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  It's not so much of putting it off.
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  It's I, I always equate a
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  CEO is a great bench coach.
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  You might not be out there
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  hitting the final shot.
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  You might not throw the touchdown
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  or take the last shot of the game,
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  but you put that person there.
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  You gave them the playbook.
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  You gave them all the tools and resources
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  they needed to be successful.
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  You know, I would always tell people I
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  a lot of times the engineers,
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  the data scientists,
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  I don't really always understand
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  everything they're saying.
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  But I find,
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  you know, you try to hire the best
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  and the brightest
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  who do know what they're doing,
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  who do understand all those nuances.
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  So that's kind of helpful where you know,
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  I can't write certain code,
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  I can't design certain algorithms,
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  but you have those people who can
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  and you put your trust in them,
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  which is a big part of it.
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  You're trusting
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  that you have the right pieces,
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  and you have to very quickly assess
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  if you don't,
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  to make sure you get those right pieces.
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  So, for me, that's kind of how
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  I, I look at it
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  that I don't need to be the shining star,
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  nor am I most times
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  in an organization, it's,
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  you know,
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  I just have the playbook
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  and the resources
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  to put the right people out on the field.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  I want to hear about who
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  the right people are
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  and what the team looks like.
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  Very good bites.
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  But before we do that, well,
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  give us a flavor of some of the mileposts
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  from your career that led up to,
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  starting.
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  Good Bites.
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  Yeah, I've,
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  I've been a serial entrepreneur
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  since, you know, my early 20s.
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  And,
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  I always joke with some of you that day.
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  You bat 300 in in baseball,
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  you get into the Hall of Fame.
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  I've probably done just around that.
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  Successful start ups.
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  You know, I've raised over $130 million,
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  over the last ten years.
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  For companies that I helmed.
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  Yeah.
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  Spac during the Spac boom.
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  We raised a little over
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  $100 million for that Spac.
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  You know, for me,
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  it was always, how do you
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  how do you find,
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  you know, real problems to solve,
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  that are going to have scalability.
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  And, you know, we've done
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  some unique things around
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  data science and machine learning.
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  And with good buy,
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  the whole focus is
• 6:22
  how do you combine everyday behavior
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  with with doing well.
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  So our motto is,
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  you know, eat well, do good.
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  So, you know,
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  we're building
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  a, a food delivery platform
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  that that gives back with every order.
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  I love it.
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  This is,
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  something that I'm not reinventing.
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  Food delivery.
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  I'm not going to reinvent charity.
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  But if we can combine
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  the two of them into a very seamless,
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  scalable platform,
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  you know, we can
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  we can have real impact
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  and obviously help people along the way.
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  Yeah.
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  You're putting a Paul Robert stamp on,
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  your own business model.
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  Well,
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  so from those from those experiences,
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  pretty good bites.
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  What are a couple of the lessons
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  that you picked up
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  that you've been able to now apply
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  as the CEO of Good Bites?
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  Where do I start?
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  Yeah, the the thousands,
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  the daily lessons.
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  Right. Yeah.
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  You know which ones
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  stand out to you, though?
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  Like, at scale.
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  You know,
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  because we all are building companies
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  to scale for the most part.
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  You know, misalignment becomes
• 7:21
  the most expensive risk is
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  if you, you know, early on,
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  we rush, we rush, we rush,
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  and sometimes things get misaligned,
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  things get done improperly.
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  And then as you start to scale,
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  it really becomes expensive.
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  Are you talking on stuff like, like,
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  like having the wrong tech stack,
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  or are you talking about
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  like, team and culture?
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  Are you talking about pricing or I mean,
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  or the of any of those above?
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  And I've kind of dealt
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  with all of those where,
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  you know, hey,
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  one company, we decided,
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  hey, let's use Erlang.
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  Is this,
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  you know, unique language and great.
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  So we code our first iteration in Erlang.
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  And I realize there's
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  about 45 Erlang developers
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  across the entire United States.
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  I just
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  happened to meet a
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  really good one day, one,
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  you know, in New York City.
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  So now all of a sudden he's like, well,
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  I would probably suggest that
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  we don't use Erlang.
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  Is it
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  that that would have been nice to
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  hear earlier.
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  And then the,
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  you know, hiring,
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  like I mentioned earlier, you know,
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  everybody looks good
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  on a resume in an interview
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  a lot of times it's,
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  you know,
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  you have to cut your losses quickly.
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  Move on.
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  So all of the things you mentioned,
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  pricing models,
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  a lot of times when you, you,
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  you build a product, you build a company,
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  you have a certain
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  pricing model in your mind.
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  But then once you go to test the market,
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  it completely changes.
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  Yeah.
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  So I think there's
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  all of those you have to be,
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  you know, somewhat flexible,
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  but also giving yourself an off ramp
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  as you scale.
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  Because I think
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  if you lock yourself into that code,
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  if you lock yourself
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  into a certain employee or pricing,
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  you know,
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  you could find yourself in a very,
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  very tough spot
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  when you start to scale up.
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  Yeah.
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  You know,
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  I've seen teams where,
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  you know, one person,
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  I would always joke,
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  you know,
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  who's got the keys to the elevator?
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  If it's only one person,
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  we're in trouble.
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  You know,
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  we have to have, distributed risk
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  within the organization.
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  As you're saying this,
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  it makes me think of some experience
• 9:08
  that I've seen with clients where,
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  you know, sometimes these these early,
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  you know, first, second,
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  third time
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  CEOs, they go out
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  and they learn all these lessons,
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  and then they they kind of pull back.
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  They're like, man, I just
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  I can't take this anymore.
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  I gotta I got to take less risk.
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  Yeah. Or whatever.
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  Have your
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  every CEO who's started
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  companies has been through these lessons
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  in one form or another.
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  Has going through these lessons made you,
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  you know,
• 9:37
  in some aspects
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  more cautious how you approach things?
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  Has it made you more bold?
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  Has it just made you smarter?
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  Like how would you
• 9:45
  how would you characterize
• 9:46
  what you've taken away from the lessons?
• 9:48
  Yeah, I you know,
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  I think what I've learned over the last,
• 9:52
  you know, few decades, it's
• 9:54
  you can't learn in business school.
• 9:56
  You only can learn it by doing it.
• 9:59
  So I you know, you wore the black eyes.
• 10:03
  You did the thing.
• 10:03
  You you you lost the money.
• 10:05
  You you scaled the company, you won.
• 10:08
  You know, all these different
• 10:08
  things come from experience.
• 10:10
  So being more bolder, more cautious,
• 10:13
  I don't
• 10:13
  I don't think I necessarily lean
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  one way or the other.
• 10:16
  It's just,
• 10:17
  you see where
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  a lot of the landmines are before
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  they come up on the journey.
• 10:21
  If that makes sense. Yep.
• 10:24
  And again, you realize things where,
• 10:26
  you know, a big thing
• 10:27
  I believe in
• 10:28
  is to try not to make
• 10:29
  the same mistakes twice.
• 10:30
  Because, you know,
• 10:31
  as a CEO, it's very, very painful.
• 10:34
  You know, so if I made it a company ago
• 10:37
  or two companies ago
• 10:38
  or a different fundraising event,
• 10:40
  you try not to make it again.
• 10:42
  But I
• 10:43
  think that
• 10:43
  that knowledge of of being through that,
• 10:45
  that experience that can give you
• 10:48
  the afford you
• 10:49
  the ability to be a little more bold
• 10:51
  because oddly enough,
• 10:53
  you're a little more cautious
• 10:54
  in certain areas
• 10:55
  because you've been there,
• 10:56
  you realize
• 10:57
  not to make that mistake again.
• 10:59
  I talked to
• 11:00
  I talked to clients about,
• 11:01
  and, and friends and everybody,
• 11:02
  business owners
• 11:03
  about seeing around corners
• 11:04
  that you haven't, you know,
• 11:05
  haven't seen around before. Right.
• 11:06
  And, acting like a second time founder
• 11:09
  when you're a really
• 11:10
  a first time veteran,
• 11:11
  you know,
• 11:11
  trying to leverage those things. Yeah.
• 11:13
  How do you
• 11:14
  so clearly,
• 11:15
  when you've been through a situation
• 11:17
  and you've,
• 11:17
  you've seen the results of that,
• 11:19
  you know,
• 11:20
  okay, next time
• 11:21
  I'm going to do the same thing
• 11:22
  or I'm not going to do the same thing.
• 11:24
  How has that influenced
• 11:25
  your ability
• 11:25
  to make decisions about corners
• 11:27
  that you haven't seen around yet,
• 11:29
  that you haven't actually experienced?
• 11:31
  I think you just start to
• 11:32
  trust your instincts faster.
• 11:34
  You don't need the perfect information.
• 11:36
  You don't need the perfect data.
• 11:38
  You'll get the data.
• 11:39
  I think you just need the right signal
• 11:41
  or enough of a signal
• 11:42
  to to move with conviction.
• 11:44
  Because you almost have that third,
• 11:47
  you know, let's say.
• 11:48
  And then you have a sense you have
• 11:50
  you have something
• 11:51
  that's telling you, okay,
• 11:51
  I have a general idea
• 11:52
  what's around the corner.
• 11:54
  And I've done this before.
• 11:55
  I've peaked around strange corners
• 11:57
  in business.
• 11:57
  And yeah, it's not the end of the world.
• 11:59
  We've gone out of it.
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  You know,
• 12:01
  you just try not to ever have that
• 12:03
  fatal blow, I guess.
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  I love that phrase.
• 12:06
  I haven't heard anybody say it that way.
• 12:08
  Peaked around strange corners.
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  So once it came out,
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  I said, wait a second.
• 12:12
  I have to clarify this. Hello?
• 12:15
  Oh, no, I didn't take it in the
• 12:16
  in any other way.
• 12:17
  But like,
• 12:18
  I think as a business owner, you
• 12:20
  you are peeking around a lot of strange,
• 12:22
  unfamiliar territory
• 12:23
  and you're just like,
• 12:24
  never been over that hill.
• 12:26
  You know, I'm
• 12:26
  speaking to somebody this morning
• 12:27
  and they're like, well,
• 12:28
  you know how much experience you have
• 12:30
  in the food restaurant industry?
• 12:31
  I said, zero,
• 12:33
  yeah, you know, but
• 12:33
  but I understand
• 12:34
  it's a marketplace of supply demand.
• 12:37
  I have these mechanisms
• 12:38
  and I do understand
• 12:39
  very well from other companies
• 12:40
  I've started.
• 12:41
  So it's you just have to kind of insert,
• 12:44
  you know, food delivery, various websites
• 12:47
  or, you know, different things
• 12:48
  in my mind
• 12:49
  that I could easily get my head around.
• 12:50
  So yes, it is a blind spot.
• 12:52
  It is peeking around a corner. But
• 12:55
  at the
• 12:55
  end of the day, it's it's
• 12:56
  a pretty fundamental business.
• 12:58
  So.
• 12:59
  So when you made the transition
• 13:00
  from earlier business into good bites,
• 13:03
  well, tell us first
• 13:04
  give us the overview of good bites.
• 13:06
  You know,
• 13:06
  give us your elevator pitch for that.
• 13:08
  Yeah.
• 13:09
  You know, very similar
• 13:10
  to every food delivery app
• 13:11
  you've ever used.
• 13:12
  DoorDash, Grubhub, seamless, etc..
• 13:14
  No big difference there.
• 13:16
  The main difference is that
• 13:17
  when you go to place
• 13:19
  an order,
• 13:20
  we're going to give you the opportunity
• 13:21
  to select a charity you want to support.
• 13:23
  So today
• 13:24
  we have a handful
• 13:25
  of national charities like Make-A-Wish,
• 13:27
  No Kid Hungry.
• 13:29
  A lot of local charities.
• 13:32
  We're very focused
• 13:33
  on the college campuses
• 13:34
  because most Greek organizations,
• 13:35
  student organizations,
• 13:37
  they have to support a charity
• 13:39
  every semester.
• 13:40
  You're also ordering food
• 13:42
  at a rate significantly higher
• 13:43
  than your average consumer.
• 13:45
  A lot of not my wife.
• 13:47
  I yeah,
• 13:49
  a lot,
• 13:49
  a lot of times the students are using
• 13:51
  mom and dad's credit card.
• 13:52
  It's almost funny.
• 13:53
  You know, it's monopoly money to them.
• 13:55
  So what we're doing is,
• 13:56
  you know, rebuilding,
• 13:58
  today, a food delivery marketplace
• 14:01
  with, restaurants and consumers
• 14:04
  and charities in the middle.
• 14:06
  So, okay, we're introducing,
• 14:08
  you know, really good behavior,
• 14:10
  charity behavior
• 14:11
  every single day for these,
• 14:13
  these college students who,
• 14:14
  you know, when they're ordering,
• 14:15
  they're pliable or they're,
• 14:17
  you know, they're tacos.
• 14:18
  They're also delivering $2 to a charity
• 14:20
  that really has impact.
• 14:23
  Oh, nice. Well, I guess I should clarify.
• 14:24
  My wife does a lot of Instacart
• 14:26
  for the family. I guess not as much.
• 14:27
  Not as much of the DoorDash type stuff.
• 14:29
  Good bite stuff, if that's fair.
• 14:32
  Well, I want to hear about
• 14:33
  I want to hear about,
• 14:33
  the charity aspect of it,
• 14:34
  but I want to go back
• 14:35
  just for a second
• 14:36
  to what we were talking about,
• 14:36
  to kind of
• 14:37
  kind of link
• 14:38
  the prior experience
• 14:39
  to starting Good Bites,
• 14:41
  because I'm really curious,
• 14:42
  did you have experience?
• 14:45
  In, in the
• 14:46
  business, I think you just said
• 14:47
  not a lot of experience
• 14:48
  in the food business, but
• 14:50
  but what kind of things
• 14:51
  did you bring from your past experiences
• 14:54
  to say,
• 14:54
  yeah, this is where I'm going to go.
• 14:56
  This is what I want to do.
• 14:58
  And and I've got a few
• 15:00
  I've got a few skills
• 15:01
  that I can bring to this.
• 15:02
  So prior company that I built was a,
• 15:05
  programmatic advertising company.
• 15:06
  So we, we took,
• 15:08
  tremendous amount
• 15:09
  of websites, publishers,
• 15:12
  you know, connected TV apps.
• 15:14
  And we connected them to advertisers.
• 15:16
  So to me, it's
• 15:17
  a very similar marketplace
• 15:19
  where we're connecting supply and demand.
• 15:21
  If you just insert,
• 15:23
  you know, the websites
• 15:24
  and the apps with the consumers
• 15:25
  and the advertisers, with restaurants,
• 15:27
  we're just basically creating pipes.
• 15:30
  If I tried to build, you know, goodbye
• 15:33
  ten years ago, 15 years ago,
• 15:35
  it would have cost 50 to $100 million.
• 15:37
  But today
• 15:39
  you have these point of sale systems.
• 15:40
  Everybody has an API integration.
• 15:42
  Everybody's connected.
• 15:43
  Yeah.
• 15:44
  So for us,
• 15:45
  we're basically acting as a middle layer
• 15:46
  between all these different,
• 15:48
  you know,
• 15:48
  all these different delivery services,
• 15:50
  all these different restaurants,
• 15:52
  all these different POS systems,
• 15:53
  all of these different charities.
• 15:55
  And we're giving the consumer
• 15:56
  a nice, easy front end
• 15:58
  to go in and basically order food
• 16:00
  and feel good about it.
• 16:01
  So like I said, if I tried to do this
• 16:04
  and, you know, I've looked at,
• 16:06
  spent countless hours
• 16:07
  reading through the public filings
• 16:09
  of, you know,
• 16:11
  these, these other large marketplaces
• 16:13
  and the amount of money
• 16:14
  they spent, the bill,
• 16:15
  driver networks and connectivity
• 16:17
  between all the restaurants,
• 16:19
  it was hundreds of millions of dollars.
• 16:21
  But now that we've done that,
• 16:22
  we could build on top of it.
• 16:24
  Yeah.
• 16:25
  Yeah.
• 16:25
  So the cost of entry is,
• 16:27
  is not nearly as high.
• 16:28
  So you're
• 16:29
  you're not the first mover
• 16:30
  in the market, right?
• 16:31
  Other people have existed.
• 16:34
  Is there is there some hesitancy
• 16:36
  when you're saying to yourself,
• 16:37
  okay, these guys have been in the market
• 16:39
  for a while.
• 16:40
  They've established,
• 16:41
  I mean, they've
• 16:42
  they've built the infrastructure
• 16:43
  to which you can leverage.
• 16:44
  But should we really go up against
• 16:47
  some of these people?
• 16:48
  Is this like is really, really want to be
• 16:51
  you know,
• 16:51
  one of the first people I hold is
• 16:54
  a gentleman who's invested
• 16:55
  alongside me in numerous ventures.
• 16:57
  And I said,
• 16:58
  I'm going to rebuild DoorDash and Grubhub
• 17:00
  to do it right.
• 17:01
  And he laughed.
• 17:02
  And he said, you
• 17:03
  just crazy enough to do this, aren't you?
• 17:04
  I said, yeah, you know.
• 17:06
  And I said to him, the entire angle
• 17:08
  right now,
• 17:08
  if you look at
• 17:10
  the behavior of the consumers,
• 17:12
  they're getting incredibly
• 17:13
  frustrated with the fees
• 17:14
  that they're paying.
• 17:15
  The restaurants are being charged
• 17:17
  anywhere
• 17:18
  from 15 to 30% by these platforms.
• 17:21
  And if you speak to a restaurant owner,
• 17:23
  I know a lot of restaurant
• 17:24
  owners here in New York.
• 17:24
  They say my my margins, not 25%,
• 17:28
  but you but,
• 17:29
  but but the platforms
• 17:30
  want to take that entire margin. Correct.
• 17:32
  So now what happens?
• 17:33
  The consumer gets hurt
• 17:35
  because that restaurant owner
• 17:36
  has to increase his prices
• 17:38
  across the board on his menu
• 17:39
  anytime somebody orders
• 17:40
  through one of these apps.
• 17:42
  Yeah. Just to cover the fee.
• 17:44
  And there's other issues like,
• 17:47
  these platforms
• 17:48
  don't share any
• 17:48
  the consumer data with the restaurants.
• 17:51
  So
• 17:53
  he's got,
• 17:54
  you know, six
• 17:54
  restaurants here in New York
• 17:55
  and said, I'm
• 17:56
  basically a ghost kitchen
• 17:57
  for these, these platforms.
• 17:59
  Yeah.
• 17:59
  You know, they
• 18:00
  consumer comes on, they see me,
• 18:02
  they they order the food.
• 18:04
  A driver shows up with a number,
• 18:05
  I match the number to the tag,
• 18:07
  I give them the food and off they go.
• 18:09
  I have no connection with my consumer.
• 18:12
  So I think, you're seeing a lot of it.
• 18:14
  I don't want to say use the word regret
• 18:16
  because obviously they're
• 18:17
  generating a lot of revenue,
• 18:19
  but I think the business model
• 18:20
  is causing a lot of angst
• 18:22
  with restaurant. Yeah.
• 18:23
  I mean, certainly
• 18:23
  there's got to be tension, right?
• 18:25
  Somebody who's built a brick and mortar
• 18:26
  restaurant has seats to
• 18:28
  to fill and staff on site,
• 18:30
  all of a sudden
• 18:31
  they're, they're balancing
• 18:33
  the, the, the operating,
• 18:35
  the normal operating costs
• 18:36
  with the ghost kitchen model.
• 18:39
  You know, it also makes me think,
• 18:40
  because I've talked
• 18:40
  a lot of guests recently,
• 18:41
  for whatever reason,
• 18:42
  I've brought up the book
• 18:43
  Unreasonable Hospitality.
• 18:44
  And the way you mentioned
• 18:45
  it just made me think of that, you know,
• 18:46
  how do you
• 18:47
  how do you build unreasonable
• 18:48
  hospitality for,
• 18:50
  consumer market
• 18:51
  that you don't actually have the data for
• 18:53
  and don't even interact with?
• 18:55
  Like, that's
• 18:56
  you're you're missing out at one of the
• 18:58
  maybe most fulfilling parts
• 19:00
  of a business, right?
• 19:00
  Building the community
• 19:01
  around that restaurant.
• 19:02
  Just a quick note about our guest.
• 19:05
  I host the breakout
• 19:06
  CEO podcast
• 19:07
  to share behind the scenes insights
• 19:09
  from scaling businesses.
• 19:11
  As an attorney, I see the real challenges
• 19:13
  leaders face
• 19:14
  long before success becomes public.
• 19:17
  But client stories
• 19:18
  have to stay confidential.
• 19:20
  So we invite guest CEOs
• 19:22
  to share their own moments of struggle
• 19:24
  and success.
• 19:26
  I'm so grateful to our guest and MIT team
• 19:28
  at Intellectual Strategies
• 19:30
  for making this show possible.
• 19:32
  Now let's get back to the show.
• 19:34
  And Jeff,
• 19:34
  I think you just hit the nail on.
• 19:35
  You know, a big part
• 19:36
  for us,
• 19:37
  connecting the consumer
• 19:38
  in the restaurant with the charity.
• 19:40
  So everyone feels part of something
• 19:42
  bigger than just the transaction.
• 19:43
  Yeah.
• 19:44
  That order starts to feel personal.
• 19:47
  You know, we give the charity,
• 19:48
  you order your,
• 19:49
  you know, your meal, your pizza comes,
• 19:52
  you know, 30 minutes later,
• 19:53
  you're getting a text message
• 19:54
  from the charity thanking you
• 19:56
  and explaining what your $2 actually
• 19:58
  means, that charity
• 19:59
  where somebody like
• 20:00
  no kid hungry, it feeds,
• 20:02
  you know, 5 to 10 kids. Yeah.
• 20:04
  So now all of a sudden
• 20:05
  you're eating your meal.
• 20:06
  It has such a greater impact.
• 20:08
  And then we're hoping
• 20:09
  that this ties back to the restaurant.
• 20:12
  The meal.
• 20:13
  It's no longer.
• 20:14
  Hey, I just ordered from this massive,
• 20:15
  you know, conglomerate.
• 20:17
  It actually has an impact.
• 20:19
  The restaurant's a part of that.
• 20:20
  The restaurant owner
• 20:21
  can feel good about that as well.
• 20:23
  And there's a whole.
• 20:24
  There's a whole side of the business
• 20:25
  with the with the nonprofit.
• 20:26
  Right.
• 20:26
  Like, I,
• 20:27
  I sat on the board of a nonprofit
• 20:28
  here in Utah called friends for site.
• 20:30
  They, they would
• 20:30
  they would screen,
• 20:32
  kids at a certain age for amblyopia or,
• 20:35
  you know, what turns into lazy eye.
• 20:36
  And if you catch it, you can correct it.
• 20:38
  If you don't, you can't.
• 20:40
  At least, or at least not as easily.
• 20:41
  I'm not sure if I'm correct it or not.
• 20:43
  Totally, but
• 20:44
  but they did this
• 20:45
  and I remember them talking.
• 20:46
  This was back.
• 20:47
  Back before, I don't know.
• 20:48
  This was maybe 12 years ago.
• 20:50
  And they were talking
• 20:51
  about how they were one of,
• 20:53
  I think, 2 or 3
• 20:55
  charities who were approved
• 20:56
  to be
• 20:57
  on the DMV renewal forms,
• 20:59
  and you could check your box
• 21:01
  at a dollar ad, $2,
• 21:02
  whatever it was,
• 21:03
  and have that,
• 21:04
  even though it was such a small amount.
• 21:06
  That was a huge part of their
• 21:08
  of their operating budget
• 21:09
  because it worked right.
• 21:11
  And and they had access to it.
• 21:13
  And other people
• 21:13
  probably would have loved
• 21:15
  to have the same access.
• 21:16
  I'm not sure how that,
• 21:17
  how that worked politically, but,
• 21:20
  you know, so you're
• 21:21
  you're really giving an avenue to the
• 21:24
  I mean,
• 21:25
  from a consumer standpoint,
• 21:27
  I think it'd be easy to say,
• 21:28
  oh, gosh, you know, I'm
• 21:29
  making a little contribution.
• 21:31
  Yeah. I feel good.
• 21:32
  But but to the nonprofit,
• 21:35
  some of these programs
• 21:37
  that really give them exposure
• 21:39
  can create an entire,
• 21:40
  you know, operating budget for them
• 21:42
  that wasn't there before, right?
• 21:43
  Yeah. It's huge. And you're right.
• 21:46
  We're making very similar
• 21:47
  to the license plate idea.
• 21:48
  It's how do you make giving effortless.
• 21:50
  You know, build it into everyday actions
• 21:52
  and then suddenly those small gestures,
• 21:54
  like you said,
• 21:54
  could be one of the biggest,
• 21:55
  you know,
• 21:56
  Donadoni
• 21:57
  donation channels
• 21:58
  that these check, these nonprofits. See?
• 22:01
  Yeah.
• 22:02
  What a lot of charities struggle
• 22:03
  with also is in America,
• 22:05
  we're typically giving,
• 22:07
  you know, about 70 to 80% of donors
• 22:09
  give one time
• 22:10
  and don't give again to a charity.
• 22:12
  So it's
• 22:12
  hard for them to stay engaged.
• 22:15
  And I think that's one thing
• 22:17
  we're trying to address where,
• 22:19
  you know, after a while,
• 22:19
  the charities will say to us, well,
• 22:21
  how many more, please?
• 22:22
  Or how many more mailings,
• 22:23
  how many more emails
• 22:24
  or postcards being sent?
• 22:26
  Now all of a sudden, it's okay.
• 22:28
  We know
• 22:28
  you know Paul
• 22:29
  and you know, he's got three
• 22:30
  boys are playing a lot of sports.
• 22:31
  His wife, we're always running around.
• 22:33
  We order food maybe a few times a week.
• 22:36
  I can have a real impact
• 22:37
  without really doing anything
• 22:39
  more than I was already doing.
• 22:41
  Yeah.
• 22:41
  And then it gives the charity
• 22:42
  a great opportunity
• 22:43
  then to engage with that
• 22:44
  audience in a very positive way.
• 22:46
  They're not calling.
• 22:47
  They're not asking for your credit card
• 22:48
  number anymore.
• 22:49
  You know, Jeff,
• 22:50
  we want you to run another five K.
• 22:52
  It's thank you for your donation.
• 22:54
  It's a very positive net positive.
• 22:56
  You know, interaction with
• 22:57
  with the person who donated the money.
• 22:59
  Yeah.
• 23:00
  Yeah, that makes sense.
• 23:01
  Creating those recurring
• 23:02
  touchpoints that,
• 23:04
  I don't know,
• 23:05
  there's a phrase for it, but.
• 23:06
  Well,
• 23:07
  there's a marketing phrase for it, right?
• 23:08
  I went to recurring revenue.
• 23:10
  And what's the analogous
• 23:11
  for recurring touchpoints
• 23:12
  for a, a nonprofit.
• 23:13
  But it's it's probably just brand
• 23:15
  exposure, right?
• 23:16
  Yeah, it's it's engagement.
• 23:18
  Also it's, you know,
• 23:19
  and the audience
• 23:20
  we're targeting that that college student
• 23:23
  is such a valuable audience
• 23:24
  for charities,
• 23:25
  especially as they're coming out of,
• 23:27
  you know,
• 23:27
  the education side of the world
• 23:29
  into the let's call
• 23:30
  called making money side of the world.
• 23:31
  Yeah.
• 23:32
  You know, so
• 23:32
  they're looking for okay, where
• 23:34
  where do I have a higher purpose here?
• 23:35
  Where can I help make an impact?
• 23:37
  So they're also learning about charities
• 23:40
  through good bites
• 23:41
  that they might not have
• 23:41
  already known about.
• 23:43
  Well, so, Paul, what is
• 23:44
  good might look like today.
• 23:46
  Like what markets are you in?
• 23:47
  What does your team look like?
• 23:48
  Things like that. Yeah.
• 23:50
  Yeah.
• 23:50
  So we're we're currently in beta
• 23:52
  at one university.
• 23:53
  We have 50 universities,
• 23:55
  hopefully by the end of March.
• 23:57
  We have a goal
• 23:58
  to be at 100 campuses next year.
• 24:01
  Hopefully we're going to be somewhere
• 24:02
  in a neighborhood north of,
• 24:04
  maybe half $1
• 24:05
  million per month,
• 24:06
  which will equate to
• 24:06
  about $1 million donated per month.
• 24:09
  Well,
• 24:10
  we have right now,
• 24:11
  we have 208 college
• 24:12
  ambassadors, university
• 24:14
  ambassadors across the US, ranging from,
• 24:17
  you know, big SEC schools, Big Ten, UCLA,
• 24:21
  you know, University, you know, State
• 24:23
  University of New York system.
• 24:24
  We we have students
• 24:26
  because they're the ones
• 24:27
  who honestly really care.
• 24:28
  And they're the ones
• 24:29
  who are getting this,
• 24:30
  you know, really,
• 24:31
  really engagement on the campus.
• 24:33
  So they're the ones talking
• 24:34
  to their fellow students of,
• 24:36
  you know,
• 24:36
  I see all of your coffee
• 24:37
  every single day to class,
• 24:39
  you know, use good light now
• 24:40
  rather than this other platform
• 24:42
  where you get
• 24:42
  $2 to do a local food bank or,
• 24:45
  you know, a woman shelter here in town.
• 24:49
  I don't and I've said this
• 24:50
  numerous times publicly,
• 24:52
  I don't want to have a massive,
• 24:54
  you know, three, 400 person company.
• 24:57
  I think so much can be done with AI.
• 24:59
  So much can be done
• 25:00
  with,
• 25:01
  you know, repeated
• 25:02
  tasks with AI, which is great.
• 25:05
  You know, maybe another podcast
• 25:07
  for another day, how
• 25:09
  AI is really changing the workforce.
• 25:11
  But it's it's
• 25:12
  been something else for me personally.
• 25:14
  Yeah. Yeah, that that makes sense.
• 25:16
  Well, so as you've been building this,
• 25:17
  as you've been putting the ambassadors
• 25:19
  in place,
• 25:19
  as you've been rolling out the beta
• 25:22
  at the university, like
• 25:23
  what's been working?
• 25:24
  Well, it's keeping it simple.
• 25:28
  Not overcomplicating it.
• 25:29
  It's, you know,
• 25:30
  this is a food delivery platform.
• 25:32
  It's going to save the restaurants money.
• 25:34
  It's going to help students
• 25:36
  donate money that that, you know,
• 25:37
  to a charity that cares.
• 25:39
  And it helps the charities
• 25:41
  see that repeatable, donation
• 25:44
  and also engagement
• 25:45
  from a very valuable audience
• 25:46
  in the college students. So,
• 25:48
  all three parties
• 25:49
  have benefited so far from good bite.
• 25:53
  It's just a matter
• 25:53
  now of how quickly we can scale it
• 25:55
  across the country to every campus.
• 25:56
  And then the goal is within 24 months
• 25:59
  to be nationally.
• 26:01
  Every city, every state.
• 26:02
  Yeah. Very cool. I love the goals.
• 26:05
  What what
• 26:05
  what's an area where you've run into
• 26:08
  maybe unexpected obstacles
• 26:10
  that you thought, oh, this will be,
• 26:12
  you know, we'll just put,
• 26:13
  you know,
• 26:13
  you put these things in place
• 26:14
  and everything starts rolling
• 26:15
  from there and you're like,
• 26:16
  wait a second.
• 26:17
  There's another thing I got to deal with.
• 26:18
  What?
• 26:19
  What have you had to deal with
• 26:20
  as you've done this?
• 26:21
  I think the biggest one
• 26:23
  we've had to overcome is,
• 26:24
  a lot of these bigger,
• 26:26
  you know,
• 26:26
  platforms
• 26:28
  dangled some incentives
• 26:29
  and get it exclusivity.
• 26:30
  So, restaurants
• 26:32
  will only be on one platform.
• 26:35
  So we're
• 26:35
  back to kind of, you know,
• 26:37
  think of creative ways to do that.
• 26:38
  We've we've worked
• 26:39
  with a lot of universities
• 26:40
  and conversation
• 26:41
  to be part of their meal plan.
• 26:43
  Different things like that.
• 26:44
  But that was one we didn't see.
• 26:47
  You know, and anytime
• 26:48
  you're going to develop a market,
• 26:49
  you always have to quickly
• 26:50
  figure out the hard side of the market.
• 26:52
  Yeah, charities.
• 26:53
  Every single charity
• 26:54
  we speak to says yes.
• 26:56
  They want to engage with with donors.
• 26:57
  They want more donations.
• 26:59
  The students love the idea.
• 27:01
  They can't stand the fees.
• 27:02
  They can't stand the fact that, you know,
• 27:04
  there's there's in
• 27:06
  no other way really challenging a campus
• 27:08
  to raise, raised donations.
• 27:09
  So this helps them.
• 27:11
  Restaurant owners enjoy it
• 27:13
  because they're paying less money,
• 27:14
  and they could actually feel good.
• 27:16
  You know,
• 27:16
  they're helping their community.
• 27:18
  So that was the biggest thing
• 27:20
  we came up against
• 27:21
  was that some of these other platforms
• 27:23
  require the restaurants to sign,
• 27:25
  you know, either short term or
• 27:26
  long term exclusivity deals.
• 27:29
  That seems
• 27:30
  I'm surprised that they would do that.
• 27:32
  I mean, I, I guess,
• 27:33
  as I think about it, Coke and Pepsi,
• 27:35
  you don't find them at the same spots
• 27:36
  very often. Right.
• 27:37
  And so a lot of them,
• 27:38
  I think either
• 27:39
  cost structure wise,
• 27:40
  they've created exclusivity
• 27:42
  or maybe they've got contracts.
• 27:43
  I'm not sure.
• 27:44
  But,
• 27:45
  I guess I'm a little surprised
• 27:46
  that there's exclusivity.
• 27:47
  What's the incentive for the restaurants
• 27:49
  to have that exclusivity better?
• 27:50
  Like a better terms?
• 27:51
  Better pricing? Better? Exactly.
• 27:53
  They'll typically tell them, hey,
• 27:54
  you know what?
• 27:55
  Your contracts, you know, 30% commission.
• 27:58
  You know,
• 27:58
  we'll do, you know,
• 28:00
  20% commission
• 28:01
  if you give us exclusivity
• 28:02
  for six months,
• 28:03
  you know,
• 28:03
  don't want our competitors apps.
• 28:05
  Interesting.
• 28:06
  And that's
• 28:07
  if that's the difference
• 28:07
  between making making some profit versus
• 28:10
  making no profit.
• 28:11
  Then, I guess why not do it right?
• 28:13
  It's a $100.
• 28:16
  Yeah.
• 28:16
  Until there's
• 28:16
  until you see the competition out there.
• 28:18
  Well, so when you've,
• 28:19
  when you've approached these restaurants,
• 28:21
  whether they've got the exclusivity
• 28:22
  or not, you're talking to them.
• 28:24
  One at a time, I assume. Right.
• 28:25
  Or it's really the student ambassadors.
• 28:28
  So that's the interesting
• 28:29
  part of our model is we,
• 28:30
  you know,
• 28:30
  we'll have anywhere
• 28:31
  from from 2 to 15 ambassadors per campus.
• 28:35
  And, one of the first things we do
• 28:36
  is build out a list
• 28:37
  of all the restaurants in the area.
• 28:39
  Sign out to the Student Ambassadors
• 28:42
  Guild when.
• 28:42
  Hey, I'm all from,
• 28:43
  you know,
• 28:44
  I, you know, from student government here
• 28:45
  at, university.
• 28:47
  We'd like to start raising money
• 28:49
  for local food bank
• 28:50
  and this national charity.
• 28:52
  Let me do that
• 28:53
  by by ordering more food for you.
• 28:55
  And the way that we're going to order
• 28:56
  that food is through classroom calls.
• 28:58
  Goodbye.
• 28:59
  No cost you as a restaurant.
• 29:00
  You're actually going
• 29:01
  to pay less commission
• 29:03
  than you do currently
• 29:04
  with these other platforms.
• 29:06
  The $2 donation comes from Good Bite,
• 29:08
  not the consumer or the restaurant.
• 29:10
  And, we connect it,
• 29:11
  you know,
• 29:12
  relatively seamless into their POS system
• 29:15
  takes about 15 minutes to set up.
• 29:17
  And, you know,
• 29:18
  the students can start ordering
• 29:19
  ordering food that day.
• 29:21
  Oh, nice.
• 29:22
  We try to make it,
• 29:23
  you know, restaurant owners,
• 29:25
  you know, you walk in,
• 29:26
  they have a huge rush.
• 29:27
  You know,
• 29:28
  they're going to delivery
• 29:28
  at the back door.
• 29:30
  The phone's ringing.
• 29:31
  You have to be very, very quick,
• 29:32
  very direct.
• 29:33
  Here's what we do.
• 29:34
  Here's how we do it.
• 29:35
  We'd love to have you on board.
• 29:36
  If not,
• 29:37
  you know we'll come back in a month.
• 29:38
  Hopefully. Yeah, hopefully over time.
• 29:40
  When or where
• 29:41
  or when your exclusivity is done, Peter.
• 29:44
  Or. Yeah.
• 29:46
  When you've
• 29:47
  how do you manage the,
• 29:48
  the charity side of it.
• 29:50
  Because I could see
• 29:51
  a lot of charities like you said,
• 29:53
  everyone says yes if you ask them.
• 29:55
  When I,
• 29:55
  if I were using the platform,
• 29:57
  I go on to the platform, I'd order
• 29:58
  my food at the local,
• 29:59
  you know, whatever restaurant.
• 30:01
  And do I have, do I have then like
• 30:03
  I select my favorite
• 30:05
  and I just pops up
• 30:05
  my favorite charity each time?
• 30:07
  Or do I have to select
• 30:08
  from a list of 50 charities in the area?
• 30:11
  How does that work?
• 30:12
  Yeah, a couple different ways.
• 30:13
  So one is we can
• 30:14
  we can give a group
• 30:15
  like a hard coded link
• 30:16
  for people to download or use,
• 30:18
  use the website
• 30:19
  where it'll be a specific charity.
• 30:21
  They can always go back
• 30:22
  and change the charity if they want.
• 30:24
  We also built in
• 30:25
  like an impact calculator.
• 30:27
  So you could actually see
• 30:28
  how much you donate over time.
• 30:31
  But any given time,
• 30:32
  you can always go back
• 30:33
  and change your charities.
• 30:34
  Most times
• 30:35
  when you log in, depending on the campus,
• 30:37
  you're going to have an option
• 30:38
  of about eight charities.
• 30:39
  So it'll be a mix of national charities
• 30:41
  and local charities.
• 30:43
  But,
• 30:44
  you know, we use Charity
• 30:45
  navigator on the back end
• 30:47
  to verify
• 30:48
  the legitimacy of the charities.
• 30:50
  So we only, you know, work with eight
• 30:51
  plus charities.
• 30:53
  And if there's a nonprofit
• 30:54
  that wants to get involved,
• 30:55
  we also have a section on our site
• 30:56
  where they can email us and say,
• 30:58
  hey, we'd love to be listed.
• 30:59
  We give them their own link
• 31:01
  to share with their audience.
• 31:03
  Okay, please use goodbye all to your food
• 31:06
  every time you order.
• 31:07
  So, you know,
• 31:08
  we're going to basically get $2.
• 31:11
  So we tried to make the UI
• 31:12
  and the experience
• 31:13
  of the consumer pretty painless.
• 31:14
  They select their charity one time
• 31:16
  and then they'll always see it
• 31:18
  in their receipt.
• 31:18
  But if they want to change it,
• 31:19
  they get always get to their account,
• 31:21
  just like a credit card
• 31:22
  or a delivery address and just change it.
• 31:24
  You know
• 31:25
  what kind of adoption
• 31:26
  a adoption trends are you seeing?
• 31:27
  Are you seeing that
• 31:28
  this is I mean,
• 31:30
  nonprofits say yes, restaurants
• 31:32
  who are not in exclusivity.
• 31:34
  They probably just say yes because,
• 31:36
  you know,
• 31:36
  why not add another channel to their
• 31:37
  what they're doing, right?
• 31:38
  Like, what about the consumers?
• 31:41
  In this beta market? There it is.
• 31:42
  It is adoption easy
• 31:44
  because you're
• 31:45
  kind of leveraging network effects.
• 31:47
  Or have you seen some
• 31:48
  some bumps trying to get to adoption?
• 31:50
  It's 100% network effect.
• 31:52
  So what we see is
• 31:53
  when we onboard a new ambassador
• 31:55
  who is let's say,
• 31:56
  you know,
• 31:56
  the captain of the lacrosse team or,
• 31:59
  you know, the head of philanthropy for,
• 32:00
  the sorority.
• 32:01
  We immediately
• 32:02
  see an additional, you
• 32:03
  know, 4 or 500 users,
• 32:06
  immediately.
• 32:07
  And then those fans out.
• 32:09
  Because what we do is
• 32:10
  we reinforce
• 32:11
  the messaging to the users of,
• 32:14
  you know, why wouldn't you use us?
• 32:16
  You know, we'd love to hear the
• 32:18
  why not rather than the why?
• 32:20
  Because we want to make this as easy
• 32:22
  and frictionless as possible.
• 32:24
  The logic is that
• 32:25
  if a restaurant is paying 30%
• 32:27
  commission to one platform
• 32:29
  and say,
• 32:29
  10 or 15% to a different platform,
• 32:32
  they're going to have lower prices
• 32:34
  in that, in that second platform.
• 32:36
  So our pitch to
• 32:38
  the consumer is very simple.
• 32:40
  It's you're already ordering food.
• 32:42
  You care about a charity.
• 32:44
  The food could potentially be less
• 32:46
  into your wallet using this platform.
• 32:49
  It's the same experience,
• 32:50
  the same restaurants,
• 32:51
  the same ordering process,
• 32:52
  the same delivery.
• 32:53
  Why wouldn't you use it?
• 32:55
  Yeah, yeah.
• 32:57
  It it
• 32:57
  it's it's an interesting market to go to.
• 32:59
  I guess you mentioned at the beginning
• 33:01
  that there's, there's,
• 33:04
  there's kind
• 33:04
  of this effect of a lot of people make
• 33:06
  a lot of students
• 33:07
  might be spending their parents money.
• 33:08
  Right.
• 33:09
  Some students are probably
• 33:10
  saying themselves,
• 33:12
  yeah, I don't DoorDash, I, I order,
• 33:14
  you know,
• 33:14
  I get potatoes
• 33:15
  and, and rice from The Graduate or,
• 33:17
  you know, you get ramen,
• 33:18
  think couple boxes around. Yeah, exactly.
• 33:20
  We, you know. Right.
• 33:23
  You know, jar of peanut butter
• 33:24
  and jelly to get you through the week.
• 33:25
  I get that.
• 33:26
  And it's interesting.
• 33:27
  We also see that from school to school,
• 33:29
  just the early surveys
• 33:31
  we've gotten where,
• 33:32
  you know, some schools that,
• 33:34
  you know,
• 33:34
  a huge number,
• 33:35
  a huge percentage of the students
• 33:36
  are ordering food on a regular basis.
• 33:38
  Yeah.
• 33:38
  And in some schools,
• 33:40
  you know,
• 33:40
  you're seeing students,
• 33:41
  it's treated more of a luxury
• 33:42
  maybe every other week.
• 33:44
  But if you have enough users
• 33:45
  and I mean, it sounds like adoption
• 33:47
  or, you know, downloads of the platform,
• 33:49
  it's pretty, pretty easy to get, right?
• 33:51
  Right.
• 33:52
  If you get an ambassador,
• 33:53
  they bring their friends in there
• 33:54
  and and they download the platform.
• 33:56
  What kind of a
• 33:57
  what kind of use rate
• 33:59
  are you saying there?
• 34:00
  So the good part is once
• 34:01
  once it's downloaded
• 34:03
  and once the user's actually on board,
• 34:06
  we've made it
• 34:07
  pretty seamless for them to use it.
• 34:08
  So, the only hiccups we see, Jeff
• 34:11
  and obviously things we need to address
• 34:14
  if we don't have enough coverage in the
• 34:16
  in the region,
• 34:17
  that's the feedback
• 34:18
  we get from the students.
• 34:19
  Well, I,
• 34:20
  you know,
• 34:20
  some days I order,
• 34:21
  you know, chick fil
• 34:22
  A, some days I order Chipotle.
• 34:24
  If we don't have both,
• 34:26
  the hardware
• 34:27
  might go to the other platforms
• 34:28
  that just so they don't have to swap.
• 34:31
  Yep. Exactly.
• 34:32
  So we're coming up with,
• 34:35
  you know, some guardrails
• 34:36
  that if we're going to launch
• 34:38
  a certain campus,
• 34:39
  we have to have a certain percentage
• 34:41
  overlap with other apps before we launch.
• 34:44
  You know, the worst case scenario
• 34:45
  is, you know,
• 34:45
  Paul tells Jeff, hey, here's
• 34:47
  this new app or order using this.
• 34:50
  And then you log on
• 34:51
  and there's two restaurants.
• 34:52
  Yeah.
• 34:52
  And the,
• 34:53
  the seven that I want to order from
• 34:55
  aren't on there.
• 34:55
  I could see that being a,
• 34:57
  an adoption struggle. So,
• 35:01
  so how do you tackle that issue?
• 35:03
  I mean, is it
• 35:04
  is it
• 35:04
  just a matter of sending ambassadors
• 35:05
  out to
• 35:06
  to restaurants to get critical mass or
• 35:09
  or is there some other thing
• 35:11
  that you're doing, like, do you
• 35:12
  do you leverage in the app.
• 35:14
  You know, you leverage.
• 35:15
  Oh, we're just going to make it.
• 35:17
  We're going to push suggestions
• 35:18
  for lunch out
• 35:19
  so that we can suggest restaurants
• 35:21
  we have on there,
• 35:22
  as opposed to ones
• 35:23
  that they might be looking for that
• 35:24
  we don't have.
• 35:25
  Yeah,
• 35:26
  it's right now we're tackling it
• 35:28
  in a couple different ways.
• 35:29
  The two big ones are obviously
• 35:30
  the ambassadors.
• 35:31
  We're basically replicating the model
• 35:33
  that these larger platforms
• 35:35
  used early on,
• 35:36
  or they had,
• 35:37
  you know, street teams
• 35:38
  literally walking
• 35:39
  into the local Burger King,
• 35:40
  asking to speak to the franchisee.
• 35:42
  Yeah.
• 35:42
  Or walking into the local boba shop place
• 35:45
  that works. We send them in with an iPad.
• 35:48
  It's a very quick process.
• 35:49
  It takes, like I said,
• 35:50
  you know,
• 35:51
  sub 30 minutes for them to sign
• 35:52
  up, connect their POS system,
• 35:54
  and very shortly
• 35:55
  after they're getting new
• 35:57
  delivery orders. Yeah.
• 35:59
  The other way is from the top
• 36:00
  down,
• 36:01
  working with some of the larger
• 36:03
  restaurant groups.
• 36:04
  So reaching out to their charity arm,
• 36:06
  their philanthropy
• 36:07
  team, and saying, listen,
• 36:08
  you know,
• 36:08
  you want more students order from you.
• 36:11
  That's why you have three restaurants
• 36:13
  within the vicinity of the campus.
• 36:15
  The students
• 36:15
  now also want to give back
• 36:17
  with their order.
• 36:18
  We can help you combine those two,
• 36:20
  also charging you less money
• 36:22
  than these other platforms
• 36:24
  so again, quickly addressing
• 36:27
  the pain points for the added
• 36:28
  bonus of the charity,
• 36:30
  we've gotten
• 36:30
  some really great feedback
• 36:32
  about working with,
• 36:33
  you know, a franchise group that has,
• 36:36
  you know, a thousand locations.
• 36:37
  It takes time.
• 36:38
  You know,
• 36:38
  you have to
• 36:39
  you have to prepare for a couple cycles
• 36:41
  or a couple of quarters.
• 36:42
  But in the meantime, we've also gotten
• 36:45
  a lot of the franchise information
• 36:46
  from those groups to say, well,
• 36:49
  you know, here's Jeff,
• 36:49
  who owns 15 checkers
• 36:51
  restaurants down in the area.
• 36:53
  You're looking
• 36:54
  we'll make a quick introduction.
• 36:55
  Then it's up to Jeff.
• 36:57
  So we've
• 36:58
  we've seen a lot of,
• 36:59
  you know, a lot of success
• 37:01
  reaching out to the
• 37:02
  because a lot of these larger
• 37:03
  corporations have certain budgets to,
• 37:06
  to impact a local community
• 37:07
  in a positive way. Yeah.
• 37:09
  And you know and we're showing them
• 37:11
  we're supporting the same charity you are
• 37:14
  you know, we're
• 37:14
  we're seeing now
• 37:15
  with, with some some local charities
• 37:17
  that have a national presence.
• 37:18
  You know, we're actually working
• 37:19
  with the same exact charity.
• 37:21
  So the three of us will sometimes
• 37:22
  get on an email saying, right, how do we
• 37:24
  how do we speed this up a little bit
• 37:26
  for the benefit of the charity?
• 37:28
  Let's get this going right.
• 37:30
  Well, I love the model.
• 37:31
  And and I think it's interesting.
• 37:33
  It'll be,
• 37:34
  you know, be fun to watch and see
• 37:35
  as it gets adopted.
• 37:36
  More broadly, how would another CEO who's
• 37:40
  scaling their own business,
• 37:41
  whether it's in a similar industry or
• 37:43
  or an unrelated industry, how would they
• 37:45
  what would they take away
• 37:46
  from this discussion today and say,
• 37:49
  you know what I love?
• 37:50
  I love that Paul is approaching
• 37:52
  these issues in a certain way.
• 37:54
  Here's here's
• 37:55
  what I'm going
• 37:56
  to, you know,
• 37:56
  here's what I can now
• 37:57
  apply in my business
• 37:58
  that I maybe hadn't thought of before.
• 37:59
  And I know it's it's
• 38:00
  context specific, right? Yeah.
• 38:02
  If we if we
• 38:03
  if we set up the whole problem
• 38:04
  and if you were that CEO coming in with
• 38:06
  knowing what your problems were,
• 38:07
  it'd be easier to dry out something.
• 38:09
  But but what's, what's
• 38:10
  what are maybe
• 38:11
  a couple of general lessons
• 38:13
  that you that you think
• 38:15
  could
• 38:15
  be leveraged
• 38:16
  beyond just your own business?
• 38:18
  Yeah, I think one could be,
• 38:20
  you know,
• 38:21
  focus on really building
• 38:22
  alignment with, with,
• 38:24
  you know, before the scale.
• 38:26
  You know,
• 38:26
  we had to go out
• 38:27
  and have conversations with charity.
• 38:28
  People with restaurant
• 38:29
  owners were consumers,
• 38:31
  delivery companies, before we even wrote
• 38:34
  a line of code
• 38:35
  for if we heard from one of them.
• 38:37
  I don't really align with this mission.
• 38:39
  I don't believe in it.
• 38:40
  You know, this won't work.
• 38:41
  There wasn't a business model.
• 38:43
  So you know, your mission,
• 38:45
  your partners, your customers,
• 38:47
  they all have to be pulling
• 38:48
  kind of in the same direction.
• 38:49
  They all have to believe in the end
• 38:51
  result of what you're building.
• 38:52
  And then
• 38:53
  growth really becomes a byproduct,
• 38:55
  not the goal.
• 38:56
  Yeah.
• 38:56
  Like, you know, we have people call us,
• 38:58
  you know, how many rest
• 38:59
  how many restaurants
• 38:59
  are you going to have? How many you know?
• 39:02
  Well, if there's no
• 39:04
  cost, the restaurant is there's no cost.
• 39:06
  The consumer saving money to charity.
• 39:07
  We're we're removing the friction points.
• 39:10
  Everybody's rowing in the same direction
• 39:11
  and wants to reach the same goal.
• 39:14
  Now it's just a matter of putting
• 39:15
  all the pieces together.
• 39:16
  And and like I said earlier,
• 39:18
  making sure as we scale
• 39:20
  where we're building
• 39:21
  on the right foundation,
• 39:22
  everything's in the right place.
• 39:24
  You know, it's
• 39:26
  I don't want to rush
• 39:27
  because I don't want,
• 39:28
  you know,
• 39:29
  anything to kind of struggle at scale.
• 39:32
  But once everybody's aligned, you know,
• 39:34
  you have all parts of the
• 39:35
  the business aligned.
• 39:37
  I think you're in a good spot,
• 39:39
  regardless of whether it's food
• 39:40
  delivery or,
• 39:41
  you know, a cleaning business or,
• 39:43
  you know, building building ships.
• 39:45
  It's everybody's aligned.
• 39:46
  You're going to get there.
• 39:48
  Yeah.
• 39:48
  No, that makes sense.
• 39:50
  Trust trustee validation steps. Right.
• 39:52
  Make sure you validate before
• 39:53
  you're doing anything else.
• 39:55
  And that's right.
• 39:55
  And that's harder in a marketplace
• 39:57
  because you're. Yeah.
• 39:58
  You know,
• 39:59
  I've talked to clients who come to me
• 40:00
  and they're like,
• 40:00
  I'm going to build this.
• 40:01
  And it's got, you know, marketplace.
• 40:03
  And I'm like,
• 40:03
  like just to think about it,
• 40:06
  you know, it's not good or bad,
• 40:07
  but you're kind of building
• 40:08
  two separate businesses
• 40:09
  and then putting them together. Right.
• 40:11
  You got to get the consumer side
• 40:13
  market validated,
• 40:15
  make sure they'll buy from you,
• 40:16
  and you got to get the
• 40:17
  the seller side
• 40:18
  marketplace, in this case,
• 40:19
  maybe the charities or the restaurants
• 40:21
  that they want to be a part of it
• 40:22
  and make sure
• 40:23
  that they're going to participate.
• 40:24
  And then you got to make sure
• 40:25
  that that,
• 40:25
  that you can put those two together
• 40:27
  in a way that everybody's happy.
• 40:29
  And so you're,
• 40:30
  you're validating a lot more steps
• 40:31
  than if you were just, you know,
• 40:33
  opening up,
• 40:34
  you know, a restaurant,
• 40:36
  a single restaurant. Right.
• 40:38
  Although, I don't know,
• 40:39
  I think a restaurant by itself
• 40:40
  still might be harder than a marketplace.
• 40:42
  Correct. Right.
• 40:43
  Yeah.
• 40:44
  And and that was a
• 40:45
  that was kind of,
• 40:46
  you know,
• 40:46
  also a motivates you
• 40:47
  because as you, as you validate
• 40:48
  the sides,
• 40:50
  you know,
• 40:51
  every side is going to add
• 40:52
  multiple layers of complexity.
• 40:54
  So the clarity on
• 40:55
  hey, we believe in this.
• 40:58
  You know,
• 40:59
  I spoke to probably 50 restaurant owners.
• 41:01
  I probably spoke to 100 college students.
• 41:03
  I probably spoke
• 41:03
  to ten huge
• 41:04
  national charity,
• 41:05
  you know,
• 41:05
  the biggest charities out there.
• 41:08
  And they all said, I get it, I get it.
• 41:09
  I can't,
• 41:10
  you know, we want to be involved.
• 41:13
  Yeah.
• 41:14
  But you know, that validation,
• 41:15
  it motivates you.
• 41:16
  It's like, all right,
• 41:17
  there's something here.
• 41:18
  I know it's going to be a long slog.
• 41:19
  It's going to take a long time
• 41:20
  to build this and,
• 41:21
  you know, get to scale.
• 41:22
  But, you know, we validated the pieces.
• 41:25
  We iterated over time, obviously.
• 41:27
  But,
• 41:28
  you know, all three
• 41:29
  major components of
• 41:30
  the business were like, we like this.
• 41:32
  We want to be a part of it,
• 41:33
  you know, how do we get involved?
• 41:35
  Yeah, I guess it's natural
• 41:36
  that we're coming back to what we started
• 41:38
  with, that,
• 41:39
  aspect of making sure
• 41:40
  there is alignment,
• 41:41
  because alignment scales
• 41:42
  well, and misalignment
• 41:44
  also scales easily.
• 41:45
  So, back
• 41:47
  to that same point,
• 41:48
  validating that everything is there
• 41:49
  so that it is aligned and will scale.
• 41:53
  Well, instead of, scale the misalignment.
• 41:56
  So, yeah, growth
• 41:57
  will only amplify amplify the cracks.
• 41:59
  Right. It's yeah.
• 42:01
  Yeah.
• 42:02
  Well, this is great, Paul,
• 42:03
  I really appreciate you
• 42:03
  sharing some of this with us.
• 42:05
  And I know there's a lot more to it.
• 42:06
  And we've got,
• 42:07
  you know, some things to
• 42:09
  watch as you grow.
• 42:10
  Where do you think you'll
• 42:11
  be in five years from now?
• 42:13
  Hopefully.
• 42:14
  You know, people are saying, hey,
• 42:15
  you know,
• 42:15
  I used goodbye
• 42:17
  to a lot of my corporate meal.
• 42:19
  But, Sunday lunch with the family.
• 42:22
  You know,
• 42:22
  I think we want it
• 42:23
  to be kind of synonymous
• 42:24
  with, you know,
• 42:25
  ordering food and doing well.
• 42:28
  Yeah, I think it's going to be,
• 42:29
  you know, an opportunity
• 42:30
  to introduce this into other things
• 42:32
  like food delivery, freight. Excuse me.
• 42:33
  Like you mentioned earlier,
• 42:34
  like grocery delivery. Yeah. Yeah.
• 42:36
  Different things where,
• 42:38
  you know,
• 42:38
  there's a tremendous margin in between
• 42:40
  what consumers are paying
• 42:41
  and what these platforms are making.
• 42:43
  You know,
• 42:43
  we could put some of that back
• 42:44
  into the business
• 42:45
  and also take part of that
• 42:46
  and give it off to charity.
• 42:48
  I think it's a win for everybody.
• 42:49
  And, you know,
• 42:51
  I think this next generation
• 42:52
  also wants to to buy from
• 42:54
  and be a part of companies and,
• 42:56
  and organizations
• 42:57
  that are about doing good.
• 43:00
  So that's where
• 43:01
  we're going to be for five years.
• 43:02
  We're hopefully, upset
• 43:04
  some of these giants I love it.
• 43:07
  Two more questions
• 43:08
  and then we'll call it a wrap here.
• 43:09
  But,
• 43:10
  first of all,
• 43:11
  if somebody if a student is out
• 43:13
  there wants to be a part of this
• 43:14
  or if a restaurant hears about this,
• 43:16
  where would they go to connect with you?
• 43:18
  Yeah, they can check us out at,
• 43:19
  Goodbye, Charity.
• 43:21
  So that's,
• 43:22
  you know, our homepage for the
• 43:24
  all things goodbye.
• 43:25
  There's there's places there.
• 43:27
  If you're a restaurant,
• 43:27
  a charity student,
• 43:29
  and you want to get involved.
• 43:31
  Awesome.
• 43:32
  And and last question here,
• 43:34
  since we're talking about charities,
• 43:37
  it doesn't have a whole lot
• 43:38
  to do with your business
• 43:39
  other than you're supporting
• 43:40
  a bunch of charities
• 43:41
  through the business model.
• 43:42
  But do you have a favorite charity
• 43:43
  that you
• 43:44
  that you'd plug, on this
• 43:46
  if you had just a minute?
• 43:48
  Yeah, two of them.
• 43:49
  One is, you know, Alzheimer's Foundation.
• 43:52
  My mom,
• 43:52
  unfortunately suffers from Alzheimer's.
• 43:54
  It's been
• 43:55
  a brutal time seeing her
• 43:56
  go through this,
• 43:57
  you know, and live with this disease.
• 43:59
  And then, ASPCA, where
• 44:01
  we're going to pet household.
• 44:03
  You know,
• 44:03
  I love to see,
• 44:05
  you know, people adopting
• 44:06
  rather than buying.
• 44:06
  And, you know, I think, every kid,
• 44:09
  every house needs a pet.
• 44:11
  I think it helps the kids develop
• 44:12
  a lot of skills, a lot of life skills.
• 44:14
  Empathy. Responsibility.
• 44:17
  So those are two.
• 44:18
  When I order good bite.
• 44:19
  I'll probably toggle
• 44:20
  between those two charities
• 44:21
  and hopefully have an impact.
• 44:24
  I love it.
• 44:24
  Sorry to hear about your mother.
• 44:25
  That's,
• 44:26
  So what a wonderful cause
• 44:28
  of support, though.
• 44:29
  Thanks so.
• 44:30
  Well, Paul,
• 44:31
  it's been a pleasure
• 44:31
  having you on the on the show today
• 44:33
  and really appreciate you
• 44:34
  taking some time to share
• 44:35
  about your business
• 44:35
  and the insights that you've,
• 44:37
  that you've learned and,
• 44:38
  leveraged in your business,
• 44:40
  plus a lot of fun.
• 44:41
  Jeff, appreciate the time.
• 44:43
  And, have a great day.
• 44:44
  Thanks for having me.
• 44:45
  Yeah, it's been great.
• 44:46
  And to to all of our listeners out there,
• 44:48
  thanks again for joining
• 44:49
  us, this time on the breakout
• 44:50
  SEO podcast.
• 44:52
  Be sure to follow or subscribe
• 44:54
  on your favorite podcast platform.
• 44:56
  And if you enjoy the show,
• 44:58
  a rating or a review goes a long way.
• 45:01
  Our mission is to promote
• 45:02
  the stories of breakout CEOs
• 45:05
  in scaling SAS, e-commerce,
• 45:07
  and tech companies to equip peer CEOs
• 45:10
  with valuable perspectives
• 45:12
  and confidence.
• 45:14
  Thanks again
• 45:15
  for joining us
• 45:16
  on this episode of The Breakout CEO.
• 45:19
  I'm Jeff Holeman,
• 45:20
  and I'll see you next time.