0:00 And then that employee is like, "Wait a minute. I got a notification on my calendar that it's actually a different time frame." And then your boss goes like, "Well, you should have checked the calendar." It's like, "You said this date, but I'll change a fight anyway." Goes and proceeds to buy his own ticket cuz he realizes that's a good employee. Would you ever do that? I think that employee should get a raise. He claps. [Music] Welcome back everybody to a very sour episode, but like the good kind of sour of the careful boys where we are back with Max Tuning. Everybody come we've gotten a chance to actually dive really deep because this is a success story that of the likes of we have almost never heard sounds impossible. And it's also funny because like uh obviously you're familiar with Bart like he's done supplements like I myself have
0:51 also been involved with CPGs. We've done like a new company and stuff. We sold 30 units. Yeah. You sold 30 units. But tell them how long it took. Hey, you want to know I I mentioned this before, but uh speaking of micro influencers, aka JK. Um our best day of Kinjang Noodle sales on Amazon was the day we we dropped the video talking about it here for the first time. See, micro influencers are our conversions are strong. Talk about your brand, you sell. Yep. It seems and we do that. We never do that. We're anti-inflammator. I almost didn't even wear our own t-shirt today. I looked at my luggage. I had the founding fondlers, you know, the one with Bill Cosby. Whatever go and I was like, should I wear that one or this one? I was like, I never wear our own shirts, so I would put this on. We should wear our own shirts. We should totally promote our
1:42 own shirts, which we have right now. You could get it right here. You could get it. Can we give Max the shirt real quick? Come on. Come on. Hey Brian, can you do the thing with What size are you? Medium. We don't even have any of the ones we're I think those are those are all not for sale anymore. They're all retired. We don't even have like supply. Give them something that we're not selling. Give That's all. Just go to your local Target and ask them for one of these. They'll have Get a blank tea and pretend you have 1300 Targets nationwide. You see why we're fascinated in your store that you've probably shared many times. Like how do you do it all? Yeah. We're like, "Oh my god." So you just talk about what you want to sell. You wear your own shirts. You like your product. That's Well, I'll tell you the the biggest success you have is not only you talk about your product, but like on my YouTube, I also like documented um like building the brand. So, it's like when we got into HB, I'm like I'm loading up the back of my Jeep in the
2:32 videos and like driving it to the store and then I'm like setting the camera up like in I'm like I'm like stocking the shelves and like so I'm like showing people that I'm like doing the business itself, not just like here's a candy, you should go buy it. Here's a candy, you should go buy it. It's like all right guys, we're thinking about this going this warehouse. this is way more space we need. I'm stressed out. Like the cost is going to be like crazy. We don't need all this. Like here's why I'm like I I think it's a good idea. Here's why I'm like weighing the pros and cons of it. So I was like I brought my audience in. Very transparent. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. So I mean did you have a a like a camera guy like following you around or did you just vlog it and everything? I've gone through like small spurts of time where I've had someone like assist me with like videography. Um I'd say of the like I don't even know how many videos I made like 1300 vlogs. I'd say maybe 25 of those have been like not filmed and edited by myself. Um, with my type of
3:22 content, I really like making videos. And I'm also like with my humor and like the way that I I shoot and like I like to get creative with my vlogs. I whenever I have a like a videographer, I end up just like like, "Okay, when I pull the car, like you should get a shot of like me getting out over there and then and then like go over here and I'll get out and I'll say this line and then and then let's get a shot." I'd end up directing the whole damn thing. So, I just essentially needed like a moving tripod. But um I I like the authenticity of like holding it myself. So yeah, to this day like I I film and edit all my videos um myself. So I was like when I went into stores I'm like bringing the camera and you know putting the flying the drone of like my my car like coming in the parking lot and stuff. So now I really I really enjoy making videos. That's awesome. I I think I'm the exact opposite actually. Like when I if I do when I pull out a camera, I feel like my thought is forced and then so I feel
4:13 like I'm a very robotic stale version which is why like I have like Justin and Adams because I think when I'm captured in my wild element I feel like you have like the best essence of who I am. Shame. Yeah. Or else or else I'm going like this or else I'm pulling up the camera and going and then I'm like why did I even do that? But that's you though. That's you. You going to bully yourself. Yeah. But if someone else is capturing me doing me, one of the biggest regrets is I didn't film enough of the building of my business and the thought process. But like I I I'm like you where I wish I had someone just recording it because then I'm in creator mode and I can't actually work on the business cuz my mind and focus is just like on content creation. So that was really hard to cuz I did vlog a lot and then like as soon as I started opening up a brick and mortar um
5:05 I could I just I I couldn't do both without Yeah. Like dude that would have been so great. That would have been the most viral content. The ice machine broke again. You're just crying. Well, give me my building permit. Yeah. And then Yeah. Change the man. Like it's like when we got the new warehouse, I'm I'm like talking to the people about like we can't open this because I need this damn like mop sink that needs to be in the warehouse and this is going to cost like $10,000 and it's going to take 2 months to put in and like and then it's like I'm paying rent and I'm doing all these things and like they want to see this like this dynamic and then they can see the whole journey of us going from like a room smaller than this starting the business to like a a,000 ft warehouse to like a f you know what do we go to next? like a 15,000 and then now we're in like 60,000
5:55 and it's like so they see the the process going in. So yeah, it's sick how you can weave it in and you can switch different hats like cuz I that's I think that's a really cool talent that I find like cuz only cuz I've tried it and I'm like okay and I know a lot of entrepreneurs where they can market but they can't operate and it sounds like you can market and operate simultaneously. I don't know if I was a candy entrepreneur that was moonlighting being a YouTuber or like a YouTuber that was moonlighting like running a business because I would even during the entire process of the business I never missed my like upload per every week or I had two at the week at that or two per week at that time. Um it was just like they just went hand in hand and like even just running the business I at first you're just like okay I have this idea I'm going to launch it and then I just need a couple people to help me pack some orders right but then it turns in like oh I need someone to help me with customer service cuz I got to go film these videos. Then it's like, okay, I
6:45 need someone to help me with the distribution of these like retailers. So, it's like you start delegating, but then you the the hardest part about scaling a business is actually like managing people and like Exactly. And then eventually you need managers to manage those people and you think you're going to like delegate something and take it off your plate, but now you need to spend time like guiding them and managing them to like how you would want the business to be ran. And then they have their own and not every employee is going to, you know, with me I'm like, I'm going to get the job done. Don't bother me. I don't need praise. If I do a good job, I'm just going to keep going. Like, okay, we we we had a huge success. That's great. Let me keep going. But like a lot of people don't work like that. So, you need to find what motivates them. Whether it be like literal words of affirmation of like, hey, like thank you so much for doing that where like I don't need that praise. So, I just assume everyone's like the same, but like not everyone's like you. So, you have to like learn everyone's different personalities and
7:35 dynamics and how you can communicate with someone is different than how you can communicate with someone else where you can maybe be a little more direct with one but you have to soften like the thing you're talking about with someone else. That's when I found out I'm not meant to be a leader. Well, bro, like that's what like oh this person's love language is physical touch. Hey Nick, you did a good job and this person is like this person and you know you have to like know and identify like you're why can't you just do the work? I don't want to have to talk to you today, bro. That's like scaling a business and like but I didn't plan for sever it's kind of like you hope it gets that big but like you you don't plan when you're when you're starting it that you're going to be like I'm eventually going to have a team of a bunch of people that are going to rely on me for their livelihood that like but and then it's kind of goofy with content creation cuz
8:25 if I'm like hey I'm actually not going to be in today and I'm like they see on my Instagram story I'm doing some goofy random ████ but they're working on the business but I'm like no I got to film me like scrubbing my pool as content cuz it's goofy for my vlogs, but they're like, "Look at the boss just having fun doing nothing while we're out here slaving away." Yeah. So, it's like, so it's uh Did did you run into any of those complications or hardships by like bringing people on and then like as everything scaled up the, you know, maybe there was a form of either entitlement or or anything like that? No, everyone on my What's another great thing is that every we we've had like the lowest turnover rate. I think we've had maybe like less than like four people like leave the company and all of them are cuz they like were going to college or something. But everyone that
9:16 like all the people that have worked for us like 90% have been there for like years. So we have a super low turnover rate. Um because it's also like I've worked in corporate so I know what like uh a good work environment is. cuz I know it's like really lame and s█████ in a in a company of like like I didn't want to be that. So I want to be a cool place to work where it's like if you got to have if you got to go to work and you got to have a job like I want this to be like the coolest place you could do it. But the only problem as you like grow and grow and grow is like as your business gets bigger. You start like having to have like structure, right? So for like a early for a bit it was kind of like hey guys like I don't really care when you come in just like kind of get the job done. But then it started being like you know hey this person I need you to kind of come in a little earlier. But then it's but then everyone else like they can kind of come in whenever, right? But then you kind of start making structure and you start like backtracking of like hey everyone can come in at like 10:00 and leave at
10:06 4. It's like hey guys actually we need to you know let's come in at 9:00 like and then leave like and then like you start having to have like a little bit of structure which but it's just like that's what's going to happen as a business scales is like you have to have that like structure. Um but I try just to make it like the coolest place like let's have a cool work environment. I'm going to be like the the ideally the coolest boss, but like if you screw up like you're going to like there needs to be like you need to understand that you screwed up and why why but as a leader like I think it's important that like a lot of like errors that are made in your team is because that you didn't like it's it really falls on to you at the end of the day of like you didn't maybe lead them in the way that they should have like handled this direction. So, it's always like it's learning experiences, but it's only it's only problems if they people start like repeating errors where like I mean there's been tons of stuff that have been goofed by employees that have cost me thousands of dollars, right, because of errors. But I'm kind of like okay,
10:57 like why did this happen? Like let's figure it out. But now like let's not make this happen again. It's only when like errors start repeating and then it's kind of like why are you doing the same kind of thing? Let's say hypothetically, right? You set a schedule for your employees to come in, right? And then it's out there and then one of your employees like, "Hey boss, double check in. What was the schedule for this weekend?" Right? And the boss is like, "Oh, it's this." And it's the wrong schedule. So then your employee like buy some like plane tickets around that schedule, hypothetically, right? And then, wow, what a scenario. Yeah. Hypothetically. And then that employee is like, "Wait a minute. I got a notification on my calendar that it's actually a different time frame." And then your boss goes like, "Well, you should have checked the calendar." And then your employee actually highlights the message in iMessage Group. that's like you said this date but I'll change a fight anyway goes and proceeds to buy his own ticket cuz he realizes that's a good employee when the boss is like you ████ up like would you ever do that I
11:49 think that employee should get a raise he claps clapping I think the employee should get a bonus a raise maybe even equity in the company maybe free flights free flights dude how about that that's pretty cool and that employee still wouldn't expect that because the company is still dying. But but I'm just glad that you shared that perspective, that hypothetical. We're pivoting. How would you feel about that part? I think it's a great idea. Just a just a hypothetical. Thanks for your professional opinion. So Hershey, that's incredible. You were just talking about how you were basically just lowkey stealing shelf space at Target from them. So they're probably not just them specifically, but certain items, certain SKs are less from them cuz they're not
12:39 really in the same category as much like as I know like chocolate and sugar are a little bit different. Duh. Um, but just the idea that like you're you're on the rise as this uh completely independent. There's no investor backing. You're doing this thing solo dooo. this new guy who's coming in hot, taking SKS off of the the the sugar department line and other other items getting dropped and then everybody everybody's getting the same data pool saying like, "Hey, this is like the top company that's kind of knocking everything off." Like how does that go into like a like did ner Hershey start knocking on your door? Like where where did that idea of getting bought out come from? Was that an intention of yours? Like what's that story like? Yeah. So when I started the company and started scaling like I've ne the number one question I've gotten asked like at scale from when I started the business
13:29 is like would you sell the company? Would you sell the company? And I like never even thought of that cuz it was just like oh I I I don't know. I'm just I just like this candy product and I'm oh now I got to lead a team and get a bigger warehouse and I'm scaling it. And people kept asking like would you sell it? Would you sell it? Would you sell it? And I was like, "Guys, I'm I'm a candy fanatic that is like almost having his like dream of like impacting the space, change like changing the like the candy world that I've been a part of and now I'm the guy that is like making an impact in this." So, it was like I didn't even have like time to think about it cuz we're we're we're scaling. I don't have any investors. I'm not into debt with the company. I own 100% of the company. Um, and we're profitable. Like we were we we've been profitable since day one. We got became more profitable as the years went on and we were able to scale. But I was like, I don't really care about selling cuz I I'm we're making a bunch of money like, you know, and I mean, not like ridiculous, but we're profitable. We're able to like and
14:20 all the money that I'm doing, I'm just putting in just like just accounts of just like let's just put in like interest savings accounts that are just like reserving. I'm not spending that money cuz I'm making money from social media. So, I didn't need the cash from it. So, I'm like company's making money. I don't really care about selling cuz like and we're we're only getting started on our like of like the runway of what we can sell into. You know, we were in like 30,000 stores, a little bit more before we sold, but there's about a little under 300,000 stores that you could get into that would sell a product like this in America. You're only doing 10% of America. Yeah. So I'm like the runway is and if and if we can crush it in Target, there's no world or reason why the all these other grocery chains shouldn't and like shouldn't have us in their stores. Like it's just a matter of time before we get in there because why wouldn't we like why wouldn't we get in there if we're dominating in the the biggest retailers?
15:12 Every retailer should like should and h like have us in there. Um, so it I just didn't have time to think about that and um, so it was like never like a a thought in my mind. And then I I started getting hit up a little bit uh, as we scaled by like venture capital firms which were kind of just like almost like generic ones of like, you know, hey, would you ever like to take money off the table and do all this stuff? But I've done like Q&A on my YouTube my YouTube YouTube videos where I would mention I was like if I was to ever sell the company, I would only want to sell it um to another candy company because my goal is my goal with Sour Shirts was a couple was a couple things was to like prove that I could do it. Like prove that I could make an impact in this like I wanted to impact the category. Like I'm a candy fiend like me of all people. Like if I could impact this space that I love so much, I think that's super cool.
16:03 Um, so I wanted to prove that like it was possible and that I could do it. The second was to like create make Sour Strips this like I wanted it to be I wanted it to be a brand that's around forever that the you know the my kids' kids are like eating Sour Strips like I want it to be this legacy brand and I was like okay we're on this kind of path and then third is like I want to uh ideally change mine and you know be people people that have helped me get there like their lives of like if I win the business wins then everyone's going to win who like believed in in the brand. And so I wanted to, you know, financially win from the company as well. And so we started achieving all these things. But with a venture capital firm, I was like, they could just sell it. They could do something with it. But I was like, if a candy company buys us, it's because like they want to bring it into their portfolio to to they can like help me get to that bigger vision of it being in every store that's every candy sold in. So that was always like I would
16:54 only be interested if one of these big brands would hit me up. Um and and a big company's not going to buy you out if they can't like at least 3x the thing themselves. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and you know there is a chance that a bigger company like it's not usually the case, but like there are there are like situations where like a bigger company that has a bunch of things in the same category you're in where you're kind of like stealing sales from them. even if it's on a small level of comparison, but like they could buy it and to just shelf it because them buying it and like stopping it will like then it doesn't cannibalize them eats the competition. Yeah. Exactly. But like I was like I don't really think that's the case of like what companies would want to do. So, um, I was like, I want someone who's sees the vision that I have and wants to scale it like to the moon. And and Hershey is, uh, such an interesting buyer because there's a lot
17:44 there's, you know, four, five, six maybe other big big people in the space that would be uh, companies that maybe would be interested in like buying it. But with Hershey, it's so interesting because, you know, most of what they do is chocolate and they do it like the best, right? like they're like the chocolate king and but they have a couple other brands in their portfolio. Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers that are, you know, um somewhat in the gummy space, right? They have some like sour stuff, but they don't really have like a sour candy kind of like player, right? Cuz they're mainly kind of like sweet and salty. They have a lot of, you know, they have protein bars, they have popcorn, they have chocolates. Um but they don't have a real big like, you know, their sour candy brand. Um, and so when they were reached out to us, I was kind of like, "Wow, this is actually a great opportunity because that means that they like want to get into this space and are seeing the vision with
18:34 Sour Strips. And if a company that like wants to get in that, like they're really going to pour gasoline on this to like to compete with these other big corporations that are dominating the sour gummy space, like you probably know a bunch of them." And we're like, "But Hershey doesn't have a player in this, you know, that in this specific little realm." How do they reach out? like a DM or email or Yeah, an email. They sent a goon. I work for Hershey's. Bring me this max guy. So, I had actually had some communication with them like over over the years. So, like I'd say like once a year I had the first year I got an email from them a couple years ago. I was like, "What the Oh ████ Like Hershey's emailing me. What does this mean?" It's from like someone at hershey.com. Yep. Oh ████ You didn't delete it. Like, "Shut up, Kumalo. Hello. I am Mr. Hershey. I got like a phone call. I was like hopping on the phone with them and I was like I don't know what this means but
19:24 they were just asking like they were just like learning about the brand and the brand was a lot smaller then and I'm glad I didn't go down the rabbit hole then because the brand became continue to become more successful but they they were just like just like kind of learning the story but it it didn't really go anywhere. It wasn't like if you hit this benchmark you know we might be interested in acquiring you. Um it was just like casual conversations just like chatting with us. Um, and then it happened like maybe once once a year. And what do you think a play for her she is? There is it like I guess in hindsight it was probably to learn just a little bit about the business, about me, about like my vision with it. Because I don't know this for certain, but I'm assuming that like when a brand buys another brand, it's yes, they see the sales, they see it, but they also want to see like what is the person that's running it, like what is their vision? Like due diligence. Yeah,
20:14 a little bit. What was the person's uh position at Hershey? Uh the same the same. No, the same person the same person that contacted me back then is the same person that organized the deal for this for this one. So it was like an acquisition department. Wow. Cool. I think they could have been scouting you from the day one. and and and at first I was like and the problem when I start talking about the business is and I it it's back and I could go into stories of like me just oversharing early on and giving too much information and then it ends up biting me in the ass and someone like comes out with a competitive product cuz I basically gave my strategy away and I was like oh I shouldn't have done that right um she's like oh so what's like your ingredient formula yeah no so there was so I was like maybe they want to just like learn about me learn like oh this guy's really you know he's like a believer in the brand I don't know actually So, but they were just like kind of talking to me just like, you know, hey, we see what you're doing.
21:05 Like, you know, we applaud what you're doing and you know, let's stay in touch. I was like, okay. But I I didn't let that like deviate me from like continuing to grow the brand. So, that was that happened like twice over like 2 years. And then um in September, uh I was I got a call from from the guy and was like, "Hey, you know," and I thought it was just all right. Another one of these like yearly kind of check-ins. So, it was like I want to talk today. I'm uh Yeah. I'm doing fine. Thank you. Click. ████ dude. No, when someone like her, she calls you, you stop what you're doing. Hey, what's up? What's your BMI? So, so I got a call um in September was like, you know, hey, you know, we'd love to chat, but I love to like chat in person like, you know, you're in Houston, like we can come out and like just wanted to see how the brand's doing, stuff like that. Um and I was like, well, actually, I'm I'm traveling next week, so I can't you can't come
21:56 here. I'm actually going to be in New York. And they're like, oh, even better. you know, we're in um Pennsylvania, so we'll just like I can come meet you and we'll get some lunch. I was like, "Okay." So, I met met with them um on So, I was in New York for like my birthday week cuz my my wife was walking in New York fashion week, so it was like already there. What? Yeah. Yeah. She's got her own movie. Yeah. For real. Uh my wife was Miss Texas 2020. Um so, she's uh big in like the pageant model world. So, she walked to New York Fashion Week for Sher Hill. So, we were there. Heck yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. important sport in her which was yeah big class for her and um so we we were there for that and a sour ships event with uh Gym Shark later that week so I just happened to be in in the area got lunch and it was same kind of like conversations that I've had before just like really friendly casual like seeing how the brands doing I already told you my story three times already
22:47 but each year it gets a little better like what's the formula so then it was kind of like all right like that's show us the company it was like that's really cool what you're doing and then it's like hey we'll reach out to you like on Friday I'm going to like send you some emails and then on Friday I start getting emails but it's like from a whole bunch of people at Hershey's that's kind of just like it it essentially started the pro the due diligence process NBA that's exactly what it was um so it was just like about due diligence process and when and that is like essentially where they're just deep like they see the surface level what everyone sees about the business they can see the sales from um you know from these like reports uh kind of side of things, but this is like their opportunity to like, okay, let me like really deep dive in the business, break the business apart, see if what you're saying is accurate. Like, you know, I was very open with what we were doing in revenue on YouTube and
23:38 stuff, but like, hey, like, what are you actually doing? You know, is this accurate? Um, and luckily our business was pretty clean and lean because it's one owner, no debt, like you know, small team, but it was just really unorganized cuz we're doing everything of like how we know how to do stuff on Google Sheets, like no organization of anything. Our head of operations used to boxer stuff like Yeah. Then it was kind of like, all right, like can you loop us in with the person that would handle this? I'm like, oh, that's me. I'm like, okay, well, how about for this thing? Like, loop us with this department. No, that's me, too. And so they call your phone rings. Hello. Basically, we started the due diligence process in September and the entire deal uh closed in 2 months which is like September last year. Yeah. 2 months. So September and it closed like November I really should know the date. I think it's November 8th is when it closed. It closed right after the the
24:28 presidential announcement. Um, so yeah, we closed in like 2 months and it was and like right when it started I didn't know if it was cuz it wasn't like hey we would like to buy your company but it was like I think with all these questions like it seems like they're going down the route of like why would they be asking all these questions if they're not but it it's like dating but it's like what do you want? Do you want to date me or buy my company? So it was never this like black and white like day one of like we're interested in buying it. Here's the questions you know. Uh here's how long do you have left on your lease? What the ████ Yeah. No, it it literally was these kind of questions. And do you like our candy? Yeah. How um during that time you think we're cool? Uh did you Well, I guess first is what uh if you can disclose it, what was the offer? And then two, um did you bring a broker in or were you were you like, hm, let's see what Reese's has to say about
25:18 this. We're going to pause it right there, get into the juiciest part of this acquisition. When we come back, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn. You guys have a LinkedIn profile? I got LinkedIn. Yeah.
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