0:00 Bro, I actually like like all like all gummy. I'm a fiend. Have you tried uh Percy Pigs in England? What' you call me? What the kick his ass. [Music] All right, welcome back to episode 348 of Max Tuning here from Sour Legacy. We're on a cliffhanger. We were just asking Yeah. to please like Hit the like button. Just asked a really really interesting question. He was just asking if you were able to disclose like what the initial offer from Hershey was to purchase Sour Strip. You had talked about you had started this in what like September last year and 2 months later by November 8th you were able to close the deal on that. Like what details are
0:50 you looking It only took 60 days to close it. Yeah. Well, they've been watching you for years. Crazy. So, so all all the the reports have all come out. So, the numbers I originally tried to keep it like lowkey, but now the internet is like done the internet thing. Um, but and they see you buying like a 500 acre property to build a house. So, like uh so the company was bought for 75 million. Um, and so you Okay. That was the purchase price and then there's a transitional period that I I'm still staying on for like the foreseeable future. Are they they bought the whole enchilada? Yeah, they bought Yeah, the whole enchilada. So, it's it was an asset deal. So, my Sour Strips was a brand that I created and the parent company is this company called Actual Candy. So, they basically bought all of the assets that Actual Candy owned, which is Sour Strips, the
1:40 trademarks, like all of that, the characters. So, they they bought Sour Strips itself um from actual candy. Can Can you say how many years you have to stay on? Uh I would like it to be the foreseeable future like like a long time. So, I mean, it's it's a like it'll be CEO. Uh, I mean, I don't know what the title will be, but like right now I'm a I'm a consultant, so I'm still paid to run the company um kind of aside from the So, they'll just pay you a salary. Yeah. So, I'm essentially essentially making a salary now to like continue to lead lead like lead the brand um in the direction that I like am wanting to to take it, right? Um, and so during this time there's really just a lot more. I'm doing like my day-to-day is like 95% the exact same before I had the acquisition um in November because it takes I mean it'll take probably a solid year at a minimum probably up to
2:30 two for for like for them to like really like get their hands into like and change a lot of the like operations over to kind of them because the way we're doing it cuz we're doing it so bootstrapped and kind of just with a couple people is there's a lot of like moving parts to our company that you can't just like flick a switch and just be like and let's like you know whether it be you know produce it or whatever all through like Hershey it's it takes like time and so there has to be this like transitional period with myself and my team so but I would love even for like the distant future to continue to lead I look at it as like leading innovation and marketing with the brand because um I think what makes Sour Strip so unique is like how kind of like cool the brand is right so you don't want to lose that authenticity and even like the flavor you know the the characters, the way that they look, the bag design, the
3:21 um the the names, like all of that has come from like my brain, right? So, if you want to like continue on that path, like they need to really understand like how I think about what the vision of the brand is. There's a lot of other uh product extensions of Sour Strips that I wanted to come out with that um you know, I have to kind of like, hey, here's this other kind of candy product that I'd like to come out with um but like this is the vision that I have for it, right? So, really good packaging. Yeah, we've gone through a lot of different variations, but I I mean um this is the most upto-date and it it's just like a it's just a cool ████ brand. Yeah, it is cool. I've had these are very good. Thank you, man. When they offered 75 million, were you like maybe try 100? Round up. I was very happy with the offer that was made and uh there's still a lot of uh incentives for me to continue to help scale scale the the
4:12 brand. Um, so you think that agent from Hershey who was dating you for like 4 years, uh, you you think his boss was like, "Why didn't you buy it 4 years ago?" Yeah. Well, you know, it's they would have got it for cheaper, you would have got a great deal. A lot of times though, those companies are waiting for you to hit a certain threshold because they can't even deal with you if you're too small. Correct. So, they're probably watching. They're like, it's like the NBA player needs to be 65 250. So yeah, you're Duncan in eighth grade, but a lot of times you're like, I can't deal with a guy that's only like 510. You also want to see that was an actually really good analogy. Usually you're in outer space with your analogy. And we still like it. I'm not in outer space. I'm on Earth. Okay. Okay. Okay. He's in outer space. Basically, a lot a lot of times when like you see like new brands, a lot of people be like, "Oh, why didn't they like squash you early on and like with
5:02 the competition?" But when a when a big company launches something new for them it takes all of this like R&D marketing team lots of money legal um it takes it there's a lot of like steps that go along so it takes a long time and it cost a whole lot of money to see if it works with acquisitions of these like entrepreneurs like what they can do is like they're letting people like me like figure out if the market wants this new thing right and while the acquisition is a lot of money to to I mean just in general right but like to multi-billion dollar company. It's like a a strategic acquisition. And to them, it's it's almost cheaper to maybe buy one of these brands at this valuation than to they would spend that much to just see if a product even worked over here. But they can be like scale. Yeah. So if but to be honest
5:53 like you know when you scale your business when we hit our f when we hit uh let's see a year our second full year in business we did like $16.5 million and we like you breaking like $10 million like is like oh my god that's crazy but his big companies like you're not even on the radar like you you think oh that's cute. Yeah, exactly. Like it really is like you need to like hit $10 million I would say to even like start even being like a tiny dot like on these big company's radar. Um but but then when you start like getting up I'd say when you start I'd probably say really $50 million would be like a big number that is like okay like this company is starting to scale. But really I I would say 10 at like a minimum but maybe 20 and above is when you start getting like okay there's some legs under this. And again, it's like they can look at the the sales like of of how much we're growing, of how much like our revenue is growing like year-over-year. And if
6:44 you're only in X amount of stores and your sales are continuing to to do well and the stores are continuing to add more um facings in the store, the the the runway is like it's there, right? So, they look at it as, okay, if we buy this company and they're making it for this price, their their distribution of of uh you know, how much it cost them to ship is this. um here's how many stores they're in. They go, you know, we have the ability to lower all these costs, bring it into our distribution network. We can lower the the cost of goods just in general. We can so we can boost the margin immediately. We can plug in our distribution. So like they have the ability to just like they can instantly like not instantly, but they can make the uh the product like scale at a dramatic rate like once they see that the possibility. So they'll make more money than you are making. Correct. Yeah. And it's one of those things like, you know, when when I sold it, some
7:35 people were saying like, you know, oh, like, why would you sell it? It's just going to get so big now. And I'm like, well, of course it's going to like of course Sour Shift is going to become way bigger than that. But I look at it as the whole point, you ████ idiot. Yeah. I look I look at selling the company as like, look, I made an impact in this candy space and that ain't going anywhere. And sour strips is a great possibility now, even more so than if I just did it of being around forever and my kids kids can like see it in there and be like, you know, I know the guy who did that. And and for me, it's like the money that I made from this sale is, you know, enough to like is is like multigenerational. It's like as long as I don't screw it up, it's like I can like take care of the people around me and my family and like set ourselves up for like you're like remember the one time I gave you a piece of advice, man. Um, and
8:25 it's like I was like it's almost I felt like selfish of me to try to like scale the company because I just want to be the guy that owns it. But I'm like now I can impact a lot of people that's around me lives, a lot of my employees lives from the sale and I can in I can almost take chips off the table and all the work that I've put in over the past decade plus on YouTube like it can pay off and I can be like you know what like I'm going to make sure that my future is like set and I don't who knows what happens with the world and what changes. Who knows if all these competitors are coming out of the woodwork like way less variables now. Yeah. Yeah. You don't know right. And and for me I was like I've changed the trajectory of like my life and my family's life. Um, and I've also uh helped like establish this brand that hopefully becomes this like legacy brand in the space. And you sold it at 100% ownership. Wow. That's tight. That's really cool. That's tight. That's
9:16 so cool. That's so cool. What did your parents think of the sale? Were they like, "F███ our sperm and egg." I think when I told uh like my my parents, I think my like my mom was just kind of like like what? Like like why? Like re really like you know but because they a lot of people 75 million mom what don't you understand about that? You don't want to be your own boss. I I think unless you're like in business and especially if you scale like it's it's easier for like maybe the outside perspective who's not really deep into business or CPG or understands like what it takes to maybe even achieve this level of of money or like scale like the like the average person is just like like why would you do that? Like you could have kept making more money. I'm like you don't understand. like every waking second like when I'm talking to my wife and she's talking to me about
10:07 stuff like all I'm thinking about is the stress that's at ████ work and like all these things and like so I was like I was like I don't want to like lose sleep and I'm like aging myself of stressing and it's like yeah we did great and you know by the end of before we sold to Hershey we were like we were crushing it but I'm like as you continue to scale and scale and scale not that businesses become less fun but like it gets harder. Yeah. it it becomes more structured and corporate and like there's like a lot of like HR things and things you can't do and like and there's there's legalities and there's like lawsuits and there's like just the unexpected and the stress that I was dealing with on like a day-to-day basis. I was like what if I can make not all of that go away but like what if I can de-stress a lot and the biggest thing is me was like d-risking. Yeah, that's the biggest part. Hey, I did it. I proved it like uh and now let me like reap reap
10:58 the benefits of like all the work that I've put in. And uh yeah, your risk and your stress goes here. Your bank account goes here. It's kind of a sick trade, but you still stay you could now think with a clear head cuz you can keep the mission going forward, but now it's not 100% yours. You can someone else can put up the risk and capital. And I think that's the best move because it's not like you're a part of this legacy family that has a conglomerate and unlimited cash. I think that's what people don't understand. They go, "Oh, you could have, you know, maybe grew it and got 500 million or maybe a billion or ████ ran to the ground." Like, exactly. They don't think about that part cuz that happens, too. Or maybe I would listen to you if you weren't working at 7-Eleven. Average person would say, "You should have bought Hershey's while they're working at Burger King. You should have bought Hershey's." And to everyone else, I'm just like, "You know what? when you start a candy brand and you scale it up
11:49 and you get like one of the largest companies in the world to like want to buy you like you could make that decision at your you know that that that point in your life, you know, and I had people that were saying like know what well like your kids like what if now they could have like ran the company like why would you want that? I was like how do I know if my kids even want to ████ force them into that? You're like have you seen my kid? Never be a singer. Candy's your life. We're in the candy business, baby. I think what what people don't understand about the scaling is that once you get it to the point and then you have a bigger buyer that can put you on steroids without even the stress of it to for you to do the same of what they can within 5 10 years. It'll probably be two three generations if you kept it in the family. And then and then on top of that there's the risk of now if you're a competitor to any of these other guys
12:40 they'll they can aggressively take you out. So getting acquired is probably the best thing in the world. I I think it's uh I think it's a lot of people's like especially in the entrepreneur space CPG it's like this like fantasy dream that like when it actually happens like it's and I had to like make that decision in time like when I started going to due diligence I had never I had like oh maybe this will happen one day but when it actually happened I was like do I want to sell but I I I like really quickly like talked to my wife and um I was just like hey I think this is uh I think she trusted in me to make the decision and I was like hey like what do you think and she's like like trust your gut and like what you're what you want to do and what makes you trust that Miss Texas is going to say the right thing. Uh because I've trusted her since day one, you know, and I think that um Yeah.
13:32 Yeah. And and and she's so supportive of everything that I that I've done and and she sees this, you know, when I'm like going to bed at night and I'm laying in bed and I'm just thinking about all the like problems of like the business and like the stress, like the world doesn't see that, right? And I have to deal with that. Um, so yeah, it was just a crazy situation that happened and uh I'm I think Hershey was the amazing company to buy it because again like yeah, now they can like really go after the other big boys in the space and like and Sour Strips can be the next generation of sour candy that like everyone knows about that like you know my kids can grow up and all their friends like Sour Strips is the is the the candy that they've had since they were kids. And so, uh, it's just kind of a surreal thing. And like from when I was a kid consuming candy on a like everyday basis for my like entire life to like, you know, being on YouTube, being like the candy guy to launching this candy brand
14:23 to then selling it to like one of the biggest candy companies in the world, I think it's like a a beautiful story. It's amazing. American dream. Yeah. If anyone's like, "You shouldn't have done it." I'm like, "No, when you f███." Well, you also you also get to be around your family, which is like the best part. I've I've looked at everything in my life as like these like five year buckets almost, right? So when I started YouTube in like 2013 to like 2018 is this like 5 years of starting YouTube I then I quit my job in that and then right at the end of that I moved to Texas and started this next like 5-year bucket, right? So then I moved to Texas change start my life in a whole new area in the country. um I you know start this company. I I meet my wife. I get married. Um I I sell the company. And then right at the And then right at the end of uh last year in December, we found out that we're expecting our first child. And I'm like we're start to build
15:13 this next house. And I'm like, I look at the next 5 years of my life as like I want to start raising a family and like I want to, you know, I'm 35 now and I'm I'm getting a little bit older and I like when I have kids, we want to have like three kids and, you know, I'm I want to be at all the the games and I want to be like there and not have to be stressed out about work. And so I looked at it as like my dad's just making candy. I'm like, what's best for like my my future family? But one thing I I I talk to my wife Taylor about a lot is I'm like, you know, like when you you hear about kids be like, "Oh, my, you know, my my dad or my family is like, you know, he was always like like grinding and working so hard and he's like, you know, out supporting the family." I was like, "Now I have now I have to be like now I have to not look like a lazy piece of s███." You can like fake go to work though and then be like, "Yeah, you don't even do anything. You see this house? See this house you live in? You
16:03 should just fake go to work. Just go to the shed and kick it. I'm doing something." or go to the baseball game and be like, "What are these warheads doing here?" and really just start like, but I think if I if I was a bet man and I I may be naive to like what the future holds um or even like what my interests will be, but like I would love for a long time into the future to still be involved specifically with Sour Strips, but just in the candy space in general, cuz I think there's a lot more. I think sour strips I don't think sour strips will be the it might be one of the biggest exits that I have but I don't know if sour strips will be the greatest like thing like thing that I impact like the world with. Um you know as weird as that is to be you know sugar but I think in the candy space like I think I have a whole lot more to add and I can continue to like change this industry that's been the same for so long. Well yeah. Isn't there a possibility that tons of other companies would come looking for you to be like consult with us? I'm team
16:54 Hershey's now so let's go. Oh you can't you can't do that. I I mean there's, you know, there's there's there's a lot of like specifics, but but it's almost like why would I go? I'm not leaving the team. Like I want to stay on Sour Strips for as long as possible. I want to continue leading Sour Strip. You just expand the brand. I want to expand the brand. I I have like so many more ideas of what what I would have like already done in the future with sour strips regardless of whether it be flavors, types, different uh variations of the sour strips, different um just extensions of the products that like I've now I have the possibility to make it a reality. You know, instead of being 10 years from now, it could be 1, two, 3 years. And maybe there's these other, you know, popular candies in the space that I'm like that I I know that are that are like dominating in the space of this specific type of candy, but I'm like, I think we can make it better. Like I think we can do a better version of what they're doing. And we can just like we've kind of like dominated with
17:44 the sour belts where we, you know, you know, now people don't call them sour belts anymore. They call them sour strips. And now when Wow. You're like now I mean look at all these other like candy brands that are coming out that are like literally sour belts. are calling them sour strips because they with a Z to be cool. People to like make them think that they're sour strips. Sour. What's like the wackest candy in your opinion? What's a candy that you want to be like, "Yo, if I could use all my Hershey powers, I'm getting rid of this." You can just delete it. It's all wet. Sweet cars. Get that Gushers on the whole category. Sour Gushers. Come on, bro. I actually like like all like all gummy. I'm a fiend. Have you tried uh Percy Pigs in England? What' you call me? Kick his ass. No, I've never. It's ████ So,
18:35 something about British and Australian gummies to me, they're so fire. It's like a softer texture. They use different sugars, but I wish someone imported that here. I think what Kenya need to get rid of is uh the scorpions and the lollipops type of things. That's like a novelty. Oh my god. What? What is this? I'm like, is it scorpions? You need to make all those poor scorpions. We're going to get stocked in like 30,000 targets. We need a scorpion farm. We're going to do that cuz I know where they're from. What do you I don't understand. You can't go after big scorp, dude. I would say those waxy corn things. Oh, the candy corns. Oh, yeah. Candy corn. No, those are good. How about the giant cheese strips with like the the buttons on the paper? You peel them off, you get paper like, you
19:26 know, who is though? That's old timey though. I love the paper on the back of this. Like you peel them off and you're like like what is this from your big exit? Did you like um have one big like indulging? We're actually going to get into that in the next video. Dang it, man. These clips ever pays attention. Anony's too good. He's too good. If pays attention,
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