... and then why Ariel went in that direction.

Yeah.

I'll, I mean, I'll say like just why, I'll start with why women's sports and the story of how this came about.

Melody Hobson, who's the co-CEO of Ariel Investments, if you've never heard of her, please Google her.

She is one of the most inspiring people you will read about and if you ever have the fortune to meet.

But she's, you know, she's been the chair of Starbucks, chair of DreamWorks.

She's on the board of JPMorgan.

You've touched on some of this, but can you talk about what you are most excited about for the future of women's sports and/or things that people are sleeping on? And again, some of these you may have touched on, but just summarize or if there's very specific things from your point of view.

... and then why Ariel went in that direction.

Yeah.

I'll, I mean, I'll say like just why, I'll start with why women's sports and the story of how this came about.

Melody Hobson, who's the co-CEO of Ariel Investments, if you've never heard of her, please Google her.

She is one of the most inspiring people you will read about and if you ever have the fortune to meet.

But she's, you know, she's been the chair of Starbucks, chair of DreamWorks.

She's on the board of JPMorgan.

You've touched on some of this, but can you talk about what you are most excited about for the future of women's sports and/or things that people are sleeping on? And again, some of these you may have touched on, but just summarize or if there's very specific things from your point of view.

I know you've touched on it a little bit, but just step back for a second, just the real quick elevator pitch of what project level is and why Ariel went in that

direction.

I'll start with why women's sports.

And the story of how this came about, Melody Hobson, who's the co-CEO of Aerial Investments, if you've never heard of her, please Google her.

She is one of the most inspiring people you will read about and if you ever had the fortune to meet.

But she's been the chair of Starbucks, chair of DreamWorks, she's on the board of JP Morgan.

She's an icon in the space.

Yeah,

I know you've touched on it a little bit, but just step back for a second, just the real quick elevator pitch of what project level is and why Ariel went in that

direction.

I'll start with why women's sports.

And the story of how this came about, Melody Hobson, who's the co-CEO of Aerial Investments, if you've never heard of her, please Google her.

She is one of the most inspiring people you will read about and if you ever had the fortune to meet.

But she's been the chair of Starbucks, chair of DreamWorks, she's on the board of JP Morgan.

She's an icon in the space.

Yeah,

Mm-hmm.

And the economics were really bad.

I tell any entrepreneur, like, um, you know, it, it was just we were in unchartered territories.

They didn't know how to price it.

Um, and we just had to really buckle down and say, "Let's get a proof of concept." And, and luckily through Sprouts and Whole Foods we achieved that.

And then, um, y- with the support of my board, we decided in '20 that we were going, if we were gonna make a go, we had to go do it ourself.

And we never set out to m- build our own manufacturing or, you know, I never dreamed that I was gonna be running a man- manufacturing, um, uh, one day.

Right.

How do you incorporate and evaluate timing when considering new product development?

Yeah, it's a great question, Ray.

If I was working at a Coman, I probably would do it faster, but, uh, at Wild, you know, we...

Even at concept, you work on a product for, in our case, because of the ingredients we use, we're not calling anyone that has the knowledge.

Like, we are gonna do it ourself.

And then after that, you're gonna, you know, let's just say that's a year, now you gotta go through probably two years of equipment, finding lead times, building to your spec, testing.

So for Wild, it's just that longer journey.

Have there been times when you felt like you could launch a product that was pretty good, that was almost there, or has a launch or a new product introduction always had to be perfect in your eyes before it hit the market?

Like, how long did it actually take from – I guess, get to a product you felt was ready to go to market and like, what did you start with? And like, you know, what are the kind of key, I don't know, iterations look like along the way?

Yeah, man, listen, it's a, it's a hell of a journey.

So buckle up, you know, wild is two phases.

So there's a, I'll bring fresh chicken breast in and you got bone broth and you got egg white and you, and you do what I call, you know, we, we, crafted in what I call a wild potato.

Because then on the other side, I got to slice, I got to crisp it, I got to season it, and I got to bag it.

So early on, I kind of had an idea that we were going to Find, you know, a USDA facility that could help us with bringing, taking fresh chicken breast, bone broth, egg white, tapioca flour, turning into what I call the wild potato.

Then we were going to partner with a pork rind facility and we were going to finish it there.

So for like, what's, I guess, what were the key factors that push you to build versus go the Copacker route at the current stage of the business?

Talk a little bit about that.

All right, so I'm going to break this down.

So to the listeners, just stay with me because this was kind of a crazy deal.

During that early conversation, we're sitting in the office building that I would eventually buy.

And I'm sitting here looking at it.

It's a pretty sizable office building, single occupant.

So it's not crazy.

What do you think is the biggest mistakes people make when they're trying to build trust with a seller?