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Next time, order with our app or online. and welcome to the advice line on how I built this lab.
I'm Guy Raz.
This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges.
Each week, I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on the show, who will help me.
Try to help you.
And if you're building something and you need advice, give us a call and you just might be the next guest on the show.
Our number is 1-800-433-1298.
Leave us a one minute message that tells us about your business and the issues or questions that you'd like help with.
All right, let's get to it.
Joining me this week is Tariq Fareed.
He's the founder of Edible Arrangements.
Tariq, it's great to have you back on the show.
Oh, it's so great to be back.
Thanks for having me, Guy.
You told us about how your family emigrated from Pakistan.
You were 12.
As a teenager, you worked in a flower shop at a McDonald's to help bring in money for the family.
And then eventually you guys would go on to open a flower shop of your own.
And then in the late 90s you decided that you wanted to get into a different kind of flower arrangement business not flowers per se, but fruit.
Why don't we make fruit into flowers?
And I've told this story so many times to people.
You know about how an idea like that would have been laughed at.
Or people said, this is not a – who's going to want that?
But you understood so clearly that this was going to be a hit.
And, of course, it did.
It became Edible Arrangements.
And I think today it has over 1,300 locations worldwide.
It's done hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue worldwide.
Before we get to our callers, Tariq, I want to ask you a few questions.
First of all, give us an update of what you've been up to.
You haven't been on the show in a couple of years and we'd love to hear what's been going on.
Yeah.
So, you know, kind of grew up in Connecticut, started everything in Connecticut.
And about six months before the pandemic, everybody moved on to Atlanta.
You moved the whole business to Atlanta.
Business and everything.
You know, my whole plan from the beginning was for the next generation to take over.
And now we're facing the other side that everybody's facing.
You almost have to reinvent.
And after 25 years, you pretty much got to take everything together and take everything apart and know uh, put it together again, which is what somya, my daughter, took over as ceos of last year, and that's what she's doing.
And the brand is much broader.
We, we bought in a concept called roti, which is a modern mediterranean um out of chicago yeah, yeah.
And then uh, edible arrangements.
You know it's that.
You know uh, it became more of an e-commerce company uh, 100 e-commerce in the pandemic, And now we're trying to figure out the store and also the e-commerce part.
And then, of course, this phenomenon of edibles, that kind of hit us out of nowhere, which we're trying to just figure out how to do that.
Like CBD?
Well, we own the trademark edibles, and we own edibles.com.
So we're trying to figure out, like, you know, where is this going?
And that's been quite a journey, and we'll figure it out.
I think there's a whole health and wellness side of that.
That we'll do and we're opening one of our first units here, like CBD and THC, but more in the health and wellness space.
So I've always said that opportunity is what you go after, risk is what you mitigate.
So a lot of people that will be getting advice.
They're so hung up on risk that they've totally missed the opportunity.
They're afraid because they want to figure everything out.
And it's been quite an interesting journey and we're making an online marketplace with an app and people are taking this product and, as they take it, how can we have a trusted brand that you can shop from?
Interesting.
I want to ask you about edible arrangements for a moment, because I'm curious because, as you know, in recent years, among a certain kind of chattering class of people, Edible Arrangements has a reputation for being a little outdated or corny, let's say, like a granny brand.
And I think sort of culture and tastemakers assume that that is a bad thing.
But in actual fact there is a massive market for products and services that might not be quote-unquote cool, but that still have a huge audience.
How do you respond when you know in some eyes the brand image is like oh, it's a granny brand, or it's corny or – outdated?
Do you ignore it?
Do you go with it?
Do you try and change it?
Yeah, no, I think... it's not that the next generation won't accept that product.
You have to kind of make it relevant for the next generation.
And that's what the next generation is doing.
So Somya is doing that and she's going to do a much better job.
She takes a totally different approach.
She's 32 years old.
So I started Edible when I was 31.
So it was so nice to see her, you know, kind of take the reins early.
And our family is evolving a brand that we're defined by.
And, Everybody's excited.
Some of my other younger kids are looking forward to coming in and they have very unique ideas.
But it's just a natural progression.
You go through it in personal life and the same way a brand goes through.
And that's what's been happening.
And she's really excited.
She's built a great team.
And I love the approach.
And it's a lot easier going from 60 to 90 instead of starting from scratch again.
Yeah, yeah.
What do you say, Tariq?
Are you ready to take our first call?
Yeah, let's do it.
All right, let's bring in our first call.
Welcome to The Advice Line.
You're on with Tariq Fareed, founder of Edible Arrangements.
Please tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just one line about your business, please.
Hey, Guy and Tariq.
It's such a pleasure to be here and chat with you.
My name is Jake DeLeon, and I'm calling from Arlington, Virginia.
So I'm the founder of Fila Manila.
We make food products inspired by iconic Filipino flavors.
This includes our award-winning banana ketchup and ube purple yam spreads.
Welcome to the show, Jake.
Thanks for calling in.
So Fila Manila, Manila, Manila, Manila.
Like Manila, like the town.
Like the capital of the Philippines.
I love it.
Yes, correct.
So tell us about, first of all, banana ketchup.
I've seen this before.
Yeah, no, I've been searching for that.
I haven't found it.
So this is, I mean, it's like ketchup.
You would dip French fries or put on burgers, and it's made from bananas, not tomatoes.
Yeah, it's a tomato-less ketchup, and it's made from bananas.
It's a fascinating story in history connected to the Philippines.
So it's very kind of iconic to Filipino cuisine.
And is the taste identical?
So it tastes tangy and sweet, just like tomato ketchup.
But because we're using bananas, it has a nice tropical vibe to it.
It's very delicious.
All right.
I'm seeing on your website you've got an ube yams kind of spread for sandwiches or bread or whatever.
And you've got a couple of other cool things here like peanut sauce.
Tell me a little bit about the business.
How did you start this?
Yeah, I'll start just to explain who I am and how I came about the business.
So I'm a first generation Filipino American immigrant.
But with most, I guess, immigrant families, food is always the center of our household.
And the inspiration actually came during COVID.
I did some data and research and I found out that Filipinos are one of the largest Asian American groups in the US, the largest in 11 states, including California.
And our cuisine is the fastest growing as well.
Yet there's almost zero representation of our cuisine in mass grocery.
And that was the inspiration of Phil Manilow to finally add representation in a delicious way.
All right.
So you start this brand.
And now where is it being sold?
Obviously online.
Where else are the products sold?
Yeah, we're available nationwide in select stores.
We're at Walmart, Whole Foods, Kroger, Meijer, and some other independents as well.
And as you mentioned, Guy, we're available online on Amazon and our own direct-to-consumer site.
Okay.
And I'm looking at your website and I'm just going to say clearly, you were on Shark Tank, because that's the cover of your website, a picture of you on Shark Tank.
How did that go?
I've been a huge fan of the show.
So in a strange way, it felt like I was meeting some of my common friends for the first time.
Incredible experience.
Yeah.
And tell me, how are your sales doing?
What are you projecting for this year?
Yeah, I mean, we did about 1.5 million lifetime sales.
This year, we'll probably be doing around 600,000 or 700,000.
And we're essentially the only brand representing Filipino cuisine on the shelves right now.
So we have a really interesting position.
So there's not a single brand out there that is Filipino for Filipino cuisine, like there is obviously for Italian foods or Japanese foods or Indian foods.
There's no national brand there.
There are national brands, but they're mostly the exports from the Philippines.
So think the heritage Filipino brands that come from abroad.
I think with Fila Manila we're probably, if not the only, the first nationwide available Filipino American brand which we make our products here in the US.
And you can see from the branding and from the ingredients it's positioned for the I guess the US customer.
Got it.
Okay.
Before we dive in further, what is your question?
Oh, yeah.
So, you know, I started...
Phil Manila to introduce delicious Filipino flavors in the US market.
But since many Americans haven't yet experienced Filipino cuisine, it seems like we're essentially creating a category while building an emerging brand.
And so my question is what have you seen work for brands that need to educate people about something unfamiliar before it can go mainstream?
All right, cool.
Tariq Farid, I want to bring you in here.
Thoughts, questions, ideas for Jake?
Hey, my first question always is, what's the end game?
Like you know, five years from, four years from now, are you trying to you know, is there a brand that you're trying to mimic in the US, that you would like to become that?
Or what's the objective?
Yeah, great question.
Thank you, Tariq.
So at least for us, the vision is to represent the next generation of Filipino American flavors.
We don't really compare ourselves to what brand we want to be.
What we do say is that You know we believe in five years, Filipino cuisine will be pretty mainstream.
And our goal is that if you ask any random person in the US what brand do you think about when you think about Filipino food, the first brand that comes to mind will be Filipino.
And is there a brand that you know, kind of other ethnicities that you you know, you admire or you think they've done a great job?
Oh, yeah.
There's a lot of brands in the industry.
For example, Siete Foods.
They did a phenomenal job.
We had them on the show many years ago.
Yes.
Great.
Yeah.
They did a great job of almost reintroducing, I guess, Mexican-American cuisine into the US, with clean labels, modern branding, and we hope to do the same with Filipino food.
And is the focus.
Your focus isn't just to go after Filipino-American, Filipinos or Filipino-Americans.
It's to go after Americans.
Oh, correct, Tariq.
Yeah, you know, through our own research we found that actually 80 of our customers are not Filipino-Americans.
I think you're right Jake, that there is – we're at a moment now, and I think we've been there for a while, where Filipino cuisine is really like just sort of exploding.
I think, because you think about, like even Vietnamese and Thai cuisine, even 10 years ago 15, certainly 20 years ago, it wasn't what it is now.
I mean Thai food, Vietnamese food is as ubiquitous as Chinese takeout now.
Right.
And Chinese takeout has been a thing in the United States for at least 50 years.
Exactly.
Yeah.
We usually explain to potential investors and also category managers at the stores exactly what Guy mentioned.
So where Filipino cuisine is today is exactly where Korean food and Vietnamese food was maybe five years ago.
So back then, like no one really knew what gochujang was or bubble tea.
But now.
Yeah.
Bubble tea and bubble.
This is interesting because bubble tea really started as a cultural kind of touchstone for Thailand, particularly Taiwanese and Chinese-American kids.
Now bubble tea is totally universal, ubiquitous everywhere, right?
And I wonder whether there's a parallel to be made with Filipino-Americans as your ambassadors, right?
How much are you tapping into young sort of Filipino-Americans?
Yeah, for sure.
You know, I gave you that stat about 80 of our customers are non-Filipino, but it's that 20 that tend to be our cheerleaders.
You're exactly right, guy, who are Filipinos.
So they may not buy our products, but they're so excited about this modern representation of what they grew up with.
They tend to tell a lot of their social circles or friends, coworkers about our brand.
And we see it on social media.
We do a lot of social media with TikTok on our accounts and we see a lot of people that share and comment that happen to be Filipino Americans usually.
So, look, I think, you know, one, you're doing your right.
It all depends on, you know, what's the mission?
Is it is the mission to flip the brand?
Is it a mission to kind of get bought out, or you want to scale it to be the Goya of the Filipino food?
The only thing I would be careful on that I've seen other brands do is they'll spend a lot of money in the market.
You know, in CPG, the margins are really, really tough.
Right. especially if you're producing the product.
That's the only thing I saw.
That was a bit of a concern right now that I think you should try to import if you can, just from a cost benefit point of view, unless you're making a new product that is just not available.
And that's where a lot of people will.
You're going to spend a lot of energy introducing the product, but then you're not making the margins because of cost.
So you've introduced a product, but then built it for someone else.
So I think you've got to keep an eye on both that not only do you want to introduce the product, and your question had the answer in it, which is like hey, how do I educate?
That's the thing.
You've got to educate.
You're going to go out and sample and educate and teach people about it.
But just make sure you own the source of it and everything and the brand.
What you don't want to do is that somebody gets a banana ketchup that tastes just as good, is branded well, and then just brings it to the US.
And you did the introduction.
They're the ones who took benefit.
So I think, you know, just keep that connection.
And, you know, ketchup is a commodity, right?
So people are going to look at price.
So you may have a price advantage getting it out of Philippines that you may not have by producing it in the US.
Yeah, I agree.
I mean, I think you have an opportunity.
You're right that you are in a great position to educate consumers.
But you want, at the same time, you want consumers to associate Fila Manila with ketchup.
Filipino food, right?
As the brand, the go-to brand.
Sort of like, you know, you think of Sriracha, right?
And there is that one brand that everyone thinks of with the roosters.
You know, there are other Sriracha brands, but they really kind of introduced the product.
It was around, had been around.
They introduced it to American consumers, and now that's the one that kind of dominates.
So you have this interesting opportunity.
The other thing I think have you had any contact or communication with Trader Joe's about collaborating, maybe seeing if there's a product that you're selling that they would be willing to try?
Yeah.
To answer the first point Guy, I think you and Tariq had a really good point about focusing on single products.
I think it was one of the big lessons we learned as a business.
Early on, believe it or not, we had up to eight SKUs, eight products.
But due to getting our butt kicked in the market, we're focusing it now to two SKUs the ube and the banana ketchup.
And we're doing exactly what you're saying trying to connect those wider commodities to the Phila Manila brand.
For Trader Joe's, no, we have not reached out.
I know I hear from my other founder friends that it's one of the most difficult retailers to get into, just because they're very selective with their own brands as well.
But Guy, if you know anyone at Trader Joe's.
Well, I'm sure you can get – I mean, given your track record so far and where you are, I don't think it's going to be too much of a leap to try and get in front of them, because something like banana ketchup is just so unusual.
And I think it's a product people would have to try, right?
There's a reason why it's the number one condiment in the Philippines.
Probably because it's delicious right.
But it's like –
Even the concept of eating mayonnaise and French fries for many Americans is weird, even though that's how most Europeans eat French fries with mayonnaise.
And it's delicious.
Banana ketchup to me seems like actually an easier sell because it's already a ketchup.
It already has that sweet savory tangy, you know element, that vinegary element, that ketchup has tomato ketchup has.
And so are you doing everything you can to get that on social media, to put videos out to have people – using it, incentivize your existing customer base to post about it.
Great question, Guy, and good point.
Actually, in the last few months, as a business, we're actually skewing more towards our online sales right.
And we're doing a lot of that through the support of content marketing and affiliates.
So now we're kind of engaging influencers, affiliates and also people who just love food just to try our banana ketchup and just maybe make content about it.
Another idea we've been exploring is partnering with food service.
So perhaps food trucks, maybe fast casual restaurants that want to provide this condiment, the same way that Chipotle has the Tabasco products.
Maybe they can have the banana ketchup with their fries or wings, just to taste it, just to see what it's like.
And if they like it, that could be a great opportunity for a repeat buyer who can find the market.
Have you done any sampling at like Whole Foods or Costco or talk to them, or even I know you're not Trader Joe's, but that's a like Costco is a great way to kind of go present, especially it's a new product.
Oh yeah.
So when we sell in Whole Foods, we do our demos and then we can do our sampling.
And when I sample it to people their minds are blown because it tastes like a ketchup.
But it's delicious.
We usually serve it with nice, freshly cooked French fries.
And everyone seems to enjoy it because everyone loves fries and ketchup.
Costco is definitely on our radar.
We want to work with Costco because a lot of Asian Americans shop at Costco and they're familiar with the concept of banana, ketchup and ube.
And so I think it's a great kind of condiment to reinvigorate and add some energy back into the sleepy ketchup category.
Yeah.
Look, I think you've done great.
And it's going to take time, especially when you're doing it.
You've got to do one outlet at a time, one customer at a time.
And then it just clicks.
You know, so I'd say, you know, look at the Costco part.
I can send some stuff.
I can, you know, get you in contact with some people just to at least get an introduction.
And if your samples have gone great.
I mean you know they like supporting new brands and everything that you know.
I've known a lot of brands that have, you know, launched from there.
Absolutely.
There you go.
That's an amazing, amazing opportunity.
Jake, I think we've Tariq and, I agree, banana ketchup.
That's the product to really push out there, even though you've got the other ones.
That's your hot sauce.
That's your hot sauce.
That's the one.
I hope so, too.
We want to get more people to try it, maybe at Costco, maybe at Roti.
Who knows?
But hopefully, both of you get to try it.
Maybe.
Hey, look, I'm going to get you in contact with the Roti people.
I think if it's clean ingredients, people will go for that.
Yes.
You got a story behind it.
I'd say write a story behind this and write a story behind the ketchup.
Why the ketchup?
You know, what's unique about it?
And if you can, I would take that one product.
So it's probably easy to execute and everybody knows what ketchup is.
Yep.
So with that, I think it's just more of it just sounds cool.
And I think you'll get a lot of trial out of it.
Jake DeLeon, the brand is called Fila Manila.
Good luck, man.
Thanks for calling in.
No, thank you, Guy and Tariq, for inspiring the entrepreneurial community and, you know, just bringing new people into the fold and just helping us grow and learn more.
Awesome.
Good luck.
And we'll get you some context as well.
Thank you so much.
Good luck.
Thank you.
Good luck.
Best of luck.
Yeah, I mean, I have not, I gotta admit, I have not tried banana ketchup.
I've seen it.
I've seen it, but I haven't tried it.
I've got to try it.
You can have a lot of fun with that.
Yeah.
If he gets with the right and exciting agency.
So I think, just a few changes and I kind of see a fun-looking bottle that may be unique, that he can kind of pretty much own a trademark on to launch this product and really stand out.
For sure.
And by the way, do you know, apparently ketchup did not – it started like as a mushroom condiment.
It was made from mushrooms.
It was not made from tomatoes.
So like we –
We think of tomato ketchup as ketchup, but actually that came a lot later.
So there you go.
Excellent.
Stay with us because after the break we'll talk to another founder working to take their business to the next level.
That's after the break.
I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to The Advice Line right here on How I Built This Lab.
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Welcome back to The Device Line on How I Built This Lab.
I'm Guy Raz, and today I'm taking your calls with Tariq Fareed, the founder of Edible Arrangements.
Tariq, you ready for our next caller?
Let's do it.
Sounds great.
All right.
Let's bring in our next caller.
Hello.
Welcome to the advice line.
You're on with Tariq Fareed.
Tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just a little bit about your business.
Hi, Guy.
Hi, Tariq.
It's such a pleasure to be speaking with you both today.
My name is Heather Thorkelson.
I'm calling from Gothenburg, Sweden, and I am the founder of Minimal Impact Cruises.
Minimal Impact Cruises is a polar voyage company that offers an entirely new style of polar travel on a sustainable 36-passenger expedition cruise vessel.
Wow.
Well, thanks for calling in, Heather.
So you're calling in from Gothenburg, Sweden, and your company is...
You arrange trips like tours of the Arctic?
It's the Arctic, but it's specifically on a vessel that's currently being built.
That is the most sustainable luxury vessel that will be on the market.
I got it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Before we talk about that.
So you have a business that has not yet started or you are working on a – help me understand what you do.
Yeah.
Sure, absolutely.
So I have a mother company, Polar Tracks Expeditions, which is a polar tour agency.
Minimal Impact Cruises is a division of that.
And the whole reason that it exists is to represent, to operate expeditions for the English market on this new vessel that's coming out.
The vessel is about 60% built.
The trips are already for sale.
So we are on the market.
And I have a you know, 10 years in the industry as a business owner for polar tracks expeditions.
But this is sort of a new arm, a new vertical in the company.
And we're, yeah, we're, we're sort of pushing the envelope of what's possible for sustainable travel in the Arctic.
Got it.
Okay.
So just understand polar tracks expeditions is a, is a travel agency that is separate.
And then you've started this new kind of vertical called minimal impact cruises.
And this is a boat that you're being, that is being built and, It's a ship.
Tell me about this ship.
What makes it unique?
Yeah, this ship is so cool.
Nothing exists like it.
It's only 36 passengers, which is a real advantage when you're going out into nature and trying to minimize impact.
Of course,
It's entirely fueled by wind and solar energy.
So it has solar sails, 35 meter high solar sails that are covered in solar panels.
It has clean electric propulsion.
It has autonomous water production.
It has an organic heating system and it has, we put it zero waste at sea.
So it is 90 more carbon neutral than any other vessel out there besides straight up sailboats, which are obviously relatively small.
And the boat is designed to go through ice flows and around the fjords and stuff like that?
Yeah, it's purpose-built for the polar regions.
And that's partially because the person who's building it, who's a friend and colleague of mine, she's an ice captain.
And she's the one who came up with the idea, because we had both been working and exploring, living on these ships for lack of a better term up in the Arctic and in the Antarctic for many years, and seeing that ultimately, like many forms of transport, cruise ships or expedition ships, they have a carbon footprint right.
We can't get away from that.
And so her whole idea was what if we actually just built something from the ground up that was as carbon neutral as possible?
And so there's lots of ways that this ship is engineered for the polar regions to be safe, to be effective and to just provide a completely different way of experiencing this region.
And when are you planning on having the first cruise?
In fall of 2026, so just over a year from now.
It's coming up quick.
And you're selling packages for that trip?
Exactly.
We also have private charters.
I mean, this is an ideal vessel for private charters because of its size.
So, yeah.
Okay.
And how much does it cost to go?
Depends on the location.
In northern Norway it's about.
All of our pricing is in euros, so it's around 18000 euros per person.
In Svalbard.
You're looking at 40 or 42000 euros per person, depending on the length of the departure.
It's a luxury trip.
It is.
In Greenland, we're around 35,000.
So you're going after a very particular clientele.
I mean, this is a narrow clientele.
Before we dive in more, what is your question for us?
Okay, so the question is really a gut check on the name of the company, actually.
We haven't had any kind of negative reaction to it.
It's just something we've been talking about internally.
The minimal impact part we really like because it explains exactly what we're doing.
But The word cruise is kind of cringe in the expedition travel community because when people think of cruises they think of large ships.
They think of a more sedentary vibe, you know, entertainment.
But we put cruise in the name for the sake of SEO and because it's easy to remember.
Minimal impact cruises kind of rolls off the tongue.
So my question is from a gut check perspective, do you feel like that's a positive, negative or neutral, having cruise in our names?
Got it.
All right.
Lots to think about.
This is something that only a relatively narrow slice of the world can do, but still amazing opportunity if you can do it.
What do you think, Tariq?
Yeah.
And one question, Heather, is do you think that this will become mainstream?
I think because the way you're asking the question is that is this where people are headed?
You think even the bigger cruise ships can do this minimum impact?
Are you kind of the –
Mercedes-Benz and the BMW of it?
Or are we thinking there's some merging happening, that everyone else will be moving this way as well?
I think that's an excellent question.
And it's something that we're really kind of keeping our eye on and talking a lot about in the industry.
It's a relatively small industry, as you can imagine.
My firm belief is that and hope is is that this is something that will become much more mainstream.
I think with every new technology, with every more sustainable option that you bring into the market, it's always going to start with something that's very exclusive and very high-end, like electric cars.
There was a time when only a few people had electric cars, and now everybody has them.
So we are pushing the envelope.
We're introducing a different way of doing things.
We're proving that it's possible.
And our hope is that more and more people who are building ships in the future will take on some of this technology when they see that it's something that's totally doable, and then change things for the better.
And would you?
I mean, would the cost come down?
That would be the hope.
It makes sense to me that the word cruise is used because, as you mentioned, the SEO part, right?
People are still going to search for that word.
And I wonder whether you can split the difference, right?
So...
First of all, have you tried any A-B testing?
Have you tried to advertise as a cruise versus expedition?
We have not.
We use the language sort of together a lot.
You know, minimal impact cruises, we take people on polar expeditions.
So it's often within the same language, but we haven't A, B tested, like a name difference.
Why don't you try that?
Why don't you run small ad campaigns?
One, you have it called like minimal impact cruises.
One you call it minimal impact expeditions or voyages or adventures or something like that and see what gets better.
Click through.
Yeah, that's a really good idea.
Yep.
That's a low stakes option that would definitely be worth testing.
Hey, so look, I'm going to share a little story with you.
When we started, we were putting fruit in baskets and, And our cost was, of course, much higher than Flowers.
And so when we were originally looking at the name, we were going by the design, not necessarily as much the experience or what's going to happen.
So the original name was Delicious Designs.
But we struggled with that because that could be anything.
And there were a lot of names out there that people were using that were similar.
Delicious is delicious if you're going to try to get a trademark.
So we started working on the tagline.
They said, how do we describe it?
And that's when one of the people in the room said, oh, we could call it the edible arrangement.
Then our tagline became the name.
So I think you have a name for your company from my point of view.
I think this name that you had of the New Polar Expedition Company.
And because you're such a niche market, I think there's a new way of exploring the polar.
And then what I had come up with?
The same thing like adventure travel, ecotourism or expedition travel or experience, because experience travel is really big right.
With what you're doing is you're giving an experience.
So I think the name wise, I think you're struggling with something because you're trying to deliver on a mission and you want your company to be named that mission.
So i think you gotta you're already doing it.
I don't think you need to wear that on your sleeve.
I mean, you know, i was thinking blue planet voyages or you know blue planet journey, but you already have it.
It was in that brief.
Tell it.
I think you need to write a story, and that story is what's going to get some of your customers to pay the the premium, because the experience from the time you step on this boat is going to be very different than any other boat that you step, Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Not the least of which as well, given how it's powered, it's silent and it's vibration free.
So unlike being on a ship or even a 12 passenger boat, you know, it's really like very immersive.
You know, it's a very, very special thing.
And then there is another boat being built.
So this is not the only one.
This isn't a once and done.
Like the shipbuilder is building a second one.
Eventually, we're hoping for a fleet.
So, yeah, we're trying to really change the game.
No, it looks absolutely amazing.
I mean, and I think, look, a couple of things.
I definitely think that some people will be attracted to the low, minimal impact, but I'm not convinced that most people will.
I think most people are going to be interested in the luxury and in the other people going on the boat and the experience.
One of the things that I and this, you know, just the name aside, the cruise or non-cruise aside, I think that an expedition like this, I think, would do you, would do, you'd benefit from having either a direct or even indirect connection to some kind of environmental group or a group that does conservation with polar bears.
I don't know what.
I'm assuming maybe you'll have lecturers on the boat who will come and give talks at night.
And if you're not, if you don't have that plan, it's something you might want to consider doing.
Yes, we've thought of all of that, actually.
We will have affiliations.
We will have special guests.
And also expedition cruises, they always have a guide team.
And these are people who have science backgrounds, have spent years working in the polar regions.
And so there is an educational element.
There's definitely going to be some affiliations with some key conservation organizations.
And yes, so to answer your question or address that, it's absolutely on our mind.
And it's something that's going to be a key feature of what we offer.
Yeah.
My take, focus on the words expedition, voyage, adventure.
I think you should try the AB thing and see if the word cruise may ultimately have zero impact on how people – may not have a huge impact on whether or not people are interested.
And especially with the type of customers that are going to come to you.
It doesn't matter if it's called cruise or not.
They're going after a certain experience, right?
And they know and they're paying for it.
And the other thing is, like, I think you're struggling a little bit with trying to be authentic.
I think your actions make you authentic.
You're trying to do this.
So I wouldn't struggle with that.
I mean, I think with all the things that you have, I don't think you're going to have any difficulty filling that.
Yeah.
Probably not.
I agree.
Heather Thorkelson, Minimal Impact Cruises.
Good luck.
Thanks for calling in.
Thank you so much.
Best of luck.
Yep.
I take that cruise.
I go on that.
Yeah, same here.
You know, like a lot of times in the beginning, even when I started, I'm sure you were the same way.
We got sometimes stuck on the little thing.
Like you would spend hours on it.
And then I always was lucky enough that I had mentors that were way ahead of me.
And they're like, you know, no one's going to notice that.
I'm like, what do you mean?
But I wanted it to be blue.
He says, no one's going to notice if it's light blue or this blue.
Stop.
Exactly.
They're going to taste the product.
And if they go, wow, by tasting your product, you got a customer for life and focus on that.
Stop worrying about the blue.
And because you're surrounded by people that are constantly talking about that, right?
Like, oh, is it cruise?
You want to be associated with cruise?
And then you kind of get stuck.
Yeah.
But great idea.
Great idea.
We're going to take a quick break.
But when we come back, another caller, another question and another round of advice.
I'm Guy Raz.
Stick around.
You're listening to The Device Line on How I Built This Lab.
Welcome back to The Device Line on How I Built This Lab.
I'm Guy Raz.
All right, let's bring in our final caller.
Welcome to The Device Line.
You're on with Tariq Fareed. founder of Edible Arrangements.
Tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just a little bit about your business.
Hi, Guy.
Hi, Tariq.
My name is Ryan Burkhardt.
I'm calling from Austin, Texas.
I'm the founder of Kong Screen Printing and we're a customer service-focused-based business that manufactures custom apparel and promotional items.
Awesome.
Okay, so tell me more.
Tell me what apparel, t-shirts, sweatpants, everything?
You name it.
We do a lot of work for various types of businesses.
Some are international brands like Coke or Sprite.
Topo Chico is one of our customers.
But we also work with a lot of regional clients here in Texas.
And what we do for them is help create branding apparel that makes their business memorable to their customers, their audience.
And so tell me a little bit about...
T-shirts, hats, those kinds of things, basically, right?
Yeah.
If it's a textile that you can wear, we can print on it.
How long have you been in business?
Kong will turn 15 years old in January.
What makes you guys different from other T-shirt brands or makers?
Basically, we have really focused on customer service.
So what we do is really work more like a, a concierge or a Sherpa, I guess you could say trying to guide the customer through that experience without using jargon that is really very common in our industry and without short-circuiting them with too many choices.
What are you guys doing in revenue right now?
Right now we're at $3 million annually.
Okay.
And tell us, that's pretty awesome.
Congrats.
That's really great.
It's a solid business.
How many employees do you have?
We have 13 employees right now.
And what's your question for us?
Well, we are, after more than a decade, we're at a pivotal moment.
We've proven that our model works and that we're able to really give attention to customers.
But our growth has really been powered by just our great reputation.
We've never done any marketing before.
We've never done any advertising.
It's just been word of mouth and people who want to work with us because we treat them well.
So we're really looking to scale from three to five million in revenue in the next 18 to 24 months.
But we'd like to do that and find new customers without losing our soul and our hands-on approach.
I mean, how long has it hovered around three?
For about the past five years.
So we've sort of plateaued.
It has been irregular with the pandemic.
Were you ever higher than three?
Not consistently, no.
Okay, all right, yeah.
So what would the extra $2 million do for you?
Well, it would allow us to do a lot more for our employees.
It would allow us to do a lot more in terms of acquiring equipment and helping our customers, as well as possibly to expand into other types of services.
Because printing is a very fractured industry.
You go to one person to print apparel, another person to print pamphlets, so on and so forth.
And we really want to be able to offer all of those kinds of things to our customers.
So it would allow us to grow and expand.
Have you spent any money so far on advertising?
No, that's a new development this year.
We recently started working with a company here in Austin, Blackhawk Media.
And we're putting a significant amount of our resources towards branding the company and raising our profile online SEO, SEM as well as running advertisements, which is not something that we've done before.
And you've tried going back to your customers for their needs of trying to see, because you already have a reputation with your customers.
Have you gone back to them and see if there's more sales or more products that you can get out of them?
We do.
Through direct newsletters.
We'll make them aware of new products that are on the market, new things that they can do, make suggestions, as well as showcasing, like we call it, a customer profile.
But basically we'll showcase and highlight our customers who've used their merchandise in a way to create a secondary revenue stream.
So St.
Elmo's is a brewery here in town and they don't sell as many T-shirts as they do beers, by any stretch.
But
They've really been able to build their reputation as a fine brewery and their merchandise has become a significant revenue stream for the business.
So we'll highlight how we did that, what we did with the brewery and how it makes the people who support that brewery feel when they buy that T-shirt or they buy that hat.
But we just haven't really seen a lot of response from it.
I mean, lots of pats on the back, but it hasn't really increased sales.
But from this brewery...
Did you get more sales from this brewery from what you were doing previously?
Was there an increase in sales?
Absolutely.
Okay.
About how much?
On any given month, they'll put in between a $2,500 and a $5,000 order.
Got it.
You know, since you've done this re-engagement with them, are they placing 20 more orders or 50 more orders?
Well, they're probably about 10% more.
Okay.
Okay.
This is why you've had this sustained business for a small business to be at 3 million.
That's phenomenal.
I think the easiest way to go without diluting all of that is by kind of going back to your customers.
And maybe I think, because I don't think you're a screen printing company.
I think you're kind of like a solution provider.
You're going in and if anything, you're more of a promotion company.
How do you re-engage with your customer?
How do you go and promote your product?
Yeah, I agree with that.
I think so.
You just read the lines.
You've hired a PR firm here to help you out and you're trying to figure out how best should they help you.
I guess in a sense.
And in a sense, you are kind of a PR firm.
I mean, you're you do campaigns.
Right.
I mean, you mentioned how you work with brands and you know small retailers to help them tell their story.
You know, as Tariq said, not only going back to your existing customers, but doubling down on those industries where you're already doing that work right.
So these are, I'm assuming CPG brands that want to break into retail small businesses or maybe even big companies that are launching new products or doing things at events right.
And so I would think that you want to build like case studies on your even on your website for what we've done.
And then you target companies that do the same thing that are, you know, lookalike companies.
So you, you sort of say, here's what we did for Coca Cola or here's what we did for you know so and so barbecue in Austin, and how we help them come up with this awesome shirt and design.
And, and this is what we can do for you kind of thing.
Do you guys have an outbound, sort of biz dev, like outbound salesperson?
We have never done outbound until about the last year and we have not had much success with it.
It's a weird commodity though, because you kind of need something custom printed when you need it and you don't when you don't.
And so that's really been.
The hard thing is to figure out how to use outbound sales, because it's very difficult to call or walk into a place and say hey, have you been thinking about printing 500 shirts lately?
Yeah look, I will tell you.
At the same times I've go to brands where they've given me the same shirt the third time.
So they're not thinking of mixing it up.
They're not looking at the seasonal change.
So I think having this business development and these days you can build that with college students incentivize them really well.
And, you know, like you almost have to show them a sample like, hey, we did this shirt for you.
Look at the new one.
Look at this.
And you know, that's when they were like oh, that looks really cool, and you don't want to say to them they're giving it to you free.
You don't want to say you know what?
This is the same shirt you gave me three times.
So but if they could just mix it up or every month you can, because you could do small prints right yeah yeah, which is small runs which you're not going to get from others.
So i think your easiest way to get to this five million are your same customers.
Do what you've done so magically up to now, which is take care of the customer and really look out for them first, and this is why you are where you are i, and i just add a A few college students to the top of this.
And there are so many of them looking for jobs right now.
Go pound on the pavement with a small kit.
And I think you'll get there a lot faster than if you try to go introduce new customers.
Okay.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
And I think you asked, like, how do we do this without losing our soul?
And I'm just kind of, again, reading between the lines here.
You go online, you type in T-shirt printing, and there's a million people.
And it sounds like you don't want to become like some of those brands.
But you can protect your culture by building systems, right?
By really the way you onboard new hires and you really help them understand why you guys are different and why you aren't just a t-shirt printing company, but you are about helping businesses express their ideas.
You really wanna spend time and effort and training and even like a brand Bible for the company.
If you've got some kind of, if you don't have it already, if you don't have even an employee handbook, turn that into a brand Bible.
Who are you?
What do you stand for?
Why do you do what you do?
Make sure everybody who you hire reads that and understands that and you haven't updated the brand for the last 15 years right it's you haven't really did you do rebrand not really yeah you didn't need to no no we really haven't we've just been so focused on helping other people brand um and work with them that we haven't really paid much attention to our own so so look i i'll tell you one thing i'll share this with you my my when we were young my grandfather would always say uh Brawn to brain.
And we never understood it.
Because he was much older.
He was in his 60s at that time.
And he's like you've got to take all that you learned physically and you've got to use your wisdom at one point, because the body is not going to keep up.
You can't keep up with everything.
So what Guy is talking about is how do you bottle what has worked so well for you?
Yeah.
And I think this whole part of very high touch type of interaction, it's getting back to that.
I remember the printing companies back in the 80s when I started my business, I was 17 years old.
I didn't know anything.
You would go to them and say, what do you think I need?
And they would tell you everything that's needed.
And they would create the logo for you.
They will tell you to do it this way.
And they would ask you, what's your favorite color?
And by the time you did it, it made you look really good.
Look, I think you have a lot of experience.
I think you can have a lot of fun with rebranding.
But I love the part you said that we don't want to go to five and lose our identity, which is what happens to big brands, small brands.
Everybody starts to chase the dollar and then after that point you know that they just can't keep up with it.
So i i think you have a good business and just simply going back to your customers, you may be pleasantly surprised how much more orders you get, for sure that's.
Thank you for that advice.
I really appreciate that.
Yeah, ryan burkhart, the the company's called kong screen printing.
Good luck.
Thanks for calling in.
All right.
Thanks so much for having me take care and best of luck.
So Tariq, here we are, like right back where you started.
In some ways, like at scale, the problems just kind of scale.
The challenge is scale.
They're still there.
Tariq, if you could go back, it's a question I ask every founder who comes on the show.
If you go back to where you were when you were just coming up with this idea, for you know carving cantaloupe and melon into flowers and selling them to people.
And you could give yourself advice like hey, this is what I know now.
You know 25 years later, 30 years later.
What would have been helpful for you to know?
I've thought about that a lot because I have to give that advice to my kids.
So I don't think if I went back, I could do anything different because I never really had any money.
And anybody I bought the idea to pretty much walked me out and said, it's not going to work.
Do something else.
But the customers told a different story guy.
Every time a customer got a product, they wanted to order it.
They would always use the word, wow, that was great.
It was so unique.
I didn't realize 25 years would go by so fast.
So I would say the respect of time.
And that's what I'm trying to do with my daughter now.
She's 33.
At 32, she just took over.
Like, hey, it's a 10-year journey.
Work hard.
Really, really 10 years.
And at that point...
Advise someone else.
Let the next leader come in and advise them, which I didn't know because we went from kind of nothing to building a brand.
And you just keep thinking you've got to keep working this hard when you actually don't need to.
Yeah, that's great advice.
That's Edible Arrangements founder Tariq Fareed.
Tariq, thanks so much for coming back on the show.
Thank you, Guy.
Thank you for having me.
It was a pleasure.
And, by the way, if you haven't heard Tariq's original How I Built This episode, please go back and check it out.
You can find a link to it in the show notes.
And here is one of my favorite moments from that interview.
I didn't know what a focus group was, but he asked me to do a focus group.
And I kind of said something to him that I think he didn't like.
I said, I did do a focus group.
I took it home and I put it on the dining room table.
My mother looked at it and said, oh, my God, honey, this is going to be big.
I said, yeah.
So if mom says that, I think it's going to be cool.
Thanks for having me.
And, of course, if you are working on a business and you'd like to be on this show, send us a one-minute message that tells us a little bit about your business and the questions or issues that you're currently facing, because we would love to try and help you solve them.
You can send us a voice memo at hibtid.wondery.com or call us at 1-800-433-1298.
Leave a message there and make sure to tell us how to reach you, and we'll put All of this information in the podcast description as well.
This episode was produced by Rommel Wood with music composed by Ramteen Arablui.
It was edited by Andrea Bruce.
Our audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez.
Our production staff also includes Chris Messini, Alex Chung, J.C.
Howard, Casey Herman, Sam Paulson, Carrie Thompson, Catherine Seifer, Neva Grant, and Elaine Coates.
I'm Guy Raz, and you've been listening to The Advice Line on How I Built This Lab.
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