PMR #291: The business of healthy eating with Pete Maldonado

In today’s episode, I get to speak with Pete Maldonado, who is the founder of Chomps. If you have to eat healthily but you also like your meat sticks (because who doesn’t), you have definitely heard of Chomps. Pete’s awesome company has blown up because they’re doing a great job making high-quality meat-based sticks that are also really transparent.

Chomps sticks are all grass-fed and finished, Certified Humane, paleo-friendly and even in some cases, AIP friendly. Today we talk about the business side of providing healthy products to the world, gendered food association and women as the main Chomps clientele base, and the most recent push against meat-based products. We hope you enjoy this conversation because Pete is a great guy and his company is fantastic. 

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By the way, please go check out Paleo Powder Seasoning, who is our amazing sponsor for today’s show. Go to paleopowderseasoning.com and use the code “paleomag” for 25% off all of the treats that you find there!

 

Key Points From This Episode:

How Pete took jerky sticks as an unhealthy snack and reinvented them into Chomps.  The online strategies that Pete used to market Chomps before it hit the physical shelves. Some of the big physical and online retailers that Chomps is available from. Why online sales are preferable to retail ones as far as customer relations go. How it is hard to get into distributors like Whole Foods because of their screening processes. Pete used e-commerce sales data to get past the Whole Foods screening processes. 75-80% of Chomps customers are female. Chomps got a massive influx of sales after getting featured on Uncrate. Why Chomps changed its branding strategies from ‘natural-foods-looking’ to bright and bold. Ashleigh and Pete’s perspectives on Chomps customers and the gendering of different foods. How Chomps has shifted the concept that beef sticks are for men. What Chomps means for distributor category managers in having attracted female buyers. Pete’s perspectives on remaining consistent in branding despite trend fluctuation. How educating customers expanded Chomps sales outside of niched markets. The quality-related reasons for why Chomps beef comes from Tasmania. Why big American meat suppliers make it difficult to source ethical beef locally. The Beyond Meat trend, and speculations into its drivers: economics and misinformation. How the sustainable meat industry is being obscured by the plant-based industry. The need for arguments for sustainable meat to reach past previously convinced audiences. Explanations of ‘calories-in, calories-out’, and ‘whole foods-based’ approaches to diet. Alternative products are enjoyable to people who are not used to their original versions. The value of reading the ingredients of ‘healthy’ alternative products. The different ethical standards which define Certified Humane. New Chomps flavors such as AIP-friendly, Salt and Pepper Venison, and Italian Beef. Chomps are available online on the Chomps website and Amazon. Some insights into the ‘snack-able’ content in Pete’s new Youtube channel.

 

Tweetables:

“It’s not like you could just say, ‘Oh, I’m launching this new product. I’m going to go and get a meeting.’ No, not how it works.” — @petemaldonado [0:10:37.1]

“Being able to bring new customers to a category where they weren’t generally buying at is huge.” — @petemaldonado [0:16:30.1]

“How is it that our farms that are sustainably raising beef with grass-fed, grass-finished processes are being lumped in with these feedlot, conventional, grain-fed operations here in the US. It is just night and day.” — @petemaldonado  [0:14:43.1]

“We wanted to make sure that there were no tradeoffs and no compromises, and so if we could create something that tastes amazing, that people would eat whether they were on an AIP diet or not, then I think that we have a home run here.” — @petemaldonado [0:39:52.1]

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Pete Maldonado on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermaldonado

Chomps — https://chomps.com/

Chomps AIP-friendly stick — https://chomps.com/collections/chomps

Chomps Sea Salt Beef — https://chomps.com/collections/chomps

Chomps Original Beef — https://chomps.com/collections/chomps

Chomps Italian Beef — https://chomps.com/collections/chomps

Ashleigh VanHouten on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/themusclemaven/?hl=en

Paleo Powder pink — https://www.paleopowderseasoning.com/products/paleo-powder-pink

Paleo Powder — https://www.paleopowderseasoning.com/

Paleo f(x) — https://www.paleofx.com/

Whole Foods — https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

Trader Joe’s — https://www.traderjoes.com/

Walmart — https://www.walmart.com/

MYER — https://www.myer.com.au/

Uncrate — https://uncrate.com/uncrate-app/

Dian Rodgers from Sustainable Dish — https://sustainabledish.com/

Sacred Cow — https://www.sacredcow.info/

Impossible Foods — https://impossiblefoods.com/

Beyond Meat — https://www.beyondmeat.com/

By the way, please go check out Paleo Powder Seasoning, who is our amazing sponsor for today’s show. Go to paleopowderseasoning.com and use the code “paleomag” for 25% off all of the treats that you find there!

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