Chomps: From $6,500 to America’s Fastest-Growing Snack Brand

In this episode, Rose Hamilton, Founder of Compass Rose Ventures, sits down with Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali, Co-founders and Co-CEOs of Chomps, the fastest-growing food brand in the U.S. From humble beginnings to over $500 million in retail sales, Pete and Rashid have built a brand redefining the snacking industry with high-quality, healthy, and delicious meat snacks. What I love about this conversation is how Pete and Rashid dive into the lessons they’ve learned, the mistakes they’ve made, and the strategies that have fueled their success. Whether you’re a founder, a business leader, or someone passionate about entrepreneurship, this episode is packed with valuable insights and actionable takeaways.

Key Moments in This Episode:

• Building from Scratch: How Pete and Rashid leveraged their complementary skills and a deep understanding of their customers to build a loyal community around Chomps.
• Focus on Brand Awareness: Why keeping brand awareness ahead of distribution has been their key to scaling successfully while maintaining customer loyalty.
• Lessons in Resilience: How bootstrapping through challenges—like raising $1 million in a weekend to fund a Trader Joe’s order—helped them grow sustainably.
• Innovation with Simplicity: The power of focusing on a core product lineup while introducing customer-driven innovations like pantry packs to meet evolving needs.
• The Chompian Culture: How Pete and Rashid maintain their original values and foster a strong company culture, even as their team and operations scale rapidly.