#279 - Alan Scholnick - Datefix

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If you guys want to try their products, go to the link in the bio as I'm recording this, I don't have a discount code, but I'm sure we can get one for you guys. So take a look at the link in the bio. You can go to heywell.com. You can also go to Amazon. They're on Amazon and it's a great place to get it. They're also available in target. You can find them in Fox Trap. You can find them in a lot of different places now that they're doing a great job of getting distribution, but I would say the two easiest places. LivingHeyWell.com, if you just Google Heywell, you'll find that pretty quickly and then also Amazon. All right, everybody. Thank you for listening. Here's today's show. Welcome to another episode of the Shane White show. I am pumped today to have Alan Skolnick on the podcast from date fix. Alan and I, we actually didn't meet at expo, but I got to meet his company at expo west a few weeks ago and then me and Alan have been talking since then and I said, Hey, your background in your story is one that I actually found to be really, really interesting. Alan is funny. I think we first met at a chip on LinkedIn and it's like, Oh, wow, you talk a lot of cool stuff. One have you on. So Alan, welcome to the show. Thanks Shane. It's great to be here. Really appreciate you having me. Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time. Before we get into your background and like a broader, like, come up of how you got to date fix, would you mind giving everyone listening today just a little bit of a background into what date fix is just to kind of set the field? Sure. Well, date fix is an energy pack made of dates, dates for the dual date fixes and reference to a food fix or your energy fix or your sweet fix, which you get all the above with a dual date. We set out to, you know, I'm a long distance runner with the sweet tooth and I am like many runners. I have a hard time digesting sort of melted extra in base gels and I really don't want to be consuming a gel on the run or at any time for that matter. I'm not that easy clean and running is a sort of a natural pursuit and I thought the category deserved a natural alternative. And so that's that led to date fix, which is just simply a blend it up with orange blossom water and you might ask why orange blossom water and the Eureka moment for me was my mother and law made a pastry for me and inside the pastry was the dates and was basically the date fix. So I literally took the thing out of the Newton. I mean, that was the idea here and it was a simple premise, but it was a long long arduous journey, which happy to tell you about, but that's that's what date fix is. Oh, that's cool though. That's how you I was going to get into that, but that's cool to know that that's how you kind of came up with the concept. I know for everyone listening to you and we'll get all into this, but I think it's good context. I think about running on here before because I've run a couple of marathons and the products I've used and I think it's interesting when I got to try it at expo, you know, obviously my background I've had lots of dates and tried different versions of dates and since then talk to brands and really been in this whole world of dates ever since actually and it's been really interesting because I've used them like just actual dates as an alt as a form of energy definitely for for exercise and definitely running and then when I we're on the plane, I thought I told you this story when we got back from expo, I mean my business partner on the plane to expo. And I was just looking through a list of brands for expo and you guys were literally like all my short list of brands I wanted to talk to you because obviously anything with dates was interesting to me and still is it's been it's been one of those weird ingredients my opinion where like our expo I felt like really brought it onto the map, but then it kind of went away to a degree like it's still around in products and there's definitely brands that are really leveraging it, but it almost was like it it almost I call it like the forgotten ingredient. It feels like 10 years ago it was more popular than it it had a come up and then it just seemed like brands stopped using it to a degree not all of them but just as I thought it was going to get bigger honestly and I just love the source and then when I tried it at expo I was like oh my god the consistency nailed first of all flavor is phenomenal and if you're someone like like me I'm definitely a perfect consumer of it it's like I'm the same way like those gels kill you got. And you hate having them all the time and it's I was always a dichotomy for me trying to be healthy and eat clean and whole food ingredients and then I'd go on runs and have like you know especially long runs I'd have so many of these things and they're just shit they're just full of stuff. And so anyway I just teed that up because it was I always find products that when the use case is perfect the ingredient deck is perfect and it's one of those ideas where like oh wow how did someone I think of this that's what I had when I was at the booth at our at at expo it was like this seems so. Obvious that this would have been something someone did before this so that's off to you I genuinely was like this is great and this should be on shelves everywhere that you're buying not only energy gels today that are not as healthy but also it's just it's a great snack on the go it's just a great option and that's the one downside of dates that I know I've run into even as a dad with little kids. It's one of those things where it's not the most convenient thing to take with you like you're going somewhere like it's a great snack but it's sticky in there you're like the pit half of unless you get depended ones I don't know anyway I'm seeing it up for you there but yeah so the product is awesome I can just vouch for it I've had it. I appreciate that yeah absolutely. And I was going to say how did you like the form factor I would love to start there and then I would love to go backwards actually and hear more your origins for before just to give her a context you had a flashup you know probably eight out of 10 people are not watching the product. I'm not watching the podcast and most people are going to hear this so if you're not if you're not watching you're not going to see it but I'll you have one don't you I love her the people that do. Yeah if you are looking at it awesome no thank you so if we do it in four blends they all have the jewel dates they're from California by Coachella Valley I from a farm out there and they're blended up and as I said we blended with orange blossom water. I came to learn from my mother orange blossom water is used a lot in medic training cooking appears really well with dates it bounces out the sweetness and it also is a source of antioxidants which you know I came to learn in the course of this turning we do it in four blends so the original just those two ingredients and then the third ingredient here we're adding cinnamon and then we're adding a third ingredient here which is turmeric. And the third ingredient here is ginger and that's that's our four that's the date fixed family everything it's food first as I said you know any impetus is you know long distance runner with the sweet tooth and it's and you know you write the premise is so simple but you know when it's really simple it can be the hardest thing to achieve. So I love the form factor from the gels, but I didn't like what was inside of it. And so I thought, well, if I could put the delicious dates hiding in the middle of this pastry, and I came to learn a lot about dates, realized that they don't just taste good, but they actually are kind of nature's OG fuel. OGMRE, in fact, then maybe would be onto something. And turns out, blending dates is really easy. You just need a food process or take out the bits first. Nothing magic, hold there, super simple. But to get the viscosity, the consistency, the rich texture of a blended date, because this is not a liquid, you're getting a date. It's semi-solid. To get it in this form factor was literally putting tooth-based in a travel-size, tooth-based in a travel-size, you know, tube. And that was a multi-year effort that only sort of, you know, insane persistency was willing to sort of, you know, I get through a much, much, much to the, you know, displeasure of my wife. She was like, when are you going to give it up? And I'm like, I can't, you just don't understand, I can't give this up. And this is my profession project that became my, you know, my job. Okay. And so I just twelied away at trying to figure out how we, no one on planet Earth had ever put thought to, you know, maybe it was a bad idea, but no one ever thought to put a blended date and a squeeze back before. And so to align all those stars, it just took a tremendous amount of persistency and work and perseverance. Well, congrats. I want to dive through that, because I think ultimately the show is really about how you go zero to one. So getting through that is something that I think people listen to and want to know. I would love to go back though, because Alan, part of also was interesting to me and I'm sure we'll be able to bounce back organically here. But looking at your background, one thing that was pretty obvious right away to me, and I always loved this is when, like, you're basically founding a food company, but it didn't look like, and tell me if I'm totally wrong here, it didn't look like you've ever worked in food before, which I always find actually is really cool. And we talked about a little bit before, but like, I mean, that's kind of what Peter's vision was with the people he's hiring at David is kind of like, let's just start with people from a different world than food and not just their smart people. Let them come in and just figure out how to do it. So would you mind giving everyone a little bit of more of a background? Like it looked like, you know, you had worked in it was a jet business. But like, yeah, yeah, I did. I'm an entrepreneur. My background is really in the real estate business. That's how I got started. And a finance background. But I've been entrepreneur and my sort of first really ambitious endeavor was I was in the jet business. I was living in Hong Kong and I started the first corporate jet charter business. We did an interplay evacuation. It was totally crazy. I was 26 years old. Wait, like, this is the first business in the world that did charting jets, which is now in mass. In Hong Kong, I mean, you had Hong Kong's like one of the, you know, New York City and AM, it's a rich, vibrant trading, you know, and, you know, enterprising. And until we came along, there was no corporate jet charter. And we put it on the mall in Hong Kong. And I was in business with my wife and white metanasia. So this is a, you know, who is a, everything is a, that was a love story and a business story. And, and we managed to, we created this company called MetroJet. And it's still, we were bought out a long time ago. And it was, it's thriving. And it's been around for a long time. And it's a very successful business and it pioneered in a way, corporate jet charter and things that we, you know, come to commonly understand. But it was super pioneering in those days and that part of the world. Wow. I mean, that's cool. I don't know if you know that. I mean, that's insane. That's wild to know that you were, that's how you got started business. It was insane. It was totally insane. It was ridiculous. But we managed to do it. And, and it's, and it's a, and it's a, in a, it's a thriving business. What was, what was like, I mean, I'm sure there's a million. What were some of the like one to big three learning lessons from that whole experience of building that business for you? Oh, you know, I think to your point about, I think sometimes nice to be an outsider a little bit, is you, I think thinking outside the box is my favorite piece of advice to people. My wife had an aviation background. I did not. But I also, but I had this entrepreneurial zeal and, and that I knew. And so I think sort of, you know, her know how and sort of my drive. We were able to, and it's perseverance. I mean, just, you know, it was like, as you know, most things that turn out to be good or were radical or different in changing, you know, they weren't popular in the, in the, from the beginning. And it's all those people that just sort of said, you know, I got to see it through. And, and I think that's the thing that carried me through that sort of same mindset with MetroJet is, is what I was able to utilize and draw for Dave Fix. And, well, not as ambitious, I kind of tell you putting dates in a squeeze. It took longer, took longer than to get airplanes flying in, in Hong Kong. I got to tell you was, but took the start of journey was much longer, ironically speaking, for something as low tech as what we were doing. That's wild. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's funny. First of all, it's like an evolved wild because now it's funny. I mean, I'm sure you see it too. But like, I, my, I don't know what it is. Probably just think jets are cool. My algorithm, I feel like, is dominated by like all these private jet charters in the US now. I feel like it's half of what I see when I get on my phone. It's hilarious. I'm like, I've never chartered a jet. I've never been out of private jet. But I think they're so cool. Anyway, total aside, I think that I think that's so cool that that was like your first and also that's cool to do with your wife. What a cool way to like meet each other work together, build a business. I totally loved it. And this, this satisfaction at the end when I'll never forget when we finally launch. We know we had a celebration dinner and all the people that were sort of like, you know, where I don't know if you can really do it. And you know, I'm not sure you can get all the licensing and pass all the hurdles. We're going to be going out to celebrate with all the people that were sort of, you know, kind of naysang in the beginning. But we ended up, we built a relationship and we all toasted to the success. And it's still cool. It's still flying. So that was a great moment of just vindicating perseverance and actually being able to go celebrate a success with those that were probably a little, weren't as thrilled as we were at the beginning, but came around to seeing the light and and saying, and so we, you know, it's and it's and that, you know, enjoys the rightful place and it's common, you know, the common occurrence. So it's interesting. I know that's something. He might listen, but Kyle and I were really bad at that. Like if we ever like all the like all the goals since we've started our business that we've set the ones we hit, like we, we did not good at celebrating. And I've always wondered that like, I think I mostly think that's a superpower is an entrepreneur to like stop celebrating what you did because otherwise you just keep going. Like you just keep going, you keep grinding, you keep building and then you don't realize like there's all these things along the way. So good for you guys for doing that. I mean, that's a, I think I do think that's hard to do. Did you, I'm just generally curious because also you know, a little bit about me like finance background. Back then when you guys started that, we were you able to bootstrap that kind of business. No, no, no, no, we, no, we needed major capital. And we were fortunate. We partnered up with a local family who was, you know, a billionaire then before the rest of the world became billion. Yeah, before the before billion years became is, you know, ubiquitous as we now hear, but they had an early head start and they, and they had an interest in aviation. And, and we knew them, my wife knew them, and then we, you know, we knew them. They were, they thought it had a rightful place and they wanted to see it happen. So yeah, no, but we had one one sort went one capital partner, which was great. And kind of we were the sweat equity. And that's how it came to be. Well, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, I thought that was going to be the answer. That was a real capital. But we were fortunate to have really good capital partners. I think that's a skill too. I mean, I'm sure you've seen all different versions of it. I like, I've never gone out transparently to like raise capital. I just know so many people that have and it seems like a skill in and of itself. Like whether you're building any kind of business like being able to go raise money is from what I've heard from people even on this podcast is is quite the skill that is either you have it or you had learned it or you never do it. It's kind of the three buckets I've heard. Yeah, it's true. It's true. You really do. And, but so yeah, I got it. So I got my my key, you know, I got my Keith on that, you know, you are young age with that. And right now, Dave, I self-found it. So, okay, for you try and try to keep away from first law as possible. So, you know, bootstrapped it along and and and and enjoying that for the for the time being and we'll see what happens, you know, as things grow. But sure, are you in the after the after the jet business, you said real estate. Is that where you've spent a lot of your careers? Yeah, I spent a lot of my time real estate real estate at the moment business. And how'd you go from jets to real estate? Well, I was really I it was a family I was involved in a family business. Yeah, so I was in my blood and you know, my father was in that business and that's what got me interested in real estate. And I was really only already doing that prior actually to the jet business. The jet business was sort of a detour just because I met my wife and we saw it on. But it was my first opportunity to really get my, you know, entrepreneurial juices going and yeah. And fortunately my wife was amenable to saying, okay let's do that. So you need that. I think we're business. I guess technically we're business partners before we were married, but it all led to the same place. -Inevitable. -Actually today is our anniversary of all things. -Congratulations. How many years? -31 years. -Also, Kajaban, like nailed that. -Nailed that. -31, wow, congratulations. -Thank you. 31 years. -What's the key? -I wish I could do things over again because I think I have a little more knowledge than, but I just, what's it, you know, happy wife, happy life. I guess is the saying. No, you know what? Just be on the stand, the same team. And I knew I'm married to my soulmate, so that's totally case. -Love that, man. Love that. I'm going to be 10 years married, hard to believe. This is January. We're in your 10. -Yeah, congrats. -Congrats. -It's a milestone. -I was going to say 31. That's awesome, man. Good for you guys. Congratulations. So you go in real estate and you do real estate for a long time. What, why you were in real estate were you ever getting an itch for anything related to starting like another, like a CPG product, food product? -Well, that's for that. Yes, this was an itch that was really. So this was my garage project. This was my. I mean, I love. -Abi. -Kinda. -It's my hobby. I love food. I mean, I play the old ad. I run to eat. I eat to run. You know, gives me permission. So it was a whole. It just was like my whole ecosystem. You know, and I was also fast. I mean, I was a. I was international relations major and I was a Michigan. And I was also as fast as I. How did something that's certain, one corner of the world, like food wise or whatever wise, but food in this particular context, how to become adopted across time and space. And you're right. Dates, I often use the same. I mean, it's the forgotten fruit. And, you know, every fruit, I mean, it's been turned into a jam. I mean, there's really even not even date jam. You know, like there's just. Dates really are there. I mean, you see every kind of fruit that's done in every possible conceivable, you know, way. And dates really are still something that. And it's the oldest fruit in the book. And yet, it's just sort of like forgotten. And it's. And it's this amazing, superfood that, you know, we were fortunate to be able to do something like this. I don't think there's. I try. I don't think there's another fruit that really lends itself to what we've did, you know, to create in kind of the. No. I think, well, you know, the ultimate energy pack. And correct me if I'm wrong. I feel like this is a stat I knew back at our X-Bar and I knew Maya told me this too. And of like all fruit, aren't dates the ones that. There's like basically. I don't know, I don't use the word shelf life, but like the ability for it to, like, actually help things stay preserved is insane. Well, it's. yeah, I think. I think one of the things that I thought was the superpower of dates was not just it was sweet or delicious, but it was. it meant. maintain. it was a fresh fruit for a very. I mean, it stays fresh for a very long time. Yeah. And so, you know, we've been able to. I mean, date fix has a two-year shelf life. I mean, it has long years. We've done that out. Blown away. I was like, that's insane. It's crazy. It's crazy. So, you know, people, you know, I sort of think that wrinkle. And there's a hundreds of varieties of dates, but the one most familiar sort of in US supermarkets are sort of midjull dates and deglet norin. We use a midjull date, which is really the role's the right sort of dates. And, you know, people think that sort of shrivel plucking date is dry, but it's. no, they're moist in the inside. That's its fresh fruit state. That's its ripened state. And it stays a way for a really long time. And then, you know, we. we. you know, we're very thoughtful food science and so forth, but we were able to respect that sort of biological, natural integrity. And so, I think there's something, you know, this is fresh fruit that's. that shelf stable for two years. And I think there's a lot of good. that a product like that can do, as you said, whether you're running. you know, whether you're running. using it as a fuel or. or snacking on it. It's pretty amazing. I would agree. And it's. you know, I. I will use the analogy that I just thought of, you know, I got fruit from Whole Foods, what, yesterday? And like, the bananas are already. I swear, I went upstairs just before this to get something to eat. The bananas are already. they were green yesterday and they're. and they're yellow and you know, and two days they're gonna be brown. And so, like. just to get like oranges on the counter, seemed like they never last very long, etc, etc. And so, that's what I remember. I remember that our expire one of the first days, someone gave me a whole rundown of like, the history of dates. And it was. we had this whole thing when we came on in our expire. It was crazy. I remember. I remember similar to what you just said. It's like, oh, wow, I had no idea. It's just like not included in what you name off fruits, even. It's just like. not in the U.S. at least. Obviously, like, in other parts of the world, it's extremely popular. But it's weird how it's. even after there's been success with brands. I don't. like, I don't know. This is internet. you would know, because you're close to this too. I don't know. The average consumer, like, obviously, I knew this, because of our expire. But the average consumer that eats our expire, I'd love to know if they realize that's. like, if they saw a date. and they've eaten our expire a lot, if they realize that's even what's in it. I bet that's not even one-to-one. I bet you're right. I know you're right, for sure. And it's amazing. Yeah, it's. I mean, people in the United States really don't seem. they don't. they're not that. in certain parts of the country, they really. they've never had it. And we have a lot of fun with it in marketing. You've never had a date before. And. and this is not this beer first state. Let's have a first state here together. I'm like, at the wrong idea. Yeah, so we have a lot of fun. And. and, you know, we. you know, we've. we've trademarked the perfect date, actually. That's smart. That's smart. Yeah. And so we've had a ton of fun with it. And sort of just, you know, and you're right. Exactly what you described. You know, people just aren't. aren't that familiar with it. And we've made the date the main event here. You know, we're not using it as a kind of a, you know, an ingredient and a bar. This is. you know, this is the main. this is the main event. And. and so, you know, people's eyes light up and they know dates. And then we'll give people very often to your point. They sometimes don't really like the way the date looks. It's not. it's amazing superfood with great, great properties. And it's just like. it's a very like all fruit. I mean, really special. But people kind of turned off. I can be turned off by the way it looks. So they just don't even bother to go there. Not knowing. And then we give them a date fix. And they're like, I love date fix. I'm like, well, then you like dates now. And just by changing the form factor. And we get that. We don't really. You know, we understand it. It's like we didn't put a date on the pack. Because again, it's. Yeah, was that by design? By design. Yeah, it's really not the most. And it sometimes turns people away just the way it looks. I mean, that's the except, you know, it's not everyone. Fortunately, most people like them. But I. And they like them. But they just. They're just not like open-minded. And so I think we're stimulating, you know, demand for interest in dates by changing the form factor. And so you're getting all the nutrient density, you know, per calorie that you would from a whole date. But we just made it so much more convenient. And you get all the caramel-like sweet, you know, satisfaction without sticky. without a sticky mess. And you can put in your pocket. And, you know, we meet encounter people like you were describing that try to use dates as fuel when they bike ride, when they run, when they do a sport. So they do activities or just want healthy snacks. But it's just, you know, the Ziploc bag. We've sort of taken the Ziploc bag to a whole other level here where, you know, you can rip and squeeze. And so, you know, people were sort of trying to figure out what to do. And then we, I toil for years to actually get it in this form factor. And. But there you have it. But I think people were kind of thinking around the same idea. Like, oh, yeah, that's such a great idea. But, you know, actually executing it as a whole another story. Yeah, of course. The execution is the key. So I would love to go to the beginning here. You said it was like a garage project for lack of it. It was basically a hobby. For everyone listening, like, this is honestly like one of my favorite parts of getting to hear your story is like, okay, Alan's playing with this. You're mixing the stuff up. Your mother-in-law makes, you know, these ingredients. Blah blah blah. You have like a thing that you're making at home. Yeah. Going from that to step one, like the zero to one thing right here, is such the key part, which is obviously you had it, whether it was structure of business, go out and actually figure out how to put it into this form factor. What were some of the earliest steps? Like, you know, some people, they went to PowerPoint. They tried to make a logo or they talked to a command. Or, you know, I just love to know, like, you remember back, like, let's say like week one, week two of date fix. What were some of the earliest things you were just trying to do and like, to get this even started? Well, the first thing people did is that people, like people don't fully understand I haven't started. Something like, there's a lot of non-sexy little steps that go into even you just like getting on the starting line. So it was, it really has been a long, our Jewish journey. It started with a food processor, you know. could I, you know, could I put the ingredients together, could it come out tasting? You know, so I was very, very focused on taste. I was very focused on the, could I, could have enough shell, you know, in food, I think the reason we have so many, we have so many of the health issues we have is that food integrity and shell stability don't play well together. Because if it's it's high in integrity like you're at the banana, there's no shell stability. And in a way, we're kind of the new banana where the banana doesn't go bad because dates by way have more potassium, have more potassium by weight than a banana actually is a fun fact. So yeah, so my whole thing was, could I just use naturally, you know, two ingredients and have a shell stable product and how long? So I did a lot of testing, a lot of testing on that, you know, literally putting it in Ziploc bags, sending it off, you know, to, you know, corn el for food science testing. Okay. Yeah, I was gonna say, what does that look like? What does it look like? Yeah, I mean, it was, it was just in, you know, I mean, that, you know, running, you know, try this version, try this version to get readings on it and, you know, you know, learn a lot, you know, I think we became in way, their, their poster child for kind of creating this freak of nature, this fresh fruit that had it to your shelf life and with only two ingredients. I mean, if you were to assemble a bunch of iron chefs and say try to come up with, you know, a whole food, you know, based product with, you know, shelf stability such you can market it has a CPG in the store. You'd be hard pressed to come up with, with, it's very hard and you know, so the, the, I was trying to avoid the pitfall that when people sort of a homemade recipe becomes industrialized, it loses its integrity along the way, either through preservatives or something. And yet, daifix is the like the rare product that, whether it's the food processor and the plant or the food processor, your home, it tastes identical, it smells just as good. It's like incredible. And so that's where I was first fixed on. And then I went out to try to find a co-man and that was, you know, okay, great idea. And, and I initially sold it actually in the early as part of this sort of start, you know, a little bit on the side here, put a pick it up, put it back down, you know, various points in time. I managed to sold it in a jar, first of all. Oh. And, yeah, and I found some, putting it in a jar was, that was totally doable. And I called, called whole foods. And, yeah, and I was fortunate that the person at the end of the phone said, I've been looking for you. And, and I specifically called the, the cheese, cheese department, the cheese buyer, because I thought dates and cheese were so, it's such a great combination, the way like figs work. I've never had this, was that a thing? Cheese and cheese. Yeah, yeah, it's great. Is you can put this on a chakrutary board like cheese. I mean, yeah, it's insane. It's so date, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's just amazing. Like the idea like wrapped, like taking a whole date and wrapping it in bacon and blue cheese, like that's a thing you can buy. Like on menu. Sure. Yeah. So it's that kind of idea. And he was like, yeah, we got, we got to pause there. So you, you pick up the phone, you call call the cheat, like I would have never thought to do that. The cheese buyer at Whole Foods, and you just say, Hey, like I have a product that would be perfect for your category. Yeah, I did. I was really, I mean, I was like normally can never get a human being on the phone and let alone one that even had any interest in talking to you. Especially at Whole Foods. Like that's not it. Yeah. I mean, there's a busy place, you know. And the guy was like, now I've got fig, we think date fits in the arsenal. Let's come, you know, so I went in their offices and I gave and they were really nice and they were really helpful on sort of--and it was a predecessor version. But that's how I got--that was the start and we were--I think they gave us two stores in New York City. I was living in New York at the time. >>So you're a first retailer of Whole Foods company? >>Yeah. I never wanted to add to that. This part of the story. Wow. >>Yeah yeah. >>In the joy version. >>In the joy version, right? >>But it gets better in the pack. Yeah, well, we--so--but the char version wasn't what I was really looking to do and I kind of put pencils down. My father passed away and I just sort of like had other things I had to deal with that work, you know, life--real life set in. >>Yeah. >>And the garage project once again got, you know, kicked to the side. But those were the, you know, but those were sort of the validation points, if you would, because it passed through a lot of mouths and people loved the taste. And I already knew it was, you know, it was the feeling of a pastry. I was, you know, it was dates. I was pretty good to go anyway. But still, you know, it's another thing, but it's actually realized. And then I said, look, you know, putting a jar of--is like a jam maker. That's not what I want to do. I mean, I did this so that I could fuel my, you know, like my runs with something clean. I got to get into this form factor and I literally called--I think I called it every co-packer that anyone had ever possibly told--every list in America. Everyone that I went to, every person that made it gel, the gel makers were like, down, you know, this is kind of food and, you know, it's not really--it's not a gel. >>Yeah. >>So like all the running gel guys, they were kind of like-- >>They said it instead. >>No, no way. It was--this is food out, and we don't--we really don't do food. We're like--we're more in the, you know, the supplement, nutraceuticaly kind of-- >>We're more in the like, fake ingredient stuff anyway. >>Yeah, yeah. They were--it's like--if it's not--if it's not slime and slimy slippery, it's not our thing. We needed to slip through, you know, so I'm like, we can't help you. So they were not interested and no one--and so I literally--I mean, just in a--it took a long time to find literally--called every-- >>How's it going to happen? >>I was thinking, you know, emailing, calling, calling, emailing. I'm doing anything and everything. I mean, it's just like--and it's slow. >>Are you able to dedicate, like, pretty serious time to this? Or is it kind of like-- >>Well, it was just like--I was just like--I'm doing it here. I'm falling between the cracks, trying to do a real job and do this on the side. It was like--it went--that's why it took so long, you know, and because like I think it was. But--and then I got fortunate that I met one gentleman who was like--I think they can help you figure this out. And he became my--you know, one of my angels. I mean, he just wanted those people to like--after--I mean, hundreds and hundreds of knows. He was the one person that said, "Yeah, I think we can handle the--we can figure this out." But, you know, even that statement took a while before it really happened. We then ran into COVID, you know, code. So that just--so--in order to make it, I had to actually--no one had the all-equivalent equipment needed that we thought we needed. We weren't even really sure what the equipment was because it just had not been done. But, um--and I started educating myself and, you know, in this journey here. I went out into the market and literally at the launch of COVID, I went on bought some equipment that I thought would be essential to do it because I was afraid. I wouldn't be able to get it with COVID, you know, it was already out long enough to--and I bought a piece of equipment and--and that was--that was fundamental to being able to make the product that, you know, that was essential. I interestingly co-located equipment and a co-man to be able to produce the product. So we had to really invent our own production. We have a proprietary production line. I mean, no one--we had to put all these pieces together. I don't know if I knew that. Oh, that's me. No, you didn't know. No, no. This is the--this is the long story. We had to create a run for the proprietary production line. I mean, down to the boiler. I mean, all kinds of things that I--so, yeah, I'm in-- I personally think--I mean, hats off to you. I didn't know that part of this story. That--to me, like, that's where it seems like a lot of really successful food companies are going to--decade--this is just my super high-level experience opinion from just the brands that I've worked with over the years. You can figure out a way to self-manufacture and it doesn't completely--you know, it's not, like, completely eroding of your P&L, and it separates you. It's, like, real IP. Like, well, you're--because what you're doing is--I mean, you're creating IP in a way that, you know, it's not going to be easy for anyone to go copy. Number one, I mean, you're building a moat. Yeah. No, that--that is right. Look, I wasn't looking to build a moat. I had this go--a moat garden. And then do, like, a legit garage operation. And it's exactly--I mean, to say face with my wife and family and friends, I like--I got to see this to the finish line. This is a marathon after all. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's also some healthy--I feel like that's a little bit of a--it's, like, healthy keeping you on track as having the family be like, "Are you going to Allen? Are you going to put this down? Are you going to do it? What's going to happen?" Yeah, exactly. And then, of course, like, "Oh, we knew it's a great idea, a little, you know, a lot, but now, of course." Yeah. Right. So they're, like, anyway, so we did--we have a--as a result, we have a proprietary production line. And we--and I knew the food was good, you know, from those sort of small steps. I knew that it deserved to exist. And if I could--I wanted to see it through. And I wanted to be able to produce it at scale. And so we finally--you know, we put this mouse trap together and turn on the switch and hope that day fix would come out the other end of it. [BLANK_AUDIO] It did. It did. It worked. And I did it in time. There was, I decided to launch it at the fancy food show in New York in the summer of 23. And so we were literally just like, we were trying to produce this. Like, you know, it's like the week of the show, you know, am I going to drive it? You know, I'm like, I'm going to have to go drive it, you know, from the Midwest into the Jacob Javits convention center, you know, to have product on hand for the show. And literally it was just coming to the wire. It was totally. And I got like the cheapest, I mean, I was like in the bleacher section of, of Jacob Javits, the cheapest, you know, a table. And I didn't like, I don't think anyone could find me. And, but I was fortunate that two people found me there. And that was Walmart and Whole Foods. Wow. Yeah. And Loki, Loki, yeah, Loki, they found that table on the back and the back nine there. And in the woods. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, you know, the, the buyer from Whole Foods called me that week and said, you know, you want to come down in Batonville and show me what you got. Wow. And I did. And, and we were really fortunate that they, they loved it. And we're willing to give a newbie, you know, start. And, and Whole Foods took a liking as well. And eventually we started that on a regional, you know, regional basis. We're trying to expand that nationally. And, and that's how we got started. Congratulations. What a start. Yeah. I mean, it mean again, like the, that zero to one part, that's, that's the part that most people put the baton down and, and stop. It's the persistence that it's like a part of every story of every product that's come to life. Yeah. Look, the reason, but the product was so, is so unique. It's so, it's so simple. I mean, it's so radically simple. Yeah. That was exactly what I, I mean, I told you it, when I, when I met you for the first time, I told you I was like not blowing smoke like you guys were like my, there was three brands that I was really interested in looking at an expo out of the whole show. And I generally like packaging is amazing. I think the brand is awesome use case is great. And I just like you couldn't get simpler ingredients like it's great. And they're like the flavor profile. I'm not, not just, I'm not trying to blow you up here, but it's, it's smart. It's simple. And it's like you didn't go. You didn't start simple and then like go crazy with flavors or something. Yeah, I mean, we forward. So. Yeah, no, we wanted it, the flavors dates, you know, and people are, it's interesting. People are so. They've been trained almost to like, you know, they're like, it actually like they're like relieved and so like, well, this, this is the date. Wow, it tastes like you're supposed to be a day. And, yeah. And they're like, you know, and this is like really good. I'm like, yeah, I mean, I, I, I, you know, I really would not want to be wasting my time to your heart times. Or, you know, if it wasn't something special, but that's, there was a recognition. So even though we were, you know, obviously had nothing going on. They saw it as unique kind of the poster child for whole, I mean, if there was to be, I mean, we're not there yet in terms of, but, you know, from an ingredient profile, it's like the poster child of what you would think a whole food traffic would be. It's two or three whole ingredients. Right. And, and Walmart, you know, kudos to them. They were, you know, they, they love the healthy halo and, and they got on board and, and they just renewed us and, you know, really, you know, really, really grateful for the partnership. And, and standing with us while we're, you know, kind of in this beginning journey, you know, as an emerging brand as a startup, kind of seeing that the food integrity here is something that, you know, we want to be a part of in this journey. So I'm really grateful and really was really blessed to have that happen. That's amazing. Congratulations, Al. That's awesome. Whole foods, Walmart. Where else can people, I have two more questions I love to ask as we wrap up the hour and we get towards the end. And, you know, people get you guys online, do you have a D to C site? I just, I always love to give people an opportunity to wherever they have a retailer close by that they could find whether it's online or in store. Yeah, I know, appreciate that. We're in, we're in about 4,000 retail locations. We're in fleet feeds. We're in, you can, you know, we're on the feed. We're on you can go to daifix.com, our D to C site. We're, you know, we're running stores. We're in supermarkets around the country. Natural markets. We're in bike stores and running stores in yoga studios and Pilates studios and, you know, Egon ox and those kinds of places. It's kind of one of the rare products that can live, you know, and it's, you know, can live in a, I mean, it's, it's an amazing that it can live in a, you know, in a, you know, grocery, of course, grocery store, but a running store, it really can live anywhere. We've done some interesting tests with some big retailers, non traditional that I think are really exciting. You know, who want to, who want to have a, a no fuss, really fruit item that they can give their customers without any stress or hassle. And so, yeah, so daifix.com and, you know, we sell a 12 pack box online. This is our variety, most popular. And we've been all four blends. We can also buy individual blends and, and we're selling it as, you know, singles across the country. Okay, all of those are the show notes. People can easily find that. This question is one of my favorites. I'm so excited to hear yours. It's all about the question that I'm going to build up to is, is how you get shit done ultimately. But for you, you know, daifix obviously is a whole new business with a lot of things, probably changing and evolving every day. You've also working with Jepp business. You've worked in real estate. Alan, what do you use to plan like big goals, whether that's like the next 10 years or your annual goals down to like what's the shit that you got to get done today? Are you a pet and paper guy? Do you have apps like what's your ecosystem look like for productivity? I'm a list person for sure. My friends will always laugh. I used to carry around a legal pad. And this is before before you had, you know, iPhones and all that. I would literally take the legal pad. I had it folded in half. I had an illegal pet, you know, had something on it that was literally my Bible. And then thankfully, you know, we got the digital note taking and and so my phone. So, you know, I'm that note sky. I am that ever note person. I am I am all over that. And it's great. I used to have literally millions of pieces of paper. And I, you know, finally got, you know, we're welcome to the digital age and and I don't have any paper. I very little. I used to carry paper all over the place. I don't really carry paper anymore. So that's amazing. You went from legal pad to a legal, unfold digital. You know, we, you know, our team is sharing Google docs were. But my lists are and I'm, I mean, I'm eating and sleeping. I mean, I'm. I'm thinking of, you know, you know, something on the production line, something that marketing, you know, what's what what's our next opportunity. And and I love it. I am so energized every single day and so fired up every day that I can barely sleep at night to just go out there and brush it the next day. And, you know, I get my workout going every morning and then I just fire into into now just it's, I don't know, just it's. I made my, you know, my light is my is my passion now at this point. And we're kind of on this mission to advance health and wellness by reinventing the date and and making this incredible fuels, you know, to help people, you know, fuel and flourish the way nature intended. I love using the genius of nature. And that's our whole thing. And I'm just having got a great team of people that are really into that mission and we're having a lot of fun together. And just, you know, just enjoying the watching the dominoes fall and, you know, creating that tipping point moment working towards it. Yeah. Well, congratulations at all the work. I mean, obviously it's a, it's a, it's a, it's tough. It's a grind. But you've done some amazing things already. And to know where your retail footprint started and everything you talked about today and our conversations we've had before this. I'm bullish on you guys. I know I keep saying that, but I really am and he got something great. So things taken the time today. Man, I really appreciate it. And I'll add all this all the links to the show notes for people to find it and people can can get date fixed for themselves. I really appreciate it. I, you know, it was, it was great. I really appreciate you reaching out to us. And I'm really glad that we were doing something that sort of picture interest in a crowded world. So it kind of helps us keep going. And that's kind of like while we're willing to sort of run through walls. And hopefully that, you know, there's lots of shame, shames out there that that feel the same way. And that we're making a contribution. I, they're definitely are, we've got to find them. So that's the goal. That's the goal for the, we got to get exactly. That's great. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. It was absolutely pleasure. (upbeat music)