[00:00:52] Ray Latif: Hello friends, I'm Ray Latif and you're tuned in to Taste Radio, the leading podcast for entrepreneurs, makers, and innovators in the food and beverage industry. How did two 20-something founders turn a $7,000 investment into one of the fastest-growing brands in CPG, now selling one unit every three seconds? It started with a deceptively simple idea, relentless sampling, meticulous planning, and a confident bet that protein ice cream could outshine the biggest names in the game. I met up with Protein Pints co-founders Paul Reiss and Michael Meadows at Expo West 2026 to discuss the origins and development of their high-protein ice cream brand. They share why leading with protein was key to standing out, how years of sampling and iteration shaped the product, and how they scaled from just 14 stores to over 10,000 in just under a year. Fueled by strong branding, great taste, and relentless execution, their rapid rise highlights the power of product-market fit and founder conviction. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am honored to be sitting down with Paul Reiss and Michael Meadows, the co-founders of Protein Pints. Paul, it's great to see you. Great to be here, Ray. Thanks for having us. Thanks so much for joining me. Michael, how are you?
[00:02:23] Paul Reiss: Doing well. Listening to the podcast. It's great to be here with you.
[00:02:26] Ray Latif: I know it's exciting. It's exciting for me because I'm talking to two up and coming founders, young Turks of the industry, as it were, who are changing the game in the ice cream category, which is pretty awesome. I mean, that's not an easy business, as you guys know, and our listeners, I'm sure know. I've said this a million times. The frozen section is one of the most difficult parts of the story because you got to open a door to actually get to the food. An investment banker that I respect quite a bit once said, never put the ingredients in your brand name because it limits you in terms of brand expansion or potential line expansion. Clearly, Protein Pints is the name your brand and is the key attribute of why people would purchase your product. I mean, at least most people who haven't tried the product yet. I tried your product here at Expo West. It was your cookies and cream variety, and it was amazing. Whether it was called Protein Pints or otherwise, I would buy it because it's that tasty. But why did you feel like you needed to have Protein Pints the name? And do you feel like it's at all limiting for the future of the brand?
[00:03:31] Michael Meadows: That's a great question. I'd actually agree with your friend for every single ingredient name, except for protein and then potentially calories. So think things like skinny pop, Muscle Milk, Protein Pints, things that signal right away what the outcome is. For us, it was very important that right away the consumer understood that it was protein. And why it works for protein and calories, we're going to talk about focus on protein here, is because it's not going away. Because Protein Pints an essential building block of life. And it's not a fad, unlike many of these other ingredients and trends that we see. So if you had the name CBD pints, maybe that would be a bad idea. Exactly. So protein and calories are the two, basically the two gold standards in the market in CPG. Those are kind of the holy grails. It's why it's able to work for our brand.
[00:04:29] Paul Reiss: Also, it just has a great alliteration. I mean, the words is very descriptive of what the product is. And when a consumer is spending, you know, just a few seconds going through a grocery store, looking for products that resonate with them, the name Protein Pints very clearly says what the product is without them even trying the pint or opening up the pint.
[00:04:45] Ray Latif: This is your first Expo West. When did you start the company?
[00:04:48] Michael Meadows: We started the company in 2022. Okay. Michael and I were both 21 years old at the time and still in university.
[00:04:55] Ray Latif: And Michael, you told me that you were studying at Michigan before deciding maybe we should go to the most rival of rival schools other than Duke Carolina, perhaps. Let's go to Michigan State. But just tell me a little bit about, you know, your background and how college impacted your decision to go into entrepreneurship.
[00:05:13] Paul Reiss: Well, honestly, with our origin story, I think we have to rewind a little bit more, even from college, because Paul and I have been best friends since we were five years old. We actually met on the school bus in kindergarten. We go all the way back. We actually have this picture, and we can send this to you of us eating ice cream together when we were just young kids.
[00:05:30] Ray Latif: Nice.
[00:05:30] Paul Reiss: And so it's been, you know, everybody loves ice cream, something we always enjoyed, you know. And then you fast forward to college. Both Paul and I were collegiate athletes. I was doing bodybuilding. He was playing soccer for school. You know, we ate a ton. There's the picture. Amazing.
[00:05:43] Ray Latif: Amazing. Look at that. What you're serving looks a lot healthier than that. Michael, is that you with the big blue one?
[00:05:51] Paul Reiss: Yeah, we realized that Paul Reiss actually eating my ice cream because his face is covered in blue and his ice cream's gone. Oh, I see that. Yes.
[00:05:57] Ray Latif: OK. You guys really were best friends and continue to be. Well done.
[00:06:00] Paul Reiss: Yes, yeah, we always wanted to start a business together. And you know, when we got to college, you know, Paul and I would, we'd write down a business idea every day, even if they were like sometimes bad ideas, just going through that exercise of thinking through, you know, what that might be. And, you know, we loved fitness, we loved healthy diet, healthy eating, and we ate a lot of protein products, but we missed eating ice cream. So we had this idea of like, why don't we combine the best of both worlds, like a high protein ice cream product.
[00:06:25] Ray Latif: Why were you writing down potential businesses all day and all the time? Were you just that interested in starting your own company or was that your area of focus, your, I guess, study program in college?
[00:06:36] Michael Meadows: You know, it wasn't, but growing up, Michael and I were very entrepreneurial. I think a lot of it started at a young age with the lemonade stand, you know, or selling trading cards or, you know, different things as we were growing up. And every summer we would work on these business ideas. And what would happen is we would, you know, get a few months into a project, do some market research, maybe get an MVP. And then we would go back to school and the idea would kind of fizzle out. And that was the story for probably five or six years before we started Protein Pints. And then in the summer of 2021, as Michael was describing, we decided to write down one idea every single day in a spreadsheet.
[00:07:22] Paul Reiss: It just trains you to look at the world differently. Like you start seeing opportunity, you know, in things that you wouldn't have normally seen. And I think there's a famous Steve Jobs quote, like, the world is created by people no different than you. And that was a really good exercise in just kind of seeing the world that way and believing and having faith that we could create something of value for the world.
[00:07:41] Ray Latif: What other ideas were on the spreadsheet and ended up on the cutting room floor?
[00:07:46] Michael Meadows: We had some funny ones. A lot of them were around the fitness. One was like a pull-up bar that could also be a deadlift bar, like a two-in-one. You could transport it. We had, I think, a water bottle tracker. We didn't care too much about the success. We were just doing it because we were having fun.
[00:08:05] Ray Latif: Well, and doing it clearly to create a business and a brand and a product that other people would want. I mean, certainly maybe some of the ideas you had could fit into your lives, but does it fit a broad audience? Are a lot of people going to want this thing? And, you know, there've been Protein Pints ice creams in the past and Some have worked out better than others, but I think Protein Pints is the first that I've seen that is really very intentional in who it's for and what you're going to get out of it, what the reason for being is. But I could be wrong. You know, what did you see as a white space? What did you see as the potential for a brand like this?
[00:08:42] Michael Meadows: You're exactly right. There were protein ice cream companies before Protein Pints. But what happened with these companies is that they didn't brand as a protein product. So when the consumer saw those products, they didn't realize that's protein ice cream. So what we saw was the opportunity to create a product that signals exactly what it is within a second of seeing it and essentially create an entirely new category.
[00:09:12] Ray Latif: I assume we're going to see a lot more products like this given your quick success on the market. And just for context, where are you sold and where do you expect to be by the end of the year?
[00:09:24] Paul Reiss: So today, we're in early March 2026. We're sold in over 10,000 locations nationwide, including Target nationally, all the Albertsons companies, the Kroger companies, Sprouts, ATB, Meijer, and tons of other regional partners that we work with. And that was a very quick ramp up. You know, 14 months ago today, we were in 14 stores. Fast forward to 10,000 is a very, very steep ramp. I think now we're at the point this year where we're selling a pint every three seconds on average this year, which is incredible.
[00:09:56] Ray Latif: Just going back to who this is for, I don't mean this in any kind of bad way. In fact, I think it speaks to who your target consumer is in a really intentional way. It feels very masculine. Your branding feels like it's very clearly for a male consumer. And I could be wrong, but if I'm looking at your package, it's a Black Pints Each flavor has a different color around the top and around the word pints and a few other parts of the package. But who is your target consumer? Who are you trying to attract with this brand?
[00:10:27] Michael Meadows: Protein Pints was really created for people who are looking to get more Protein Pints their diets. but want it in a more enjoyable way. That was the same problem that Michael and I had. You know, we needed Protein Pints our diets, so we were doing the shakes, the bars, but we didn't love the taste. So that's why we wanted something like ice cream. It's more enjoyable than ice cream. Exactly. What's more enjoyable than ice cream? Our demographic is actually skewed slightly towards women, which is interesting because it is a more masculine packaging, I would say. But that's just what the data has shown us. And we think that's because the protein callout speaks to everybody, not just men.
[00:11:07] Paul Reiss: Well, let's also talk about the format too, because format of protein matters, right? We're talking about getting away from shakes and bars, kind of like the same old types of products that have additional protein. But ice cream as a platform for Protein Pints great because milk and cream is used in ice cream. That's the base of it. Those ingredients are already naturally high in protein. So it actually works really well. And I think that ice cream is just a very broad and approachable and fun platform to boost a protein product.
[00:11:33] Ray Latif: And clearly you add Protein Pints your ice creams.
[00:11:38] Paul Reiss: Yes. And all the proteins from milk, even with some traditional brands, you'll see, you know, 15 Reiss of Protein per pint, but then again, you're getting, you know, 1200 calories. So it's not really like the nutritionals that people are looking for. And so we came in, we put in more protein from milk, we're coming in, we're lower calorie, lower sugar, kind of hitting a lot of those main points that health conscious consumers are looking for.
[00:12:02] Ray Latif: The one thing I don't necessarily see as much on the front is the indulgence factor. I tasted your cookies and cream variety downstairs and it's amazing. So tasty. And if you would just put it in a pint next to, I don't know, the big players out there like a Haagen-Dazs, a Van Lewins, what have you. I would say I wouldn't know the difference. In fact, I would perhaps even choose the cookies and cream variety over others because it tasted that good. How do you talk to consumers about taste as much as you do about protein? Because functionality is certainly one part. But if it doesn't taste good, nobody's going to come back. And to continue on that, I mean, was indulgence the key to unlocking your expansion from 14 to 10,000 stores?
[00:12:44] Michael Meadows: Yeah, absolutely. Probably the number one thing is the taste, right? If ice cream doesn't taste good, people are not going to buy it. So for us, the Protein Pints the hook. The low sugar is the hook, the natural ingredients. That's what gets people to try it that first time. And then once they've tried it, they keep coming back because they're like, wow, this tastes just like traditional ice cream. I can't believe, you know, it's this high in Protein Pints this low in sugar.
[00:13:10] Paul Reiss: Not only that, but people are actually expecting protein products to not taste as good as their traditional counterparts. So we're actually set up kind of to an advantage because we do taste so good. It's like superseding people's expectations, which is a really fun, magical moment when we get people to try it for the first time.
[00:13:26] Michael Meadows: What we did early on is we got hundreds of reviews from people in our community because we were doing all these different sampling events. And you're talking about in Michigan? In Michigan. We sampled over, you know, the product over 10,000 times.
[00:13:40] Ray Latif: And you were doing it at, I'm sorry to interrupt, but this is important because I think sampling is such a critical part of getting off the ground and getting people to understand who you are and then also getting the good feedback from them as well. Was it at universities?
[00:13:51] Michael Meadows: Was it at retail stores? All of the above, you know, it was university retail stores, it was athletic events, it was charities, foundations. We were doing every and every event, farmers markets.
[00:14:03] Paul Reiss: And this was before we even launched in our first store. This was all part of the product development phase. We sampled with the consumers we knew who would be eating the product. That's how we got the feedback for the recipes. That's how we got the feedback for the packaging. We developed it with the consumers who would ultimately be purchasing it.
[00:14:18] Ray Latif: How long was this?
[00:14:19] Michael Meadows: Was this a year, a few months?
[00:14:21] Paul Reiss: Year and a half.
[00:14:22] Michael Meadows: And that was just till we got in the first store and then we continued to do it. So, you know, we've never stopped sampling and getting feedback. We're still doing it to this day.
[00:14:30] Paul Reiss: I would say that's a core cultural pillar for our company and how we've chose to let it is this process of continuous improvement.
[00:14:37] Ray Latif: I think it's so important and it's pretty wise on your part to come out with a product that you can stand behind and say, this is a product that is great from day one. I don't know that enough founders do that kind of testing, that kind of demoing, that kind of planning as far in advance as they need to. I think sometimes the The idea is, oh, we're just going to test and learn, test and learn, test and learn. By the time you're done with the actual product and the brand and everything you want that you describe as quote unquote right, you might be two or three years in and then it's too late.
[00:15:08] Michael Meadows: It's exactly right, Ray, because we were in 14 stores, but we had a product that could scale nationwide. because we spent two and a half years developing that product, getting feedback. So everything else falls in line, but the most important thing is the product.
[00:15:25] Ray Latif: Did you raise money from friends and family? Did you find early investors who, you know, helped you get off the ground to start?
[00:15:31] Paul Reiss: I think it'd be fun to rewind a little bit here. When we started the company, obviously we talked about Paul and I being in college. We dropped out, you know, two broke kids who are kind of taking another path. And we actually started another company, a dextening and power washing company initially.
[00:15:45] Ray Latif: deck staining and power washing. I know it sounds so random. Totally different from my experience. Don't knock the hustle. I don't care. I mean, if you're making money, that's great.
[00:15:50] Paul Reiss: Yeah, we were knocking on doors and we, you know, hired a team of people locally and I was out there running it with them. And we ended up making $20,000 that summer that helped us pay for our samples, pay for our first store. And then after that, when we went back to college and, you know, joined Michigan State, there was a whole kind of path before we even went traditional, you know, VC funding.
[00:16:11] Michael Meadows: Yeah, we were doing the deck standing company and then we needed more funding. So we were applying for some local pitch competitions. We did one and I think we won, it was our first one, we won $3,000. And we got third place. And we were like, wow, you hit the lottery there. Yeah, we might be able to make some money. But what we found out was a lot of these pitch competitions were specifically for students. So what I did was I went back to Michigan State as a student and basically got student status, started as part time. So I was only taking a few classes. But I applied for every single pitch competition I could find for students in the United States. And that began a year and a half journey of learning how to tell our story and pitch the business and ultimately becoming one of the all time most winning student teams in pitch competition history.
[00:17:02] Ray Latif: Was this in tandem with the development of the brand? Were you raising money via pitch lamps and developing the brand at the same time?
[00:17:09] Paul Reiss: Yeah, right around the time that that was happening, Michigan State actually has what they call the Dairy Complex and the Dairy Store. They had an ice cream manufacturing facility that was largely unutilized and had shut down previously during COVID. So when Paul transferred to Michigan State as a student, I actually became employed at Michigan State as an employee at the Dairy Complex. And we kind of helped revive that center where we could, we needed to scale up our manufacturing. We were in one store, we were quickly expanding to another 10 Meijer stores. And it was kind of hard to do on weekends, you know, at our partner's kitchen. So we were able to utilize the dairy complex to kind of scale up our first manufacturing at the same time that Paul was doing all these fish competitions as part of being a student.
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[00:18:39] Ray Latif: So how much money did you actually have as your startup capital? How much did you start out with and was that enough to really get the ball rolling?
[00:18:50] Michael Meadows: Yeah, day one when we first started the company, I think it's helpful to share. I had $7,000 in my college funding, put all of that towards the business. So we had seven grand to start out with. Then we did our deck staining and power washing company, $20,000 in profit, put it all back into the business. And then with pitch competitions, we won around $250,000. Wow. Okay. Put all of that back into the business. And then we ended up raising money in a more traditional sense. We raised roughly $3 million to scale up from those 14 to 9,000 stores in a single year.
[00:19:26] Ray Latif: What convinced investors that those 14 stores, the data, the, you know, revenue generation that you were getting from those 14 stores could turn into potentially, you know, a brand that was in 10,000?
[00:19:40] Michael Meadows: The thing that convinces people the most is your traction. So if you're successful today, that's the best indicator that you'll be successful tomorrow. So when we went and presented this data, to the retailers. It was only 14 stores of data, but we could show that we had double the sales of the next brand, Ben & Jerry's. I think that they realized, you know, these guys are already so successful. This is promising. Let's give them a shot.
[00:20:12] Paul Reiss: You also have to remember this is at the beginning of a huge cultural shift in kind of the way Americans are looking at food. You know, the food pyramid just got flipped upside down. That was more recent, you know, not around the time we went national, but even, you know, introduction of GLP-1 drugs. You know, we don't necessarily market our product as GLP-1, but that consumer base, you know, finds this product really meets their needs because they need more Protein Pints their diet. But you look at there's so many different segments of people that can benefit from protein. And I think, you know, 2025 was right when, you know, the industry became very savvy to that. It's a combination of great product, great timing. And then, you know, we have a great team behind us, too. It's not just Paul and I. We got 12 full time individuals on our team that we could not be doing this without.
[00:20:58] Michael Meadows: I'll add to what we kind of left out here is Michael and I got jobs at every step of the way to learn how to make the ice cream. So day one, you know, we were making it at home in our kitchen, Michael and I. Then we moved production to the local ice cream shop. We got jobs there. Then we moved to Michigan State Dairy Complex to scale up. We get jobs there. Like every step of the way, Michael and I were learning hands-on to make sure that the product was the highest quality it could be.
[00:21:29] Ray Latif: So if I were an investor, I think that would sell me as much as the product and the brand itself. The fact that you have two guys who are willing to hustle as much as you guys did, traveling the country to raise money via pitch slams, learning about the business, learning about how to make the product. I've talked to a lot of investors and when I ask them what are they looking for in a brand, they always bring up the founder as one of the first two things. They say, if I believe in what the founder is doing and their ability to scale this brand, that's really what I'm investing in. And I imagine when you raise $3 million, your investors are saying, hey, we got Paul and Michael here. They're going to bust their ass to make sure that this works. Was that the case that, you know, did you feel like you were selling yourself as much as you were selling the brand and the product to your investors?
[00:22:17] Michael Meadows: Yeah, absolutely. I think you're totally right, right? Like if you're in 14 stores, no matter how well you're doing in those 14 stores, the investors are going to be looking at who you are as a person, what you're doing on a day-to-day basis. Like, are they all in? That's the question that I would be asking.
[00:22:33] Ray Latif: Paul and Michael, I mean, you know, just the fact that you were willing to take a job at the Michigan State Dairy Complex. I mean, it just seems like, again, you have the experience, you have the know-how, you're not just doing sales and marketing, you understand operations.
[00:22:48] Paul Reiss: Absolutely. Yeah. It taught me everything I needed to know about how to make ice cream and how to get to that next step. And I would say it's not just taking a job. It was a necessary and valuable learning experience.
[00:22:58] Ray Latif: Yeah, I spoke with the founding member of a network, an investing network called the Angel Group. And you guys are familiar?
[00:23:06] Paul Reiss: Adam Spriggs. Yeah, we met at one of the pitch slams that we talked about, University of Michigan. I remember him and Jamie Bortek were some of the first two industry people who sat us down and said, you guys got something here. And this is right after we won the competition too. But they kind of like opened our eyes. It's very memorable. Sit down with those guys.
[00:23:25] Ray Latif: Did you raise any money from the Angel Group? No, we talked to them. We'd love to work with them.
[00:23:30] Michael Meadows: I don't know if they do Frozen.
[00:23:31] Ray Latif: Yeah, I mean, Frozen's tough and we can talk more about that. But I was thinking about Adam because I sat down with him about a month ago. And I mean, just brilliant. And it was such a good conversation. And one of the things that really stuck with me was when he said, as long as they're willing to run through a brick wall and learn on the fly and hustle every day, I think we can work with that. And I was just like, OK, well, that sounds like these guys.
[00:23:52] Paul Reiss: I would say that describes us.
[00:23:54] Ray Latif: Yeah. The difficult thing about scaling quickly is that you don't necessarily know if it's a good idea. I hear from folks all the time who said, we scale too quickly. We move too fast. If I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't have gone from, you know, one store to a thousand. I wouldn't have gone from a thousand to 10,000. But you guys, clearly hungry and ambitious and ready to press on the gas pedal.
[00:24:15] Paul Reiss: People told us not to. When we told people we were going to do what we were going to do, they said, you're crazy. You're going to fail. For as many people who were supportive, there was the other side of the coin, people who were cautioning us against that fast of expansion.
[00:24:27] Ray Latif: So why'd you do it?
[00:24:29] Paul Reiss: Faith. We believed in the product, our team and ourselves so much that this was going to succeed. And that's, you know, as a founder, you have to believe in what you're doing.
[00:24:37] Michael Meadows: Yeah. And people have done harder things too. I think it's always good to remind yourselves of that, right? Like, yes, we went from 10 stores to, you know, 9,000, but people have done harder things, right? So just context and perspective. Context, perspective, having faith that we could pull it off and believing in ourselves. And then also knowing that this product could scale to that level and succeed. Because some products, I 100% agree, they should not do what we did. Actually, most people should not do what we did. It came with a ton of risk.
[00:25:11] Ray Latif: Well, clearly buyers liked what you were doing, retail buyers. And they're saying, we're going to take something out of our freezer set, because the freezer set's packed, just like every other part of the store. To put Protein Pints in there, they're going to take something out. And they're going to make sure or they want to make sure that this product, this brand is going to sell more than what was previously on those shelves. So the belief was on their part too. Yes. How did you make sure that once you got on shelf, you would actually sell? Because velocity is the name of the game. And I always remember a quote from one of the brothers who created Super Coffee, you know, the brand Super Coffee. It was Jake DeCicco who said, you know, getting on the shelf is the easy part. Getting off the shelf is the hard part. So how did you make sure that once you're on there, that's cool. But how do you make sure that customers are pulling it off?
[00:25:55] Michael Meadows: you know, in the next step. I really came down to the, you know, the two and a half years of development and prep we had in our local Michigan markets because we were in those 14 stores and we used those as testing grounds. So those stores were blowing it out of the water with a little bit of marketing support, but not really that much. So we realized that if it's working here, there's a very good shot that if this goes nationwide, we're going to have very similar results.
[00:26:24] Ray Latif: And the package, I imagine the package does a lot for you, right? Because it is a black container, which you don't see a lot of in ice cream. Again, clearly, the first thing you see, the first thing you think about when you see this brand is protein. That's a key differentiator. So did you feel like the package was going to be, you know, your best form of marketing, at least at the outset?
[00:26:45] Michael Meadows: Yeah, absolutely. We did over a hundred different iterations on our packaging with these little tweaks, obsessing over every little detail. You know, what is the consumer thinking immediately when they see it? How can we improve that? You know, how can we make this call out slightly bigger so that the consumer will get it half a millisecond faster? Just these very small details based on psychology that would get someone to pick it up and take it home and purchase it.
[00:27:15] Paul Reiss: I gotta add to that too, just for context. You know, we're talking in March 2026 right now. Last summer in 2025, while we were in Target stores, after less than six months on the shelf, our cookie dough skew was the number one dollar selling pint of ice cream in Target for 12 weeks.
[00:27:30] Michael Meadows: I'm not surprised. It's really good. Beat Benninger's.
[00:27:33] Paul Reiss: That same 12 weeks, we contributed 70% of category growth. Wow.
[00:27:38] Michael Meadows: And what's the price point for a pint? $6.99 to $7.99 on average.
[00:27:43] Ray Latif: And so people are willing to pay a premium or somewhat of a premium because of the fact that this has extra Protein Pints it.
[00:27:49] Michael Meadows: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's a dollar or two more depending on what brand you buy, but the value is there.
[00:27:57] Ray Latif: Beyond the package itself, what else has worked in terms of marketing and promotion?
[00:28:01] Paul Reiss: In our first year, we invested heavily into shopper marketing tactics, you know, point of purchase type things, whether that be with, you know, third party platforms or directly with the retailer. You know, we saw our product really resonating on search. You know, people are looking for protein ice cream. Actually, protein ice cream wasn't necessarily a new concept. You know, there's these things called the Ninja Creamy. That was one of the first things that we used when we were making it at home. I mean, protein ice cream was like this viral trending thing already that people were making at home. It just wasn't commercially available. So we saw a lot of success and are still seeing a lot of success with digital media and online marketing, especially via shopper platforms that are, you know, encouraging, you know, point of purchase sales.
[00:28:41] Ray Latif: A year ago in this very room, I sat down with the founders of a brand called SAUZ, S-A-U-Z. And I just keep coming back to that interview because I feel like it's kind of deja vu. I'm talking to two young guys. And I asked Troy and Winston this last year, and I apologize if it offends you. How old are you guys? I actually turned 25 today. Okay, Paul's 25. 24. And you're 24. Okay, incredible. Because, and I say incredible because you guys are way savvier than you should be about CPG. It feels like you know this industry, you're already gristled veterans of this business. Clearly, you know, there's a lot more to learn. But how did you learn about CPG? I mean, did you have mentors? Do you have folks that you rely upon, you know, to get you through the questions and answer those tough questions that, you know, you need help with?
[00:29:29] Paul Reiss: It always goes back to the team and again, major kudos to Paul here because he really has a great eye for finding the right talent and advisership that we needed to learn throughout every stage of this business. I go back to a lot of those full-time team members we have. We couldn't do that without them. We do have some CPG veterans on our team who have taught us and helped us avoid a lot of the pitfalls that early brands would have, especially when you're scaling this fast.
[00:29:54] Michael Meadows: Yeah, I appreciate that, Mike. I probably meet with someone new almost every single day is kind of the goal, even just for 30 minutes. It's so invaluable to ask them, you know, what would you do if you were us and ask for that mentorship because it doesn't cost you anything. Most people will give you their time for free if you ask in the right way.
[00:30:15] Paul Reiss: I will say Paul does a great job of paying that forward to founders who are in an earlier stage than us.
[00:30:21] Ray Latif: Well, you're paying it forward right now, so thank you for that. How do you ask, though? Sometimes the ask is the hardest part because sometimes you'll send a cold email, sometimes you can send a LinkedIn message, sometimes you run into someone at an Expo West and say, hey, can I have half an hour of your time, you know, after the show? But, you know, what is it about your ask that's been most effective?
[00:30:38] Michael Meadows: Usually I just say like, I'd love to learn. I'd really love to learn. Do you mind if we could chat? And then when I was a student, I would play that card. I'd say, hey, I'm a student. I'd love to learn from you. And I think that's something that students should utilize more. But even just not being a student, I'd love to learn. And you'd be surprised by how many people, not everybody says yes.
[00:30:59] Paul Reiss: People want to coach people who are receptive to feedback. And when you're young, like we are with no experience, that's the best thing you can do is listen, learn from others,
[00:31:07] Ray Latif: Take the advice. I love what you said, Paul, about I would love to learn from you because it's sort of indirectly saying you're a smart person and I could use your help. Yeah. And it's you're praising them without necessarily saying, hey, you're awesome. You're saying I want to learn from someone like you. Yeah. And I love that approach. Recruiting people to work for you might be slightly different in that it sounds like a lot of your employees are older than you guys. How does that work? I mean, what's that dynamic like of people who might be 15 years older than you calling you boss?
[00:31:38] Michael Meadows: Yeah, I think it's partnership. It comes down to partnership. It doesn't feel like a traditional boss and employee relationship. It's more like we want our employees to feel like they're partners in the business. You know, we've given everybody some amount of equity. So we want everyone to feel that ownership and feel like they're a core part of our company. So it comes down to the partnership aspect.
[00:32:06] Ray Latif: You've said this a number of times, Mike, you know, the team, the team, the team, it's so important. And the folks leading the team and, you know, setting the tone for the culture, for the ambition, for, you know, everything that you want and have laid out as your vision is so important. And I think just in the, you know, 35 minutes that we've been sitting down, I'm just getting that. I would believe in you if I were an investor, if I were a retailer, but I'm, you know, in belief of you as a podcaster and as a journalist. And I think You know, your brand is on a great path and has the potential to go even much further. So, you know, congrats on what you've built at this point. Really excited to see where it goes from here. I have a feeling we're going to be sitting down again relatively soon and talking about the next evolution of Protein Pints. We'd love to. You got something. You really do. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Paul. Thanks again, Mike.
[00:32:55] Paul Reiss: Thanks for having us.
[00:32:59] Ray Latif: That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is bevnettasteradio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening. And we'll talk to you next time.
[00:33:49] Michael Meadows: you
