How I Built This with Guy Raz - Advice Line with Daymond John of FUBU

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Today’s callers: Cristopher from Chicago wants to expand his family’s salsa brand from farmers markets into retail. Next, Darcy in Australia considers adapting his protein bar brand’s messaging to reach beyond his core enthusiasts. Finally, Seema in Canada seeks strategies to increase B2B sales for her ethical kitchen linen company. Plus, Daymond and Guy talk about what makes a great Shark Tank pitch, and why Guy decided to start How I Built This 10 years ago. Thank you to the founders of Sabor a Mexico, Raised Nutrition and Cooks Who Feed for joining us on the show.If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to [e-mail] or call 1-800-433-1298. And be sure to listen to FUBU’s founding story as told by Daymond on the show in 2018.  This episode was produced by Katherine Sypher with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Kwesi Lee.You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram and sign up for Guy's free newsletter at guyraz.com and on Substack.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode of How I Built This is presented by Engine, the modern travel and spend platform built for businesses that are growing. Book faster, save more, and watch your rewards stack up. Stay tuned later in the episode to hear how Engine is helping thousands of businesses travel smarter. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Airbnb. A few months ago, my family and I spent a couple of weeks in Japan, and it was one of those trips we'll be talking about for years. We split our time between Tokyo, Hakuba, and Kyoto, and every stop felt completely different. We wandered tiny neighborhood streets, found little cafes we'd never have discovered otherwise, and just settled into the rhythm of everyday life.

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I'm Guy Raz. This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges. Just each week, I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on this 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 like help with. All right, let's get to it. Joining me today is Damon John. He's a longtime judge on Shark Tank, of course, a speaker and an author. and the legendary founder of the streetwear clothing brand Fubu.

Damon, it's great to have you back on the show. Welcome back. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. So when we first had you on it, this was back in 2018. You, of course, told the incredible story of how you were working a red lobster in your 20s and trying to start your own business. And this was in the early 90s.

And how you came up with the idea of creating a clothing brand, the brand that, of course, would become for us, buy us, or Fubu for short. that brand became a huge hit and the story of how it happened is just incredible. And as always, for anyone listening who has not heard Damon's episode of How I Built This, you should absolutely listen to it. We will put a link to it in the show notes. Damon, you know, over the years, you've worn tons of different hats. But I'm curious. I mean, as a Shark Tank judge, right, you have seen hundreds of pitches by early stage founders. What tends to grab your attention in a pitch? Like, what are you personally looking for in a founding? or in their brand or company to make a decision on whether to invest? Well, you know, I always say that nobody has the right to judge you, but God, we're only judging what is working for us.

So I'm listening to the story and seeing if it's a play for me. Will I add value? Can I either reduce costs or increase sales by what I'm doing? If not, my money is just as good as anybody else's money, right? But now when I get out to the founder, did they create this because they had a pain? or they were trying to bring a customer joy. What is the backstory to the failures that they've had and how they still decided to overcome that failure

because they knew that the solution or the pain they were solving with somebody else was something bigger and better? And then, of course, do they know their market, their audience, their numbers? And then finally, it's who are they? Can I trust that they will make the right decision, their problem solvers,

that people could look past the company and look at who founded the company and want to buy into their story because that company may move from selling socks to underwear to lotion to something else. And is that person constantly the one that people are going to trust to take them down that route of telling them that story? So I always ask founders and say, you know, if you can't answer why me, why now and why this, then you have a Me Too product. But you have to at all the time, to your career, be able to say, why me? Why now and why this? It's sort of the flip side of this question and related, which is, and we get asked this question a lot. You know, we've had hundreds and hundreds of founders on this show over the past 10 years, and I'm asked this

question a lot. I'd be curious to get your take on it, which is, what do you think the attributes a successful entrepreneur needs to have to actually bring something out into the world that flourishes? What are the attributes, maybe personal qualities or attitudes that they have to develop to make them successful? I think they have to be a good storyteller. We've established that. I think that they have to be a little, they have to have an ego, but very vulnerable is simultaneously. The ego is that, or the confidence, it's not an ego. The confidence they are going to get this done.

And then they definitely have to be a value to their customer. They're constantly trying to solve problems. But I think the most important thing, and I think it was. Elon Musk who said it is they have to have a very, very high tolerance for pain. They have to know they're going to get whipped. They're going to get the door slammed in their face. Every single partner they have is going to doubt them in a certain point. And everybody public is going to tell them they're an idiot.

And they have to be able to endure that pain for a long period of time. And many people can't endure that pain. Yeah, but it's critical. You are right. It's great advice. So I want to ask you a question. you don't mind. Please. Yes. You know, when did you start the podcast? Ten years ago, Damon. You know, the way that I got onto Chartank was because they actually saw me on Donny Deutsch. What was

that called? The Big Idea. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right. And they realized that I could take a pitch. But in between that time, I don't recall anybody ever celebrating and getting into the heads of who's behind the product and or the business CEOs. And I, I, I, I saw. started a new division called CEO access where I managed CEOs and I try to make them the next sharks. But as I looked at your, the history of who you have from like Spangs to Barbara Corcoran to Jose Andreas, they seem like they were almost on the rise to be stars and then you, you point them out. But then you'd point out other people, too, who are CEO Rocks, so what made you realize 10 years ago? Lately it's probably probably like the four.

last four years that people saw it say, well, CEOs are the new rock stars. But what drove you to want to get into the heads of people like me and Mark Cube and then Barbara and, you know, all these people? I think at the core of it, Damon, it's because they are some of the most dramatic stories you can tell, right? Building a business has all of the core elements of a drama, right, of a movie. there's triumph, there's failure, there's catastrophe, there's loss, there's joy, you know, and everything in between. The stakes are so high, and especially when you've put decades, you know, years and decades of your life into something that could collapse. And so I think that for me initially it was about the drama and the stories that I could tell through business, through the prism of business. But ultimately, I also knew that there was all of this wisdom, this, you know, like we'll call it collective wisdom in the United States around the world.

But I say the United States because the U.S. really is sort of the, it's the focal point. It's the heart of entrepreneurship historically. And so I felt like there was a need to harness those, that wisdom, right? And to basically give people the playbook. There is no one single playbook, right? And there's no guarantee. But if you could find out how people solve their mistakes and sort of navigated the challenges that they faced, then you might have a better chance at solving a similar crisis or challenge when you face it, if that makes sense. Yeah, no, because I look at you as, you know, you had somebody who wrote about the DNA of entrepreneurs, which is, you.

you know, Napoleon Hill. Yep. Then you go to Shark Tank. When I go into the Shark Tank, I said, nobody cares about the crap we talk about all day in the boardroom. But leave it up to Mark Bennett to put a nice, you know, music drop at this point and then run to a commercial right before somebody gets hammered. Yeah.

It's show. And then you went even further. And I said, well, now somebody's now getting into the brain on what created that person and how they built it. So anyway, I found it fascinating that you've been doing this long before a lot of other people. So maybe that's why the episode I did with you is one of the most brought up episodes when I'm on the streets because you get right into the head and I appreciate it. I'm really happy to hear that.

Well, we appreciate having a chance to tell the stories and also appreciate the fact that founders are, you know, really want to open up because it's a, it's a form of generosity to share your story and your failures. It's not easy to do that. But it's really important for people to know that Dame and John worked at Red Lobster. You know, people didn't answer his calls, right? No one gave them the time of day. And that's what I'm trying to do. I want people to feel inspired by that to know that you don't have to have connections and money.

And, you know, you can really build something if you believe in it. and you're prepared to put in the time and the work and the grit. Well, keep doing it, man. Good stuff. Thank you for having me. I appreciate what you doing. Thank you for being on. Damon, are you ready for to take our first call?

Yeah, let's go. Let's go. Okay, welcome caller. You're on with Damon John, Shark and founder of Fubu. Tell us your name where you're calling from and a little bit about your business, please. Hi, guy. Hi, hi, Damon. It's an absolute honor to be here with you guys today.

My name is Christopher Navarro, and I'm calling from Chicago, Illinois. I'm one of the co-founders of Sabora Mexico Salsas, along with my mom, Marlene, and my dad, Sergio. At Sabora, Mexico, we're on a mission to put flavor back into salsa through authentic family recipes, bold flavors, and of course, a little bit of heat. Amazing. Thanks for calling in. So tell us a little bit about the salsas. How many flavors do you have? Yeah. So we have, it's about nine salsas. Well, eight salsas and one pickled product. But, yeah, we've got all sorts of different flavors with our bestseller being an avocado-free guaca salsa. Wow.

Wow. And tell us a little bit about the origin story. Yeah, of course. So our business started in 2024 officially, but, I mean, it really goes back much more than that. On my dad's side, my grandma, she had a taqueria in Mexico. And my dad growing up there, that's where a lot of our recipes kind of originated from. And then from there, you know, when we immigrated to the U.S., we were, fortunate enough to bring all of those here. I actually ran a taqueria here for about a year

before the building closed. But in 2024, my dad was finding himself without a job, unfortunately. And my mom had the idea like, hey, you know, people love your salsa, people love your food. Let's give this thing a chance. And we found some farmers markets, and we kind of went from there. Wow. And so you are selling right now in farmers markets, mainly in the Chicago area. Yes. So our number one sort of channel is farmers markets. We also sell online through our website and then we have a subscription box service through our website as well. And how, tell me a little bit about, uh, about your sales. Uh, like what are you guys expecting to do this year? Yeah. So, um,

this year we're expected to do around $340,000, uh, in sales. So this is our biggest year to date. Um, yeah, it's about double what we did last year. So very nice. That's amazing. All through, mainly through farmers markets. Yeah. Congrats. Good work. Um, before we dive in, A little further, what's your question for us? Absolutely. So how do you know when you've truly outgrown the business model that got you started? You know, farmers markets for us have been an incredible way for us to build our brand, maintain strong margins, but they're becoming increasingly labor intensive and harder to scale.

How would you decide when it's time to move into retail or maybe another growth channel without expanding too early? Damon, $340,000 and farmers markets loaned pretty good for this year. but are they ready to expand? How do you know? That is a good question. You know, it's how much time is it taking up of your time? Because you do not want to abandon what's really making you because you're getting more than you're getting the sales.

You're getting the investment in a community. You're building a great community. I don't think the jump is to go to retail. So by the way, when you go to retail, you do four times the amount of work for half of the reward, right? because, you know, you now have to deal with buyers. You have to become a vendor record. You have to ship it.

And by the way, you know, the larger companies have put more people out of business and they put them in business because they have their own criteria on what you have to solve. So give an example of if you're making a bottle of salsa for four, you're selling it for about 10, you know, to your regular Farmers Day market. You probably have to make it for three and sell it for five so they can sell it for 10. Yeah. All right. So that's one of the problems. So how do you expand outside of the farmer's market, but not yet take on the big obligation of large box retail?

So a couple of options are you go to small mom and pop stores. Those are the great operators. They're selling your goods, telling you what they like about it, not liking about it, paying on a credit card right away. They don't need terms and everything else. And then, of course, live selling and selling directed consumer online. I would start dipping my toe in there, but do not, you know, don't ignore the golden goose. yet and I don't think you should ever totally ignore the golden goose. Yeah, I think that's great advice. I agree that you know, you mentioned you're in about how many farmers markets right now?

About 15 markets this season. Okay, which is a lot. And that's mostly you and your dad and your mom and anyone who can help out? Yeah, so we have about four like staff people that help us up for the season. So we're able to on our busiest day, which is Saturdays, we're at five different markets. And and how much is a jar cost? So we have an eight-ounce jar that is $9, and then we have a 12-ounce that is $12. I'm sure the margins are pretty good on that. And as Damon mentioned, once you go into wholesale, you're selling for a lot less than that, and you're making less than that.

Where I completely agree that I think that you don't want to give up the farmers markets where you're really interacting with customers, hearing their feedback. But I do think that you want to start talking to smaller, as Damon mentioned, smaller proprietors, maybe start with some natural grocers, food stores, smaller independent shops in Chicago, where you can start to test the waters out, you know, and learn how quickly the inventory turns, go and sample in those stores when you have a chance. And that really gives you at that point, in a sense, the right to take the next step. Because once you really get big, then you're talking about finding a distributor.

And if you're going to work with a Whole Foods or Sprouts or a Crows. or Albers is one of these big chains, you're talking about a whole different ballgame, but it might be worth it to really just identify five or six smaller food proprietors in the Chicago area for the next six months to a year and really test it out. And then if that works, then you would want to pitch a bigger regional grocer. That's really interesting. We have had some people, you know, living down the street for me is kind of our local bodega for lack of a better term. And I've gifted them some salsas and they love it and they're, you know, they're excited to get the product in there.

But I've been very hesitant just because, you know, you hear it so often like you want to get into the big stores. But at the same time, you do hear those kind of horror stories of just the amount of work and, you know, the small margins of what happens. So I've been kind of conflicted, you know, whether, which route to take on that. The mom and pop stores are always, they're always much better. The big stores go to the mom and pop. pop stores to look at what is moving.

They're always going to be better than anybody else because you're talking directly to the owner-propriator. You know, the kid who's putting out the product in Sprouts is busy on Instagram thinking about where they're going to go to college next. You know, they're not telling the story. You know, the bomb and pop stores were the ones who made Fubu. People walked in there and they said, you want Nike. That's fine.

But these four young men are busting their butt and it's quality goods and is moving faster than Nike and I'm even buying a piece. And it's local. It's Chicago. There's a great family story there. It's a family that has a history, you know, running taquerias in Mexico. And now you're, you brought those recipes to Chicago. I mean, it's, you know, that's really where you get the traction. That's really where you start to develop brand awareness and excitement. And, and, and that happens. That moves a lot faster than, than, than, than, than you can imagine. We've had many of those examples on the show in the past. So I would, I would, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, would definitely start to find, identify some smaller stores in Chicago. Go into those stores, talk to customers, hand out samples. It gives you that experience of understanding how it's going to work at scale and retail. That's really interesting. And I appreciate the information that's really helpful. And I already have my eye on a couple. So I'm really excited about getting to work on that. Great. Christopher Navarro, the brand is called Sabor, Mexico. Thank you so much for calling

and good luck. Thank you, guys. Have a great day. Thank you. All right, we're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with another caller and another round of advice. Stay with us. I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to the advice line right here on how I built this lab. We get support from Engine. A lot of founders start with a product or an idea, but at some point, the business become something else. Think about Brian Scudamore. He started 1,800 got junk with one truck and a vision to make junk removal a real brand. That worked. and then it became hundreds of crews across multiple cities, trucks on the road every day, routes changing by the hour,

and a team that had to be in the right place before the customer even called. Or Beryl Stafford, who started Bobos by baking oat bars in her kitchen. Next thing she knows, she's flying to retail meetings, demoing at trade shows, managing distributors coast to coast, running a national food brand out of what used to be a family recipe. Or Tom Hale, who built backroads around the idea that active travel could be a premium experience. That means guides in six countries, gear shipments, guest logistics, thousands of moving pieces that all have to land before a single trip begins. Different businesses, same truth.

Here's what I've noticed after talking to hundreds of founders. The hard part is rarely the big idea. It's what happens when the idea works. suddenly you've got people on the move and all the logistics that come with it. That's the real test. And that's why I think Engine is worth knowing about. Engine is the fastest growing modern travel and spend platform in the country, built for small and medium-sized businesses. The average business traveler spends 45 minutes booking a single trip on a legacy platform.

With Engine, that drops to as little as two and a half minutes. Last year, Engine customers saved 300,000. $18 million on travel. Average savings of 26% on hotel bookings. No contracts, no booking fees. More than 1,000 businesses join Engine every month. Join them and get $500 when your business signs up and starts traveling at engine.com slash built. Welcome back to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz, and my guest today is Damon John, founder of Fubu and a shark on shark tank. and we're taking your calls. Damon, you ready for our next call?

I'm ready. Let's do it. Hey, guy. Hey, Damon. Great to meet you and great to be here. Thanks so much. My name is Darcy. I'm based in Ballina, New South Wales, Australia. And along with my wife, Jess, we are the founders of Raised Nutrition. At Raised, we are making whole food protein bars free from any artificial flavors, sweeteners, preservatives, fillers, or even any natural flavors for that matter. Okay, welcome to the show, Darcy. So you are making a lot of the show, Darcy. So you are making protein bar. Of course, there are thousands of protein bars on the market. Tell us a little bit about why yours is different, why somebody would choose yours over any other protein bar.

For sure. Yeah, so you're 100% right. When we sort of looked at the protein bar market, it's a very, very saturated category. Our inspiration from it initially came from the RX bar sort of model that Peter Rahal did in CrossFit. My wife, Jess, and I have trained Brazilian in Jiu-Jitsu for many years. And with that sport comes a lot of injuries and a lot of problems like that. So kind of initially didn't hit the ground thinking that we wanted to make a protein bar. What we ended up doing is having a look at, you know, why everyone's getting injured so much, myself included and seeing, you know, that the nutritional component is huge there.

And realizing that, you know, in Jiu-Jitsu, there wasn't much available for people who wanted to start addressing that. So we wanted to make a product that spoke to the... the needs of that kind of sport. Got it. Okay. So jujitsu, so protein bar right now for aim towards the jujitsu crowd. How long have you guys been in business? We've had the business founded for about 18 months, but we've only been live and trading for about seven months. We spent about a year working on the recipes to really build the

thing that we wanted to build. Got it. And tell me a little bit about your initial sales. What are you guys doing right now? We're sort of growing month on month, which is great. Last 30 days is about 18K. And that's definitely, yeah, that's the peak for us at the moment. And mostly direct to consumer right now? Mostly direct to consumer. Or all entirely, yeah. Yeah, there's a handful of sort of wholesale customers with some jihitsu gyms and a couple of other health food stores.

Got it. All right. Before we dive in a little further, what is your question for us? So we're finding quite quickly into this that most of the uptake of our product is coming from outside Jiu-Jitsu, ironically. It's very much a health and wellness sort of product. So given that we're finding our audience isn't jiu-jitsu-based, Should we continue on with the Jiu-Jitsu origin story in the brand, or should we start to move away from it so we don't alienate the people outside of the sport? Okay, interesting question. Damon John, questions, thoughts, ideas for him?

Yeah, so why are you finding more success out of Jiu-Jitsu? What are the reasons? I think the main bit of feedback we get is that we've gone and created a pure health food product that is a very clean label, and I think it's just naturally attracting the people that are, essentially. potentially pack flippers, the people who want to check the ingredients on everything. It doesn't seem to be the case in Jiu-Jitsu that that is the predominant crowd. I don't think the health food focus is really there in the sport yet. So we are finding that runners and swimmers and just general health enthusiasts are the people that seem to be more attracted to the brand naturally.

Got it. So I think that you need to land on something, right? And I think that Jiu-Jitsu, first of all, is the natural history. That's the fubu for us, by us. And I think it's a little too early to hop off of that because you want to hang on to something. It does not mean it's going to alien anybody because I got to tell you, when I first started drinking Tito's and I heard it was gluten free, I couldn't care less about gluten. I was paying extra for gluten at the time, but I just started drinking Tito before you know it.

I was drinking too much of it, right? You know, so how it was brought to my attention was not necessarily why I then ended up buying it. So I wouldn't suggest it, and I think it's a little too early, to move off of why you will create it. Because then how do you tell your story? You know? Yeah, I completely agree with you, Damon. I mean, you know, you think about Yeti. We just did Yeti on the show.

That brand was started for fishermen originally, right? Lulu Lemon for women to do hardcore yoga, as you mentioned, RX Bar for Crossfitters. But that was the tribe. Those are the tribes that really push those products out into the mainstream. And you're so early in right. now you're only a few months in that I think it's really worth kind of honing that tribe, right? And eventually down the road, you might say something like, well, we built these bars because, you know, we couldn't find a recovery bar, some clean recovery bar for people who do jujitsu. And that's why we initially made them clean and greeted.

However you describe it, right, you want that community to be the force multipliers like the CrossFiters and our X bar who talk about the product because they like it. And, you know, jiu-jitsu is a high-energy sport, right? You get a lot of injuries. You mentioned recovery is critical. It's the same with a lot of sports. The same with swimming. It's the same with running. And so I think at this point, you really want to lean into that community and use them as your ambassadors.

That's great. Yeah, yeah. And that feels like the way, I mean, we'd love to take it because obviously jih Tjitsu was our inspiration. It's the sport we love. And, you know, in terms of getting into a crowded market, you know, You know, we don't want to just hit the shelves with everyone else. We do want to carry our story forward. And it does, yeah, it feels like that that would be a good way to do it.

Yeah, cool. Yeah, Damon, any other thoughts? I mean, one thing I thought of was the Australian angle. I mean, is there anything Australian, like the ingredients or anything specifically Australian about these bars that might make them interesting to people outside of Australia? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I think another key selling point that we seem to find pops up here in Australia at least time and time again and may hold some water. Robeses is that we are using a few key specialty Australian suppliers in the chain. So it's Australian grass-fed collagen, Australian-grown fruit where we can, things like that.

So that is another reason I think we're finding people outside of the sport that are attracted to it for different reasons as well. Yeah, it's interesting. By the way, collagen makes that that, that means they're not vegetarian or vegan, right? Correct. Yeah, yeah. It's an interesting ingredient to add to a protein bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're definitely, in Australia at least. Collagen protein is having, yeah, it's getting in the spotlight a fair bit as people are starting to realize, you know, particularly for the injury side, like ligament support, tendon support, things like that. That's what it's good for. So, yeah. Is that the defining, is that the defining ingredient in the bar, the amount of collagen in there for the injuries? Yeah, we kind of

call it the hero protein in the bar is about five grams of collagen per bar, but we've also combined it with an Australian pumpkin seed protein and an organic sprouted brown rice protein as well. So we've got three protein types for a good amino acid spectrum, and we're trying to get lots of minerals like magnesium and zinc in the bar as well for the recovery side of things. And is that what is attracting other people to it, collagen? I think so. I think it being one of the key ingredients is, yeah, it's definitely an attractor, for sure. Yeah.

You could upplay that a little bit, you know, within the marketing. Make sure you upplay that somewhat on the packaging. Yep, I agree. The brand is called Raised Nutrition. Darcy, thanks so much for calling, and good luck. Amazing. Thanks so much, guys. Really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Stay with us because after the break, we'll talk to another founder working to take their business to the next level. I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to the advice line right here on how I built this lab. Welcome back to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz, and today I'm taking your calls with Damon John, founder of Fubu. Damon, ready for our next call? I'm ready. Let's go. Hi, Guy. Hi, Damon. Hi. My name is Sima Sangavi, and I'm calling from the Niagara region just outside of Toronto, Canada. My company is cooks who feed. We ethically produce kitchen linens with a meal give back.

We collaborate with well-known chefs to design products for our retail line, and we also create custom linens for businesses, mostly in hospitality and tourism. Today, we've provided around 2 million meals to those in need through the sale of our linens. Awesome. Welcome to the show, Seema. So this is not a nonprofit business. for-profit business, but it's a social enterprise. Correct. Yes. Very much for-profit business. But we're all about doing things the right way and making sure we're not harming the planet. And we own our own production facility, just north of Delhi. We actually hire women from the surrounding villages who don't usually have opportunity and train them to be seamstresses and provide them with a safe, fair place to work. And how long have you been in business?

It's been about six years now. Very good. Okay. And so it's aprons and And what else, like when you say linens, we're the products? Yeah. So on our retail line, we do, we have a kid's line for kids aprons. We do our chef aprons. Those are our flagship product. We also do tea towels, grocery tots, wine tots, linen napkins. And then for businesses, we've done everything from, you know, different style of aprons, server aprons, bar aprons, chef coats, table cloths, really anything that fits under that kitchen linen umbrella.

Yeah, these are nice. I'm looking at your website. right now. Seymah, what percentage of your sales right now are B2B versus direct to consumer? About 75% are B2B right now. So we work with small like restaurant groups. We work with celebrity cruises, so large, large businesses and even culinary schools as well. You're working with celebrity cruises. That's great. And are you, how much personalization do you do, for example, a restaurant that wants their logo or label on their aprons? Yeah, so full, they get to choose their colors.

They get to really do their own style. Their logos, we do embroidery in-house. Yeah, really, it's anything pocket styles, if they have, if they want to do different color straps. So really, it's, you know, we can customize as much as they would like. I've got tons of questions for you, but before we dive in further, what is your question for us? So my question is,

we really want to focus on growing our B-to-B side of the business because that's where we've seen the most. growth. It's repeatable, like working with businesses that require aprons to run their business. And they're more larger volume sales. So how do we convince them to switch vendors? This is my question. All right. Damon John, I want to bring you in. Questions, thoughts for Seema before we dive into her question? Well, as any customer, what is keeping them up at night? You know, vendors don't often switch because you're better. They switch often because the old guy or girl they're dealing with seems to start getting a little risky.

And they feel that you're a safe progression of where they can go. So you'd have to prove to them why you're safe. You know, as I call it, give them an undeniable package, you know, something that allows them to test the waters with you, test it very small, and feel that if it doesn't go anywhere, they didn't risk everything. What is your unique selling proposition to them?

sometimes it's why bomba socks is the most successful product in shotgun history sometimes it's you can brag about two things what you've done with us and how you've helped somebody else get a meal and that can be in your communication you know damon you mentioned bombus and i and of course you were an investor and we've had both those guys on the show and it's an amazing company but correct me if i'm wrong i mean people don't buy bomba socks because they give a pair away to a homeless shelter, they buy them because they're good socks primarily, right? I would say both. I would say, and you're right, product is always going to be king.

You can't make crap product, right? So I would say that they go and check out the socks and say, oh, my God, and then they go, and by the way, it's giving away a pair, and that thing is the thing that's making people go. And by the way, because my daughter, I remember told some of her friends, I'm buying you 10 pair of socks for the holidays and you're going to help give away 10 to 10 other people because it becomes a bragging point, but of course, product is always going to be king. Yeah. The reason, Damon, I ask you about the bombus and the mission is because, you know, the evidence I have

seen in recent years is that at the end of the day, consumers choose value, right, quality and value. And of course, there are some consumers who are going to, you know, buy a razor because it's going to help somebody you need or a pair of glasses because it's going to, but by and large, most consumers from what I've seen still choose value and quality. It seems I'm looking at what you're selling here. It looks like really high quality products and a good value. But I wonder, have you been able to identify businesses that are aligned with the mission where the mission will matter?

Like restaurants, some Michelin restaurants, it may be really important to them. It may be a part of the story they want to tell. How much of that are you doing to identify, businesses that are really that where this could really matter as part of their story. Yeah, I mean, we've really just tried to focus on the higher end, the higher end here, because I've noticed that that's where there is already a focus on sustainability and social responsibility. But that mostly just comes from the F&B space, right?

Like they're looking at where are we sourcing our ingredients? And for the conversation, then for me, it's great that you're looking at that from, you know, the food and drink standpoint. However, what about all your kitchen linens? It's like, why are you using polyester? Why is it made in China? You know, so you're obviously giving back to your local community. That's great.

We can help you do that even further. And that's by purchasing something you're already purchasing. And we've been very good at meeting the price, if not beating the price while having the impact. You know, I think also of restaurant groups, right? Like, we just did Stephen Star Restaurants, which is a very successful restaurant group in the United States. I think they've got nine out of the top 100 highest. grossing restaurants, independent restaurants in the United States. You know, a lot of these restaurant groups are focused on sustainability.

And I wonder if you have made attempts to try and reach some of those groups. I have. Unfortunately, it's been unsuccessful, but I'm still at it. And it's funny that you're saying all this to kind of, you know, the whole idea of, you know, how to make them the hero. And I feel like that's what actually helped us get celebrity, which is our biggest client today. it was, you know, hey, you guys are single-use plastic-free. Why don't we create an apron that is made out of, you know, recycled plastic bottles so that's, you know, sustainable fabric.

And it has the meal give back. And they tell that story. They use them for their onboard culinary classes. So every time they give them, they tell the story, right? So it's like, how do we make them look good? And that's what I try to do when I pitch is, how can I help you look better and fit with what you're trying to achieve as well? Yeah, I think Guy has a point.

I mean, somebody who aligns perfectly with that would be a hoselle and areas in a world central kitchen, right? Because he's about giving meals as well and so many other things. But I also think in addition to that, like part of what really a brand like yours benefits from is hard referrals. Because you're trying to get bigger organizations that use linens and aprons and, you know, that really are using volume to give you a shot. And so to get that, I think you're going to benefit the most from your existing clients, you know, who are going to offer referrals on your behalf. We are, we just recently started working with Relay Chateau, so one of their locations here in Canada. So I'm trying to use exactly what you're saying, trying to get them to refer me to the other Relay Chateau brands within like North America because there's so many locations in the U.S.

To say like if you're now that you're working with us and you're happy with the product, you know, could you introduce us to these other locations? because their focus on sustainability is, you know, is equally there. Damon, just one question, though. I mean, 75% of her sales right now are B2B. My instinct is don't discount direct-to-consumer, right? I mean, Bombas is a direct-to-consumer. I mean, that's their bread and butter. I know that people probably don't buy aprons and linens as much as they buy socks,

but people do buy linens and aprons for, you know, for their homes. Oh, you'd be absolutely surprised. You know, the hottest thing in, you know, these days are live selling, live selling on whatnot, TikTok shops and all these type of things. And live selling, you can live sell to an audience of other ambassadors that will sell the product themselves or you can live sell directly to consumers. The best thing about that is you're directly hearing what they're thinking about the product. Right.

You know, you sell obviously to B to B. B, you don't know why the person liked the end customer, like to dislike it, what they loved about it, what they prefer about it. But live selling platforms are the best by far. It is a huge, huge market right now. And we're right at the beginning of it. And you get some real feedback. Seema, one final bit of advice for you. Just my thought is, I would love to see images, pictures, videos of these aprons being made. I mean, the process of making these, of dyeing them, of embroidering them, the work that's going into it, I think that should be the selling point. These are handcrafted by artisans in India with the finest materials and quality. Oh, and also, by the way, you know, we are feeding people. We're also employing all of these women who are building their own businesses or whatever story you can tell around that I think is important. But I also think that the quality and the production process should be out out in front. Okay. Thank you so much.

It's not lost on me on how great this opportunity is, so thank you so much for your time today. Thank you. Thank you, Seema. Cookechoo Feed is the brand, Sima Sangavi. Good luck. Thank you so much for calling it. Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting you were saying about bombus

and that you found from what you know there are a lot of people who are buying it or who are choosing bombus because of the social mission. Well, that's what was attracted to them. That's what keeps in there. And again, it's the story, right? You know already because you've interviewed them.

The founders, they're in those communities. They know the directors of the communities. They know the people there. So this is not just a random gift. This is kind of, it means something to them. And then once you buy a pair like that, you like the product, you don't go elsewhere, really. I think I'm wearing a pair right now. Actually, as we speak, I am.

So there you go. There you go. Before I let you go, I have one question for you, Damon. If you could go back to you at Red Lobster, you know, the guy in his 20s, and you could give him advice now based on all your experience, what you know what you've done, what would you tell him? Financial intelligence. Learn how money works because I can't guarantee you'll make a million or a billion, but I guarantee you're going to have to pay the bills. You're going to have to balance a checkbook. You're going to have resources. And if you start putting away now and invest in millionaires and billionaires when this thing, call the public market, you don't, they'll never, Steve Jobs is never going to call you to ask to fix a computer because he's dead.

Bezos is probably not going to call you to ship a box. And if you learn how to work those numbers, you'll also be better prepared for when you want to launch a fool, buy a home, and various other things. So don't wait until you think you're going to hit the lot of what lightning is going to strike you because most likely that's not going to happen. You've got to start studying it today. Get rich slowly. Get rich slowly.

That's it. It's the marathon, but do it. For sure. That's Damon John. He's the founder of the streetwear brand Fubu and, of course, a shark on Shark Tank. Damon. Thanks so much for coming back on the show. Thank you. And by the way, if you haven't heard Damon's original episode, go back and check it out. It is an incredible story. And here's one of my favorite clips from that episode. You come back to New York with $300,000 worth of orders. How are you going to finance that? That was a big question right there. I didn't know what. I didn't know. I didn't have any financial education. I didn't even have an accountant at the time.

So I went to all the banks I could and I got turned down my 27 of them. 27 banks. Yeah. It was so bad. Loan sharks were turning me down. Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. And by the way, please make sure to check out my newsletter. You can sign up for it for free at gairoes.com or on substack. And of course, if you are working on a business and you'd like to be on this show, send us a 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 hibt and id.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 Catherine Seifer with music composed by Ramtin Arablui. He was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Kwayze Lee. Our production staff also includes Alex Chung, Elaine Coates, Casey Herman, J.C. Howard, Carla Estevez, Chris Messini, Carrie Thompson, Neva Grant, and Sam Paulson. I'm Guy Raz, and you've been listening to How I Built This.

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