Building a Healthy Meal Delivery Business – Andy Sartori of MealPro
Andy Sartori
United States
Sushant@treptalks.com
Full-time
Open to opportunities: Yes
Founder Socials
MealPro
Physical Location - Country: United States
Location - Countries Operating: United States
1-10 (Small Business)
https://www.mealpro.net/
Business Type: Product and Service
Category: Retail and Consumer Goods
Subcategory: Food and Beverage
Niche: Health Foods
Segments: B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
Structure: Private
Number of founders: 1
Business Socials
Startup Costs (USD)
Annual Revenue (USD)
Business Book
Productivity Tool or Tip
- Skype
- Google Calendar
- Freeware
Inspirational Peers or Entrepreneurs
Innovative Product or Idea
- Robotics in retail and e-commerce
Best business advice
Embrace the Constraints
INTERVIEW VIDEO (Length – 1:00:51)
PODCAST AUDIO
Intro
Andy Sartori, the founder of MealPro. Andy shares his entrepreneurial journey, which began with a passion for healthy eating and evolved into a successful e-commerce business that delivers nutritious meals to busy professionals and individuals with specific dietary needs. He discusses the strategic challenges and steps he took, including vertical integration, leveraging constraints, and focusing on customer retention over aggressive marketing. Discover Andy’s insights on maintaining quality, managing logistics across the nation, and his cautious approach to adopting new technologies.
Nurturing a Sustainable Career
When I started this journey, I knew I wanted to help people and build something that truly reflected who I am. So I sat down and made a list—every trait, strength, weakness, passion—just everything that made me me at the time. I realized I had a deep love for food and a strong interest in healthy living.
Fresh out of college, I had time, limited resources, and a desire to create something meaningful and sustainable—something I could grow with over decades. I began to reverse engineer my life: how could I take all these characteristics and passions and turn them into a business?
That’s when the idea clicked—healthy food. It was a natural intersection of what I cared about and who I was. And honestly, it all started with just an idea scribbled on a piece of paper.
Dedication and Passion
Building this business has come with tremendous sacrifice—every single day, I feel the weight of the entry barrier. I’ve moved cities for it. My weekends, my weekdays—this is what I do, 24/7, 365 days a year. But my passion for what I do is what makes those sacrifices not only bearable but fulfilling.
Just like a great parent, athlete, or soldier sacrifices for what they believe in, I’ve poured everything into this journey. There were times I gave up personal plans, worked through holidays, and restructured my entire life around this vision. But I’ve always done it with a smile—because it aligns with who I am and what I love.
That passion is the reason I’ve sustained this for nearly a decade, and it’s what drives me to keep going for many more to come.
From Day Job to Entrepreneur
When I first started MealPro, I was working a regular day job—so I was a part-time entrepreneur at best. I didn’t have much money to invest, but what I did have was time. I wasn’t married, fresh out of college, and my calendar was pretty open outside of work.
That time became my greatest asset. I couldn’t afford to hire help, so I did everything myself—nights, weekends, early mornings. Whenever I hit a roadblock, I didn’t have the luxury of throwing money at the problem. I had to dig in and figure it out with time and persistence.
Over time, the business slowly pulled me in. I kept investing more of myself into it until eventually, I made the leap to full-time entrepreneurship. Revenue started coming in, and I went from surviving to thriving. It wasn’t easy—but making the most of what I had is what made all the difference.
E-Commerce Sales Dynamics
Interestingly, I never sold to my own community when I started out. Most of my early customers were complete strangers—people I had never met or spoken to. That’s the nature of e-commerce. It’s all about reaching people through a website or platform, often with little to no direct interaction. In those early days, I built a business by connecting with customers I’d never seen, all through the power of the internet.
Evolution of MealPro
When I launched the modern version of MealPro, I started with a co-packer—someone else handled the cooking, and I focused on selling the meals through the website. It was a partnership where I managed the front-end, and they took care of operations.
Before that, I actually ran a food truck, which was a completely different concept. Over time, that evolved into what MealPro is today: an e-commerce-based meal delivery business. Eventually, I brought everything under one roof—combining both the online and operational sides into a single, streamlined business.
Entrepreneurship Through Sacrifice
In the beginning, I was the food guy—I knew how to cook, I had restaurant experience, and I was passionate about it. But what I quickly realized was that making food wasn’t the hard part. The real challenge was learning how to sell it.
I didn’t have money to throw at the problem, so I invested time instead. I handed off the food production to a co-packer and dove headfirst into learning everything else—how to build a website, how to use Photoshop, how to market online. I’d stay up at 3 AM working with freelancers across the world over glitchy Skype calls, because that’s what I could afford—just a few dollars an hour.
It wasn’t glamorous, but when you don’t have the money, you have to be willing to make the sacrifice. That’s what built the foundation of MealPro. It came down to showing up, putting in the hours, and doing whatever it took to move things forward.
Creative Packaging Solutions
Packaging was one of the biggest challenges I faced early on. I had a co-packer making the meals, and I managed to commit to about $3,000 worth of food. But the real issue came with packaging—most suppliers required massive volume commitments that I just couldn’t afford.
So I got scrappy. There was a Smart & Final down the street from my parents’ house that sold tailgate coolers and dry ice, and right next door was a U.S. Post Office with shipping boxes. I’d buy one cooler, one batch of dry ice, and one box at a time. Sure, it cost more per unit, but I avoided the huge upfront costs.
It wasn’t perfect—the cooler didn’t fit the box exactly, so I added spacers and even condiment packs to keep the lid shut during shipping. I just made it work with what I had. That’s how I got around the volume requirements—by being resourceful and a little creative.
Quality Over Quantity
Most people who try our food end up coming back—and that’s really the biggest win for us. We don’t rely on flashy marketing or deep discounts. You won’t see 50% off promos or loud gimmicks. What we focus on is simple: great food, generous portions, and high-quality ingredients.
We’re very intentional about where our ingredients come from—right down to the farms. That level of detail might not be obvious if you’re just comparing meal services online or reading through ads. There’s a lot of noise out there, and it’s easy to get misled by discounts or polished messaging.
But when it comes down to it, we offer more variety, larger portions, and better ingredients—all at a fair price per ounce. And ultimately, that’s what brings people back: they just genuinely enjoy the food.
Truth About Fresh Labels
One thing I like to be transparent about is what “fresh” really means in the meal delivery world. When most companies say their food is delivered fresh, what they often mean is that it’s been frozen, then defrosted by the time it reaches you. That’s just the reality of the food supply chain—frozen is standard for safety and shelf life.
At MealPro, we take a different approach. We fully embrace frozen—not as a compromise, but as a strength. Our meals are blast frozen immediately after cooking, which preserves nutrients and locks in texture. Unlike traditional freezing, which causes ice crystals to form and damage the food’s structure, blast chilling cools the food so quickly that the moisture doesn’t have time to expand and break down the fibers. When you reheat one of our meals, it tastes and feels like it was just made.
We also go the extra mile with packaging. Our boxes use extra-thick, high-density insulation, and we combine gel packs with dry ice for maximum temperature control. We even use air freight to make sure meals stay frozen as they travel across the country. And we don’t just ship blindly—we monitor weather patterns and adjust delivery schedules accordingly. If there’s a snowstorm, wildfire, or hurricane, we might delay shipments to protect the quality of your meals.
It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it to deliver food that truly lives up to its promise—nutritious, high-quality, and ready when you are.
Expense Balance at MealPro
Packaging and fulfillment are some of the biggest costs in this business—there’s no getting around that. At MealPro, we invest heavily in getting your meals to you safely and at the right temperature, which isn’t cheap.
But we balance those high fulfillment costs with our vertically integrated model. We own our food facility and make everything in-house, which gives us more control and helps keep other costs in check. It’s all about striking the right balance—spending where it matters most while keeping things efficient across the board.
Tailored Meals for One
At MealPro, we’re focused almost entirely on serving individuals. While we do a little B2B, it’s minimal—our entire business model is built around individual customers.
Everything from our packaging to our marketing to our portion sizes is designed to make it easy for one person to order, customize, and enjoy their meals. That’s where we shine—helping busy individuals eat better with convenient, ready-to-go meals that fit their lifestyle.
Sustaining Growth Through Retention
I’ve definitely experienced that classic “hockey stick” growth curve—slow and steady at first, then gradually picking up speed. But we’re not trying to force that curve with aggressive ads or unsustainable tactics. At MealPro, our focus is on customer retention, not just acquisition.
Instead of chasing rapid growth, we invest in keeping our current customers happy: more variety, better quality, flexible meal customization, reliable delivery, and great communication. It’s all about creating an experience that makes people want to stick around.
Because of that, our churn rate is low—and that means we don’t need to acquire tons of new customers to keep growing. It keeps things sustainable, and it allows us to focus on doing things right, rather than rushing to scale beyond our capacity.
Retention Through Transparency
We’ve been fortunate to earn great reviews on Google, and I think that comes down to the value we consistently deliver. People who try MealPro know exactly what they’re getting—we’re transparent about our meals, and we focus on quality and honesty every step of the way.
That approach keeps our customers happy and coming back, which means we don’t have to pour a ton of money into acquiring new ones. Retention has really been our strategy, and it’s what’s helped us grow sustainably.
Defining Business Growth
We’ve definitely been growing—and not just in terms of revenue. For me, growth means more than just dollar signs. It’s about how many customers we serve, how much space we operate in, how many ovens we’re running, how much energy we use, and how many people we employ.
All of those metrics matter, and they paint a fuller picture of our progress. Whether it’s expanding our facility, increasing meal variety, or building our team, we’re constantly evolving to meet demand and serve our customers better.
Qualitative Metrics Drive Success
Yes, we definitely have growth targets—but I think about them in two ways: quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative side is easy to measure—things like aiming for 10% year-over-year revenue growth. That looks great on paper, but I see it more as a trailing indicator.
What really drives that growth are the qualitative factors—the things that come first. Is the food presented well? Does it taste great? Is the texture right? These are the details I focus on, because when we get those right, everything else follows. Customers stay longer, satisfaction goes up, and the numbers eventually reflect that.
So while we track revenue and performance, my main priority is making sure the quality is there—because that’s what truly drives long-term success.
Expanding Our Workforce
This year, we’ve made a big investment in growing our team. In just the first two months—January and February—we hired five new people, bringing our total team to about 20. That means 25% of our current team was added in just a couple of months, which is a big deal for us.
Every year, we focus on a different area of growth. Some years it’s about expanding our footprint—adding more space, growing our physical presence. Other years, we invest in infrastructure like trucks, ovens, or equipment. But this year is all about human capital. We’re focused on building the right team, adding talent, and strengthening the people side of the business. And we’re just getting started.
Focus on Food Excellence
A big part of how we operate at MealPro comes down to focus—and that’s shaped by our constraints. We can’t do everything at once, so we choose to do one thing really, really well at a time.
For example, when it came to building out our food facility, we went all in. We found the best equipment, installed top-tier water filtration systems, sourced the highest quality ingredients—we poured all our energy and resources into making that facility the best it could be. And that focused approach has paid off.
As we continue to grow and hit that next phase of scaling, we may start tackling two big goals at once—like expanding our footprint and growing the team simultaneously. But for now, our strength has been in picking one priority and executing it with excellence.
Geography Shapes Distribution
For us, customer reach often comes down to geography. You’d think the biggest demand would always come from major population centers—and in some ways, it does, just based on volume. But because of how our distribution works, the areas closest to us tend to be the most accessible, and that’s where we naturally serve the most customers. So geography plays a big role in how our business flows.
Strategic Resource Focus
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is not to do too much at once. It’s tempting to try and tackle everything—marketing, hiring, infrastructure, operations—all at the same time. But I’ve found that growth comes from focus.
We’ve approached things one phase at a time: one year we focus on hiring, another year on expanding our facility, another on upgrading equipment and supply chain. That’s how we’ve been able to grow sustainably.
When it comes to marketing, for example, we’ve chosen not to spread ourselves thin. We don’t try to do every channel—social media, influencers, email, paid ads, radio, PR—all at once. That would dilute our efforts and overwhelm our resources. Instead, we’ve been intentional about doing fewer things really well.
In the early days, I even decided to skip paid ads entirely. It was about taking one step at a time—knowing my limits, staying focused, and building a solid foundation. That kind of discipline has made all the difference in helping us grow without collapsing under the weight of trying to do it all.
Cautious Tech Adoption
I definitely believe that as technology advances, it’s going to disrupt every industry—including ours. But I’ll be honest: I’m not an early adopter. I’m more cautious when it comes to bringing in new tech.
At MealPro, we use a lot of machines, but they’re tried and true. They’ve been around for a while, and we know they work. I’ve learned the hard way that jumping on the latest innovation too early can come with a lot of headaches—breakdowns, bugs, and being the guinea pig while someone else perfects their product.
So yes, I absolutely see the value of technology and we’re happy to adopt it—but only once it’s crossed that “proven” threshold. Let others test it out first. Once it’s reliable, then we’re all in.
Smart Growth Strategy
Yes, we’re focused on growth, but we believe in doing it the smart way. In the food industry, it’s not always the flashiest space, but we’ve found strength in growing gradually and organically. That’s been a blessing, especially when I look at venture-backed competitors that grew too fast and didn’t survive past the pandemic surge.
We’ve stayed grounded. We didn’t chase unsustainable trends or build our business around temporary events. Instead, we’ve taken a long-term approach—focused on strong fundamentals, building real value, and scaling responsibly. Think of us more like a Berkshire Hathaway mindset than a “grow at all costs” startup. It’s not always the quickest route, but it’s the one that lasts.
Mistakes made, Lesson learned
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned on this journey is how to build a team. In the early days, I remember staring at the wall wondering where I’d even find people willing to work with us. Hiring felt impossible.
Over time, I realized the value of building partnerships—especially with organizations that help students and job seekers find meaningful work. These partnerships have been a great way to bring in talent and fill key roles across the company. Learning to lean on those relationships has been essential to our growth and success.
Hiring Demand at MealPro
In the beginning, it was tough—I really struggled to find people to join the team. But now, it’s completely different. These days, hardly anyone comes through a job application. Most of our hires come through referrals. As soon as I think of an opening, someone in our network already knows the right person who wants to work here. It’s a great feeling to have built that kind of reputation and trust.
Rapid Fire Segment
A book recommendation for entrepreneurs:
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It’s more than a biography—it dives into product development, design, and the philosophy behind Apple’s vertical integration. I connected deeply with that because I also believe in owning the whole customer experience, from cooking to selling.
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. It reads like an autobiography but includes valuable business lessons about navigating partnerships, co-packers, and competitive pressures.
Favorite productivity tip:
I rely heavily on freeware. I’ve learned that most paid tools don’t offer a big return on investment, and subscription costs add up.
I used Skype (before it was phased out) to work with freelancers.
Tools like Google Calendar are simple but effective.
For project management, I prefer lightweight, free alternatives over expensive software with marginal benefits.
An innovative product or idea I’m excited about:
Robotics in retail and e-commerce. The space is evolving quickly, and I’m excited to see which technologies emerge as game-changers.
Who inspires me:
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway. Their wisdom and long-term thinking deeply influence how I lead.
I’ve read Charlie Munger’s work on the psychology of human misjudgment—smart, insightful, and often funny.
Like Buffett said, reading someone’s books is like having lunch with them. That’s how I feel about them.
Best Business Advice
If I had to give one piece of business advice, it would be this: embrace the constraints. In the early days, I often thought I needed more money or better resources to move forward—like when I couldn’t afford to rent a kitchen. That challenge pushed me to get creative, and years later, I ended up buying my own kitchen and eventually the whole building.
Those limitations forced me to focus and think differently. What felt like roadblocks at the time turned out to be blessings in disguise. There’s always a silver lining—you just might not see it until later. That lesson has been a constant for me throughout my journey.
Episode Summary
Andy Sartori, the founder of MealPro. Andy shares the inception of MealPro, which aims to provide nutritious and convenient meals for people with busy schedules. He discusses his unique approach of leveraging personal traits and time to build a sustainable business, starting from a list of his characteristics and passions. Andy explains the challenges he faced, including financial constraints, finding customers, and learning to market and sell the product without significant resources. He reveals that MealPro’s success relies on high-quality ingredients, large portion sizes, and a focus on retaining customers through excellent product quality rather than aggressive marketing. The conversation also touches on logistics, the importance of vertical integration, and Andy’s cautious approach to adopting new technologies. Andy emphasizes the value of constraints in fostering creativity and growth, and shares insights into future plans for scaling the business while maintaining high standards.
Interview Transcript
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there, entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is a show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, and ask them questions about their business stories, and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.
And today I’m really excited to welcome Andy Sartori to the show. Andy is the founder of MealPro. Andy started MealPro to make it easy for people with demanding schedules to get great nutrition with convenience. At an affordable price. And today I’m going to ask Andy a few questions about, about his entrepreneur journey and some of the strategies and tactic that he has used to start and grow his business.
Now, before we dive into this interview, if you enjoy this content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button. And for more interviews like this, please visit trip talks.com. And with that, Andy, welcome again, and thank you so much for joining me today treptalks. Really, really appreciate your time.
Well, thank you. It’s great to be with you. So, uh, you know, you definitely have a very interesting business. You have combined kind of the food prep, food delivery, uh, business with e-commerce. Um, how did you get the idea, when did you start and what kind of motivated you to start this business?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Well, I wanted to, uh, help people and, uh, hopefully in a business that plays to my characteristics and my strengths, I.
So when I started, I just made a list of all my characteristics, be they good qualities, bad qualities, just everything that kind of my DNA, my genetic makeup at the time. And it turns out that I was passionate about food and I was also very interested in, uh, being healthy. And I had a plethora of other things that made up my characteristics.
Like at the time I was just out of college and I was young and I had, um, I had a lot of time on my hands. I had a lot of constraints financially. But, uh, so I, I just made a list of what made up my characteristics and what my passions were, and then I reverse engineered it and how can I apply the skills that make up who I am into a business?
Because ultimately I want to do something that I can sustain for a long period of time, something that I have a lot of continuity with over a span of decades, not just a five or a 10 year stint. So, uh, I found out that really where, where everything married together was kind of in, uh, like a healthy food.
Hmm. Uh, and be being healthy through what we’re eating. So that’s really what, what started everything on a piece of paper that was just, um, and that’s all it was at the beginning. It was just an idea on a piece of paper.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, that’s, you bring a very interesting point where, you know, when people are trying to, or thinking about starting a business, I mean, it’s difficult to come up with an idea and I think, I mean, the criteria that you used, it’s, it’s like, it’s a perfect way to figure out what, you know, what would be, uh, someone should, should get into a business with, um, especially if they’re doing business for the first time.
Right. Because, um, if they, if they don’t know about something or they are not interested in, I think to, because business is challenging, it’s very difficult to, I. Um, continue if, you know, if, if you’re not, uh, motivated to do that. Um,
Andy Sartori of MealPro: yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, I mean, you’re right. Going off of what you said, it, it’s, uh, certainly a, a tremendous sacrifice and every single day I feel the entry barrier.
You know, I, I’ve moved because of my business. I change geographic location. Um, this is what I do on the weekends. This is what I do during the week. It’s really 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And so just being passionate really makes it so it’s easier to sacrifice, you know, if, um, you know, if you wanna be a great parent, you might have to sacrifice for your children.
If you want to be a great soldier, you might have to sacrifice for the cause. If you wanna be a great clergy, you have to sacrifice for the religion. If you wanna be a great athlete, you might have to sacrifice, uh, you know, to travel traveling teams. Um, you know, growing up you might not go to birthday parties because you have to practice your sport and hone your skill.
So in the same way, being in, in the business requires a lot of sacrifice. So that’s where the, the foundation of passion makes it so that I could always do it with a smile. And, um, I was always very fulfilled, and that’s really why I’ve sustained it for close to a decade now, and hopefully many, many more decades to come.
So
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: when you were starting out, did you not ever think that you wanted to go, like in a traditional corporate job or any sort of a job kind of a situation? How, what was it about business that was interesting?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Well, so I actually had a job, so I was a part-time entrepreneur at first. Okay. I was a part-time business owner.
Uh, my back was not against the wall because I had a day job. Um, and what I, what I very quickly realized is that, you know, my, my day job was, um, was a very normal, uh, job. A job that many people have. And so, but the, the main differentiator between me and everybody else was really how much time I had on my hands, because other than the job, I didn’t have much else going on in life.
Right. I mean, I’m not married, I was just outta college. I had, um, yeah, I had some social activities going on, but, but really the, you know, the, the quality that I had most was time. And the quality that I had the least was financial capital. Mm-hmm. Right? So I figured out, well, okay, I have a lot of time. I don’t have a lot of money, then how do I make time, uh, my leg up in business?
How do I use that resource that I have in abundance to get myself an advantage? And so while I was working, I was also doing MealPro at the same time. Hmm. Uh, and I couldn’t hire people to do MealPro for me, right? Mm-hmm. So I would always do it after work between hours. And when I would get stuck on a problem, rather than throwing money at it to solve my problem, because I didn’t have financial resources, I would have to invest time in solving the problem.
So eventually as I transitioned from, you know, having a job to being a full-time entrepreneur, my solution to any problem that I had was always, I’m gonna throw more time at it. I will invest more time into it. Um, because I didn’t have the, the financial resources to invest, right? So it ended up really taking over my life and it gradually sucked me in more and more.
And then eventually things began to change and, uh, you know, I was started making a little bit of revenue, and then eventually I became a full-time entrepreneur, uh, and then a very good one a little bit later.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And, and you, you brought like a few very good points. Again, I mean, I think in entrepreneurship, I.
Um, many times throwing money at a problem is usually the wrong approach. I think, uh, you know, when you’re, um, and that happens a lot of the times, you know, when companies become big, they run into problems and they start throwing money at it, and they’re not, uh, able to solve it it properly. And some, you know, uh, small company comes and they’re, you know, all in, they’re trying to problem solve the right way and they’re able to outpace them.
Uh, so I think, I think that’s, that’s a really good, uh, lesson for anybody who’s Yeah. Starting out.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Yeah, I mean, I, I would agree with you there. And something that I’ve learned is that, you know, I’ve done north of, north of $10 million in, in sales, right? So, I mean, something that I’ve learned is anytime you throw money at a problem, it’s actually a symptom of incompetence.
There’s a lack of ability. Then you try to make up for it with the US dollar, and it ends up being very expensive and not very effective way to solve problems. Uh, I mean, knowledge and wisdom is what solves problems for the most part. Um, and sometimes it’s an excuse. It’s like, oh, if I can just throw money at a problem and it’s this, just this alibi.
Um, right. Yeah. And, and even when I hire people, when I hear that sometimes I hear that rhetoric be like, oh, you know what, boss, if I had more resources, if I had a bigger p and l, if you could increase my budget, if we could just spend more money, uh, I could solve this problem. And to me, that’s always, you know, my, my BS detector is always going off when I hear that, as in, uh, that’s a red flag to me.
’cause I, I know from experience, you know, starting with a food truck that it’s, um, constraints make companies better and then a lot of times just investing, um. Time and, and gaining that knowledge can, can very frequently, uh, it has made me overcome these obstacles.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, yeah. Constraints is a very good word.
That, that always, um, helps you. I, I, I think constraints help help people quite a bit. I’m very curious. So when you started, uh, to me it seems like, um, I mean, did you start, um, selling these meals to your own community? I mean, to me it seems like maybe you were involved in bodybuilding community or something and you were solving No, no.
Can you, can you share like, how did you get started?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: I never sold them to my own community. No. Okay. Uh, it, it was actually most of my sales were two complete strangers, uh, that I had never even met or never even spoken with. Uh, and that’s the e-commerce business model, right? So the e-commerce business model is you’re selling to people whom you’ve never met.
There’s very few touch points between me and the person that’s buying it. Everything is done through like a, a website or like a portal. Uh, so there’s very frequently between me and the, the first customers, there was actually very few interactions, if any.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So did you first start a website before? So you had an idea, you started a website, you got it online, and you basically shared a value proposition that I’m, you know, I’m creating this meal healthy, uh, nutritious meal for busy professionals.
And is that how you got started or, so you created the business first before the product?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Uh, so, so when I started, I actually, the, the very beginning of the, the modern version of MealPro was with a co-packer. So a, a co-packer was making, uh, the meals and I was selling them on the website. So there was somebody else involved, like a third party making the food. Um, and then I would sell it. So that’s the modern version of MealPro came about.
Before that I had a food truck. Uh, that was a different concept that kind of morphed into the more of this e-commerce model. Uh, but yeah, so to answer your question, it was, I was doing the website. There was another party that was worried about the operations and eventually I, I married the two into one.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. So you did not start with the food aspect of it. You were more of the marketing, uh, person and then you brought the two ideas together?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Uh, well, so the, the very beginning, I was the food person at the very beginning. Okay. Um, that’s how it started. I very quickly realized I didn’t have the skills to sell.
So yeah, I, I, I can make the food. I got that part down. I. I was lacking that step between I have the food, how do I sell the food? Hmm. And then I, I threw time at my problem, right. Because I didn’t have the financial resources. Hmm. So I think all of us know how to make food. I mean, making food is, you know, you make food at home.
All of us have a concept of how to make food. Uh, I worked in the restaurant industry, so I knew about food. I was passionate about it. That wasn’t the most difficult part for me. The hardest part was learning how to find customers, how to distribute the product, and not having the financial resources I had to throw myself and my time at the problem.
Right. So I, I handed off the food to a co-packer and I just started learning about, um, you know, how to build a website, how to, um, Photoshop, you know, how do I use this? I was on Skype with freelancers across the world. Because it only cost me one or $2 an hour to be with a freelancer across the world. And I’d be doing it over like a, a broken Skype connection, right?
Mm. I was paying freelancers to be a Western Union. So that’s that. That’s how I started. Um, very few dollars. I mean, a freelancer across the world, I have to be awake at three in the morning. US time. Hmm. You know, but the benefit to that is if I have the, the willingness to sacrifice and be awake at three in the, at 3:00 AM US time, then I can find a freelancer across the world that, that’s awake in his local time for just a couple dollars, right?
And then Skype is a free tool and have a free connection. So that’s free. So a lot of the times I can get my problem solved for just a couple dollars, uh, but then I have to have the willingness to be awake at that time, to find somebody across the world, right? Mm-hmm. So when, when the money is not there, the sacrifice has to be there.
That’s very important. The sacrifice has to be there because if you don’t wanna sacrifice, you don’t want to be up at three in the morning. And I wanna find a local guy that’s gonna talk to me at 10:00 AM US time, then it’s gonna cost me more. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So that’s where the sacrifice comes in, right, that we talked about
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: earlier.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Yeah.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Can you, um, talk a little bit about how you found the co-packer? Like, was there any financial commitment there or did you have connections? Because I would assume when, like, if somebody’s going to a co-packer, there would be some sort of a commitment. Like they would say, you know, bring me this much volume before I will work with you, or something like that.
Wa was there some commitment there? Yeah, it
Andy Sartori of MealPro: was, it was a very big problem for me. Yeah, it was very big problem. Um, yeah, so he was, so what I ended up doing is I had a co-packer that made these, the food. Um, and I, I found some, some modest volume, uh, commitments. So I, I bought, it was like three grand worth of food, $3,000 worth of food.
And then the packaging was another big problem because there’s a big volume commitment on packaging. Uh, but there was a smart and final, like down the street from my parents’ house that carried, uh, tailgate coolers. And uh, and then next to the Smart and Final was a US Post Office that carried boxes. So I bought the tailgate cooler from Smart and Final.
I bought the dry ice from Smart and Final, and then I would buy a corrugated box from like the US Post Office that was in the same shopping center. So I had the volume requirement on the food from my co-packer, but then at least on the packaging requirement, I was able to get just a volume of one, right?
Mm-hmm. When I would go to Smart Final, I’d just pick up like one, one, uh, unit of dry ice, one tailgate cooler, and then a one box at the post office. So at least on the packaging, I didn’t have these ma I had high prices, but I didn’t have these massive volume requirements.
Hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Um. So that’s how I got around the volume requirements with the packaging and, and I made it work, right?
It wasn’t perfect. Uh, the tailgate cooler did not fit in the box just right. Hmm. But I was able to put some spacers in there to make it fit. I added condiment packs to the top of the cooler. Hmm. So I could fill the space so that, that way if I put some on top of the tailgate cooler, uh, the lid won’t open when it’s in transit.
Right. Because I’m adding that little bit of thickness to keep it shut. Mm-hmm. So I, I got kind of got creative and I was able to find a way to package the meals and send them with, uh, just materials that I had available.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: But what about with the co-packer? Like, did you commit to a certain volume, like, I mean, with food, of course you can’t store it for a long period of time, right?
Uh, it was frozen food. Oh, frozen food. Okay, so, but now I see on your website the, the food looks quite fresh. Um, can you talk a little bit about the, the food that you’re selling? Because the impression that I got was it, it’s more targeted towards healthy lifestyle and, or, or, or busy professionals who are trying to live healthy.
How do you describe your, um, your food selection?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Uh, well, we have different silos. I mean, we have different themes in different groups. So we’ll have the weight loss, we’ll have, um, you know, people with allergies. Uh, we’ll have, um, people with different health needs. Um, you know, like diabetes, we have low sodium, we have heart healthy, we have renal failure meals, uh, we have exclusion diets like a paleo.
We have, um, you know, keto diets, bodybuilding diets, like, uh, high calorie diets. So it’s very, it is very different based on the, um. I guess we have a broad selection
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: you could say. Okay. I mean, the reason I’m asking is because, um, I think food delivery and food service, it’s more, it’s a very competitive market now, right?
I mean, there’s some big companies that are doing it at a much larger scale, I guess a national scale. Um, we’re doing it on a national scale also. Oh, you are? Okay. Do you consider them as your competitor or are you carving your own niche with, uh, more targeting your food to specific niche of, uh, um, personas?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Yeah, I mean, I, I, I think it’s, it’s, I mean, I think the textbook, like an academic definition would be that they are competitors. Okay. But that’s a very academic definition because in reality, uh, we’re, we’re also competing with, uh, the alternative. And when you look at alternatives, there’s a lot more than just competitors.
There’s. You can make your own food, that’s an alternative. Uh, you can have, um, a, a caretaker make your food. Mm-hmm. You can have, you can go to a restaurant that’s an alternative.
Hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: So, so really we’re, we’re competing against a lot more than just the people that are in our lane.
Mm-hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Um, and, and I think we have to keep our, our sights on that.
You know, a a common example that I think of is a photographer, you know, they, they might identify as competing against other photographers, but they’re also competing against my iPhone. Hmm. Right. Because my iPhone can take pictures.
Hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: They’re also competing against me and my DSLR because I can take pictures with my DSLR camera, right?
Mm-hmm. So, uh, in terms of selling food, yeah, we’re competing against other people that sell the same food as us, but we’re also looking at how can we be the best alternative, like full stop. Hmm. And your alternative might be you make food yourself, right? Mm-hmm. I, I, I think we have a, a much more comprehensive and holistic view of, of what we need to watch out for.
And we’re, we’re a lot more ho like, encompassing than just strictly the people that compete against us.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What is, what, what do you consider your value proposition versus the competitor? Like, what is, when a person is looking for a food service or, you know, a food delivery, uh, healthy food, um, what, what makes them select your service versus an alternative, uh,
Andy Sartori of MealPro: competitor?
Well, usually they like the food and they come back. They like to take, I mean, really it’s, um, I mean if you’re, if you’re looking at it from behind a computer, if you’re looking at it on a piece of paper, uh, you might get tricked, right? There’s a lot of tricks that you see because one person has a bigger discount and one person has, um.
Maybe more, uh, more rhetoric. But what we do is we just give, uh, more like bigger portions. Okay. And then we give, uh, better ingredients. And we’re, we’re very specific about the ingredients that we use, um, going down to the farm that they come from. Um, and it, and it’s not easy to pick up on these things if you’re just assessing the company from behind the computer.
Um, you know, because there’s so much misinformation out there that it can be very difficult to parse through all the misinformation. But when, when we boil it down, ultimately we have more options, uh, larger portion sizes and better ingredients and better prices on a pair ounce basis. And then ultimately, what keeps people coming back is just the fact that they like the food.
Um, there’s no, no, not much marketing, not many big discounts, 50% off. Uh, we don’t do too much. We don’t do any of that, frankly. Mm-hmm. Uh, it doesn’t make sense to me. You know, it’s, um, we just focus on just good food.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. And I think that’s, that’s probably the most important thing. Like when, when it comes to food, people want, uh, good testing and good quality ingredients, right?
Like, that’s, that’s the, the bottom line I guess there. Um, so I was on your website and I tried a, you know, selecting a food, um, package and I selected, let’s say I’m vegetarian. I selected the vegetarian and it gave me the option to have, I believe it’s 22 meals in one, um, uh, one selection. Um, so how does it work?
So you ship out that meal and, um, I then ha, you know, I freeze the meals and basically, um, use them over a period of time. Yeah, you can do
Andy Sartori of MealPro: that. That’s a good way to do it. Okay. Um, yeah. You keep some of your refrigerator, you keep some in your freezer and uh, that
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: tends to work. Okay. Do you offer, um, I didn’t see on your website, do you offer a subscription service?
Do you offer like if I have placed an order once, um, is there an option for me where I can basically turn on a subscription so I don’t have to order the food again and again, like every month or something?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Yes. Yes, we do have that. Okay. Um, and excuse me for one moment. There’s a gentleman trying to get my attention if I may.
Okay, no worries. I’m here.
I, I apologize we are closed today, but we have some people that still come in for one-off tasks. No worries, no worries
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: to totally fine. Um, so let’s start, I mean, I’m very curious about, because a big part of your business, so you know, your business has different parts. One is the e-commerce, uh, purchasing part.
Then you have the food preparation part, and then you have, I, I think a big part of your business is kind of the logistics or the delivery, uh, part of the business. Right. Um, can you talk a little bit about that? Because I think with food, there’s the consideration of keeping it fresh. Um, there’s the consideration, you said that you have national distribution.
Uh, so how do you distribute food nationally? And are there any challenges in the, uh, logistics of, of this business?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Well, so, and most of the time I have to disclose when, when a company’s advertising their food is fresh, they mean it’s defrosted. Okay. That’s really what it means because food supply chain is frozen for obvious reasons of shelf life.
Uh, so when, when you’re buying a, a meal kit and they say it’s delivered to you fresh, really what they mean? It’s. We can’t get it to you frozen, so it is actually gonna be defrosted by the time you receive it. So we’re advertising it as fresh.
Okay.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: That’s how our competitors operate. Uh, we have a different model.
We just kind of embrace the fact that, you know, the, the food supply chain is frozen, uh, and if we send it to you, it is gonna be frozen. Um, so, um, and that, and that’s all food is, is gonna be frozen at some point. So if you receive it fresh, it’s probably just thawed. And, um, yeah. So what we do is we, we have better nutrient retention when it, when it’s frozen.
Uh, we, we actually blast freeze the food. And, and what that means is, you know, there’s moisture in the, in like a, a, a protein, you know, if you’re freezing a piece of meat. And actually as the water inside the meat freezes, it also expands right. When you freeze, when you freeze a water bottle, it actually expands.
Yeah. So what happens when you freeze a piece of meat is it expands and it breaks the fibers of the meat. Okay? So when it defrosts, it becomes mushy, you know, you lose a little bit of that texture. What we do is we blast chill all our food. So we take it down in temperature very fast, and there’s actually not enough time for there to be moisture inside the actual item.
Uh, so it prevents, it, it prevents the structure from breaking if we freeze it fast enough, right? So then when you go to reheat it, it’s gonna have the same texture. You almost won’t even be able to tell that it was a frozen product just because of the speed that we take it down in temperature with. Um, you know, you might, you might hear that a lot, blast chilling, blast chilling is good for food, but then people don’t tell you why it’s good or people may not understand.
Why it’s better to freeze things quickly. And it’s just that way the, um, the moisture inside the product doesn’t actually break the fibers and break the structure of, of the product, right? So you’re freezing it faster than that. And that’s what we do. And then we keep it frozen. So by the time it reaches your door and you’re reheating it, uh, you, you won’t even be able to tell.
I mean, it keeps the, the texture the same. Right? And then we invest more in our packaging. I mean, we have, uh, like thicker installation on our packaging. We have inch and a half thick packaging, higher density packaging. So it, it weighs more, it’s heavier. Uh, and then we use an aircraft service when we go across the nation to deliver it.
Um, we have a combination of gel packs as well. So the combination of like gel packs, dry ice sometimes can extend the, um, you know, just the thermal aspects inside the box. So we’ve, we’ve kind of reverse engineered it and, and we got it to where we, we know what packaging goes with what time zone, and we have a, a weather watch.
Uh, so we can, you know, better respond to, uh, storms that are happening in the mid, you know, in the Midwest or wherever. So we, um, we don’t just send boxes out every single week. We, we kind of change the days depending on the weather patterns. Uh, sometimes we have to skip weeks, like we, we won’t be able to send it out for one week if we have a snow storm in the winter, or if we have a hurricane in the summer, or if there’s fires in Southern California, we might just not deliver to that area.
So unfortunately there can be disruptions, uh, to the service because of weather and we’re very much impacted by it.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, that sounds, that sounds like, uh, com I mean, complicated. I mean, you need someone. Coordinating the, the, the whole logistics part of it. Like do you own, uh, a certain portion of it, like local delivery or regional delivery and then you work with other shipping partners, or is it completely a little bit
Andy Sartori of MealPro: of very minimal?
We, we do very, very, a little bit of that ourselves, but we rely on a lot, on a lot on partners. We do.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And that brings me to my next question is around the cost of this, um, and the pricing strategy. Uh, I mean, it seems like, um, your cost is around the, you know, the product itself, like preparation of the product.
And then to me it seems like there’s a big cost associated with the fulfillment. Uh, can you talk a little bit about it and in, in your pricing strategy, like, are, is this business, does this business have a good profit margin?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Uh, yeah. So it’s a very big cost. It’s a very big packaging cost, a very, very big, uh, fulfillment cost.
And, um, you know, we have a, a vertical integration strategy at MealPro. Like, you know, we own our food facility. Uh, we make everything in-house. So yeah, we have, we have a lot of expenses on the fulfillment, but then we kind of vertically integrate. Hmm. Um, so we, we try to make up for, for the, the bigger expenses on, on one side of our operations and we keep expenses very reasonable on, on the other side of our operation.
So we have a balance.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And your customers, your, um, selling mostly to individuals, you are not, um, are you, do you also do like corporate or are you also into like retail stores? Um, and other businesses? I.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: No, we’re just, uh, we strictly do individuals. Okay. We, we do some B2B, but it’s minimal. Um, it, it is mostly two individuals.
That’s really what our business is geared towards and our distribution and our marketing and our, you know, the way we package the food. We have individual serving sizes. Uh, it’s very easy for one person to order and for one person to update their preferences. Uh, we, we really do well with individuals.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. That makes sense. Um, you did mention before that you have, um, minimal marketing, like you, most of your business is repeat purchases, which makes sense. Um, can you talk a little bit about your market? Like what is your customer acquisition strategy? How do you get new customers? Is it mostly word of mouth or do you do local advertising?
What, what’s, can you talk a little bit about your marketing?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Minimal. It’s really very minimal.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So people search on website and they, they find your, um, website or
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Yeah, that’s one of the ways. Okay. Um, and, um, you know, if you’ve ever seen the hockey stick graph of how a company grows Yeah. I was very gradual at first and then it becomes exponential.
Uh, yeah, I can relate to that. You know, we’re, uh, we’re not trying to force the hockey stick curve prematurely by pumping a bunch of ads in the business. Uh, I wanna make sure that we have like, very good customer retention and we’re always working on retention. So then even if our customer acquisition isn’t, isn’t very aggressive, um, it, it is really customer retention that keeps us, keeps kind of the inertia going.
Hmm. Right. And so if we just focus everything we have on customer retention, so having, uh, more variety. Having, uh, just very, very, very high quality, having accommodating different needs so people can customize their meals. Um, all of that contributes to our having the good packaging, you know, getting the box to their door on time, uh, communicating, you know, we, we do a lot of this just to retain the customers that we have.
And, uh, with retention, it’s been effective. So we don’t have to have a high customer acquisition because we don’t have a high churn, right? Mm-hmm. If we had a high churn, then we would need a to replenish them more, but thankfully, because we have a very low churn, then our customer acquisition, it’s okay if it’s low, right?
Because, um, our ovens can only produce so much, and it keeps us in the range where we like to be.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. I mean, that, that’s a, that says a lot of good things about your business. I mean, if. If, uh, your customers or the lifetime value of your customer, or, you know, if they’re staying with your, uh, product for a long time.
I mean, basically says a lot about customer satisfaction. They’re satisfied, they like what they’re getting. Um,
Andy Sartori of MealPro: yeah, I mean, we have great reviews on Google. Um, you know, and I think that we really, people that work with us just know the value that we provide and, um, we’re, we’re very, uh, I, I think we’re very transparent with, uh, what the meal is and, and people are happy and it keeps them coming back and we don’t have to spend too much on just acquiring new customers because we can keep the ones that we have.
So that’s been our, our strategy.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What have you learned about your customers? Like, do you see different personas? Do you see certain age groups? Do you see more fitness enthusiasts? I mean, I, you, you, you did mention, you know, there’s like different, um, uh, meal types. I, it seems like, uh, some of them also cater to like, uh, uh, maybe people who are dealing with diabetes or, you know, um, blood pressure or those kind of things.
But have you learned anything interesting about your customers?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Well, just customizations, you know, I, I customizations seem to be just a common denominator across, um, everybody. I mean, it’s, it is just, uh, I think it’s something that really differentiates us and it’s something that they all appreciate.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Interesting. Um. Right now you are totally in the us. Do you have any plans of, uh, growing? I know you mentioned that, uh, you like to be in a certain range. Um, do you have plans of like, growing? Is there a bigger market out there that you want to go after or, you know, you’re kind of satisfied in the range that you are in and you kind of keep your business, uh, to that level?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Um, yeah. I mean, we’ve definitely been growing a lot. If, if you look at just, uh, the square footage that we have, the number of customers we have, the variety that we have. So the first part about growing is defining growth. Like how do you define growth? It can be a dollar value. It can be how much square feet do you have?
How many ovens do you have? How much electricity do you consume? How many people do you employ? Right? Because those are all. Think those can all be used to define and track growth. So, you know, when I, when I say growth, I usually define it with some metrics. So I mean, usually it’ll be
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: like, you know, you, it could be like 10% revenue growth year over year.
Like do you, do you have those kind of goals every year or?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Yeah, we have targets and, um, overall it’s, uh, there’s the quantifiable targets and the quantifiable targets, right? So the quantifiable targets will be things like 10% year over year revenue growth. That’s a quantity. It’s a very, it’s very nice on paper to have that KPI, uh, and I find that that’s a trailing indicator.
Usually a leading indicator would be the qualitative metrics. Like, you know, how, how are we doing in terms of, uh, presentation? Does the plate, does it look nice? Does it. Um, is the texture good on the food? So then there’s all these, these qualitative metrics that are actually the leading indicators. And then if, if we nail those, then all of a sudden the, the quantitative metrics follow right?
Because then we see, uh, like, you know, the customers stay with us longer, right? So I would say we have those, those, um, you know, revenue targets and everything else, but what, what I push more is the qualitative metrics because I know that those are the leading indicators. And then if we hit those eventually than everything else kind of trails and follows.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. Like if, if I think if your product is good and which is what I believe you’re saying, then you know revenues are going to follow. Right? Um. Can you talk a little bit about your team? I see on your website, you know, you have, uh, I see, uh, a few faces of your team members.
How big is your team now? Um, are there any special, um, roles? I mean, is there a marketing department? How many people are in the prep area and so forth?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Yeah. Well, so right now we have, um, I mean, this year alone, we started the year, January and February. We’ve hired, uh, five people. So we have five new people that have been added to the team in these last two months.
Uh, and that brings our number to about 20. Uh, so that that tells you something, right? That tells you that the last two months make up a quarter of our, of our people in two months, and the company’s been around since, and I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur since November, 2017, right? So,
whoa,
Andy Sartori of MealPro: uh, 25% person growth in two months.
And that’s just because, uh, it’s, it’s an area that we, we focus on this year. You know, this is the year of human capital. Hmm. Some years we have years of, uh, um, footprint. You know, we have years where we wanna expand the square footage, the size of our building, and that becomes our focus. And then we’re very aggressive about growing.
Uh, sometimes we have the year of like infrastructure where we invest, buying trucks, buying equipment, buying ovens, uh, just getting that infrastructure set up. We go all in on that and we, we take that metric and that becomes kind of our, uh, our north star.
Hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: And this year the metric has been, uh, people, uh, human capital.
So we, we started off the year, we’re gonna say, this is the year we’re gonna grow the team. Uh, other years we used to like grow the, the size of the building, the square footage, the presence. This has been the year of, uh, human capital and we’re gonna continue that.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, that, that’s a, that’s a unique, uh, I mean that’s a unique strategy that I’ve heard.
I
Andy Sartori of MealPro: usually, that’s because of our constraints. That’s because we have constraints. Okay. We can’t do it everything at the same time. Um, so given our constraints, uh, rather than doing, trying to do everything, Hmm, say, you know, let’s just pick one thing that we’re gonna do really, really well right now. Uh, and we’re gonna focus all our attention on just the food facility.
You know, let, let’s go find the very best equipment, the very best water filtration system. Let’s go find the very best ingredients and let’s just focus all our energy and channel all our resources on that and just be the best in our industry at doing that one thing. And it is been a successful approach.
I think as we grow, you know, and we get more into that, that hockey stick like curve, then, then we can start doing maybe two things at the same time. We’ll, we’ll chase two rabbits, we’re gonna double the square footage and double the people. But so far with our constraints, it’s been, uh, just one at a time type mentality.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That makes, makes sense. Do you see specific markets in the US where most of your demand come from? I’m, I’m assuming it’s a bigger, uh, states like New York, California, Texas. Um, and does that impact at all on how you think about your business and where, where you’re, uh, you’re located and, and so forth?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Uh, yeah.
So it’s, um, it just ends up being geography for us. So the people that are closest are the most accessible. Logically, you would think, oh, maybe the big population centers have the most demand, and they do, um, just because of numbers, but because of our distribution and our accessibility, it ends up being actually based on geography.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. What is, I mean, this is a unique, uh, kind of a business. What are, I mean, what have been some of the biggest challenges in this business, uh, to crack?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Well, I, I just think it’s doing too much at the same time. You know, because I mean, our journey is doing, you know, uh, and this goes maybe on something we discussed earlier where I said we, we focus on just, you know, hiring one year and then we go through a phase where we’re only focusing on square footage and, and finding the right facility.
And then we go through a phase where we only focus on. Equipment, you know, refrigerated trucks, supply chain. So I think the, the most challenging thing is doing many easy things at the same time. Um, and, and that’s what I’ve learned not to do, is not, don’t chase two rabbits. So I, I try to just keep it focused on the marketing.
You can say the same if you do, you know, or if I did social media marketing, influencer marketing, email marketing, paid advertisement, uh, billboard advertisement, radio advertisement, PER, if I did, uh, conversion rate optimization, if I did those eight things all at the same time
Hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: It would be very, very challenging for a company with our resources to do.
Hmm. Right. Because we would be so diluted on so many different fronts. Mm-hmm. So, um, there’s a lot that we currently don’t do because of our scarcity of resources. Right. And, you know, not that we’re a very small company, but I think big companies could benefit from doing fewer things better maybe as well.
Mm-hmm. Right? Uh, but especially in scaling, I think just being as, as focused as possible. Um, and in the beginning I just completely gave up on paid advertisement, for example, right? Mm-hmm. I just said, we simply are gonna do zero of it. Mm-hmm. Um, so I, I started to do just a step at a time, right? Mm-hmm. The old adage of, you have to crawl before you can run
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: for sure.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Right? So I think just knowing the edge of kind of my own competence, knowing my own limits and, and being content with that actually, actually made it possible to grow versus, uh, being too distracted that you end up kind of building a house of cards that falls in on itself, right.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, those are great fundamentals for sure.
Yeah. Um, I’m very curious, uh, you know, these days there’s a, I mean, I think robotics is kind of coming up as a technology. Is there an opportunity in this kind of a business of utilizing robotics to kind of automate your, some of the processes maybe you already are, um, in, in one way or another? Um, is there an opportunity for, for robotics in, in your kind of, uh, business?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think as technology advances, it’s gonna disrupt every industry, including ours. I am not an early adopter. Okay. I’ll disclose that. I’m not somebody who’s on the cutting edge of adopting new technologies. I’m more cautious. Um, so we, we have a lot of machines here, but they’re the. They, we, we know they work because they’ve been around for a long time, right?
Hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: So, uh, I think when they cross the cha chasm, then, then we will, we’re like the late adopters. Uh, we don’t want robotics that keeps breaking down and we’re the Guinea pigs that, uh, they use to improve their, their technology, right? That’s, that’s really not what we want to do. So, yes, absolutely. I think it’s gonna have a very big role, very important role.
We’re gonna be happy to adopt. And, uh, please try it on somebody else first. Let them be your Guinea pig. Let them have the failures, let them have the disasters, and then once it’s all hashed out, then we can adopt it too. Uh, you know, I, I once was on this, you know, on the forefront of technology and I’ve learned the hard way that it’s better.
To buy kind of the, the tested and proven products.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. So, so, so tell me about that in a second. When I ask you for your mistakes, but I’m curious, do you have, what is your, um, future vision for your business? Where do you see your business, let’s say five, 10 years down the road? Do you want to continue to have that, you know, step by step, organic growth and just continue building it?
Um, or do you have like a different vision?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Uh, yeah. I mean, personally, I think especially in, in our industry, uh, in, in a food industry, I, I think, um, you know, it’s not necessarily the sexiest thing out there and, and it seems like, um, you know, I mean, so to answer your question is yes, we definitely want to continue growing.
We wanna become the best at what we do. Organic growth, uh, I’ve learned is, has been very good to us. Um. I, I think that it’s, um, it’s healthy to grow gradually and to grow smart. And I’ve definitely, I’ve been so blessed to have all the constraints that I’ve had, uh, because ultimately we’re, we’re beating all our competitors that are venture backed.
Hmm. Uh, I mean, really, if you look at our venture backed competitors, quite a few have gone out of business just because they, you know, during the pandemic there was this crazy surge of food delivery companies. Uh, and so they built a business model around the Black Swan event, and that was not very realistic because Covid was gonna blow over.
So, um, so the, the near term mentality that is so prevalent in investment is not one that we’re, that we espouse ourselves, we’re more of a long-term mentality like a Berkshire Hathaway company. Hmm. Intrinsic value. Good foundations, strong year over year growth, a growth smart versus growing at all costs.
So we, we really have these values that are, that they should be kind of, they, they should go hand in hand with investing. Hmm. But you’ll be surprised how many investors actually don’t quite, uh, embody these same values. They say they do, but, but really they want growth at all costs. And, and that’s not something that we, we espouse necessarily.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No. That, that is, uh, that is a great point and great way to, uh, to build a business. Um, but given that you are building a great business, do you ever think about an exit strategy? Like do you, do you want to be acquired by one of these? No. Okay. Okay. Um. Every entrepreneur has mis, makes mistakes. There’s failures, lessons learned.
Um, what has been like your one or two top failures or mistakes that you made in the process? What were your lessons and what can other entrepreneurs learn from your mistakes?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Um, you know, I think, I think a good learning has been just how to build a team. Um, I think that, you know, at the beginning, I remember when I started the company, I could never find people that were willing to work here. Hmm. Um, and I’d be just looking at the wall thinking where, where am I gonna find people to staff the company with?
And so that’s why I’ve learned to, um, you know, rely on partners we work with, um, you know, we work with like an industry that helps people, um, students find jobs. And there can be, you know, working with them and using them as a resource to kind of funnel talent towards us has been very important. We’ve developed a lot of these partnerships with, uh, with different roles within the company.
I think that’s been, that’s been a key. I’m, I’m sur
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Staffing. I’m surprised to hear you can’t find people to work in your business in, in setting that at the beginning.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Be That was at the beginning. Yeah. Nowadays there’s, there’s hardly anybody here that filled out an application that, uh, that actually started working.
’cause they all, they all came in because, um, you know, as soon as I can think of an opening, there’s somebody that knows somebody that wants to work here.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would. People want jobs, good jobs. So, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment. In this segment I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a couple of words or a sentence or so.
So the first one is one book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why, and I know that you, you kind of alluded to you, you mentioned a few books. You didn’t mention the books, but I could hear the, the book names and the things you were talking about.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Yeah, right. Um, you know, I mean, I think one that does not come to mind for most when they think of entrepreneurship books is the book Steve Jobs, because it gets mislabeled as an autobiography and people think, oh, it’s a book about the life and the legacy of Steve Jobs.
But I read the book on a flight from SFO to Frankfurt, and it was a lot about building products, actually. It was a lot about, you know, how, how was the iPhone built? How did the Apple Store come to be? Uh, so that was a book that surprised me that I, I did not really realize that it was an entrepreneurship book until I started reading it and I said, wow, this is really about how these products were kind of conceived and brought to market.
I think there’s a great learning in the book as you, if you read the book, Steve Jobs, you know how dogmatic Steve Jobs was about his hardware and his operating system going together, which is why Apple has its own hardware and its own operating system. Um, and, and I can kind of, you know, apply it to my business.
I’m also very dogmatic about vertical integration. Now I’m not doing it on that scale. I’m not working in that order of magnitude. Uh, and with me vertical integration means I cook the food and I sell the food. I. But Steve Jobs was the same. He said, uh, you know, a MacBook should not be at Fry’s. An Apple product should be sold in an Apple store, right?
He did not want it at Fry’s next to Adele. He wanted to kind of manage that experience himself, right? So, so I could see like his dogmas in the book. Um, you know, something that really connected with me is when Steve Jobs built the, the, the first Apple store, how he rented a warehouse in Cupertino and just built the Apple store in a warehouse, finished, and then started it over because he built it wrong, right?
Um, and that kind of, that, that just, just a great learning about how to bring products to market and how, how to do, um, how to do, do things right, if you will. So that’s a book that really, that I highly recommend. That you might not think of when you entrepreneurship
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: book. Right. And this is the one with Walter Ison, right?
Is that That’s correct, yes. Okay. Sorry, my background just went away. Just,
Andy Sartori of MealPro: I mean, there’s another great book autobiography. You know, I read a Shoe Dog by Mr. Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. That one reads more like an autobiography. Uh, but there’s also a component to it about, uh, just battles between, you know, I mean, shoe Dog is about how he argued with his co-packer, um, how he was battling for market share.
So they, they read his autobiographies, but then when you actually read the book, there’s good entrepreneurship lessons in them.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. A lot of entrepreneurs have recommended Shoe Dog for sure. But I’ll check out the Steve Jobs one. Um, an innovative product or idea in the current e-commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about?
I.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: MealPro.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. I should, I should have said not, not your business. Um, a business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: You know, personally, I always use freeware. Um, I’m very reluctant to buy licenses for software. Uh, so there’s a lot of, like, Skype is a free tool that I use to talk to freelancers.
Skype is going away, so I don’t know what we’re gonna transition to. Uh, but productivity tools, I mean, there’s, there’s a bunch of, um, project management tools that are paid and there’s some that are free. And I’ve learned there’s not the, the difference between the free and the paid, the, there’s really diminishing marginal returns, right?
For every, every dollar that you spend on a paid software, there’s really very, very minimal, if any, gain. For a free software. So I’ve learned to build the business around like freeware.
Hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Um, and there’s a lot of great, great free alternatives and software. Um, you know, even like a, a text editor, I always recommend to just be, to be light Hmm.
On those expenses.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Yeah. They, they can add up. Right. Like subscription. It’s, it’s, it’s like you add a subscription and then you don’t use it, but they keep on charging you, it’s like a hidden expense, uh, becomes many,
Andy Sartori of MealPro: you know, and I, I’ve made that mistake. Uh, I’ve purchased very expensive software, like a one year license that costs an arm and a leg, and then you figure out, you know, we’re not using it as much as we thought we were gonna use it.
Um, and then that’s what happens to me when every time I buy a software is it’s, it just seems like we didn’t quite get the value from it. Um. With some rare exceptions. Like we, we use the software for like nutrition facts. That’s mission critical. But in terms of like productivity, uh, I recommend, um, just a Google calendar.
It could be great, you know?
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, for sure. Uh, another startup or business in e-commerce, retail or tech that you think is currently doing great things? Any other business that you, uh, like,
Andy Sartori of MealPro: you know, I mean, I, I think you touched on this earlier, there’s a lot of, uh, disruptive technologies that are coming out and I, I can’t drill it down to just one particular one yet.
Hmm.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: But, uh, I know there’s great things coming and so we will, we’ll have to see who emerges. Um, so I think as a category, I would just say the, the robotics that you mentioned earlier, um, I’m sure there’s great new technology that’s coming out and we.
We have to let it play out and let it unravel.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. A peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: Well, I’d say the Berkshire Hathaway folks. Uh, I like what they asked, uh, Warren Buffett at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting, and they asked them, you know, if you had one entrepreneur from the past that you could sit down and have lunch with, who would it be?
And his answer was along the lines of, well, I’ve already met them because I’ve read all their books. Right. So it’s as if I already knew them. And that’s kind of how I feel about, you know, the Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. Uh, ’cause I’ve watched so many of their interviews. I’ve, uh, I’ve read Charlie Munger’s books, you know, the Psychology of Human Misjudgment.
Mm-hmm. Um, so it, it, it feels like, uh, I mean, that’s my North Star personally, that’s, those are the guys that I look up to.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: The great thing about Charlie Munger was not only that he was a wise guy, but he was funny. So it was like a double punch.
Andy Sartori of MealPro: That’s right. And, and the book says the wit and wisdom of Charlie Munger.
Charlie Munger’s Alamac. Yeah.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, yeah. He was, yeah, he was, um, um, very interesting guy. Very interesting guy. Final question, best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?
Andy Sartori of MealPro: You know, I would just focus on, um, just embracing the constraints. You know, every, there, there’s been so many times that I thought I needed money to build a business. I mean, oh, I don’t have a kitchen. Renting a kitchen is expensive. I bought a kitchen. I bought the whole building now, right? A, a few years on.
Um, but just having those constraints at the beginning really, really made me, um, just made me focus. I would say that was a blessing in disguise and there’s, there’s always a silver lining to these constraints in hindsight. So that’s, that’s just my 2 cents is, um, it’s just a silver lining that maybe you don’t know you’re gonna have yet.
But that’s, um, it’s been so consistent for me.
Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, I, I think, I think it’s very, very true. Constraints are, um, they just, I mean, if nothing, they, they allow you to think outside the box and, and think about different, uh, you know, solutions that you would not think if you had a bunch of money and you would, you know, you knew, you thought you knew the answer and you would just put, you’ll put the money in many times that that’s not the answer.
And, and I think that that happens quite frequently in corporations where they just throw money at things. Andy, thank you so much. Uh, those were all the questions that I had. Thank you so much for sharing your story, how you grew your philosophies, uh, which was very interesting and, and different from, I would say, uh, a lot of the entrepreneurs I’ve interviewed.
Uh, so thank you so much Again. If anybody wants to check out your products, what’s the best way to do that? It’s mealpro.com. Awesome. Well, Andy, thank you so much again, and I wish you all the very best. Yeah, thank you. Great talking.
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