🥪 DAVID MCCORMICK // AYOH! CO-FOUNDER & CEO

12:50David McCormick:We are chopping to speck.

12:51Molly Baz:You're relishing the relish.

12:53David McCormick:We are finding a whole cornichon and making it a relish. Absolutely.

12:59Molly Baz:And how many different... Oh, sorry. Keep going. You were about to say something interesting.

13:03David McCormick:No, just two specks. So, you know, I think that that's just what I think some of the unique parts of what makes us more than just a flavored mayo are those textures, are those things that we really kind of, you know, Mali obsesses over in a Mali kind of way. And so we really hone in on not just a cornichon, but the one that Molly likes and the one that we want to chop up. So they're all been hand selected by her, which I think is really special.

13:29Molly Baz:I mean, cornichon hand selected by Molly. That sounds like about the most special thing on the planet.

13:35David McCormick:Totally. We should just we should probably just bottle that.

13:39Molly Baz:Yeah. Or you should probably buy the supplier at this point. It's going to be like you can corner the cornichon market.

13:46David McCormick:Totally.

13:46Molly Baz:OK, so you go through lots of work to set up, you know, like an ideal supply chain and then you go and change the brief on yourselves because you switched at some point to 100 percent avocado oil. And did you have to start? How much was that starting from scratch versus sort of like, you know, diverging? But how much reformulation does a change like that in one of the arguably like three key ingredients and, you know, it's substantial?

14:13David McCormick:I think a change like that is really big and not one that I think we take very lightly. But, you know, going back to where we started having to first make a mayo in the first place, we had to kind of like pick some oils that we liked and kind of, you know, fit the flavor profile Molly had in her mind's eye for AO. And we landed on, you know, a few that we really liked. And, you know, we went with high-elastic sunflower oil from the start, which had a really reliable, local, great supply chain. And I think something that's important for us at AO is we're not really, we're not big on like villainizing food in general.

14:54David McCormick:Like we love all kinds of food. It nourishes our bodies. It creates these great experiences. So we really let that guide the initial launch of the brand. But Molly is continually trying to tweak and understand what makes the product the best it could be and kept experimenting beyond just when we commercialized and launched at the end of 2024 and kept coming back to avocado oil as an option. And we were getting consumer requests for it, too. So it just seemed like, you know, hey, you know, this seems like it's making the best product that Molly really likes. We're seeing some pent up demand for this ingredient profile.

15:39David McCormick:Let's make the switch because we're, you know, we're always kind of letting that best product, best Sandoz sauce we can make guide our decisions.

15:47Molly Baz:And how does setting up sort of like the command side of the supply chain interface with that, right? Like you've got the ingredients set. You've got a formula that at least at small scale works. You start looking for someone who's going to help you go from literally zero to one. I have to assume that because of who you two are, it's easier to open doors. You're not only well-known but also well-capitalized. But still, like a command's got to go from zero to one with you. Was it hard to find someone that would work with you at your stage? Was it not hard because of who you are? Can we be more like you?

16:23David McCormick:You know, and I think co-manufacturers, big and small, they have a tough job of trying to like really understand their job is to sell capacity, right? Like they are there to fill line time and maximize that as much as possible. And so I think a lot goes into making those decisions for a co-man beyond just like, can we make it? It's, you know, do we have the capacity to grow with this company? Will they be here in two or three years? There's so much that goes into that. And so I think knowing those those parts of the business that matter to them to them are an important part of like how you start those conversations beyond just like, hey, we have Molly.

17:05David McCormick:This is going to be great. That sounds good. You know, 90 days before launch. But, you know, it's not until you actually make it and start selling it that you can really start to prove that out. But luckily, we've had some great manufacturing partners to help us kind of grow and scale. and it's not easy. And it's a function of them finding what works for them and us finding what works for them too. I think one example of that is minimum order quantities. Like they were very big for a brand of our size to be working with the co-man we were. And I remember pretty much wiping out the balance sheet pre-launch.

17:51David McCormick:just like, okay, well, we have to hit, this is our co-man. These are their MOQs. We're going to have to just roll the dice. So I like literally wiped the bound sheet out, put up the inventory, and then we sold it out in two weeks. Then we could start to say, okay, great. This is making sense for us as a business, but it's picking a co-man is not easy work. And I think sometimes their job is underappreciated and what they need to from a partner is somewhat lost. You know, a good mentor of mine shared with me early days that you've got to really think about what matters to them, not just like what they can do for you.

18:36David McCormick:And that's how we approach all of our supply chain partners is really shared faith.

18:41Molly Baz:I love that. And I agree. It's so it's just it's not necessarily that it's underappreciated. It's almost just like overlooked, sometimes out of malice, but sometimes just like, like understanding the complexity that's really happening under the hood makes you such a more empathetic customer of what is, you know, a really long and arduous process for these co-mans to like get their job done. I mean, they're, they're like, they're managing their suppliers, they're managing employees on the floor, you know, they're, they got to pay rent. Yes. And I think if you can kind of key into just a truly like an empathetic appreciation of that sort of thing and enjoy the journey of understanding how they get their jobs done, then you'll be a way better partner to, you know, to each other.

19:32David McCormick:Yeah, I think it was really telling for Molly when we could because she came along for that entire process, every trial. I mean, getting up at five in the morning for the first shift and being there on the floor. And I remember her saying, like, I don't even really understand how groceries are as affordable as they are. Look at all the people around here touching and moving the product and making it and shifting it around. I think it provides a really good lens to kind of like perceive food prices and understand kind of the world that is CPG. And building on that a little bit, too, I feel like what's hard about running a CPG company is it's you're kind of mashing up multiple business models against your own to make it work.

20:20David McCormick:whether it's manufacturing, distribution, venture capital, you know, banks. There's just so much that goes into it. And you have to find something within your own organization that works with each of those types of business models and get them thriving in a sense. So your business can kind of succeed. And that to me always kind of baffles me in terms of like, I don't know how we make it work for retailers, for distributors, for venture capital. But we try to have an eye towards all those important stakeholders and what their needs are for sure.

20:56Molly Baz:Yeah. Yeah. And then you got to figure out, you know, like what's going to make the customer get up out of their seat and do something, too. It's like a whole other little act.

21:06David McCormick:And all of that, I left the customer out. Yeah. The most important stakeholder.

21:10Molly Baz:It's OK. Our power is combined.

21:12David McCormick:Totally.

21:12Molly Baz:Let's talk about customers for a sec. One of the things, and I have a little customer anecdote about AO, actually. I love the brand voice for all of the reasons that I'm sure customers are just responding, you know, so enthusiastically to it and viscerally to it too, I think. kidding. So, so my story is I was at, I was at winter fancy, which is a, for people who don't know big CPG trade show. I'm pretty sure it was like early 2025. It might've been right around the launch. It was like this tiny little booth in the, in the back. And I just stopped in my tracks. I mean, it was my job to sort of look at, you know, I'm, I'm selling software.

21:50Molly Baz:I'm like, I do need supply chain help. And, uh, and then also looking for opportunities to invest, uh, because I want to help brands that need help. And the AO booth and the two young folks who were working there, who I'm sure you know, were probably hired. They were so friendly. And the product just stopped me in my tracks. The presentation, and it was a tiny booth, but I could tell from, which is exactly what you want, you know, from like just the shelf presentation, 20 feet away that like it looked really cool and it was talking to me and it was new and different than everything else that I was seeing in that part of the trade show that year that day uh so as a compliment to what a fantastic job has been done in the packaging and shelf presentation um you know I'm obviously fangirling over it um but clearly you've found a way to tap into something that even the most, you know, oversaturated customer at a trade show, like, you know, where everyone's vying for attention, maybe even more than in a grocery store, you know, is competing for.

23:05Molly Baz:And tell me a little bit about the journey to find that brand voice and identity, how that has resolved, maybe parts of it that you experimented with that are like, you know, you decided didn't work and tossed out anything fun and interesting that you can kind of like peel back the curtain on for packaging and the branding journey. Cards on the table. Your tech stack is held together with duct tape and prayers. If you're a brand founder or COO juggling Shopify, your 3PL portal, three different inventory trackers, and yes, that one crucial Google sheet, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Orders get lost, inventory counts are fiction and your seamless integrations break every other Tuesday.

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24:19David McCormick:Yeah, I love that. And I appreciate you kind of acknowledging kind of all the love and energy that was poured into thinking about the brand and having it actually kind of show up because, gosh, we were I think we found out about Fancy Food. And Molly keynote was a keynote speaker at that, that winter fancy. And I think we had like 14 days to pull the booth together. So it was a mad dash to kind of make sure we were ready and a really great show. It was like the first time we really got to get a lot of feedback on the brand. We have an unfair advantage as it comes to like brand and visuals because we have Molly.

25:05David McCormick:And so I think that's like where we complement each other so nicely. I'm like very in the weeds on cornichons and co-manufacturers and scale up and operations and finance. And then she counterbalances that with like the product and the brand. And, you know, you need that kind of synergistic co-founder relationship to be successful. I think like bar none, you can't do it alone. You need to have some type of yin to your yang as a co-founder. And so with Molly, you know, we were lucky. We found a really incredible creative agency in Brooklyn that were just big fans of Molly's work in general. And so it helped to know that the creative agency had an eye towards what made Molly's work really special.

25:59David McCormick:Molly had a seat at the table. And then I got to bring, you know, close to 20 years of CPG experience to that conversation. So, you know, all three of those things kind of came together in a way that I feel like did a really nice job of standing on its own, being AO and having enough of a nod to Molly in a way that like sounds easy to pull off. But it takes a lot of talent and kind of drive to bring home, you know?

26:27Molly Baz:Yeah, because I think that the fallback might just to be using Molly too much almost. Like, because I just saw the rad packaging and the cool colors and the flavors. And I, as a mayo aficionado, of course, was like, yes, I am interested. But I didn't realize until I maybe until I like picked up a bottle and turned it to the backside. And then I was like, then it all fell together. Like, oh, of course it has its shit together. You know, there's like clearly there's horsepower here. But I so appreciate the care and thoughtfulness with which you guys have approached creating a celebrity-backed brand without, like, over-utilizing it almost or making it like a trope.

27:17Molly Baz:It's just really well done. It lets the product be the product. And then clearly there's, like, thoughtful co-founders behind it and, you know, and a flavor powerhouse behind it. But it's not, you know, you're buying great food at the end of the day, or at least that's what I was experiencing. And I hope that's what you want. Oh, my gosh.

27:34David McCormick:It's so great to hear you say that. But I think that that really, truly is, you know, we talked about sandwiches. But, you know, so much of CPG last five, 10 years has been a lot about what food isn't versus what food is. It's like the absence of things. Right. And so when we thought about AO, we're really very focused on what food is, the product, like letting it kind of shine for itself. And that was a big guiding light in terms of how we thought about the product, how we think about the brand. And I like to say like AO's Molly's best friend, not necessarily Molly. And that's like really how we make brand choices.

28:17David McCormick:So it feels close and somewhat something that we could recognize, but also unique and can stand on its own as its own brand and individuality.

28:27Molly Baz:Well, it's just a really job really well done. And congrats to the creative agency, too. We'll have to put them in the show notes and send some more people that way. How hard was it to get this brand onto a retail shelf? The pull to retail has been better than we expected.

28:48David McCormick:We launched online at the end of 2024, just to even kind of get a sense of market fit. Do people like the product? Are we telling the right story? And we were delighted by that. I mean, we've had like, I think over 50 ,000 customers buy online, which is kind of a crazy number when you think about it. folks who are willing to buy mayo from a Shopify site. But the pool into retail was great. I mean, we launched with Whole Foods Market in the summer of 2025. They were our first real national retailer. Alongside that, we were able to work with like really great independent grocers and key markets.

29:31David McCormick:You know, Foxtrot was the first to put us on their shelves. Little shoppy shops that pull from fair. And so we were able to kind of stand up a really nice kind of physical retail presence in like all the right places where we wanted to be at launch. And so far, so good. I think, you know, as a as a CPG company, as you know, as a food and beverage company, retail grocery is kind of where the magic happens. And so it's a really important part of like being omni-channel and thinking about how we grow. So getting that first initial distribution and being able to build on that since then has been really great.

30:15Molly Baz:Are there things that you thought would work really well or be received by the customer in a certain way where you kind of had to, you know, pivot on the fly as you went? I'm asking very broadly. So it could be a flavor profile. It It could be, you know, some some part of the packaging formulation, clearly like ingredient formulations, you know, or ingredient mixes is something that you guys chose to pivot on. Was there anything else where you're like, huh, I thought people would hate cornichons, but it turns out they don't. We're picking on cornichons today.

30:50David McCormick:We're really happy with like velocities and movement. That's all really great. But I think that we underappreciated how fast Molly and I go through mayo versus like maybe others. So like when we launched, we launched with like a five pack and we're like, great, that should last like, what, five weeks? But five pounds of mayo, that lasts a little bit longer for folks. So that was kind of a little bit of a surprise. And last year when we were we were doing a Costco roadshow in Culver City. And there are a lot of folks who really take stock around how much mayo they currently have, which, again, just kind of like didn't really appreciate.

31:33David McCormick:But it'd be like, have mayo already. I can't really add more mayo to the mix yet. And we're like, why not? The more the more mayo, the more merrier. Right. Just like continue to layer that on. So that's been an interesting learning for us. And so we launched like a build your own, you know, on our website and a few other things to kind of like adjust to that need so folks can kind of choose their own adventure. But yeah, people go through it quickly, but some folks don't go through as much mayo as Molly. And we had to learn that like a new CPG brand.

32:09Molly Baz:Fair. I feel like that's maybe the founder's dilemma is like your true obsession with the problem is the thing that brings you to the table about it in the first place and gives you this startup bug. But then you're like, wait, everybody should be as obsessed with this as I am, right?

32:26David McCormick:I go through like two dull pickle bottles a week. How is that lasting longer than that? It doesn't last that much longer than that, but folks aren't maybe going through two bottles a week yet.

32:38Molly Baz:Fair. You're setting the bar for mayo consumption. Actually, you're sort of like making the average drift toward David. Are there new products that you can tease? Are you super mayo focused right now and there's nothing else we're going to talk about? Are there ways that you're thinking of bringing these particular flavor profiles to the customer in like slightly different formats? I know you teased some stuff maybe at the beginning.

33:07David McCormick:Yeah, I think, you know, we have permission to kind of solve kitchen problems with Molly at the table. And so that's, I think, as we think about new product innovation, we care a lot about the sandwich experience that'll guide a lot of kind of innovation that we have in the works right now. So alongside just like, how do we get people making food in their kitchens and feeling like they have the tools to do that successfully? That's a big kind of motivator for Molly. So I think that's really I think many, many brands approach this problem the wrong way, which is like, what category can we disrupt next?

33:46David McCormick:And like, that's not a real customer problem. We like to start with the customer problem first. And for Molly, that's getting people more comfortable in the kitchen. So there's a lot of places that I think AO can go. But we're really focused on becoming kind of a household name in condiments. And we like our little nook that we've carved out for ourselves in Mayo today.

34:08Molly Baz:You've already taken the M out of Mayo, but now you might take the AO out of Mayo.

34:15David McCormick:Yeah, right. We'll have to find another letter to drop.

34:19Molly Baz:Another letter to drop. Um, okay. Flash question. What's the most popular AO flavor? Is it like, I have a favorite, but is there one that like is winning the hearts and minds of America and beyond?

34:33David McCormick:It's a pretty even split. I think, you know, we definitely see dill pickle being a front runner. It seems to be kind of the most popular across different use cases because we started with sandwiches. But like I said, it's really great for like protein upgrades or bowls or other things. And so as a marinade, so we're finding folks are using it for a lot more than just sandwiches. But dill pickle, hot giardineo is another really popular one. But we find that it's pretty evenly split. And anecdotally, like we hear from folks that are like, oh, I really like dill pickle, but my partner really likes the hot.

35:14David McCormick:And so like folks are being able to kind of have a couple of these in their fridge and be able to kind of choose the flavor for the moment, which was like a key factor for like why we didn't just like launch just one flavor. We wanted folks to be able to kind of make different sandwiches and have different flavor experiences. And that's why we went out with the four flavors in the first place.

35:35Molly Baz:And how does original stack up on that? Or like, do people still go with the other blue bottle for original? Or do you find that like something about your particular emulsification and like flavor profile absent the special fun ingredients is like also a winning formula?

35:52David McCormick:Original holds its own and we've actually done really well in like some consumer taste studies and got some some awards on original as well. And so that's been a really nice surprise to us. And so I think folks do like the original mayo that we make. It has a nice creamy texture and a little punch of acid there that is a nice surprise. But definitely find that the flavor profiles are the most popular out of all of them. But original definitely has its place and is not going anywhere. It's definitely doing really well.

36:32Molly Baz:It's the only one I haven't tried. So an interesting fact for me to reveal to you. I will go to the store and I will I will I will try it. I like apparently many others had some plain mayo in my fridge. But what I did not have was Del Pico mayo and I really needed it.

36:51David McCormick:We're kind of OK with that. We feel like, you know, our job in the category is incrementality. We're not there to like take share away from other classic mayos that folks probably like. And so I think that's why the pool to retail has been so successful, because still going to sell lots of classic plain mayo that people have been buying for decades and, you know, throw AO into the mix. And that's like true category growth and something that we're proud to be kind of leading the charge on.

37:25Molly Baz:So you have we haven't talked much about your background, but it's incredible. And on the sliding scale of things that you've done from like that was easy to, oh, dear Lord, where is this? Is this hard? Is it easy and fun? Is it like just mostly about the joy of the learning curve? Because now you have a Ph.D. in Aeolies.

37:49David McCormick:A PhD in AOLs. Oh, dear Lord. Absolutely. And that's what I wanted. I mean, I feel very grateful for the CPG career I've had. I've been on the retail side with Whole Foods and brand side and working in a growth equity firm. And so and being able to kind of experience CPG from so many different angles and points of view. I really wanted this, you know, this experience I'm gaining today. And it's, oh, dear Lord, every day. But it feels so rewarding. And, you know, we're building our team and we're still young and very scrappy. But it's very rewarding to see kind of how we support that ecosystem as we're supporting young families and people on our team who are growing and developing their careers.

38:41David McCormick:And so very rewarding in that sense.

38:43Molly Baz:I don't know how much professional training you've had in mayo making at this point. But what I do know is that you started you went to design school. How did you become like a supply chain, like Maven? asking for a friend.

39:02David McCormick:Yeah, totally. I started working for Whole Foods just after the Wild Oats acquisition. I actually started at a Wild Oats while putting myself through art school. And so it was like many folks in that Whole Foods universe who just fell in love with the company and what they were doing. And like, really, I think something that made Whole Foods really special and still today is they really support that entrepreneurial spirit and it just took off for me there. And so ended up not continuing to pursue that art school degree and fell in and eventually fell into a marketing track and then ended up being director of grocery in one of the regions there.

39:47David McCormick:And so it's a wild adventure. And even through retail into growth equity, like I never thought I'd see myself there either. And so it's just none of us know that path we're on until we're on it, you know, but it's created a really unique POV in terms of CPG. And that I'm really grateful for because I've seen a few different sides of it.

40:14Molly Baz:Is there something, And we talked about a little earlier, the surprise of seeing how food supply chain comes together and just how shocking it is that we can. Eat the food that we eat at the level of affordability that it's at. I mean, it really is just the fact that a loaf of bread arrives pre-sliced in a bag and in like, you know, lucky enough to live where we live in a lot of quantity. Yeah. You know, and it's still like three bucks is just incredible. What should everybody know about grocery that you don't think that most people know?

40:51David McCormick:Folks that there are people who do grueling work. And for many, it might be a second job to, you know, show up for a second or third shift, work somewhere else in the morning, come to this plant where you're making your food and, you know, work till one, two, three in the morning to like work a second job to make ends meet and make your product is the thing that I like to come back to most in terms of. And I think needs to be something that we have awareness of when we go to manufacturing sites. You know, I think oftentimes those folks might be a bit overlooked that are just standing at a line, moving a box for eight, 10, 12 hours a day.

41:38David McCormick:And their job is so important. And it's not the only job that they have typically. And so it's really important to have like honor that and be gracious for their efforts and and what they do to bring manufacturing together. It's not a it's not as desirable of a job as some other jobs may be. And it's often underappreciated. So we always try to approach that with a lot of love and and grace for what they do, because I think it's not easy.

42:12Molly Baz:Well, let me ask this question further to that. Is there something to be done about that? Like, what can we do as a society?

42:21David McCormick:Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I don't know. I think that's something we should all be working on and thinking about. And there's a lot that goes into that. But I think, you know, first step is, you know, appreciating and supporting the brands that you that align that mission align with your values. and trying to support local supply chains, local purveyors, obviously are great places to start. Associate yourself with making food and where your food comes from. Those are good starting points for folks on the journey. There's much larger socioeconomic things that need to be factored into solving that thing, that problem on the whole, but we should all have an eye towards it for sure.

43:07David McCormick:access, you know, things of that nature, I think, real important.

43:14Molly Baz:Here's a question that's somewhat related to that and maybe slightly less heavy, I'll acknowledge. Is there a way, say I want to start a, you know, a CPG company, how do I go meet a co-man? How do I get into this doorway for the first time so that I can see, as you're saying, the people that are working the floor and like how it all comes together? Is there, I don't know, like a particular type of co-man that'd be the first one who would be willing to like let you see under the hood? Or how much do you have to have like a resolved product idea in order to like empathetically educate yourself with what is actually going on?

43:53Molly Baz:And I say all this kind of acknowledging that, you know, so I've managed a very different supply chain in like hard goods production across a bunch of different categories. But but maybe most obviously like silicone, you know, cookware. And I got smart on it at first by like dumping silicone into like little molds in my kitchen. Like you're saying, you know, and then I was watching YouTube videos and then I was like, I think I should probably go fly somewhere. And everything changed after that. You know, just everything. I had such a different experience, but it was not obvious, like how to break into it.

44:30Molly Baz:You know what I mean? That's part of my mission is just to make all of this stuff a little less mysterious and a little bit more like democratic and open. Like, go call a factory and ask if you can visit. Is it just as easy as that with a co-man?

44:42David McCormick:Not always. And, you know, I think that there are like trade shows where, you know, whether they're manufacturing equipment oriented or manufacturing oriented, that might be good places to start or associations. You know, there are, you know, dressing and condiment associations that you might be able to join that can create or like even you mentioned fancy food. The Specialty Food Association is a great resource in terms of like understanding where to go next. And yeah, that like first conversation with a co-man can be pretty, pretty important in terms of like cementing your destiny with them.

45:28David McCormick:And I think the best thing, best advice I could give anyone would be to be mindful of time, understand what they need to be able to evaluate if you're a good fit or not. And so sometimes they want to develop with you and they have in-house R &D and that's a product and service you can participate in. or they're here to just make your product and you kind of need to come ready to go. Your job is to understand pretty quickly which of those two paths am I on in that conversation. Because the folks that just want to make your product, they need a spec. They need manufacturing instructions. They need to just run and go and aren't going to have a whole lot of time to slow down and educate.

46:15David McCormick:whereas other folks may want to monetize that and maybe a service you might need but there's it's very it's much more an art than it is a science in terms of trying to figure out what your partners need and how you can be of facilitate that for them fill that capacity and

46:32Molly Baz:help them succeed you know and at the end of the day if you end up working with folks on the manufacturing side where you'd be willing to like go sit and eat the dinner that you coach with them Like that's so much of it just comes down to that. Like for, you know, for all of the technical capabilities and all of the scaling capabilities. Like, do you want to spend a lot of time together? Because you're gonna.

46:56David McCormick:Oh, yeah. You're going to spend some time and you're going to be, it's loud and usually like not the most uncomfortable and pretty remote areas, usually manufacturing too. So there's not a lot of dinner options always. So, you know.

47:11Molly Baz:You will be eating with them. And maybe at their house.

47:14David McCormick:Totally. That's the beauty of it, I think, for sure.

47:17Molly Baz:This has been so wonderful. I could talk to you all day. Last couple of questions. Any parting pieces of advice that you would want to share with potential founders kind of, you know, kicking it with their own little idea and trying to figure out if they're going to make a leap?

47:33David McCormick:Find your counterbalance. You know, mine is Molly. And I was very lucky to meet and come across and get to know Molly and find someone who compliments what I bring at the table so well. But I think one of the things that makes AO so powerful is just that like really nice polarity between what Molly brings to the table and what I can bring to the table and where those things kind of overlap and create the best kind of tension for the company. And so if you're thinking about starting a business and have somebody to go through that with, because that is an important part of just making the business tick, but also just like keeping your head up during the tough times.

48:23David McCormick:That would be my that would be the advice I'd give. Find your counterbalance.

48:27Molly Baz:Well, it sounds like you both are really fun to work with. So I'm super glad that you found each other and we all get to benefit from better sandwiches as a result. Thanks for building what you're building. It's a very fun brand to be a customer of.

48:42David McCormick:Oh, my gosh. Thanks for letting us just come and talk ops, supply chain, and brand. I think that's a fun time for us, too. So we're grateful you had us on.

48:51Molly Baz:Awesome. Appreciate it. Last little question. Where can listeners find AO? And also, where can they find you if they want more of David?

48:59David McCormick:AO's nationwide. We're in Whole Foods, Target, Sprouts. so Costco here in the coming months as well. So that's where you can find AO and you can always find me on LinkedIn. That's probably the fastest and easiest way to connect and love to meet early founders and try to support wherever I can. So definitely hit me up there.

49:26Molly Baz:Awesome. Thanks, David. It's been great. Talk to you again soon. Thank you.

49:29David McCormick:All right.

49:29Molly Baz:Bye. That was awesome.

49:32David McCormick:Yeah, thanks.

49:33Molly Baz:Appreciate you. was fun yeah yeah great fun uh where are you guys uh are you trade showing anytime soon

49:39David McCormick:we we did what you can do sprouts con is coming up uh that's the next uh trade show we have and then we'll probably do expo west uh in the in the spring of next year um and then we'll we're kind the TBD on the rest. We like to trade show where we can, but also spread resources pretty thin. So we try to find those pocketed opportunities throughout the year.

50:08Molly Baz:Yeah. You got to make it count, you know?

50:10David McCormick:Yeah. But I loved hearing your fancy food experience. I think that that's so great.

50:16Molly Baz:I was on this little like investor panel with Andrea from Snackshot and I, and one other guy we're on like a little investor panel so we were not keynoting but we were I walked the whole floor in a day because that's all I got there in the morning and left at night it was wild and man it was a good show that year though it was fun

50:44David McCormick:yes it's a great time yeah

50:47Molly Baz:alright well I'll see you at Expo I live near LA so if you guys are at Expo I'm sure I'll be there because it's just in my backyard and I have no excuse not to go.

50:56David McCormick:Yes. How do I get your address? Because we can send you some fresh products so you can try the plain mayo. I do need to try the plain. As a mayo lover, you got to try at least the original.

51:05Molly Baz:This is true. But, well, what I always say is that friends pay full price. So I am happy to just buy it, be a customer. I'm very grateful. But likewise, if you need some spatulas for the mixing in your lab. Oh, my gosh.

51:22David McCormick:Yes. My multiple labs, I have a lab in my laundry room that has like a microscope and a centrifuge. That's how into mayo we are these days.

51:33Molly Baz:I mean, maybe the shaking of the laundry machine is enough. The very first mayo just could have been that, you know, just like some lady with a little oil with an egg.

51:43David McCormick:Throwing it in there, let it spin, hit the spin cycle.

51:46Molly Baz:So good. I remember when I was in spatula making land full time and like I wanted our spatulas to be used out of silicone that could be autoclaved because like I really just wanted the scientific community to have some respect for me. And I was like, you know, if I can autoclave it and like I can put these things in labs as much as I like cooking, I'm just like a big dork.

52:10David McCormick:Oh, my gosh. I love that. How did you fall into spatulas in the first place?

52:14Molly Baz:I just was solving my own. problem and my own little obsession. I had, um, my mom gave me this, I actually probably stole it from her when I went to college, this like William Sonoma spatula. And it came apart one day when I was mixing something thick and I'm a little bit of a, not a little bit, I'm a lot of a neat neck. And so I had dishwashed it because I just couldn't tolerate not dishwashing it. And so like the wooden handle was kind of bent, but then when it fell apart, I looked inside and I was like, holy smokes, like I've been dishwashing this thing. It's disgusting inside and now it's been in my food.

52:44Molly Baz:And oh, yeah, that was the that was the, you know, my hair on fire problem. And then I just started to experiment with silicone and I bought silicone off the Internet and made a mold out of Sculpey and then, you know, made a reverse mold. And one thing led to another.

53:00David McCormick:You were you were destined for it in a way. I was destined for it. You don't start molding spatulas unless you were made for it.

53:07Molly Baz:Fair. It's getting on my tooth. You know what I mean?

53:11David McCormick:Like you were, that was supposed to happen. Otherwise you wouldn't necessarily go there.

53:16Molly Baz:Yeah. There was a point in my early career where I felt like a little lost lamb. I had gone, I was an English major, but I had failed out of like pre-med and physics and a bunch of other things that, you know, I just ended up really enjoying English actually. So it doesn't have to be a fail story. But like I graduate with this English major and I'm like all I really want to do is branding and tech and like those but I have no I have no qualifications now like how do I get back in and you know five years later I'm like I have a brand of my own and 15 years later I have a tech company so I guess I got what I wanted

53:49David McCormick:no yeah totally that's like the art school thing for me yeah there you go but you said you didn't

53:56Molly Baz:graduate you seem very erudite though I uh I was doing a little bit of schooling a couple years

54:03David McCormick:ago but i one day maybe i'll finish uh we'll see no i think that the school of the world is you're a professor now you don't need to you've graduated i love school though that's like my problem i i it's not that i don't enjoy it um we just have finite time in the day you know hey you have

54:22Molly Baz:stuff to do you have stuff to do all right this is cool man uh i'm excited to meet you in person at some point soon um and uh thanks again for sharing your time and expertise i know there's a lot of up and coming founders that are going to appreciate it. Great.

54:35David McCormick:It was fun to be here. So thanks so much.

54:37Molly Baz:All right. Talk to you soon.

54:39David McCormick:Bye.

54:39Molly Baz:Thanks for joining us for another episode of Commerce's Chaos. If you're listening, I have a feeling you know just how much good at leaving a five star review can do for a team. Drop us a review on Apple Podcasts and subscribe to Commerce's Chaos wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe to our sub stack, also called Commerce's Chaos, for more good stuff and actionable tools to build your business.