Grow Your Family Business Into a Global Luxury Brand

0:00Hey friends, it's Benjamin Gottlieb. Guess what? Shopify Masters is now on YouTube. That's right. You can watch episodes with myself and Schwang directly on YouTube or in the YouTube app. Just search for Shopify. my masters. And as always, thanks for listening and watching, which you can now do on YouTube. Did I mention that? This is where you go for chocolate. Hey there, I'm Schweng Esther Shan, and welcome to Shopify on Location. Let me introduce you to the Willy Wonka of LA. I was going to be a lawyer, and I thought, what do I like better, making chocolate and making people happy, or like being a lawyer and having to argue for a living?

0:40Jonathan Graham loves chocolate. Compartee's Chocolatier is his company, and they make chocolates for some of the largest brands in the world, from Cartier to Instagram and Netflix. And of course, they have a huge loyal following. Marilyn Monroe used to shop at Compartee's, Frank Sinatra, the Kennedys. Jonathan is here today to chat about how he's redefining this 75-year-old company to preserve its legacy while staying ahead of the trends. Jonathan, welcome to the show. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Very excited to have you here to chat about all things chocolate. You actually started to work on this business, this family business, when you were 15 years old.

1:24Talk to us about how the business was like back then. Well, yeah, that's very interesting part about Compartes is we've actually been in business since 1950. Of course, I wasn't 15 years old then, so I'll get to that in a moment. But it's really an old school chocolate shop, just like you might have in every small town all across the country and even further than USA. What we've really done is create it and make it new and modernize it at the same time, but still keep all the old fashioned handcraftsmanship and values. That was what we started with back in 1950. So when I was 15, my family bought the business from Mr.

2:02and Mrs. Comparte, who were the original owners. And it was, again, like a boardwalk chocolate shop. We sold fudge and stuffed animals and gummy bears. And my dad sold anything he could put a price tag on. And I wanted to modernize it and make it a cool, hip, vibrant reflection of Los Angeles through chocolate. And just started to, you know, play around in the kitchen and go from there. Yeah. And I think there's a little bit of tension between that, right? Preserving the legacy, the story while modernizing. So how do you reconcile the two sides? That's really interesting, actually. So I think it's really important to keep tradition while still modernizing.

2:43I think you can have both. For me, with Compartes at least, you know, I didn't have any formal training of culinary training, business training. You know, I was going to UCLA at the time and I was going to be a lawyer. And I thought, what do I like better? Making chocolate and making people happy or like being a lawyer and having to argue for a living. So for me, I just kind of invested myself into creating this chocolate brand and creating a brand of things that I would like to shop and things that would appeal to me and to my generation while still keeping true to the customers that have supported our business for all those many years.

3:24Yeah, you've chosen the sweeter path in life. And I think a part of preserving the legacy is also incorporating the essence of Los Angeles into your creations. There's also this great Hollywood connection. Talk to us more about that. So I've grown up in Los Angeles. I'm a native Angeleno and I'm heavily influenced by LA. And you can see that reflected in all the different things from the brand, whether it's the ingredients that we use from sourced from farmer's markets. We have a donut and coffee chocolate bar, which is our bestseller that we go to. I go to my favorite donut shop that I've been going to since I was a kid.

4:02And we get dozens of fresh donuts and we break them up and we put them in the chocolate. And then you look at the aesthetic, the packaging. So I have a lot of things with palm trees on them. And it's really inspired by LA culture. And LA is such a melting pot of different cultures and different things. And I think you can see that translated into the packaging and the taste and really all things compartes. Mm-hmm. It's really taking inspiration from the city and also sourcing ingredients and really incorporating and representing the city. Absolutely. I mean, it's my backyard. And LA is a part of me just as much as LA is a part of my brand.

4:39And I think that's another interesting thing because you see a lot of brands that are very connected to a place, but there's not a lot of brands that are connected to LA. So for me, it was really important and staying true to myself was to really use that in the brand identity a lot. And again, just, you know, sort of being inspired by everything around me. And because we have such a great melting pot of different ingredients and flavors and restaurants and art and fashion, and all those things are incorporated with the chocolate being the canvas, but really the story that I'm telling is the story of LA.

5:15Mm-hmm. And I think sometimes people think about Hollywood and movies. I feel like there's also that connection as well. Yeah. We have a ton of celebrity clientele that, you know, have been loyal to Compartez for many years. And we do a lot of chocolate for movie premieres and, you know, all sorts of different TV shows and you name it, you know, being in LA, all sorts of events, because not only do we do our regular chocolates, but we do a lot of custom chocolate. But that Hollywood history that Marilyn Monroe used to shop at Compartez, Frank Sinatra, the Kennedys. And I use that as part of the DNA because I really like kind of art deco inspired things.

5:56So that's in the packaging a lot. We have a bar inspired by Marilyn Monroe. And there's not a lot of brands that get to say that Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley have bought their stuff. So I think that's a really cool and unique selling point of Compartez. And we've always been really attached to Hollywood just as Hollywood's attached to us. Incorporating an essence of Hollywood's legacy into your own legacy. And I love what you said about also staying true to the way that you've also made chocolate as well, because a lot of the times people think I need to modernize every single aspect. And you've actually said, Slow and steady wins the race.

6:40You still make things by hand. Why is that so important to you? You know, being that I took over Compartes when I was only 15 with no training and no background, I only inherited all the old-fashioned ways of making it, which is by hand with old-fashioned equipment, with humans, no conveyor belts, no robots. And it's worked. And for me, if something's not broken, why fix it? This is what I know. It's the time-tested, time-honored, traditional way of making chocolate. And really, I've leaned into that. So every single piece is still made by hand. And like our chocolate bars, for example, are different and more unique than I would say any other chocolate bars in the world because they have chunks of ingredients in them.

7:27And the reason we can have these big chunks in there is because most brands buy equipment that has the chocolate in a piping system and it shoots it into the mold. We're doing it all by hand. So the chunk would get stuck in the pipe and that would be it. For us, we do it by hand the old-fashioned way. It takes more time, but there's so much heart that goes into it, right? It's like cooking everything from scratch. When you go to your favorite restaurant, that's an artisanal, cool restaurant versus going to a mass market restaurant, a Pizza Hut or a McDonald's. There's a different way of doing things.

8:03And I think that that's really important. And that's something that I'm not willing to sacrifice or, you know, change. It's part of comparte. This sounds philosophical, but I feel like a home-cooked meal, you can taste the difference. There's intention and there's process. So I totally believe that. Yeah, even if it doesn't taste as good, sometimes I make my own meals sometimes and I'm like, I should have ordered out. But, you know, like a lot more love goes into it, right? And that is really part of it. Totally, totally. And another part is you, even though you're in this world of chocolate, you don't actually look at your competitors or look at any other chocolate makers.

8:46you actually take inspiration from other industries and look at fashion, for example. Why is that important? You know, for me, I don't want to ever be influenced by anything else going on in chocolate. I don't come from a chocolate background. I didn't learn how to make chocolate from going to a school. I'm sure there's, you know, chocolatiers. I'm not a master chocolatier, but maybe I am, like doing it the old-fashioned way. I taught myself. You know, I used Google as my reference a lot. I remember when I first started, we had these recipe cards from Mrs. Compartes, and I was making English toffee by hand from scratch with our old-fashioned copper candy kettle.

9:26And our English toffee is amazing. But it took me like 20 tries, and it kept going wrong. And I didn't understand what was going wrong, but I went to Google to find that out. I think that's the kind of modern day and age we're living in now where people can be self-taught. You can be an amazing cook from home. You can be an amazing business owner without going to business school. You can be a great designer without taking tons of classes on that. That's not to say that's a negative either. But I think there's different paths for different people to get to the same result. And for me, with chocolate, I look at that, again, as like the canvas.

10:03And the story I'm telling is a story of fashion. It's a story of food. It's a story of art. And chocolate is just kind of the means to get there. And that's also great because everyone loves chocolate. I say that all the time. It's like, no matter if you like dark milk or white, where you are in the world, what country you grew up in, what background, we all have chocolate that's a part of us as a culture. As a kid, we are given chocolate as a reward. It's always like it's at the grocery store aisle, right? Like we all have our own love and feeling about chocolate. So for me, it's an easy way to kind of get in and tell these different stories that I tell.

10:41Yeah, yeah. And I think it's important not to be sidetracked by looking at your competition or feeling a little intimidated by overanalyzing that aspect. How has fashion played a role in your inspiration and looking at different industries to incorporate those elements into your recipe development? Yeah. You know, for me, our chocolate bars have become really iconic because they're really colorful. There's patterns and prints all over them. I design different things and draw different things. There's one with my dogs on it. There's one with me on it. There's sketches, all sorts of things. And when I first came up with the chocolate bar packaging, I went to some of the places, Whole Foods and all these markets to see what was selling.

11:28And I wanted to make my chocolate different. I wanted to make it look like fashion, not like what everyone else had on the market. Because why do something if I'm going to do it like everyone else? I'm not giving the consumer a value add. I'm just doing what everyone else is doing. So I did and I created this crazy, amazing, vibrant packaging. And now our packaging was featured in the Smithsonian Museum, Cooper Hewitt, on a six-month exhibit on the world's best packaging. And I designed it just because that's kind of what I wanted to do with something different than what everyone else is doing.

12:03And now you see a lot of people putting designs on their packaging. But in the beginning with food, you would normally, if you want a salted caramel bar, you would have like caramel and salt pictured on it. You wouldn't have like crazy lips design that I have. So people eat with their eyes first. And for me, using fashion as an inspiration, it's something that everyone can relate to. And it also pops off the shelf next to other brands. And that's something that's uniquely compartes. And even though now other people are starting to do it, I still think I do it the best. And I'm the original. And it also keeps me on my toes.

12:45I'm constantly doing new stuff all the time because I see that competitors might be trying to do something similar. And that keeps me constantly innovating as well. You've got to keep on setting the trends. That's right. I love the fact that because you're influenced and inspired by fashion, you end up also working with some of the largest fashion houses from Hermes, Cartier, Fendi. Those relationships are coveted. Like, how do they even come about? Interestingly, I don't have any sales outreach at all. Zero. Because we are a small team. And most of the sales I do myself. So when it's a client of that caliber, and almost all corporate clients, it's me that's dealing directly with them.

13:34I actually love it. So having these fashion brands reach out to me and ask me to create chocolates for them is like a dream come true. So that also helps to propel me and push me forward. I'm thinking like, what's a great chocolate that's at the level of a Gucci or a Vecartier? Like I have to outdo myself even better when I'm working with these brands. And then that also pushes me in my own line to create even better, more beautiful, more luxurious chocolate. So I think it just kind of continues to propel that notion of Compartes being a luxury chocolate brand. So we talked a lot about legacy for Compartez and history.

14:16You actually have an interesting one with us at Shopify being one of the earliest merchants on the platform. How has your business and our platform changed over time? You know, it's really interesting because Compartez, we started off as a retail store back in 1950. And for almost 70 years or 70 years, we had stores. At the height of the pandemic or before the pandemic, we had four stores in LA. And then we closed all the stores and we've switched to e-com only. So Shopify and my Shopify store is now really my only store, my online store. So that's been a huge transition. And that's really been a big thing for my brand to have go from the brick and mortar to e-com.

15:01And not only that, but the brand has grown and really our sales have grown throughout that process. So going from retail, thinking through design of a store, the smell of the store, the displays of the store, how does that translate onto our Shopify side? Making sure we have beautiful, vivid imagery that captures the chocolate making, that captures the chocolate in a luxurious light because people can't go into our retail store anymore. So making that online shopping experience just as great for them, that they can do it from their power of their phones or their computers at their desks or whatever, has been a huge, huge, big thing for Compartes.

15:40And I'm glad that Shopify has been there along the way. I think what's beautiful about Compartes is you have all these intricate relationships, right, with your suppliers, with people you see at the farmer's markets, with these crazy, cool global brands. What is your advice for new business founders to establish good relationships and actually nurture them and develop them over the years? I think just what you're saying. I think relationships matter with vendors, with customers, with your team, with everyone. For me, you know, people say that part of Comparte's success is the fact that I'm running it.

16:20I put my heart and soul into it. And I develop those relationships with people and I really come through for people. I am loyal to people. I work with brands. And, you know, for example, I work with a very big airline. And when other airlines call me, I don't return the call because I'm committed to the one airline, even though they didn't tell me to do that. It's just kind of being ethical, I think, is really important and nurturing and really maintaining those relationships. You have your go-to people for stuff and those people really help you. And in turn, you have to help them. So I think that it's kind of a two-pronged approach.

17:02And as a business owner, I think the other thing to really think about is staying true to yourself. You know, for me with Compartes, I've just sort of stayed in my lane, which is my obsession with Compartes, which is making the world's best chocolate, which is creating a brand that's really special. And I constantly just focus on that on a daily basis. And I don't let the noise bother me or get to me or, you know, I don't tune in too much or read too much about what other people are doing. And I just stay true to myself. And I feel when you're true to yourself and you're putting something out there in the world that's different and special, in time, people will take notice of it.

17:45People think, oh, you know, again, it's like this trendy, cool brand. I've been doing it since I was 15. It's almost 25 years in this business. So it doesn't happen overnight. And I think when you love something and you're passionate about it, it shows. Yeah. And that's how you grow those relationships. And I think on the flip side of that, the relationships you build with your team is also the foundation of your growth as well. You've required hand making these chocolates. There's a sense of creativity, but also you need uniformity. So how do you build a team that is passionate just as you are about what you're doing and love to be helping you grow this brand as well?

18:30Yeah, that's a great question, actually. My team, a lot of them have been with me since the beginning. Wow. And as we've grown, I'm always growing slowly. I have so many people saying to me, you should do this or you should do that or buy this type of equipment. And again, I've refused to do that. I just want it to be done the same way as we've always done it by hand, just a little bit bigger at a time. But for me, seeing the team's joy and passion and pride, my team members, when they make a beautiful chocolate bar, they turn it around and they're showing it off to me and there's a smile on their face.

19:08There's a passion in it. It is like home cooking, like we've talked about. It's people that, you know, I guess my team is made of people that want to produce the world's best chocolate, just like I do, and that are passionate about their craft. It's the hand in it, right? It's like handmade ceramics or a great chef. There's a pride and there's a sense of accomplishment when you're creating something that's delicious and beautiful and that people are responding to. I think that response has probably been my biggest fire or energy in my business that consumers are picking up on what we're doing and like buying it, following it, you know, making a sellout of products.

19:53Like when I sell out of something, I'm like, oh my God, I have to do something better. I have to like do something else. And I think that that's really encouraging. You can see the impact that you have right away, like someone tasting it. And then you're like, I'm motivated to make even better chocolate. And especially on Shopify, because I have that cha-ching app on my phone. I don't know if, is there a name? I guess it's a Shopify app. It is. It is. Yeah. The sound when you make a sale. I mean, that's my favorite sound. It's music to my ears. But it's not because of the money. It's because of the idea that people are wanting what I've created.

20:31People are buying what I've created. People are interested in what I've created. Sure, it's great to make a living from what I'm doing. But for me, it's about more than that because it's so much of my own personality and my own passion that's gone into the product that it's rewarding to hear that sound that more and more people are, they want it. They're getting it to their houses, right? And then they're sharing it with their friends and family. Compartes means to share, actually in Spanish. Compartir, which is to share. And I love that idea that people are getting the chocolate and sharing it with other people.

21:07Yeah, love it. And I think the other aspect of the app, hopefully it also helps you with the business because chocolate is rather seasonal. It's kind of waving along the

21:22How do you adjust yourself to source, you know, a bigger team ingredients to make sure that you're ready for those holidays? Yeah. What's great about Comparty is since we make everything in one facility and then ship it from that same facility, we're very responsive to our Shopify app. So in the morning when I come in, I'm constantly looking at Shopify or, you know, we have several other people that work there besides me. And they're checking the Shopify, right? Like, what did we sell overnight? What do we need to make right now? A great example of this is I had Chrissy Teigen, who's a big fan of Compartez, and she's on Shopify.

21:59She came in and we did like a bunch of chocolate together and it was amazing. And she told me John Legend loves peanut butter cups. So I made her a box of peanut butter cups. She took it home to John Legend. I didn't know this would happen. And he's on Instagram like singing about Jonathan's peanut butter cups at Compartez. I go to sleep. I wake up. The next day there was 500 orders on Shopify for peanut butter cups. And like, I never sold that many peanut butter cup boxes in 20 years. Oh my goodness. So that was it. Like seeing that on Shopify and then boom, I went and told all the chocolate, you know, all the chocolatiers, everyone, it's time to make peanut butter cups.

22:37I don't care what you were doing before. Let's stop. Let's change it out. And let's, we have 500 orders for peanut butter cups. So that's what's so cool about the Shopify system as a general, not only the app, but I use the browser version that I'm constantly responding in real time to what people are doing. I check it at 12 o 'clock. I check it at two o 'clock. I mean, we have like certain time checks all day long. We're checking it because we also want to be the most efficient as possible. So when people are putting in their orders, it's my job to ship it out to them as soon as possible. Even though our website has a timeframe, I want people to have a good experience.

23:10So they put in the order on Shopify. I'm running around trying to make it. And yeah, I mean, Shopify like kind of rules our business. What a cool notification to receive in a morning. And I'm glad that you're able to adapt. And I also hope like it also helps to predict some of the seasonality as well to understand like how your year looks roughly. Yeah, I look at the analytics a lot. And I also going into the holiday seasons, I'll look at like what did I sell last time? So whether it's Easter or Mother's Day or, you know, obviously Christmas and holiday and Valentine's Day, it's important for me to take a look and see how many heart-shaped boxes did I sell last year on Shopify.

23:54And not only do I want to sell more, but it helps me to prepare to order enough empty boxes. So I actually base a lot of my business decisions on looking at that Shopify data. If people were to go online on Comparte's online store, they would have realized there's actually a wide array of products. You actually have over 300 different products. How do you organize yourself and make all of the different designs and different flavors make sense in your mind and online as well? That's a great question. You know, I don't know. I just do. I mean, it's like I just keep creating and I love it. And I'm constantly tinkering with the Shopify store.

24:39I'm constantly updating it, adding new imagery, adding new products. You know, we do all the photo shoots at my house or at the chocolate factory. Like, we're a very small but nimble team of, like, people that are passionate about the brand. But, yeah, our Shopify store is very robust. And people don't realize, again, they see the bars and they think that might be the only thing we do. but we do a plethora of chocolate stuff. And I always say, I want to be like the chocolate Amazon. Not like necessarily that it's cheap, but more like this is where you go for chocolate. Compartes is your go-to for chocolate.

25:16Whatever you're looking for chocolate, come to Compartes. And in that sense, I also don't diffuse myself and do a bunch of other things. I'm not a cookie company. I'm not a cupcake company. I'm a chocolate company. And when people say chocolate, I want them to think of compartes. Amazing. Well, I feel like you are the perfect person to ask this because I feel like you're never running out of ideas. And I do believe there's creativity input in order for you to have output. How do you get refreshed, inspired, and stay current and flowing of new ideas? You know, I love traveling whenever I can, which is not that much.

25:58But I do, last year I went to the Amalfi Coast. I was just recently in Paris. I go to Hawaii. You know, whenever I can, I travel. And just that traveling puts me into a different mind frame where I could sort of take the business hat off for a second and be more creative, be inspired by the things that are around me, by my surroundings, by nature, by flavors, by food. And it's also sort of experiencing things. It's like I might have a salad at a Thai restaurant that might have ingredients like mango and basil in it. And I'm picking them out going, oh my God, like a mango basil chocolate like would be amazing, right?