724 Danny O’Malley: Founder & President of Before the Butcher

0:00Kara Goldin:I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Kara Golden Show.

0:45Kara Goldin:Today's guest is someone who's helping reshape the way we think about food, specifically how we can eat better, more sustainably and still love every bite. And the product is called, ready for it? Before the Butcher. And I am so excited to meet Danny O'Malley. The plant-based meat company is awesome. The products are awesome. And they are meat alternatives, but kind of a different focus than maybe some of the others that are out there. So we'll get into that. But Danny took his deep experience in the food industry over 25 years, including being at another plant-based meat company and launched before the butcher in 2017.

1:35Kara Goldin:And since then, the company has rolled out a full line of plant-based proteins from burgers and chicken to pulled pork and sausage, winning multiple awards. And he's also the mind behind mainstream by before the butcher, the first plant-based meat product price to compete directly with traditional meat. So much going on for him. And I can't wait to talk about the founder story, the evolution of the plant-based movement and what it really takes to build and scale an incredible company like Before the Butcher. So welcome. Welcome, Danny. How are you? I am doing good and I am so happy to be on the show with you and I'll tell you about my journey.

2:23You shoot the questions out and I'll answer them.

2:26Kara Goldin:I love it. Well, I love Before the Butcher. So you have done an awesome job of creating incredible, incredible products. So let's start with the founding story. What sparked the idea for you to actually go and create before the butcher. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by IDOU. Feeling like AI is passing you by, like everyone else is sprinting ahead with tools you haven't quite wrapped your head around yet? You're not the only one. But here's the truth. You don't need to master everything, just what actually matters. IDOU's AI and design thinking programs are built for leaders who want to stay sharp, move fast, and keep people at the center of it all.

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3:58Kara Goldin:For a limited time, IDOU is offering listeners of The Kara Golden Show 15 % off site-wide. Go to idou.com slash karagolden. That's idou.com slash karagolden for 15 % off. idou.com slash karagolden. This message is a paid partnership with AT &T Business. Hey everyone, Kara here. Let's get real about those early days of building a business. Not the highlight reel, the actual day-to-day, the friction, trying to manage everything across time zones, across teams, across locations, and realizing how much depends on staying connected. I remember those days at Hint, a retailer call, an order, a decision, all of it.

4:52Kara Goldin:And you realize quickly, connection isn't a nice to have. It's the lifeblood of your business. As a founder, you don't want to think about your connectivity. You just need it to work every time. That's why AT &T Business matters. AT &T Business is the reliable provider for small business owners. And when you have that kind of reliability behind you, you can focus on what actually moves your business forward. Powered by AT &T Business, built to work. Get AT &T Business at business.att.com. Well, I'm going to take you back about 10 years now, almost 11 years now. And I was in a corporate job at a large food service distributor.

5:44And I was doing well there, But I just it wasn't me, if that makes sense. I really needed something that defined who I was and what I wanted to be. And I didn't really know what that was. I mean, we all live in a gray zone. Right. And we have to find out what our black and white is. We have to discover and make decisions that will change our life. And hopefully it changes our life in the right way. So I was sitting in my office one day and I set an appointment with the top salesman for Beyond Meat. And he came in, talked to me. This was in Southern California. And he said, hey, Danny, I'm struggling here.

6:26You know, we've got a product that should do really well in Southern California. But, you know, we don't seem to be doing as well as we thought we would be. And keep in mind, this is very early in the game. This is almost 11 years ago and people didn't really know who Beyond Meat was. way before the Beyond Burger and Impossible came out with their burger. And so we sat down and we talked and I had heard of the company, but I didn't know much about it. And we started talking and we kind of hit it off. And after, you know, a short while I said, Hey, I'll do what I can to help elevate the product and get it in front of our sales team so we can sell some more with you.

7:02And on the way out, he said, Hey, one other thing I'm, you know, we're looking for, you know, somebody to help me with sales, it's just me. And I'm on the East Coast. We want somebody on the West Coast. We'll kind of meet in the middle, but we got to, you know, we're looking to grow this brand and we're looking for somebody to help us do that. And so I said, okay, I'll think about who, you know, I know that might be able to help you there. And he walked out the door and I sat there for a few minutes and I thought to myself, I know who that guy is. That's me, right? And And so I called him back a couple hours later and I said, hey, look, I think I've got the perfect guy.

7:43In fact, I know I have the perfect guy. And he says, well, who is it? And I said, it's me. He says, I didn't want to say anything to you because you're in an executive position here at this company. And, you know, it's a very different position, but I thought you would be perfect, too. And so I got in front of the founders of the company and within a week I was hired. And within a couple of weeks I was working for a startup, you know. and you know, it was a huge risk. I mean, it took a pay cut. I went to a place that was, most people didn't know who they were, but it fit within my lifestyle and it fit within what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go.

8:21I didn't know at that time that I was going to start my own company. I just knew that this was something exciting. It's something that I, you know, fit well within my lifestyle and who I was as a person. And I went for it. Uh, and then it didn't take, take long before I realized that this really was an opportunity that, that this industry was going to break open soon and, and that there was a lot of interest. People just didn't know what we were doing, why we were doing, how we were doing it. And that was the conversation really for the first couple of years that nobody was buying from me. They were like, what are you doing?

8:55And why are you doing this? How are you doing this? And so, um, as you know, over the years that's changed now, it's completely different. it. But a couple of years in, I found myself getting anxious and realizing that I wanted to make some decisions myself. And I wasn't in that position with Beyond. I was in a position to go out and sell what they made and whatever they decided to make. And I got a little frustrated with it and thought, I think I can do this. As a true entrepreneur at the very beginning, you think you can do anything, right? The world is your oyster. Like, hey, who's going to stop me?

9:30look, I know what I'm doing. I can go out and do this. Well, it's a lot more complicated than that. But if you keep it simple, you can make almost anything work that makes sense. Right. And it certainly made sense. And I was really excited about that. I put together a great team. And here I am eight years later. And a lot of companies have come and gone, but we're still here. And I'm really excited about the future of what we're doing and how we're doing it. And we have a lot of opportunities even today. And we're going after it.

10:00Kara Goldin:I love it. Well, I love the enthusiasm and the energy. And thank you so much for creating this incredible company, but also for sharing that part of the story. So when you saw this gap in the market, you mentioned that you were working at this company who had a focus on one thing. What was the gap that you really saw that you thought, they're not going to do this, at least not now. So this is what I need to go and do. Well, I had two things at the time, actually. One was we were going to make products that really had a tremendous bite and chew and texture. The flavor part was a little bit easier than the texture part is.

10:45And that's what people recognize when you try one of these products. And our products are meant to mimic animal-based proteins. If you bite down on a little piece that I'm calling a beef tip, right, or a chicken chunk, you're going to expect a certain bite to it because that's what you're familiar with when you eat beef or you eat chicken. So that was our goal from the beginning was to have a texture that people recognize right away. It's like, yeah, that's chicken. You know, that bite and that texture is like chicken or it's like beef or it's like pork. And I think we did a really great job of that.

11:21And then we came up with beef tips, chicken chunks, chorizo. And these are all the plant-based versions of what we know on the animal-based side, right? Sausage crumbles and regular beef crumbles. And so we had a half a dozen products right away that were really focused on texture more than anything. Now, the flavor that was there, delicious products. You know, I'll tell you how good they are. We're still making them today. And after eight years, that's a long time in terms of food to be making the same product. That means you've done something right along the way. Right. And so that was really our focus.

11:58The advantage we had at that time was there were only a couple of companies doing these kind of things, you know, and we were doing some products that nobody else was doing. So you had Beyond, you had Impossible. They had just launched their burgers. It was all about burgers to them at that time. So we were making products that were different. And I just grabbed onto their coattails because they were spending tens of millions of dollars on marketing, PR, advertising. Well, I didn't have that kind of budget, but people knew Beyond. They knew Impossible. And they also knew that those companies were growing so fast, they couldn't scale up fast enough to meet the needs of the market.

12:39So we grabbed on, we made products. And when somebody said, hey, I'm frustrated because I can't get the product, I said, I have it. And we were able to grab that business. And so we had two things. One is, you know, we had the advantage of larger companies basically advertising the products that we were making for us, not under our name, but telling people, hey, opening up the door and saying, hey, there's this product out there you should take a look at, right? and the second advantage is we had a really special product. Now, Kara, you had a chance to try it. I'm glad you had a chance to try it.

13:14I think you would agree. It's that texture of the product that surprises you. When you bite down, it's like this is very similar to what I would eat if I'm eating chicken, beef, or pork.

13:24Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. Is there one skew that is kind of the runaway hit or is there, or do you find that there are a couple of them that are neck-a-neck? There actually is. We've got a couple of really great SKUs, but there's one runaway hit. And ironically, it's the one that I told my team that I wasn't really interested in at the beginning. Of course, of course. You know what I'm saying? It's our chorizo. And I said, hey, when we were building what I see as kind of a premium brand for these type of products, I said, I don't want to compete against the soy-based chorizo on the market today, like chorizo, which is, you know, very inexpensive.

14:06I said, we have a premium product. You know, if I say, hey, their product is two bucks a pound and I'm charging four dollars a pound, they're going to say, we'll take the two dollars a pound, right? What we discovered really quickly was exactly what we were trying to accomplish from the very beginning, is that we had such a unique product that had such a tremendous bite and chew and texture and flavor to it that people couldn't believe it wasn't real chorizo to start with. And it just took off. And it was a slow build. But in the last couple of years, it is just, that product has ramped up so fast.

14:43You know, a couple of times I thought, are we going to be able to make this fast enough? But we are. Fortunately, we're able to scale up And I've got a really great sister company that we work with that helps us make our products. And so they make the capital investment in our plant and we make the products and they're just fantastic.

15:05Kara Goldin:That's incredible. So mainstream by Before the Butcher. Can you talk about that line as well? And what is it? And why did you decide to build this as well? Well, one of the challenges we have, the entire industry have and have had since the very beginning was pricing. It is not inexpensive to make these products. And people think that just because we're making it with plants, that it's going to be a cheap product. And it's not. So for us to compete with industries that are subsidized by the government, it's a little difficult because we're not. So the meat industry, the poultry industry, the pork industry, they all get help from the government.

15:55And we're in an industry that doesn't get help. In fact, sometimes there's even a wall that goes up that blocks us and makes it even more challenging. So as we're developing these products, I'm thinking to myself, and this is probably a later part of the COVID years. So, you know, 2021, 2022, and everybody was concerned about pricing even then. and the challenges of getting product to the market and the supply chain and all that kind of stuff. And I said to my team, I said, look, let's see if we can find a way to produce a burger that will really hit the mainstream in a way that the pricing is going to be competitive with a normal quarter pound 80-20 burger that Chuck, you know, that hits the market.

16:43And, you know, the fluctuation in pricing for us isn't as deep or as erratic as the meat industry. It can be up, it can be down, and it bounces around depending on supply and demand on their end as well. And there's a lot more product being imported now, I believe, than what's being made or grown here domestically. So the market's changing on the meat side and prices are going up. So we thought at some point in time, there's gonna be a balance. They're gonna go up so much and we're gonna be able to bring our price down and then we're gonna be at that sweet spot where, hey, look, you can have this beef burger for$5.95 or$6.95 or$12.95, or you can have the exact same thing plant-based for the same price.

17:29And we're competing because our price is that price, the same price as theirs. Well, I was able to do it. We went in there and we analyzed how we could lower our price and still with quality ingredients. And, you know, fortunately, we were already at a place where we had scaled up and reduced our costs on the production side. So we were able to balance those two and then come out with Mainstream, which is a burger that competes directly with ground beef on a regular basis for any other operator that's looking to buy a product that isn't going to cost them more and they don't have to charge their customer more for.

18:08And it's by based. So we were able to do it. It was a challenge for us. it probably took us about a year and a half to get to the point where we really were able to develop a really high quality product that was very competitive price wise. In fact, I'll tell you a really interesting story. That product superseded and we bumped our regular burger off the list of products that we make now. And mainstream is our burger. Oh. So we lower the price, which is, and it's, it's, this product now is a good 25 to 35 % less expensive than any other product that competes with it on the market for a plant-based burger.

18:46And that's a big, big difference in price.

18:48Kara Goldin:So interesting. So your go-to-market strategy when, you know, right out of the gate, how many SKUs did you have and were you more focused on food service or retail, direct to consumer? What were you doing and how has that changed today? We started food service. That really was my experience. I had some people on the team that had experience in retail, but I knew we could attack food service a lot easier and faster. So that's what we went after. We started the company September 1st, 2017. We were in distribution and already getting out to restaurants and food service operators by April of 2018.

19:31So that's developing the product, packaging the product, getting the product into distribution and getting that distribution down to the operator level. That's pretty quick, I think. I don't know anybody that has moved that quickly. Yeah. So fortunately, I had some pretty good connections in distribution and we were able to take advantage of that. And then I also had some good connections on the operator side and I pressed from that side forward. And then I had a great team that developed some products very quickly for us. So a lot of things were spinning really fast at the beginning. And it was an exciting time, I'll tell you.

20:13Back in 2017, 2018, 2019, you know, before COVID hit, that was, everything was on fire, you know, and it was, you didn't want to put that fire out. You wanted to go with it. And it was something else, a lot of fun.

20:28Kara Goldin:Well, you were also starting this company at a time when I think the meat eaters, I guess I'll call them, they were more open to not just defining themselves as not a vegetarian, right? Maybe they would take one day and just make this decision that they were going to be having a plant-based meal. So how did that come about, by the way, where people were, you know, there was, I think it was Monday, was it? Meadless Monday. Yeah, Meadless Monday. Like, how did that all come about? And how do you think that has helped your company to grow to what it is today? Well, I think there were a combination of things, you know, that was also that time, if you remember, we're going back seven, eight, nine years ago, there was a true elevation of concern about our climate and how it was affecting the planet and how it would affect us as human beings living on this planet and other animals on this planet as well.

21:43So we had a couple of things working for us, you know, and our mission and vision is kind of wrapped around that. And that is obviously providing products that are healthier for us to eat than animal-based proteins. And that's a stated fact. I don't think anybody would deny that fact. and then the fact that we use so much less in resources to make our products. So again, better for you, better for the planet. And then the last one is obviously better for the animals. If you're not slaughtering an animal and that animal is surviving, that's better for the animal, right? So it was all kind of intertwined.

22:22And what we had was a generation that was growing up, the millennials and saying, hey, we want to be able to control our destiny and how we and how we live. And we, you know, as our children grow in many years to come, we want them to be able to grow and live on a planet that's healthy. And our planet is not that healthy. So, you know, fortunately, all these things were kind of triggered at a similar time. And so people were thinking about that. They were thinking, hey, look, if I can make an impact by eating less meat, right? So instead of eating meat seven days a week, I eat meat five days a week.

23:04Will that make a difference? Yes, it'll make a difference. And people started thinking about that. And so now we have generations, which is really interesting, is these generations that we have now, which is, I guess we're down to alpha gen. Obviously, we know there's the Z gen and now alpha and then I guess the babies today are beta. That's what I heard late. Wow, I have not heard that. But these generations today, we don't have to educate them anymore. They already understand. They know. They're making choices based on what they already know. Obviously, you know, the boomers, the X-Gen, even the millennials had to be educated as to what this was about and how we were going to help the environment and your health and the animals and all that together.

23:52But it's not really, that time that I used to spend, I would spend 80 % of my time telling people what we were doing, why we were doing it, and how we were doing it. I don't have to do that anymore. Now it's like, try the product. I want to try it. I want to see what it's all about. And you don't have to spend time talking about why this is better for you and better for the environment and the animals. So it was a really unique time. and we transitioned through that and the industry has already had ups and downs in this very short period of time. We've had our ups and downs and I think what's happening now is we're now going through what I said we should have probably gone through at the beginning which is a really grassroots movement where people that truly understand and want to be a part of this are part of it and the growth will be natural now and not so forced as it was because there were tens and hundreds of millions of dollars poured into the industry and spent on PR and marketing and influencers and sports stars and movie stars and all that kind of stuff.

24:59And as we know, just because you have 50 million followers, you know, it doesn't sustain. What it does is it's a fast impact. And then people say, what's the next thing, right? Oh, now I'm promoting this. Okay, I'll try that. Forget about this. I'll move on to the next thing. And that's kind of what happened in the industry. And now what we're seeing is just this, what I see as natural, sustained, organic growth. And that's what's healthy for us and for the planet as well. We've got to, we can't stop focusing on what's important.

25:32Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. So you mentioned that the plant-based space obviously is a very crowded and competitive space. But when you think about launching a brand in a space that's crowded and competitive, and you see other products coming out, maybe other products that are kind of similar to you. How do you feel about that? What do you do as a founder, right? Because we've all had these moments where you're like, oh, shoot, they're launching something. But as I've always felt that we can only do what we do, right? And we just have to keep doubling down and getting the word out about our product and making it better.