738 Mike Adair: Founder of Red’s

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 Carol Golden Show.

0:44Kara Goldin:Today, we're diving into the frozen food aisle, one of my favorite topics, gnarly, gnarly space that we have an incredible, incredible entrepreneur, founder, and CEO who is with us here today. So Mike Adair is the founder and CEO of Red's. And Red's is now the largest premium frozen burrito and breakfast sandwich brand in the country. And what started in a trailer with a simple idea and a nod to his beloved dog Red, which I, of course, love, love, love, has grown into a national brand found in most major grocery stores across the U.S. Mike began his career outside of the food industry and finance, but eventually took the leap into food with a mission to make frozen meals cleaner, more convenient, and packed with real ingredients.

1:43Kara Goldin:And 16 years later, Red's is redefining the frozen an aisle with fresh baked tortillas, antibiotic-free meats, cage-free eggs, and a relentless focus on quality. As I was sharing with Mike before we hit record, my sons saw something new in the freezer and jumped in and just couldn't get enough of them. So definitely, definitely reds is doing something right so mike thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show thank you i appreciate it what a uh what an introduction um uh well thank you so much for having me this is such a such an honor um huge fan of yours huge fan of the brands um that you built obviously i'm three or four years behind you and starting so i think we could probably do this for hours sharing a lot of fun war stories this episode of the cara golden show is brought you by Range Rover Sport.

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3:28Kara Goldin:Inside, it's next level comfort. Active noise cancellation and the cabin air purification system elevate every drive. And with a plug-in hybrid option offering up to 53 miles of electric range, it's all about performance and purpose. So if you're expecting the best, like I know you do, the Range Rover Sport is your perfect ride. Build your Range Rover Sport at rangeroversport.com slash US slash sport to configure your Range Rover Sport today. Again, that's Range Rover dot com slash US slash sport. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. Yeah, absolutely. So let's start with simple. When someone picks up a Reds burrito, what are they really buying into besides having an incredible breakfast uh well we also do snacks so whether it's breakfast or snack um you know i think you're buying into um this crazy dream that you know i had to your point 16 and a half years ago not knowing anything about the food space in any way shape or form um and not coming from like a food or food science background you know um i was kind of a simple human it was like i the time we were having kids and, you know, I was just trying to figure out, fell in love with this, the idea of, you know, starting a consumer, you know, consumer brands company.

4:59And only because I love the idea of being a group of human beings, you know, who are some office in Nashville, Tennessee, or we've got a plant down in South Eastern, South Dakota, and just trying to be the best in the world at what we do. Right. And, and I was like, we're not, we're not curing cancer. or we're not, you know, we kind of recognize our place in the world. But to me, that simple dream of like, just trying to create a product that, you know, you can hopefully deliver on this amazing experience, um, that people will, you know, be really pleasantly surprised. Right. And, and the vast perception of frozen is like, you know, it's still like kind of a nasty, salty, you know, processed meal from the eighties.

5:41And it's like, we've been trying so hard to overcome that. And so So to me, I was like, I don't know enough about how to work with preservatives. I don't know enough about any of the food science elements of, you know, trying to create shelf-stable stuff. So to me, I was like, well, we can just create this amazing, but we already did at home. And then everything, we would just flash freeze everything. We'd put everything in our freezer or we'd flash freeze it. And so to me, I was like, okay, great. Well, why don't we, this seems like the most logical place to go, being super, super naive about how hard it is to crack into the space and to try and change consumer perception of what Frozen is.

6:18But that's been kind of the single main focus for pretty much 24-7 for the last 16 years, which is how do we make the product better, right? And we've never been particularly good at, or certainly I haven't been, out in the world communicating what we do, how we do it, why we do it. We've just kind of really been behind the scenes focusing on trying to make the best product we possibly can and products. And hopefully that then will change consumer, you know, that interaction that, you know, your son's had, which is like, oh, wow, this is actually really good. Right. And, and all of a sudden you're like, oh, wait, this actually tastes really good.

6:53And by the way, this is, you know, I can feel good about actually eating it. This is something that I want to share with myself, my friends, my, you know, my kids. That's, that's really been it. And, and that has been single-handedly the absolute most challenging thing I could have possibly ever, ever, ever imagined doing, but it's been so rewarding and crazy enough to think that I've been doing it for 60 and a half years. And I'm probably more passionate today than I was back then.

7:20Kara Goldin:I love it. You and I were talking, your daughter was just about to be born, I guess, or just born when you actually got your first SKU on the shelf. Can you talk to me about those moments when you thought, I'm just going to go and try and see what we can do here? Yeah. I mean, probably similar to every entrepreneur. I think you kind of fall in love with the idea of starting a business, then you fall in love with a particular idea. And then that passion just grows and grows and grows about what the possibilities are. How are we going to make it? How do we source all these great ingredients? And how do I actually manufacture And then, you know, with meat and the product, you've got to find a USDA regulated facility.

8:07And it's like all of these barriers to entry and crazy complications. And so, you know, I was just figuring those out, literally just kind of piece by piece, right? In the first, you know, I guess a couple hundred, couple thousand burritos we just made in our trailer in New Hampshire and vacuum sealed them. And, you know, I had a bunch of gatherings to get feedback from friends and family. And thankfully, people loved them. And so, you know, we had our first daughter in March of 2009 as I was finishing up business school and really falling in love with the idea and then graduated. And on June 15th, which is what we say is Red's birthday, it was go time.

8:49And, you know, and then it just becomes the comfort of business school like is ripped away in an absolute instant. And I remember sitting in, uh, we, our first office was actually in the basement of this dumpy place right near the train station in, in Fairfield, Connecticut. And, and having just like a complete wake up of, oh my gosh, I have to figure out, I have a three month old, I have got mouths to feed. Thank God my wife was a nurse and she actually was supporting us. Um, but it just became kind of a 24 seven problem solving of how am I going to actually get this made? and then starting to, you know, get your first couple of SKUs onto, you know, there's the, the shelves of your local grocery stores.

9:32And, um, I did that kind of one by one, just, you know, putting burritos, getting a production run made. And we literally had a production run of 3000 burritos made and our first co-packer went bankrupt. And so I broke in the back door, figured out how to get on a forklift, got that pallet of burritos onto a truck and then left to check on the counter, of course, and then put them in a, you know, third party warehouse. And all of a sudden I was like, oh my gosh, like I now have 3000 burritos I got to sell. And I had one, just one flavor, just a chicken burrito. And then just started, you know, going store to store and doing a lot of demos and trying to see if hopefully a few people liked them.

10:15And then, you know, from then it became basically a 16 year iteration of how do we, how do we do that better? How do we make that product better? You know, what do they like? What do they don't like? You know, what are the nutritional profiles, you know, flavor profiles? And it's just, I began the relentless pursuit.

10:33Kara Goldin:So, so interesting. What was your first store that you got into? So it was, it was Walter Stewart's, which was a family owned store in New Canaan, Connecticut. Thank God I actually grew up with some of the Stewart family. And so They were actually very welcoming to get me in. But I spent a lot of time and energy with them learning and asking questions. But spending a ton of time in the back rooms with the stock guys, seeing all the trucks come in and understanding how they come in in different case pack formats. Who was bringing it in? Who were the distributors? Who were the actual companies bringing the product in?

11:14And then what made it easier for the guys stocking the shelves? You know, what pack size formats and all the different kind of logistical components. And then I spent a ton of time just, you know, being in there doing demos and figuring out when their most traffic was. Right. It was like certain stores were Wednesday nights after bingo. You know, a bunch of places were Sundays after church. And it just became kind of this bouncing around to the first kind of five or ten different, you know, local, you know, more or less mom and pop shops that were super. Thankfully, they were super great to work with.

11:47and, you know, and gave me the opportunity to get in and figure out what was working and what wasn't. And then, you know, and then it became, we actually figured out a distributor and then we actually started getting into a couple smaller chains and, you know, it was kind of off to the races.

12:04Kara Goldin:When did you know that it was working? That you, beyond the first store, you know, you're getting invited to do demos, you're, you know, you're selling out, you know, you're getting, you're figuring out how do I get, you know, a bigger facility to make these faster. But when did you actually say, okay, this is, this is happening? Over 16 years later, I'm not sure that I've had that thought. I still, you know, it's still a, uh, it's, it's kind of this, like we, you know, part of our culture is like, you know, I just always think we can do things better. Um, you know, and I think we can, we can deliver something better.

12:54And to me, that's also like part of the, the, the process of being, you know, a company that deserves the opportunity to get bigger. Right. If you constantly have this pursuit of, you know, we can make this turkey sausage better, right? There's a better supply chain aspect to it. Or we can improve, you know, from buying tortillas to making freshly baked tortillas. Like there's just this, there's a constant aspect of, and I think it's an endless, you know, it's an endless pursuit, which I love. Because it always creates this new opportunity to walk in every day and kind of look around and go, what can we do better?

13:29I think there's probably been two or three times over that 15, 16 year period where I've been like, you know, I don't know if I've ever said we've made it. But I think I had moments in the first handful of years where I was like, I think I've gotten good enough at problem solving where I'll never have to get a real job. Right. And when you're an entrepreneur and you certainly know this as well as I do, you quickly realize, you know, you're not. there's nothing above you. There's nothing below you, right. It's probably much more important than below you from you'll do anything, right? Like you'll be delivering boxes in the middle of the night.

14:06You'll be packing, you know, you'll be in the kitchen, you'll be making deliveries, you'll be doing demos, you'll, you'll, you'll do anything. And so you've, you kind of build this confidence around, all right, like, I don't, I don't feel like I've ever, I need to go work for the man ever again. Like if, if, if, you know, if this, this doesn't work out, I feel like I can figure out a way to, you know, to provide for my family and do something that, you know, that I enjoy. And so I think that confidence probably more than anything was, you know, was, was kept me going. And then also I just, I was just kind of a crazy person that I just wasn't going to let it fail.

14:41And, um, and we've, we've almost failed so many different ways, so many different times. And, you know, before we understood much about data, you know, we were selling big 11 ounce burritos and I thought we were like, we got into like Shaw's and a couple of big chains. And I was It's like, oh my gosh, like we've made it. This is this, we're done. And then like the bottom fell out and we quickly realized that, you know, those items were never moving fast enough for us to actually build a real business. And so it was kind of like we'd gotten too much distribution with items that never really could have scaled.

15:14And then all of a sudden you're like, oh shoot, I got to unwind that and find the items that actually can sell. And so that, you know, I think if I had that thought, it was probably for about 15 minutes before I got, you know, I got hit in the face with the reality of we're not as good as we think we are. And we've got to, you know, get back to work and figure out exactly what the consumer wants so that, you know, they'll buy a lot more of them and enable us to keep growing.

15:43Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. So you named the brand after your dog read. uh did you how did that come about um when you were thinking about a name for for the company that you had launched so i mean probably one of the simplest decisions i've ever made so um when i was kind of ending my career in finance i i literally just happened to be in between meetings was was next to a shelter and i was working in finance and i had to wear a suit and tie every day and so I grew up with dogs I love dogs and so but I I was like single running around I lived in Seattle and I was covering the whole northwest like it would have been impossible possible for me to have a dog and so I walked into the shelter and it's like kind of a big loop and I get all the way there's dogs barking at you like crazy and I get to the last one and there's three big dogs in there and uh one of them's like right at the you know the fence barking at me like wants to rip my face off.

16:43And then another one's kind of playing with a big pile of poop on the floor. And then there's one in the back just looking at me. He was kind of like this mangy reddish looking mutt. It was like, dude, please, please get me out of here. And so I was like, you know, fast forward, obviously, uh, red came home with me and, and was my never left my side for the next 12 years or so until he passed away. But, you know, as we were in business school, living in this trailer, which was, you know, makes it sound, it was actually amazing. It was backed up to a thousand acres of, of, you know, public land.

17:18And so Red and I would be out there, you know, hiking or snowshoeing come 24 seven. Um, so this was when, you know, I was in the kitchen with Paige playing around with some taco recipes and, you know, and Red was always just sitting at our feet and, you know, at the time she was pregnant, but we didn't have any kids yet. And so it just seemed to be the easiest thing. I looked down and I was like, all right, well, if we're going to go on this path, you know, we're going to name it after the dog. And so I wish I was some sort of could give myself any credit for being that creative or being a marketing genius.

17:47But to me, it just felt very logical that he was part of the journey and we get to name it after him.

17:53Kara Goldin:Oh, that's awesome. I love it. So you were in finance before starting. How do you think that career, I always think like, you know, especially when we're talking to our younger self or the next generation, whoever you're talking to about this, it's like, it really is a zigzag. But I think you probably a lot of the fundamentals of building a business, I would imagine that you learned in finances compared to somebody who hadn't had that experience. But what would you say about your previous experience that really helped you to build the business that you have today? I think, you know, I think there were there were a lot of, you know, when when most of us graduate college, we're still, you know, I certainly speak for myself.

18:43Like I was not ready necessarily or prepared for adulthood. And so I think getting, you know, getting an opportunity pretty early on to, you know, to work, to work in finance just helped me grow up in a way that you have to learn how to become a professional in the world. Right. And, and I, you know, had to wear a student tie every day. I had to be, you know, at work at six or seven o 'clock in the morning. And, and you had to create this discipline around a routine and being a human being and, and providing for yourself. And, um, and also then there was a lot of, you know, there's a lot of opportunity.

19:21We were getting sales training. We were getting public speaking training. You know, we were getting, um, a lot of exposure to a lot of, you know, successful humans and interacting. And so I think it ended up being, you know, I probably don't give it nearly as much credit as I as I should that it it helped probably build a lot of important skills that I was going to need, you know, when I ended up at the end of the day, we're all selling something somehow some way. and so you know as you're meeting with your first retailers or you're um you know you're trying to hire people like there's there's so many aspects of just kind of showing up uh and being a disciplined you know an adult that are super critical to to actually being successful as an entrepreneur and you know and then i you know i got the opportunity to move to seattle when i was like 23 and and i didn't realize at the time but i was building my own business because i was the only one out there and you know the company was based in boston and i to this day can't believe they sent a 23 year old moron out there to to run the whole northwest and but i covered washington oregon idaho montana alaska and all of western canada and there's nothing quite like being on the road 24 7 three weeks a month to like create some organizational skills and discipline around where you need to be when you need to be and and then slowly i was actually building a business and i didn't even realize that I was building a business.

20:43And so I think being able to translate a lot of those skills into starting Reds helped tremendously.

20:48Kara Goldin:That's awesome. So when you think about the frozen aisle and how it's dominated by all these Goliaths for decades, but the Reds, the slingshot that you've been able to carve out in the space, how do you think you really stand apart outside of having, you know, a great product? Do you need to keep innovating? Um, you know, in every category, I feel like the grocery buyers are, um, when you're meeting with them there, they want to know what's new, right? What's new. And so you sort of, as a founder, you feel forced to, you know, come in with a new flavor, a new case pack size, whatever it is but what do you feel is has been really key for you to be able to carve out that space that you need to yeah i think the um yeah i think it it's finding that combination of items that um are a little bit more fastballs down the middle which are going to have you know a broader appeal um you know from across the household right so you know like a turkey sausage is kind of Unwander Best Burritos.

22:03And the flavor profile appeals to a wider audience. And then you've got to find the balance of having these staple items that are really going to be able to move volume day to day. And then all of these other items that are the continued innovation that might be more specific to a certain audience demographic, a member of a household. And so we're constantly trying to find that balance. And it's a balance that never changes because there's no, you know, there's no right answer to it because the consumer is just like a buyer. They always want something new. Right. And like, if you look in kind of your own freezer or certainly in my freezer, like we're going to have a ton of things that we know are, we love, and then we're going to be trying new things all the time.

22:50And so we, as one of those things that we're trying to become every day in people's freezers, we need to make sure that we are constantly delivering on that item with absolute excellence. But then I also need to be trying to put new things into there, into the freezer so that, you know, we can have more people trying different things and be like, oh my God, I love this. Or maybe it's a flavor profile that somebody doesn't love. And then they're like, but I like this other one. Right. But now all of a sudden you've got kind of, you look in the freezer and it's like, well, I have five items of reds because I have five different people or however many people in the house that have different, you know, preferences.

23:25And so that to me has also been one of the most fun aspects of the creativity, like everyone's, you know, get your creative juices flowing, like being able to work with, you know, our head chef for the last 10 years, I think is one of the best, you know, chefs in the world. And he's he's from Sinaloa, Mexico, and I'm a gringo from Connecticut. And we're we're working together to try and collaborate on creating all these incredible recipes. And it's like the innovation piece is, yes, working in the kitchen with chefs. But it's also, you know, the rest of it is just as important, which is, you know, the like the supply chain or procurement innovation.

24:02Right. So how do we how do I get the highest quality of, you know, turkey sausages or carne asada or chicken chorizo? or steak or chicken or whatever it is. And how do I find all of the right aspects of the supply chain, the right best suppliers that are going to be able to provide us with the most consistent thing day in and day out? And then they're also, we're constantly pushing them to innovate on all the different things that they might be able to provide us. And then you have got the clean label aspect of like, how do I continue to grow the non-GMO market? How do I continue to grow the supply chain of antibiotic and hormone-free birds?

24:37Because when avian flu hits, like that percentage of the population of animals is so much smaller that you can be pretty decimated pretty quick in regards to your supply chain. So like we, you know, it's, it's something that we take ideas from absolutely anywhere. And then we try and take 16 years of experience and funnel them into, you know, these are the 10, 15, 20 ideas that we're going to be playing with. And sometimes we can't find the right supply or supply partner to be able to do an item we want. Sometimes it's an item that we can't do, and sometimes the world comes together, and you actually are able to turn something, you know, an innovation idea around pretty quickly, and it gets to the world.

25:21And, you know, at the end of the day, you just want to fail fast, right?

25:25Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. Make decisions. It's not going to work. I'm okay with it. But I just want to be proud of the item that we put into the world. People might not like it, but you just want to fail as fast as you can. Do you have one skew that's kind of a runaway bestseller? It's actually a strange thing for us because I feel like in beverage and in snack and in chips, like there's like two or three heroes that represent like 80 to 90 percent of the volume. And in our world, and I don't know if this is just a byproduct of Frozen, we have, you know, we've got a handful in each category between snack, you know, snack burritos, breakfast burritos and breakfast sandwiches.

26:04But we don't have like two or three dominant heroes. Like it's actually, you know, in the top, you know, call it a 10 SKUs, like the difference between, you know, number one and number 10 is actually relatively small, which is great from like a diversification of business perspective. Um, probably not as great when, you know, you want just one or two heroes from a manufacturer. You just want to make those all day, every day. But, you know, breakfast has been our fastest growing category. I just think the consumer and being able to introduce like, you know, quick, super clean label, tasty, convenient items in the morning is just solving.