Danny (3:35)

Well, it's my pleasure. I mean, Nick, you and your team have been on the journey with us for quite a while. So it's kind of like a family event for us.

Nick Sharma (3:42)

Yeah, I agree, Uncle Danny. I love it. All right, Danny, you first question. You built this billion dollar business, not just a business, but truly a brand over the last 11 years. And I think Hexcloud has now become synonymous with the word cooking or creativity or joy, excitement. How did you do this?

Danny (4:04)

I have no fucking idea. You know, I grew up in an Italian and Jewish household. So for all the Italians and Jews out there, there's a lot of food involved. I think we all know that. So food was central to, to my family's life. We did everything around a table. We celebrated the birth of a child, we at a funeral, we all ate together. So that was really important. And my grandmother, who was an Italian immigrant, she, she was of course being good Sicilian Catholics. She was one of 15 children. And they, she was told, you got to quit school in the eighth grade because education is for boys. You need to go out and work at 8. So she sold vegetables and she wanted to be a chef. Her Whole life she wanted to be a chef. She no education. And eventually she became the first female head chef in Buffalo, New York, in the 1950s. But she kind of instilled this passion for the food space and being a chef. I'm not talented enough. I'm also not crazy enough to do it. I wanted another way into it.

Nick Sharma (5:22)

And.

Danny (5:24)

You know, so I was interested in the cooking and servicing a cook in the celebration of food. So this kind of was in the back of my mind when I started, decided I needed to start my own company. Going into the food space was kind of natural. I, I, I'd actually worked for another cookware company. And I remember when I went to the owner of that company, I went to him with Facebook up on my screen, and this is like 2010. And I go, if we're going to survive, this is where we need to be. And we got to start a community. And he did one of these hands to the face and he goes, trust me, kid, this Facebook thing, it's never going to last. So I walked out of there, and my co founder and I went to the gym that night, and we're like, we got to start our own company. So that's kind of like, what was the impetus for it?

Nick Sharma (6:14)

And I'm also curious. Speaking of the impetus, I feel like hexcloud has become the Harley Davidson of cooking. And I chose Harley Davidson because I feel like everybody can picture that brand so easily and so clearly. What do you think? A lot. Like, when you were building the brand or, or ideating on how you're going to go to market, like, what enabled you to have such a strong component of storytelling around the product? Right. It's not because hexclad's not just a cookware company, it's a cooking company.

Danny (6:43)

You know, I'm so glad you asked this question. I was, I was out there before, and I'm like, I hope he asked something about this, because it's often overlooked. You know, like, I'm not the best numbers guy in my company by far, but what I'm a good, what I'm good at is storytelling. And when we found this technology one, it had to have a story told. Right. Because how do I explain what these hexagons are? Why are they on there? You don't have a pan at home that looks like this way. So I needed to tell a story, but what I also needed to do was diagnose what our brand was and then come up with different ways to present that, that brand very, very clearly. And it is great that you picked Harley Davidson because in 2015, 16, when I was just finding the technology, I'm like, this is badass cookware. That's what it is. It's badass cookware. And that became like our line. Inside, we're badass. And the good thing about being a badass, it doesn't mean you drive a Harley. Grandma's a badass because she takes care of the whole family. And a kid who's 10 years old learning to make their first grilled cheese is a badass. And a single mom's a badass. There's a badass inside of all of us. And I wanted to be the cookware for those people. So that was the foundation of everything we started doing when we sold our first frying pan. I still have the email. Congrats. One 10 inch pan sold in November of 16.

Nick Sharma (8:10)

That's amazing. There's so many things I have on my mind now, but I'm trying to stay on track here.

Danny (8:17)

You know, I'll wander off.

Nick Sharma (8:18)

Yeah, I know. Anyway, okay. I want to go here next. Harley talked about novelty this morning. Novelty is something that drives the biggest form of awareness, of engagement of customers coming back and purchasing. Hexcloud has just been launching product after product after product. And, and, and prior to hexcloud, I believe you also had a business where you were selling juicers, right?

Danny (8:41)

That's my dirty little secret.

Nick Sharma (8:43)

Yeah. So I'm curious, so you had this juicer business and then you had hexcloud. I'm curious what insights you brought to hexcloud and then, you know, launching product after product. Like, what have you learned around building the business of hexcloud with product launches and novelty?

Danny (8:59)

So lots unpack there. Yeah. I'll start with the juicer because it was an enormous value and it's the best thing that ever happened to me. We, because I was in a cookware company, I didn't want to compete against my friends. So first, I love juicing. So my partner and I, we decided to find the best cold pressed juicer and boy, did we misread the market. It's so valuable to, to ask people questions because I didn't do it. Because after the juicer failed, everybody was like, I never thought that juicer thing would work. And so, so we, we went to market and it was the most humbling experience because it did okay in like 15 and it was this quick. Like it went Tuesday at 5pm I was in the juicer business. Wednesday morning at 8am we were out of the juicer business. And, like, it was. I was embarrassed for my friends. I was. It was. It was incredibly humbling. But I learned so much. So what I did was I took what I misread. What I did was I was going to try to impose my will on the consumer. And you can't. You can't do that. You have to respect the consumer. So when I went in with Hexcloud, what I did was I listened to what were the pain points? Okay, what was you. You said novelty. Well, we had a very novel product, and the reason why. And if anybody's ever heard me talk or read an article or something, I couldn't get any funding for Hexclad, and nobody believed in it for two. Two reasons. They said, cookware is too competitive. There's too much competition. And then I said, we're going to be the first D2C cookware brand. And they're like, d to C. People don't buy cookware that way. I'm like, yeah, not yet. And they go, what do you know about, you know, e commerce? I go, very, very little. But I know that's the way I want to approach the marketplace, and I know how to tell the story. So I can do the branding, I can do the strategy. I can do all that. I'll learn the nuts and bolts of E commerce, but I'll find some really smart people to help me with that. And that was, like, the best thing that I did. So we had a novel approach and a novel product. And the last thing I'll say on it, because I know I'm rambling, is as we come to market with new things, we try to remember that uniqueness. We. We say, if we can't reinvent the wheel with a product like, you know, you've seen our pepper mill. It's the best pepper mill ever.

Nick Sharma (11:35)

It's a weapon.

Danny (11:36)

It is a weapon. And so we reinvented the wheel a bit there. Our knives. You can't reinvent a knife. So what are they? They're sexy, they're badass. So they just look great in your kitchen. So we're going to do one of those two things. So we feel like that was kind of a novel approach, and if it isn't, doesn't fit into either of those categories, it stays, like, in the drawing room.

Nick Sharma (11:58)

You know, I feel like Hexcloud has done such a good job becoming this media company versus just a cookware company. And, you know, If I open TikTok and I see chefs, whether it's Nick D. Giovanni or it's a random creator who's cooking at home. They're using hexcloud. If I go to the Yankees game, behind first base is Hexclad. If I open, if I turn on Fox, I see every cooking show is using hexclad. How did you, how did you get to a point or when did you get to the point where hexclad became a media company first that sold cookware versus just a products company?

Danny (12:33)

So, you know, obviously you got to start with product, but are you just going to be a product? There are, there are products out there that are just products. Then there are products that become brands. Right? And you want to be a brand, then you go, but when do you become more than just a cookware brand? So our goal was to be a lifestyle brand. And what we felt was content was key to that. That was a few years ago. In fact, that's right around, you know, my, the president of our company, Jason, he and I sit around and we'll strategize every year, like, what's our goal for this year? And a few years ago, we're like, we want to be a content company as well. And that we felt was going to be absolutely vital for us to be considered a lifestyle brand. So we were already doing certain things, you know, part of obviously being e commerce brand, we, you know, was influencer marketing. Then I always like, I, I'm somebody who always wants to think on a very grand scale. So I'm like, I want to work with the best chefs in the world. I really don't see too many cookware companies actually doing that. So we were sending stuff to Michelin starred chefs. We were trying to be getting those circles like we snuck into the first Michelin. Well, not the first one. The first one that since we were in market, when they award the Michelin stars and we're just walking around where the hexclad guys, nobody knew who, who the hell we were, but we made friendships then and then that eventually led to the granddaddy of them all, which was when Gordon Ramsay became a partner in the company.

Nick Sharma (14:04)

Could you talk a little bit about the Gordon partnership? How did that come about? And you know what, what, what kind of credit do you think you could give to Gordon in, in becoming a billion dollar brand?

Danny (14:15)

You know, it, it's, it's hard to quantify if you're handing out credit. Like, there was a lot of smart things done and a lot of mistakes. Luckily, you know, we, we were good at recognizing Mistakes rather quickly. But with Gordon, it was pretty simple. It was the summer of 20 and. And the guy who was managing our Instagram account, he called me and he goes, do you know Gordon Ramsay's following us on Instagram? I'm like, no. He's like, should I reach out? I'm like, yeah. So he sent a message and we got a response, and we're like, oh, yeah, Gordon got. Somebody sent Gordon a pan and he really likes it. Can we send over some more? Sure, send over some more. By the way, is Gordon involved with the cookware company? I don't think so. Cut to, like a less than a week later, I'm on a call with Gordon's business manager in the uk and we started the conversation and it seemed like in that first call, like, we got along. Like, he made this comment, he goes, listen, Gordon's very, very busy, so if you want to do a commercial, I think he would do one and you can pay him like, 2 million bucks. I'm like, well, I don't really have 2 million bucks lying around. He goes, but I think he'd like to be more involved. Gordon's very hands on. He goes, when Gordon gets involved, you're going to get more than you bargained for. And I'm like, is that a promise or a threat? He goes, both. And I'm like, and it kind of is. So Gordon wound up have a call with him. He's like, I love your pants. I can't do British accent. I wish I could. Maybe that's why I'm a failed actor. But he's like, great pants. We're gonna do that. We're gonna cook risotto and my restaurant. And. And we just like, had this amazing synergy from, from that first, first meeting. And then obviously the lawyers need to take over and you negotiate and come up with the deal. And Gordon got involved and he goes, I don't even know if you're going to sign the deal. And he sent over a video he made for us. I'm ready to show everybody what I use at home. We didn't even have a deal with him yet, but he's like, took that chance on us. And he's awesome. You know, he calls me like, like, I'm like, dude, you're stalking me. Almost like. But he wants, like, he wants the numbers. He's like, you know, he'll be like, how's Prime Day going? And, you know, and it. So it's, it's cute, but it's like, wow, the biggest chef in the world. One of the biggest stars in the world. He's that invested in the company that, you know, I started and it's like, it's a lot of pinch me moments. You know, every now and then I'll wake up like somewhat some hotel and I'll be like, wait a minute, am I still back at that old company? Was it all a dream? But because of that involvement, it's obviously put Hexclad on the map and, you know, where would we be? I think we'd still be a big company without Gordon. I think the reason why we are the fastest growing cookware pretty much globally now at this point. I think that that's because of the association and the, in the great partnership of Gordon.

Nick Sharma (17:19)

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Danny (17:28)

Why?

Nick Sharma (17:28)

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Nick Sharma (17:55)

Earlier today, Ryan was talking about how they don't discount at all. And Hexclad, I believe, started heavily in Costco through road shows and touring Costcos. And you mentioned Prime Day as an opportunity where Hexclad does huge numbers. We're going into Q4 now. I'm curious, what are your thoughts on sales and promotional strategy?

Danny (18:17)

So we obviously, like many companies, a significant amount of our revenue. I don't want to say the exact number, but a significant amount will happen in, in November and December. And obviously there's a, there is a Prime Day bump. I actually believe in promotions. I hate to even call them discounts. Discount reminds me of like, like bruised fruit at the market, you know. So we come up with a strategy early on because obviously with our product we have to, we have to produce months in advance. So we come up with an offering strategy, you know, for things like Prime Day. So a couple times a year we do have what we call a promotion. What we want is we want to come with something that's very compelling. Now obviously you spend the year, you know, filling up the funnel, but there's also that there's people that I wouldn't even consider say are in the funnel. At any point that I have to buy something, I got to get my wife something, or I've got to get somebody something. And guess what? They listen to Gordon Ramsay or maybe they listen to one of our Michelin star chefs, or they see Hal Bieber using our cookware or, you know, Courtney Cox or all these celebrities that, by the way, we don't pay. The only one we've done any partner with is, is Haley Bieber. And after she used our stuff for a couple years. So our strategy is to come up with certain promotions because we actually. But we have a rather significant aov. As you know, our LTV is almost double our aov. And we know that we're going to get you back because you're satisfied with the product. So I do feel that without cheapening your brand, compelling promotion will bring somebody into the fold. And now I want to own that. Like, you know, so when I think of us, like somebody said to me, are you. Do you want to be the apple in the kitchen space? I'm like, no, I don't want to be Apple. Because Apple buys that wears out in three years. And they. You got to buy it again. And if you're part, you know, I'm about to call it a cult, but then I keep buying the phone over and over again, so I guess I'm part of the cult, too. But what I want to do is give you something that you're going to use for a lifetime. All our products have lifetime guarantees. So I don't want you to buy it again. What I want you to do is I want you to buy my knives, or I want you to buy my pepper mill, or I want you to buy my cutting boards. So some people say that's a stupid strategy. I don't believe in planned obsolescence. So often I'll go the, the, the company that, from when I was young was Sony, like my dad, my uncle, they would just go buy Sony products because they knew Sony was good and they backed the product. So you didn't have to, you know, at that time, go buy a magazine to do your research. You just go to, you know, whatever, Best Buy, and you go where Sony and, and you take it. I would like people to look at it like, look at us like that and go, oh, if it's for the kitchen, I'm just going to buy hex class stuff because it's the best.

Nick Sharma (21:25)

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I would say as. As your business has grown, you're now billion dollar business. You've still had Insane growth over the last few years too, which is wild. Yeah, but you touched on it a little bit. But how are you, as a billion dollar business, how are you finding new audiences of customers at that same level of scale, which is still allowing you to keep growing at a, at such a consistent rate?

Danny (21:49)

So, you know, with this, I kind of look at it like three ways. Like where we, you know, I can get revenue in the company three ways. Now I can get the new customer with a hero product. I can retain my existing customer and bring him into new categories that we started and then I can open new marketplaces. So at hexclad, we've done all three. Now the great thing is we know our average customer, it's cookware. So probably it is, you know, over 35 is our average age. Before somebody invests in good cookware, though, we keep skewing younger and younger, which is really interesting because most cookware companies like their average customers like 45, 48. So somebody's becoming 35 every day. So I, I need to start interacting with that person at a young age. Which is why I'm like, we do, we do challenges on MasterChef Junior. You know, we'll, we'll, we'll seed product to, to 10 year old influencers, you know, because we want people to know when you get to the point that you're going to have that product, you go to Hexclad because they're the best, just like you want an iPhone when you're 10 years old. So, so we are working on developing a new customer base. What we're not doing is looking for new sales channels. We have one retail partnership you mentioned. We do work with Costco and it's been amazing. And everything else is either hexclad.com or Amazon. Then the other two things is, are if you keep bringing new quality products to market and you take care of your customer, I, it drives me crazy when people don't have the utmost respect for your customer. It's like I will bend over backwards. I still do customer service calls, you know, don't need to do them anymore, but I will do them or I'll write people an email. Sometimes somebody, you know, I can't answer all of them, but I'll get people on LinkedIn complaining about a pan and I'll read, I'll respond to them sometimes. But I wanted people to know because I've had people then you screenshot it and put it up on Facebook. The CEO reached out to me. When I treat the customer that way, they keep buying new products and then you open new markets. We have an amazing product. I'll do this. I'll pat myself on the back. I didn't invent the technology. I created the company based on that technology. But what we do is as we're opening new markets, Europe now, we're crushing uk, Australia, we are launching in, in China, we just launched in Japan this year. We, we will be launching in the Middle east, in South Africa, possibly India at the very end of the year. So we're opening these new territories as well. So what? So our strategy, which is really great, has, has like cross geographies in a way which you get. And by the way, it doesn't hurt that they know Gordon everywhere. He's, he showed up in Korea and it was like the Beatles and going to Shea Stadium, like they were mobs like to see him. So, you know, it's kind of like a cheat code.

Nick Sharma (25:07)

That's amazing. Are you, are there any specific tactics or channels you're doubling down on this Q4?

Danny (25:12)

Well, listen, Q4 for us, really, that, that's like the hexclad.com season, you know, the, the, the best promotions and the most creative promotions you will find there. We, you know, well, every channel will, will see a bump obviously. But what we try to do is like, we want to get people there because obviously we own the relationship there and that, and that's like, that's the key. You know, Costco doesn't want to share their, their relationships. Amazon doesn't want to share the relationships. So we want to start that relationship there. So our spend is directed there. We, we spend less on Amazon during that period. We will actually up a spend with Costco's.costco.com a little bit. And, and, and now that Costco.com actually becomes a, a bigger player in the E commerce space, we do pay a little more attention to that than say we did a few years ago.

Nick Sharma (26:17)

Yeah, it's wild how what percentage of sales are now online for Costco?

Danny (26:21)

Target, Walmart, it's, it's insane. I remember when, when Costco, Costco is this oddest, like oddest bird to me because like, it should not be cool. It's like the least cool thing, but it's kind of cool. Like you go walk, people are walking around with their $50 hot dog and then they're going to back to get a little sample of cheese. And like I live in la and there'll be a guy driving his Rolls Royce and he's just there to eat the Free taquitos in the back of the store. And this is just confounds me a bit. But then they'll buy Costco has a hundred thousand dollar ring in the store. So like they'll buy 400 cookware, no problem. So even their website, if anybody's been to it, it like it's like going in a time machine back like 20 years. It even breaks all the time. I mean but the revenue is incredible. It's. Yeah, I don't get it. But keep doing it. Costco.

Nick Sharma (27:25)

Yeah, I love your Costco Big. A lot of Indians love Costco to good deal.

Danny (27:30)

They absolutely do. I'll tell you, it's first generation Americans love the Costco deals.

Nick Sharma (27:35)

Yeah, they do. All right, Danny, last question here. Quarter four take home tip. You've got Hexclad.com's biggest season coming up. What, what is one or two things that you think you've mastered with Hexclad in Q4 or during these types of periods that you can share with the rest of the audience?

Danny (27:55)

Wow. Boy. And I don't know, I don't know if this is definitely gonna gonna transfer to everyone. I don't know how many of you have your own company, are trying to start one, want to learn how to start it. But Q4, for us, we look at Q4 as it's a 12 month period. And for us this is key. If you're going to be a company that does 30, 40, 50, 60% of your revenue in Q4, you have to start planting the seeds early for that. I don't mind that the work I'm doing in January and February and March will not be realized until Q4. And I think you have to be patient with that because you will get the rewards. If you have a good product and you're treating your consumer with that respect, they will stick out during that consideration period. And to me that's the key thing. I think a lot of people come in and they won all year long. They're like, I got to get the money now, I got to get it now. And there's something, I just said it outside before I came up talking about this. Realizing what's your short term goal and what's your long term goal is key in your business. This will permeate through every aspect of your business because very often people take their long term goals and they don't have the patience for them and they make them a short term go goal. If you are playing the long game and always be playing the long game, that's the only way you retain a customer. That's the only way you build a brand. You go from being a product to a brand. If you don't play the long game you will wind up probably failing at some point because if you're just here for today, the customer can smell that like body odor on you. They know you're trying to get the money today. And so for our Q4 strategy, it's real simple. Once we come up with what we want to present them from a product offering perspective, it's about planting seeds March, April, May, June, July. So we, for a bad analogy, reap the harvest in Q4.

Nick Sharma (30:06)

I love it. Danny, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for listening. We'll be back. Next time to cut through the noise on CPG retail and E Commerce. If you enjoyed this episode, why not share it with a friend and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss the next one.