How Chomps built a billion-dollar meat snack brand without outside capital

Executive overview

Most CPG founders chase growth capital early and lose control of their company. Rashid Ali and Pete Maldonado built Chomps — a grass-fed meat stick brand — to nearly $1B in annual retail sales by deliberately throttling growth and deferring outside money as long as possible.

They launched D2C, ignored investor pressure, and spent two years as Trader Joe's sole retail partner before expanding. A data-driven rebrand targeting female "healthy achievers" was a major unlock.

Controlling your own destiny through disciplined unit economics and deferred capital is more valuable than chasing hypergrowth early.

Origins and early mistakes

• Pete's first venture, Frozen Fitness, collapsed after an investor pulled funding mid-launch during the 2008 real estate crash
• That failure shaped the Chomps philosophy: build a self-sufficient business that doesn't rely on outside capital
• Rashid and Pete met at a poker game; Rashid joined after one conversation, drawn by the business as a "living case study"
• Both ran Chomps as a side hustle for years — Pete until 2016, Rashid until 2018
• The business was designed as D2C/e-commerce from the start so it could be managed nights and weekends

Building without raising

• Gradual growth (2–3x per year) meant inventory could be self-funded without external capital
• Throttling growth was intentional: it let them pressure-test infrastructure and learn who their customer was
• The D2C foundation — email lists, loyal community — directly drove explosive retail velocities later
• Total outside capital before private equity: less than $700K in advisor skin-in-the-game money over two years

The Trader Joe's breakthrough

• In early 2016, a senior Trader Joe's buyer cold-called Pete to put Chomps in stores — an extremely rare move for a brand (90%+ of TJ products are private label)
• They declined a private label offer; insisted on Chomps-branded product only
• First PO: 1.1 million sticks; funded by a weekend friends-and-family debt raise at high interest rates, with a personal guarantee
• Sales were supposed to last 17 weeks — they sold out in 5
• Velocity hit 360 units per store per week from a single SKU, far above the 15–30 units typical for a health food retailer
• For two years after Trader Joe's, they stayed exclusive to that one retailer to perfect operations and build the brand

Discovering the real customer

• First real panel data (attitude and usage studies) revealed the core customer was disproportionately female
• Legacy jerky brands were aggressively masculine (e.g. Randy "Macho Man" Savage); Chomps had unconsciously mimicked that aesthetic
• They rebranded around the "healthy achiever" — health-conscious, fun, approachable — rather than a gendered product
• A new creative director redesigned packaging; small details like "Chompspirations" (fortune-cookie-style messages inside each stick) reinforced the brand personality
• The rebrand was developed through 2018 and hit shelves in late 2018–2019; it was a major growth unlock

Expanding to retail and raising PE capital

• After two years at Trader Joe's, concentration risk pushed them into the natural channel (Whole Foods, Sprouts, Fresh Market) via major distributors
• They had no concept of trade spend before retail expansion — a crash course followed
• Raised private equity from Stride Consumer Partners at end of 2021, when the company was already profitable and didn't need the money
• Reasons for PE: COVID had exposed they weren't bulletproof; the business was getting complex; they wanted experienced operators, not just a check
• Due diligence included finding and speaking to a portfolio company founder who had been pushed out — who still vouched for the lead partner's character

Tailwinds and scale

• Protein snacking is growing 3x faster than any other snack subcategory within a $126B US snacking market
• GLP-1 drugs are driving "conscious calorie" consumption, directly benefiting high-protein, low-junk products like Chomps
• On track for ~$1B in retail sales in the current year, nearly doubling year-over-year
• Major white space remains: ~50% of jerky sales are in convenience/C-stores, a channel Chomps has barely entered
• Household penetration is still low — founders treat unknown consumers as proof of upside, not failure

Advice for early CPG founders

• Launch before it's perfect; iterate after — waiting for perfection kills momentum
• Obsess over every detail; you must know your business inside out
• Filter advice through your own brand's lens — another brand's playbook won't replicate their results
• Understand unit economics from day one; economies of scale don't automatically improve gross margin
• Defer outside capital as long as possible to maximise enterprise value at the point you do raise

Co-founder dynamic

• Rashid and Pete are deliberately different in temperament: Rashid is more analytical, Pete moves fast — the tension creates a fuller picture
• Shared core values and family background (both from immigrant entrepreneur families) provide alignment beneath the friction
• They used leadership coaches ("marriage counseling") to resolve spirited disagreements and codify how to work together
• Operating principle: no ego, constant learning, mutual respect, and clear understanding of complementary strengths