STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka
One grew up in Alaska; the other grew up abroad. One is a Daughter of the American Revolution and a descendant of generations of American veterans; the other, the son of an African immigrant and a descendant of Congolese chieftains. One was a government watchdog; the other, a civil rights activist. Both had parents who were homeless for a while, and both graduated from Harvard Law School.
Like you, they have suffered devastating loss and faced overwhelming challenges. Through it all, they’ve found victory over the hardships of life simply by choosing to Stand. Join Kelly, Niki, and their inspiring guests as they move beyond simply talking about issues and challenges, to exploring how to solve and overcome them. Together, we will build a movement of everyday Americans who courageously take a stand for freedom, truth, and a country led by “We the People.”
STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka
Chris Rhodes on Veebs (Part 1)
Unlock the power behind your shopping cart with the insight from Chris Rhodes, CEO of Veebs. Our engaging conversation peels back the layers on how a simple barcode scan can unveil the socio-political DNA of your favorite brands, transforming your purchases into statements of your personal convictions. We dive into the innovative spirit of Veebs, discussing its inception and the ripple effect that conscientious consumerism has on corporate behavior. It's about more than just what's in your shopping bag—it's a discussion on financial freedom and the subtle art of aligning your wallet with your world view.
As the frosty winds whistle through the Alaskan wilderness, my co-host, Josiah Chewbacca, and I turn the spotlight to how political action committees can echo the conservative heartbeat of our listeners. Tapping into the ethos of America First, we articulate the synergy between robust national industries, pro-oil drilling advocacy, and the steadfast support for our veterans. It's a candid look at how flexible prioritization of PACs can foster a government truly by the people and for the people. Get ready to be inspired and informed, as we lay out the blueprint for engagement and empowerment that goes beyond the airwaves.
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Welcome back to Stand where we help to make courage contagious. I'm your host, kelly Chewbacca, former US Senate candidate and current chair for the Trump campaign in Alaska, and I'm joined today by my amazing co-host and son, josiah Chewbacca, who soon is heading off to college. I'm so glad that you're with me. We're so excited to be broadcasting today from the frontier of Alaska. You can be one of our standouts by joining us on our website, wwwstandshoworg. That's where you can find all of our amazing past episodes and you can find all of our links to social media, our links to our YouTube channel all of our stand shows. Hit that subscribe button. Become one of our famous standouts. We'd love to have you join us and we're so excited to have you on our show.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to be talking to Chris Rhodes, the CEO of Veebs. That's spelled V-E-E-B-S. Have you ever asked yourself why the heck do I want to give money to people who hate what I stand for? That's what Veebs, the app, is all about. It tells you where the businesses you're shopping for and shopping with align with your values. You don't want to be giving your money to people who don't believe what you believe, and this app tells you whether these businesses align with your political and social values. So it's just as easy as scanning the barcode. Super simple. We're going to talk to the Veebs founder today about how Veebs can empower your financial freedom. So welcome Chris. We're so excited to have you with us. Thank you for being with us today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to be on here. I've listened to a bunch of your podcasts before and I just think they're great. Great stories by people Love the focus on action, and so I'm really happy to be here today and talking to your audience.
Speaker 1:We're excited to have you and, speaking of action, that's what we stand for stand for freedom, truth, government by the people. So I want everyone to know. Veebs is available on the app store or on Google play. You can download it. I've got it. You want to get it. It is a new app, so you are on the cutting edge of your listening today. You want to get it. It is a new app, so you are on the cutting edge. If you're listening today, you want to find out how to maximize your financial freedom and take a stand financially. Get Veebs on Google play or the app store, whatever is your app preference of choice, but you can get it there. So, chris, let's jump in. What inspired you all to create this app?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, you know, first of all, like you say, veebs is the app that enables people to buy based on their values during their regular shopping trips, and so it works really easily. Veebs customers pay 99 cents a month. They pick a value score based on what their own values are, or a value pack based on the value what their values are. Then they go in the store, they scan the barcode and Veebs returns a V-score to them, and the V-score if it's high, that means the product aligns with the customer's values. If it's low, veebs offers an alternative so that the customer can find a product that more aligns with their values. We got about 4,000 companies in our database now and about 300,000 products, so when you go into the store, you can be pretty sure that what you're scanning is going to show up. Our alternatives are that they match what you're actually looking for. So if you want French onion soup, you're going to get another French onion soup, not a tomato soup. So it makes it super easy to go into the store and find the companies and the products that match your values.
Speaker 2:Now, we came up with this idea around 2021. There were a couple of things converging at that time. First of all, there was a big study that came out that said that over 75% of US customers want to buy products from companies that align with their values. So that's across the board. Bipartisan People want to buy from companies that align with their values. So that's across the board. Bipartisan people want to buy from companies that align with their values.
Speaker 2:At the same time that that was happening, we were seeing more and more companies that were taking hard stands on one side or the other of what we kind of considered to be 50-50 political and social issues, but they were still expecting to sell 100% of the products that they had been selling, and so all of that didn't quite match up for us, and some of the messaging was kind of strong-armed. We thought it went beyond just let's take care of the environment. It went beyond let's be inclusive, and it felt a little more like take your medicine, we know better than you. So we started in 2021 building on our database. It's it's actually pretty complicated to pull all that data because it's in all different formats. It's, you know, deep in financial disclosure sometimes, and so it took us a couple of years to build out the database, to build out the scoring for being so easy and then to connect it to the barcodes. But we opened kind of soft launched in July and are fully up and running now trying to get people to buy based on their conscience.
Speaker 1:I just want to identify something you just said. I love that I don't have time to go research what the French onion soup companies are investing in, so I'm going to be honest.
Speaker 2:Exactly but.
Speaker 1:I think we all saw what happened with Budweiser right. So when that hit the news, people voted with their dollars and it made a really big impact on the company and they had to make some big decisions about what they were going to do. I know one of the things that happens in our house is maybe my husband and I have some differences in how strongly we stand on some of these values or or vote with our dollars. So a company will make a decision and I get really upset about, like you said, a they will make a decision on a 50, 50 kind of issue, and then they make a 100% stand and then expect me to kind of absorb their values. And so then I will make a 100% stand and then expect me to kind of absorb their values, and so then I will take a 100% stand in response.
Speaker 1:And then he gets upset that we can no longer eat at that restaurant or gets upset that we no longer buy that product. And if he brings home ice cream from that company, it just goes in the trash. He goes upstairs and I just I don't care that. I just threw a $7 pint of ice cream out and he's like, what did you do? And I said do you know what they stand for? And so there's conflict. So he just knows he can't bring home those products and but I'll tell you I don't have time to sit there and research what.
Speaker 1:So I wonder how many other things you know. Like our son, one of our other sons, he's really into basketball shoes and there are companies that I say you are absolutely not allowed to buy shoes from those companies. And we have this debate and he says but they're the best basketball shoe company. And I say well, do you want to give money to people who wish that we not only couldn't speak but didn't exist on the face of the planet? Like we're literally supporting people who wish that we did not exist. And so I love that you're doing that research for us. So I'm wondering, like, what's your long-term goal with Veebs I? What I'm hearing you say is you're not in this app. You don't cater your app to people like me. It sounds like people kind of pick their own values and then the value it's a neutral app it just tells you this company does or doesn't align. So then, what's your long-term goal with thieves?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know. First of all, I think um to to kind of address the rabbit hole issue. That's what we call what you're talking about where, how do you learn about companies? You got to go right now. You got to go down the rabbit hole, or you have to wait for the new cycle to catch up.
Speaker 1:Right, you hope mainstream media reports it.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. So you see, maybe a handful a year or you're spending your days down you know internet rabbit holes, learning about the companies that you're thinking about buying from. We will replace all that. We make it easy for you to just know what. You know where these companies stand, so that you can, at the point of sale, decide what you want to buy, and that way you also avoid throwing ice cream out right, like you decide in the grocery store, not once you get home and realize that there wasn't what you wanted to get in the first place.
Speaker 2:I think the other thing that we do is we stay on top of things like who actually owns the company. There's a lot of movement between brands and who owns them, and so we have to stay on top of that. It's not always clear at any particular time who owns a company and what they stand for. And then the other thing that we really try to stay on top of is how they're influencing. So some of the examples you gave are almost exclusively about marketing. So it's the company decided to say to the world about marketing. So it's the company decided to say to the world here's what we stand for, here's what our marketing plan is. But marketing is not the only way that they take stands. They also use foundation money to pay for different types of advocacy. Even the way they're structured sometimes is an indication to what they stand for. We recently did a study on B corporations. So it's not just about the marketing. It's also about really where they're trying to influence kind of the global scene Long term.
Speaker 2:Like you say, the company is in fact, neutral. You can pick from a variety of different values packs, and some of them are liberal and some of them are conservative. But what we really want to do is be the trusted source for data. We don't take any money from companies, we don't do any advertising, so we want to be the trusted source for data so that people can make informed decisions. We think that there's really nothing more American than giving people the choice of what they want to do, and so that's why we make our app neutral. You pick the values and you're able to decide what you want to buy.
Speaker 2:We will continue to add different values packs. We've got seven now a few in the works. It's turned out to be more complicated than we expected to just add values packs and do it consistently so we can be the trusted source of data. But we'll see more values packs come online so you can tailor your beliefs a little more, and we'll also see us expand into new product areas. We right now do grocery, paper products, alcohol products. We don't do restaurants yet. We don't do clothing yet. We don't do airlines yet. Uh, but we we expect to do that in the future. With the way we think about it is, we kind of did the hard stuff first. Right, there's many more grocery items than there are types of shoes, for instance and so we try to do the hard things first and we're going to come back around later to other other product lines.
Speaker 1:That's great, chris. What's the best value value pack, would you say, for people here at stan, people who want to take a stand for freedom, truth and government by the people?
Speaker 2:yeah, so we have. We have three value packs that are really focused on conservative values. There's conservative, which is kind of the general, across the board conservative values. That's also where the right now the, the non-political companies. So if you really just want quality and price, that's probably the pack for you. Right it's, if the companies are not involved in the political scene, then they tend to fall into the conservative value pack.
Speaker 2:We also have America first, so that aligns more with I believe you know you said I think you were President Trump's representative in Alaska that's probably the best one for that group of people. It's kind of that. You know, how do we make America's industries stronger? It's, you know, pro drilling for oil, things like that. And then we have a veterans focused pack. That and then we have a veterans focused pack and very often our conservative customers are really interested in supporting companies that support veterans. You can pick up the three and you can order them in a way that you know kind of changes, what the score turns out to be based on what's really the most important for you. But that is, those are the three. I think that probably would most resonate with your audience.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Thanks for talking with Chris Rhodes, the CEO of Biebs. You're on stand with Kelly and Nikki Chewbacca. My co-host today is Josiah Chewbacca. We'll be right back after this break. Check us out at standshoworg.
