Danielle Mahon | Topsail Steamer

Today’s guest is Danielle Mahon, founder and CEO of Topsail Steamer, specializing in providing take-home seafood steam pots.

In this episode, we discuss Danielle’s detailed vision and operational experience with Topsail Steamer, her entrepreneurial roots, AND her recent experience with the widely popular Shark Tank.

Co-Produced by Topsail Insider and Cape Fear Ventures
Edited by Coastal Carolina Network

To learn more about Amplified CEO, visit www.topsailinsider.com/aceo
To learn more about Topsail Insider, visit www.topsailinsider.com.
To learn more about Richard Stroupe, or Cape Fear Ventures, please contact Christa at (910) 800-0111 or christa@topsailinsider.com.

Transcript

ACEO-E01-Danielle Mahon

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Amplified CEO with VC and serial entrepreneur, Richard Stroupe. Today's guest is Danielle Mahon, founder and CEO of Topsail Steamer, specializing in providing take home seafood steam pots. In this episode, we discuss Danielle's detailed vision and operational experience with Topsail Steamer, her entrepreneurial roots, and her recent experience with the widely popular Shark Tank.

Danielle Mahon. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you. So you just completed your meeting with Shark Tank. How was that? It was an unbelievable experience. That's a question that I've gotten a lot recently. How was it? And I would say there's a ton of different emotions attached to how it was. Um, it was nerve wracking.

It was exciting. It was once in a lifetime. And then [00:01:00] you go over it all again when, with the airing, when, you know, for so many months it's, you keep it to yourself and only you and your small team know it happened and so when it, when the episode airs, it's a whole nother flood of Emotion and fun and overwhelm and so yeah, it's been quite a ride.

So how many months ago was the actual filming versus the when you see it on TV? I filmed it in mid June. Okay. And it aired October 28th. Okay. And did you have to apply to go through a process to get accepted ? Yes, I applied online in January. Okay. So they, , there's a couple of different ways to, to appear on, on a Shark Tank episode.

They do casting calls. In fact, I just saw that they just opened up their 2025 casting calls. Okay. So they generally go to a couple cities to do a casting call. You can apply online and then they also do some recruiting as well. Okay. Yep. So once you're selected, do you go through like a [00:02:00] initial process of like, we need to understand your business model a little better.

before you come on and kind of pitch us or? Oh yeah. It's, it's definitely a long process with lots of steps along the way. Okay. , so you apply and then if you are, if you get a response from the application, that's exactly it. They just want to look a little further into the business. I'm not allowed to talk about the specifics of it because there is a lot of confidentiality that, that we have to sign and clauses that we're under, but yes, you apply.

And, uh, then there's, You have to submit a video and then more information about your business. And so it goes on for several months and we were, I was just fortunate to be able to keep making it to that next step. Right. And then they really don't tell you if you'll have an opportunity to actually film.

Until just a couple weeks before. Oh, wow. You go through all of that for many months. Okay. And, and then, [00:03:00] you know, for us, we got the call or we were notified, okay, you're going to come out and film. And even then, they just only let you know a couple weeks before. So once you had the call. Yep. Imagine you and your family were like super excited.

, we're going. Yeah. Yes. But you can't tell anybody. Nope. Can't tell anybody. Yeah. Can't tell anybody. It was just my husband and I that went. Okay. And was it in New York It was in, in Los Angeles. Los Angeles. Okay. That's where their, their studio is. Yep. Sony. They, they shoot on the Sony lot.

All right. So when you got there, did you meet Mark Cuban? No, no, the way it works is they, they really, they, there is no interaction with the sharks at all before you're at, before you walk out on that stage. Really? Yeah. Wow. So the first time you actually have seen these people having conversations. It's right there on the spot.

Right there. And they do that because it really is true that they know nothing about your business before they hear your pitch. So [00:04:00] even, even when you're there, there's, they, there's separate entrances, there's, they make sure that you never run into them because there's people there with, you know, branded shirts and, um, and they just want to make sure to keep the integrity of the show that there's, they have no idea.

They're seeing and hearing from you. For the first time when you walk through those doors. So on a typical taping day that you were there, how many other businesses would you say they would probably go through in one day? Well they do it in, from what I understand, 12 hour days, I believe. So I think they see somewhere between 10 and 12, um, entrepreneurs each taping day.

Okay. So you're taping even though online or on, on the show is like 20 minutes or with questions and answers. Thank you Was that really like an hour of like, taping and they edited out certain things and Yeah, you're in the tank for much longer than that 10 to 12 minutes. Was that stressful? No, it actually wasn't.

For me, the most stressful part was the before I got out there. [00:05:00] Because you, the only scripted part of the show is that you're 90 second pitch. So, and you only get one chance to do that. There's no do overs, there's no film it again. Can I, you know, can I try that again? So that, I think for me, that was the most stressful part because you have this opportunity and, You want to make sure you get it right.

So, so once I got through my pitch, then it really just becomes conversational. Lots of questions from, from, from everyone, you know, they, they want to get there because it is their first time seeing the concept. They've got, they've, they want to talk. There's a lot of, you know, everybody wants to ask a question and give their opinion.

And so it goes fast. And I think I was probably in the tank the longest. 45 minutes. A total? Okay. Yeah. I, it really was just conversa at that point it was, it was talking about my business. Right. And answering questions about my business. And you've had a lot of experience doing that. See, [00:06:00] right. And, and you know, you better believe I was prepared to, you know, I've watched the show.

I anticipated what would be asked. I made sure I knew my numbers. I made sure that, that I would have answers to the questions. So yeah. So at that point it was just, it really just became conversational. It's very uncomfortable because when you watch the Shark Tank, which I've seen many of episodes and founders will go out there and do their pitch.

And then some of the questions are basic softball questions like, what are your sales, what are your margins? What's your cost of goods sold? And they're like, uh, and you kind of feel like, oh my God, they have to feel like so paralyzed. I think I've probably seen those episodes and I was gonna be sure that that didn't happen to me, right?

And I would say I probably even went the other way with all of the things I was prepared for. So, so when they called you two weeks before the airing or the taping, I'm sure you and your husband were like practicing your 90 second pitch, and you probably were going through all the different questions and anything they possibly [00:07:00] could ask.

I mean, Mr. Wonderful is pretty sharp on his financials. He's going to ask me questions all about my margins and my, my cost. Customer acquisition and my, all of that. What's my TAM? Yeah. Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah. I think my husband probably heard my, my pitch. A thousand times. In the morning when I was blood drying my hair, making dinner, you know, I'd just walk around the corner and start the pitch.

And I did that a ton. Right. So, you know, and I would say when I look at it on, you know, now, once you film, you never get to see anything, right? So the first time I was seeing it was the first time Everyone else was seeing it. Okay, so they didn't give you a preview. Oh no, there's no, you don't even get a picture of yourself in the tank.

You don't get anything. Wow. Yeah, they, they hold everything. So I was seeing it with you, with everybody else for the first time. Right. And I remember when I was doing the pitch, I was like, Oh, there were a couple of words that, you know, cause, cause you have it down, like it's down. Um, and I, I remember thinking there were a couple of times when I almost.

You know, cause you have to make sure you're, [00:08:00] they're all in front of you and you're on the stage. And I remember thinking, okay, I hope, I hope I can get, like, I missed that word. I hope I can keep going. Also I had bronchitis and I had, I was really sick the two weeks before and going into that day, I had, I had a bronchitis where when you, when you talk, you cough.

The whole time before I think I might've drank 10 cups of throat coat tea. I asked if I could have a, a water hidden. I had, I might've, I probably ate 20 hauls that day cause I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to get through it without coughing. Right. I think the adrenaline just kicked in and I don't think I coughed once.

So you don't need to take a break or anything like they're just filmed for 45 minutes. Yeah, that's just, you're in there. Yep. Everything's uh, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. So, so you're in there and you have the questions, uh, obviously, you know, congratulations on your deal. Thank you. And we'll get into that momentarily, but [00:09:00] how did you feel with the neg I mean, obviously, you know, going into Shark Tank, they're going to cut you down.

I think your first offer was 350 for 8%, which is roughly 4. 23 valuation and different valuation topics, you know, especially for the restaurant business. Is it a multiple EBITDA? Is it multiple sales? You know, and of course. They're celebrities and they can bring their brand and their impact and use that as leverage to cut your, your offer down.

But when that first offer came back at 350 for 20%, like what was, what was that initial gut reaction? Like, Oh my God. The initial reaction for me was really positive. Right. Because going in, I had already done my research on what the likely offer would be based on, I mean, you can look at 16 seasons worth of what the, what the entrepreneur came in with, what they, what their ask was, what the offer was, how that's been [00:10:00] trending over the past, you know, how it's different from season one to season 15, 16.

Right. So. I did a lot of that work, and I, I, I already went in there with a range, and I knew what range would make sense based on the partners, or one or two partners. So I knew that first offer, especially, like, I only learned the day before who the guest shark was. Maybe, maybe, maybe. So you had no idea Raising Cane's?

I had no idea. No, they don't let you know who the Guest Shark is. Okay. So when I learned who the Guest Shark was, I thought, that's a, that's feels like somebody who's in the food industry, somebody who understands. So, um, so when I found that out, I knew that, I knew where my range was and that initial off, offer was You know, what's, what's within the range, right?

So, yeah, I think they call that the ZOPA, Zone of Potential Agreement. That's exactly right. You've got your high and low reservation value, you know, like this is my floor. I can't go any further than that. Anything else on [00:11:00] the, on the upside will be great, but. That's exactly it. So it was within, I haven't heard that term before, but that's where it was.

It was within my zone of, it was, I had a, a no go, no go. Right. And, and that was within the, you know. So that's probably a good lesson learned from anybody listening to this that wants to go on to Shark Tank is to do your research, right? Go through, like if you're in the restaurant business, go through all the different restaurant deals that have gone through, And start making notes, like what was the initial offer?

What was the accepted offer? And what was the counter? And then go back and see what was the outcome. Like how have the sales been since that deal has been done. It is. And so there, for me, because I didn't want to get to a place where, uh, I was under the lights and excited and in the, in the moment. And I agreed to something that didn't make sense for, for me or for the company.

, I wanted to make sure that I It was really clear on the numbers, so I didn't, because I, I didn't know how I was going to react in there under the lights with all of that going on, [00:12:00] so.

I'm sure it's nerve wracking. Yeah, yeah. So I wanted to have a good, especially too, you don't have a calculator in front of you, you don't have anything, you have to do it all in your head, and you have to do it while you're on national television and in front of the Sharks, so. Right. For me, the way that I, I think, I knew I had to prepare and, and, and, and have a, you know, a good, you know.

Well, especially if you give them the wrong answer, they're gonna get yelled at. Right. What do you mean you don't know your numbers? You don't know your cells? Oh my gosh. I think the entire flight out there, I, I was definitely heightened for, you know, for, for a while. Yeah. Because I kept thinking, well, what if I could ask this?

And what if I could ask this and let me look at that? And, and you're right, there's so many, so many different ways to, you know, Get to evaluation, you know, and you don't know what they're thinking and what you're thinking and how How much time you're gonna get to explain how you got to where your valuation is, right?

All right So you accepted 350 for 18 percent split between Lori and Raising Cane's the so they're gonna take you know basically 8 percent each for 350 which is [00:13:00] roughly 1. 8 million vowel off the top of my head. So it's almost half, you know, so it was in your zone. So you figured, all right, they're going to cut me down a little bit.

So, all right. So that's June we're sitting here in November. And again, just cut me out if this is getting into NDA territory. So it's a handshake deal. Like you agree in good faith. On national TV, then I assume lawyers get involved and now you have term sheets and then you have Certs and reps and other types of legal, obligations that you have to really sign up for Um, are you did you enter a deal?

Are you still in due diligence? Where is that at? We are still in due diligence and negotiations at this point. Okay. But that's exactly what happens. So you've been sitting in with lawyers for four months trying to hammer out a deal. That's right. That's right. And it takes a little while if you think they're doing several deals, lots of deals.

So there's some time involved in that when it actually, you know, until it [00:14:00] really gets started. But yes, uh, we are, we are in the due diligence and it's a handshake deal. It's TV. And then when, When you're off TV, then it, then it's a, then it's an investment deal. It's a financial. Correct. Like a normal venture capital.

Like a normal venture, that's exactly right. Okay. That's interesting because I think a lot of people that aren't familiar with the VC model or understand investments, especially from a private point of view. They feel like, wow, they did a deal on TV. Congratulations. It's off and running, you know, but really behind the scenes There's a lot more work to be done.

That's right. . Okay. So do you feel confident you'll get a deal like similar to what they asked for? I mean, I know you probably can't talk too much about it But have they asked for more concessions or more things than they did on on TV? Yeah that part I can't

But there's been some positive sides, right your sales have have increased since you had some exposure and [00:15:00] Do they take any credit for that? Cause you're making the investment. You're going on live TV. People now host to coast, see your business model. They go to your website. They see where your locations are, or they can order gift cards online or whatever.

I know you do some shipping. Do they take credit for that? Like, Hey, you know what? Your sales are up. 800%, so we're going to take a cut of that. No? That's all you. Yeah. Okay. You know, there's no deal in place right now. I'm 100 percent owner of Topsail Steamer. Good. So anything that's happening right now is Good for you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And do you, do you have someone other than your legal team, someone kind of like looking over these terms and conditions and saying, you know what, that's not fair, ask for this or You know, based on what we feel is more accurate and fair for the restaurant industry. I do have some advisors that are working with me on that.

So other than doing your due diligence and practice and research, any other lessons learned for any entrepreneurs who may [00:16:00] consider going on the Shark Tank? I would say absolutely. If you're thinking about it, try, try it, right? It feels like such a big. It feels like a, uh, such a big thing, and it is, it's a huge accomplishment.

I think it's, I think the numbers are, you know, 0. 4 percent actually get on that apply, that actually get on the show. And then I think it's like 0. 2 percent do the deal, right? So, but I, I would say I had this time last year, if you would have asked me if I would have been on Shark Tank, I would have been like, you're crazy, right?

But I just decided one day. Because we, I'd had customers say since the very beginning, since we started, you should be on Shark Tank. This, this is a great idea. You should be on Shark Tank. You should do it. And in the beginning, I thought, no, I, um, I, it's not something that I want to do right now because I am a unique concept.

You know, Mr. Wonderful would always say there's a very low barrier to [00:17:00] entry. Right now I'm not ready to take this out nationally because there's not too much that would stop people from copying it or doing the same. So I had that fear in the beginning, but then seven years in and feeling like, you know, we've, we're really well branded, we're expanding, we're franchising, we ship nationally.

I felt like at this point. it would be, it would help possibly give us, you know, that exposure that we wanted because we were ready for it and we've branded. So, so I would say if you're, to any entrepreneur, if you think that this is too big of a mountain to climb, you should just try it. Right. And for me, it really just was, we applied, we were honest.

We kept, you know, giving, we, we kept giving all the, all the information we had. We told our story, we were genuine. And it was a lot of work, but in the end, whatever the result is, I mean, we've, we, we had, we had a big win. Absolutely. 100%. We had [00:18:00] a, we had a big win for our sales, our, my franchisees who have locations where now this will help drive more people in their doors.

We've got national exposure on the, on the gifting side and the ship to home. We, we do. That, that right now shipping is just, that's where we're seeing because a lot of our stores are closed because it's off season. That's where we're seeing a lot of the impact today. Right. Right. Because people love to, you know, whether you've been to a Topsail Steamer and you want to ship it to where you are at home or you're looking for a gift or just to share that type of experience with someone and have it shipped to your house.

So that's where we're seeing really the biggest impact. And, and, No one else is doing it. We're unique in that, in that fashion. Absolutely. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your background. You're from New Jersey. Yes. Where specifically in New Jersey? I was originally from Burlington County, Marlton, um, Tabernacle area in New Jersey.

Okay. [00:19:00] Yeah. And you spend a lot of time at the beaches in New Jersey. At the shore. Down the shore. Okay. The shore. Down the shore. Yes. Jersey Shore. Going down the shore. Yep. It's the Jersey Shore. Jersey Shore. Is it, is it similar to what we saw on TV? No, it's nothing like it. That Jersey Shore is north. I'm from the south.

Southern Jersey Shore. Cape May, Ocean City. Oh, Cape May. Like that, that area. The, the, the one you saw on the show was, North. Yeah, Cape May. Very different. Cape May is beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful. Um, somebody brought me back one of the Peace Pies. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Remember Peace Pies? Yeah, they were on, um, I believe they were Shark Tank, too.

They were. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And they were delicious, so I ordered some. Mm hmm. And I'm a fan. Yeah. So I was like, oh, look, the Peace Pies. Yeah. I just saw the Peace Pie shop that we were just, that we went down to Cape May for Christmas last year. They have a, they were really nice Christmas. They do the whole town up.

I've heard a lot of great things about Cape May and of course Atlantic City is not too far away. Yep. So, you know, and we, and we have four locations along that strip in those shore towns [00:20:00] between Atlantic City and Cape May. You grew up in Jersey and you went to Rutgers Camden. I did. And you majored in management.

Yep. Management and minor in marketing. Marketing. Okay. So you left college and you went to Rutgers. Started into sales. I did. Yes. Pharmaceutical sales. Well, my first job out of college was actually payroll, ADP, you know, uh, I went right into that cold Colin, I like to call it blue suit, you know, uh, Uh, sales.

So I started in, um, with ADP and payroll. I was actually in a few different industries. I also worked for Procter Gamble for a bit. And, uh, when we moved to, we moved to North Carolina in 2003. Okay. Because my husband took a position where we had to live in the southeast somewhere. Okay. So we picked the northernmost part of the southeast.

Right. And we, we went to Raleigh. Okay. Yeah, but, but before you moved, like your, [00:21:00] your dad, did he start his own business? He did. That's exactly right. And then, and then I worked for my, my father. So my father was a, was also an entrepreneur. His industry was electronic components, so semiconductors, and he went out on his own.

He worked for a major distributor. In the seventies and then saw a path to be able to do that on his own as a broker. And he started his own company, which even today at 78, I believe my dad is, he's still brokering parts . Wow. Well, a, a whole lot less than a different capacity, but he's still got, he still has some customers that he's had for thir, you know, 40 years that he's still, uh.

Still works with. So yeah. So does he have a team or is he a kind of an independent contractor? He did have a team. Now he's just back to himself, but for a while, yeah, he had a large, he had a, he had a decent sized organization. So, I mean, at a young age, you were exposed to entrepreneurial background [00:22:00] and experiences.

And really I think it was, it, yes, um, but I, I think what stuck with me the most is that when you see an idea or a different way that something can be done, you can go ahead and do that. And not be afraid to And not be afraid to take a risk. You know, I, I always like to say, and the people around me say, And there's a couple different ways to look at things and, and I don't necessarily see, you know, guardrails like others see them.

And so for me, ideas feel like opportunities and they always have. And I've had a lot of ideas over the years that didn't necessarily paint out to be opportunities. But, um, I think that's the way that I've always looked at things. And my guess is that, you know, I think because I've, my father did that. I saw that from a young age.

I can remember going. And I was younger than 10, I'm sure, like to his office where he now had his own office, right? A place where, where we would go. And I think that that's definitely what, for me, [00:23:00] why I always felt like having, uh, uh, my own business was something that not only was achievable if I had the right idea and, and also if the, uh, if the timing was right, but something that I would want to do.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I had a similar background. A lot of my family, what I'm sort of thinking about is that my dad was in the truck driving business and my grandmother opened a florist and then left it to my aunt and my other aunt opened another florist and you had small town mentality, but then there's also a strong growth mindset.

It's like, yeah. Not afraid to take a risk or put a model together and see if we can, you know, launch it and get it operational. So my mom two years after that, my mom opened her own home decorating store. So she had a home decorating store for a few years, right? So that's exactly, it was just something that you did if, if you could.

Right. No, it's awesome. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's been, I never really, and I'm not sure that I connected those dots and until I've gotten to this place where people are asking me about it, right? And the why behind it, because there's some people that [00:24:00] say, my gosh, that, that feels so scary. You could just never do that.

But I think if you've, if it's something that's kind of been a part of your upbringing and you've always seen, it doesn't feel so scary. Exactly. It just feels like, oh, oh, there's. I can take this and do that with it. So you moved to RTP and you said in 2003. 2003. Okay. And by this time you're still in the sales area.

Still in sales. Leading a team? Managing a team? Not when I got to RTP, no. Okay. In fact, it's, uh, I was in sales in New Jersey and, um, I don't think I've told this part of the story, but I always knew that I was very interested in something. medical, um, I just knew that I kind of maybe wanted to go that route, something in that realm.

And so I actually decided that I was going to go back to school for nursing. Okay. And I had been accepted into the, for Drexel has a, in Philadelphia, they have a second degree, uh, program. So I think it was, uh, bachelor's to [00:25:00] BSN. And so I had gotten, I'd been accepted. I had done the orientation and I was about to go down that route.

And, and then we moved. So I think when I got to RTP and I knew that I wanted to look, I wanted to do something in that world. And so that's what, when I saw the opportunity to, for, it was Thermo Fisher for life science, I thought, Oh, maybe that's it. And that's when I took my first life science position. I was actually selling pipettes.

But I loved the life science industry because where I was selling into was mostly both academic and biotech pharma research, so drug discovery, academic research. So every day was like you were working with a different team who was researching or working on something that was really interesting and felt like was impactful.

And so, um. Um, I, I really enjoyed the, the life science industry. Oh, [00:26:00] that's great. Yeah. Of course, RTP is kind of rich in that life sciences. Very rich in that. And so, and, and with a really good combination of academic and industry, right? So. Was there ever a time when you're in the life sciences area that you decided, or maybe think about doing what your dad did and become a broker or maybe start out as an independent contractor selling some of these into the same industries?

Absolutely. I think so. I think I'm always scanning. I'm a scanner, right? So, yeah, the entrepreneurial mind never stops. Right. Oh, right. Yes. It's a curse. It's a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing and a curse, right? That's exactly right. Um, it never turns off. No, it's, it's, it's awful. It's awful. You get up in the night, use the bathroom, and you're like, oh my God.

Um, I just did it last night, right? I did too. I mean, I think it was an hour and a half where, I went through 15 subjects, right? So it is. So my guess is, I can't think of something that comes to mind where I thought that I could launch something in that, [00:27:00] in that industry, but I know I was always scanning.

Right. When I worked at Oracle, they were farming me out at 400 an hour on a government contract. And then project manager come to me and said, Hey, you want to come work for me? And I said, sure. You know, what was the rate? 95. So it's like, all right, I guess that's your competitive advantage is if you could offer the same service for one third of the cost, but it opens up opportunities, I'm sure your dad probably deployed the same model, whereas.

Instead of selling it for X, you could sell it for Y and make a little bit extra money. And that's exactly right. And, and he decided to, you know, he concentrated on those hard to find items that people didn't have. Everybody in his industry would have a broker in their pocket when there was something that they needed that was what they used to call it on allocation and hard to find.

You had to, you know, Just dig in and go find where that was and it was easier to have somebody that would do that work for you And then you'd be willing to pay a premium for it because you needed it So a line didn't go down or something, [00:28:00] right? And so he found that niche in that world and and you know My guess is there's I think I was always looking through that lens to where can you be a value add and also, you know Be baking.

That's great. You're making some money. So roughly for 20 years Plus or minus you. You worked in that area. And then if I understand the story, you were at a dinner with some friends and this concept came out of nowhere. Yeah. Out of nowhere how many bottles of wine you have . It was lunch even. So there wasn't even wine involved.

There might have been a beer. Okay. But I, I was on a girl's trip was I was with my mom and my sister. Okay. And we were in the outer banks. And in fact, I just visited that restaurant, this two weekends ago, right after this whole thing. But we were in the Outer Banks it's a full service restaurant that we wanted to, that we had decided to go to lunch.

It was the off season too. We were sitting at the bar and this restaurant made the ce Low country boil steam pots in [00:29:00] the like the black and white enamel lobster pots, right? And so I just yeah, I just noticed people coming in and walking out with a pot Which was very unusual and what I discovered was that was just something that they did on a takeout counter Was they would build the pot they would customers would take it home And then they'd bring the pot back the next day and for me I just was that's when the light bulb went off and I thought I'm Oh my gosh, that is a really great idea.

And I'm sure it, it, I'm sure it comes from the fact that we've always had a home by the coast. We love to do seafood and, and that, that lens that I'm always looking at things through that, that is a great concept. Right. But I think you don't need a full service restaurant. Right. And so I remember saying it right there, you know, Oh my gosh, that's a great, that's a great idea.

And that one didn't go away. So that one was the one in the middle of the night, I just kept thinking about and thinking about. Because it's more than just the food, right? It's the [00:30:00] experience. It's the experience. Because usually when you have a Low Country Boil, you're with friends or family, large gatherings, you're having fun, catching up, and then.

You spread this food out over the table, maybe you have a mallet, I don't know if you have crab or lobster or whatever, it's in the mix, but, but then you use your hands and you're getting in there and everybody's having fun, it's great food, so it's, it's, it's more than just the food, it's, it's, it's the experience that you have while enjoying the food.

That's exactly right. Right. So for us, that, that is, that's exactly, that's it, right? And so for me, I think I had my experience being from New Jersey, we would pick blue crab. Right? So, um, you're from Northern Virginia, right? So, you know, you know, the blue crab. Maryland blue crabs? Maryland blue crab. So, and I could eat a whole bushel by myself.

Me too. I love picking blue crab, but we would spread out that brown paper and we would just put the crabs out and, you know, and pick crab. And I can remember doing that from a very young age. Yeah. So, yeah. Um, and there's a lot of [00:31:00] emotion and, uh, uh, there's like, you're emotionally attached to that experience because it was friends and family, little, linger a little longer, something that you, you know, that you, that you don't do regularly.

So, um, and so for me, I think as I, as that, as that idea grew, I knew that that was exactly it. We could, we could provide a really good product. We could, um, and we could answer that, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a great quality product, good food. We can take the intimidation out of cooking it, right? Because we can make it really simple for people.

Because a lot of people love it, but they don't know how to do it and they're intimidated by it. They don't know where to buy all the components and all of those things. So we can make it easy. We can make it convenient. Um, we can make it good, but then we can also provide this experience, right? So that there's, so that people are emotionally attached to the, to the product itself.

And for us, for me, outside of just the business concept, that's been the, probably [00:32:00] the, one of the most gratifying pieces. Like we have become people's tradition. People come into these stores, and they are so, um, positive and excited about what they're about to do. They love to tell you about it. They can't wait to tell you the last time they did it, and how they're doing it this time, and the next time they're going to order.

And in my world, in sales You would, after a good sale, you would try to go back and get a customer testimonial, right? Hey, can you, can you let people know about our experience? We get testimonials every night on Instagram and Facebook. Pictorial testimony. Right. It's like pictures of the gathering. People take pictures and they share it and they, you know, so, and there's just so much joy around the product.

I looked at it through the business lens in the beginning and I still do, but that's a piece of it that was unexpected and intangible and it's been a really fun piece. Well, it's the human element. The human element. Right. That's right. That's really the [00:33:00] key because if, if humans are emotional. And when you make a purchase, it's, it's emotional, right?

Yes. Um, and they want to see other people having fun and they're like, I want that. Like, I want that experience. Like when I come to the beach. I'm going to make sure that we have a low contra boil party or get together. And you wouldn't believe, one of the things I knew when I was building the model was like, we're going to give away the paper, right?

People love that paper. You know, when we give them, we give them the brown paper, a free roll on the way out and you wouldn't believe. It's how happy that makes people walking out the door, like just that little, because that really is part of the experience, right? So we're, we're trying to build that entire experience for them.

So, so yeah, so it's been that, that part of it and becoming traditions, people's tradition and hearing about it year after year. And, um, even now we're seeing so much more. When I first started it, we thought, okay, this is a great thing for people to do while they're on vacation and, uh, when they're in their coastal [00:34:00] town, but what What customers have really told us is that, yes, that's one use case, but we, uh, we ship every day anywhere from 20 to 200 buckets in a day, sometimes more in the holidays, and for birthdays and anniversaries and graduations and congratulations.

And here's this for your team, you know, people have a team for in, in, in corporate America, and they want to send their team. So tailgating, and we see people taking it to the mountains on the, on the camp stoves, right? Camping. So all those things that I really never thought about when I opened up the first, um, location.

They have shown themselves as ways that people really, uh, love to enjoy this, this product. They take the coastal experience and now they've transformed it into other avenues. Other avenues. Yes. The tailgate is fun. Yeah. People take it to the tailgates. Yeah. Yeah. So my software companies, we used to go to Ken Island, you know, speaking of blue crabs.

And there's a restaurant [00:35:00] around the water. They'd do the same thing. They'd bring bushels of crab and lay out the paper and give you the mallets and the, the knives and forks, and you sit there and hit 'em and four or five hours later, a couple pitchers of beer. It's like, it's the best thing. It, yeah, that's, that's how I remember it.

We used to go to Two Mile in, which is in, there's a restaurant in between, um, Wildwood Crest and Cape Maye as a kid. Yeah, same thing. Picnic tables. And, uh, and, and brown paper and crabs and, well, I wasn't drinking beer at the time, but crabs and root beer. Yeah, exactly. Alright, so you had this novel idea, and you said 2016, 17?

2016 is when I went on the trip, and we opened the doors of the first location in New York. March of 2017. So in that six month period, did you do any market research? Find out, is there any competitors? What's the, what's the TAM, you know, what's the opportunity, you know, what's the cost of goods sold? You know, what, what, what, what went into that research?

I wasn't thinking Tam at the time, you know, like, [00:36:00] and those, and those things that we now think about all the time. It was, was pretty basic. Had an idea. I, we, I had a friend who worked for U. S. Foods, so I could get some pricing from him to understand what that might look like. I had so much to learn. I didn't really know anything about clams and shrimp and, How I would, how it all works in that pot and how do you defrost shrimp if you have to, and how long do clams live?

Like there was a lot of, my husband and I would go to Sneets Ferry for several, and go and talk to the locals and to find out, cause at first I had to figure out, can I figure this out? Will this work? So I would say that year was doing like on the ground, boots on the ground research to figure out if we can do this.

Do it and then, uh, just like the product, will that work? And then I started to look at, okay, well what would a space look like? What does rent even cost? Mm-hmm . I brought the idea to my accountant [00:37:00] and I said, okay, what do you think? And he said, okay, well here's your break even, and if you feel like you can.

you know, hit your break even, then I would go, go ahead. And so I looked at that and my break even felt really doable when I looked at how many pots per day I had to, had to, um, had to sell. And so But then it was, where am I going to get the, how am I going to get the money? Right? Because at that point I was working in RTP and I had a, I had a nice job with a nice income.

My kids were in, my daughter was in college. My son was just about to go to college. So, um, it, you know, wasn't really the right time to be, to, Uh, to say like, Oh, I think I'm going to quit my job and we're going to invest. So again, normally, normal person, two kids in college or one about to go and full time job, you with the entrepreneurial mindset, it said, you know what?

We're going to do this. We're going to do this. Well, my husband kept trying [00:38:00] to ignore me. Like he was hoping that that, that idea was going to just go away. And I will tell you, I was on the beach with my, my aunt and my mom talking again about the, about the idea. Cause now, I'm like, Now it's going and now it's happening.

And probably maybe, uh, we went on the trip in March and this is probably June or July when I'm really here. My wheels are turning. I remember we got off the beach and she called me and she said, listen, I, I, I love your idea and I'd like to give you the money for you to get it started. So she offered me a 75, 000 loan.

Um, and so now, now I had the money to start it and then I just happened to look at, um, was there a space available and there was for a really low rent and everything just kept falling. And my accountant said, If you can make this look like okay. And so, so at that point, um, I like to tell the story. My husband, you know, did try to ignore me.

And for a while, [00:39:00] and because now I'm gonna, right. He's worked for the, he's very successful, but he's worked for the same company for 30 years. And so he and I have very different, um, you know, career paths and ideas and we operate, you know, differently. But it's good that he supported you. Oh, absolutely. He believed in your vision.

He saw the passion that you had for this idea. He did. We, we went to dinner one night after it's clear that this wasn't going away and I was finding a way for us to do it. And he did say to me, he said, listen, um, I know you'll be successful. I'm in. We're going to, we're going to sell the house, move to the beach, and you're going to quit your job.

And we're going to just, you know, hope. I, he's like, I, I believe in you, so let's go. Yeah. So, and you know, that's, that's 75 percent of the, of the idea. It's, it's not really the, the business model, especially early, but there's a lot of pivots and changes and you know, it's, it's the leader, it's, it's the operator.

So somebody coined the phrase, bet [00:40:00] on the jockey, not the horse. And that, that's really what I'm hearing here is like, they're, they're betting on you. That's exactly right. That's, and that, I think that's, you know, and that's, uh, it's a, It's a, that's a blessing and a curse too, because then you take on the response, you know, you feel that and you know, as an entrepreneur, you feel the weight of all of the people on your team betting on you.

Right. But yes, I was very fortunate to have people around me that, you know, that had a lot of confidence in. So armed with a small loan and now that you've done some analysis and you've got your business model down and where was the first. Launch was it here? Yeah, Surf City right across the street from our existing store today Right there and on Topsail Island in Surf City.

Oh, let me back up. Yeah, so you were you were an RTP, but were you still living there and you launched it in Surf City? Yes, we had a home in Topsail. Okay, like a second home. A second home. Okay, and you still had your full time job. So this was a side [00:41:00] hustle initially. Initially, the development of it was a side, I was developing it while I was, uh, still working in RTP, so all of that.

But when I knew it was going to open in March, that's when I left my job. So I never, they didn't overlap because I knew that I was going to be the only, I was going to have to be the one in there every day at the store. So, um, when I saw that, okay, this is, this is, I had to make a decision. Now that's kind of a burn the boats mentality, like you're all in.

I'm all in. You know, did you ever think like, all right, if this idea fails, I could always go back, get my job back. You felt like there was a safety net. I felt like it might not have been that job, but I could go, I could go back to my industry and I could get a job. I think a lot of people, when they go through that process, first off, you know, where do I get the capital to raise?

I have a good idea. Where do I go? You know, do I go to BC? Do I go to, you know, boot? Bootstrap or friends and family. But then it's almost like, when do I actually go in all in, you know, and there's like a transition where I can still work a full time job, get a paycheck [00:42:00] and then work on my, you know, side idea at night or on weekends or whatever, but, but you from a, from a concept, you knew exactly what you wanted to do and you're comfortable and confident enough to say, look, I'm all in, I'm going to give this a good shot.

So in March, you, you launched your first. location and you were 100 percent in. 100 percent in. I was there all day every, I knew that I had to be 100 percent in. I didn't have anybody else. We were figuring out the model. I was figuring out the business. So I had to be there every day to, to be able to make those pivots or to make those changes or to see what was working and what wasn't because there was nobody else doing what we were doing.

Well, yeah. There wasn't, you asked me about competitors, at the time there was nobody else doing exactly what we were doing. There was a concept, and they still exist today, they were franchising, I don't, I don't believe they're franchising anymore, uh, called Outer Banks Boil Company. And then they had different names in different markets, but they, their concept was they were doing the steampods to [00:43:00] go, but they were also, I think the majority of their business model was a catering model.

Right. So, but at the time, I wasn't even aware of them. So I just knew that for, for me, I had to get in there and we'd, I had to, I had to see if this thing works. So it had to be all or nothing. Got it. And so I, that's, yeah, but I, but in the back of my head, I thought, yeah, if this thing doesn't work, I'll just go back to life science.

I felt the same way when I first started my little consulting gig and 2001. I'm like, you know what, I can always go work for an integrator if I need to. So give it a shot. I just felt like there's always a, I knew that there was always a, um, you know, a plan B. Right. Exactly. I've always had a plan B. No, that's great.

Yeah. So 2017, you opened up your first location in Surf City in March. So walk me through that first season. Cause up until this point, you had no restaurant experience. Did you have an advisor, restaurant people that you were talking to, getting advice and how [00:44:00] to pivot and work this out? I had a couple.

Yeah, for, I would say from different, from different areas. When I pitched the original idea, I pitched it to some restaurant people and they felt like it was, it was a, it was a good idea. I remember one in particular, um, he just kept saying, challenging me to think bigger, think bigger, think bigger. I give him the thing, think bigger.

No, you got to think bigger. And so I think for me, that was something that I've always, I think that's why I applied to Shark Tank, right? If you're going to think big, what's bigger than that? Might as well just keep thinking bigger. And so I've, I've done that since the day we opened, where we, for me, I've just felt like this, this, it's possible to take this thing really big.

And I think you have to think that, you know, From the beginning. Now there's some, you know, there's a lot of people that might look at where I am right now. And we, uh, we've put a lot of money into growth, right? We funded a lot of money into growth. There's definitely debt there, but the idea is. [00:45:00] We want to grow, right?

So when you're thinking bigger, there's, there's, there's different schools of thought about approaching it that way. Right. But that's what we've done over the past. Uh, that's what I've chosen to do over the past seven years. Using debt. Using debt. Yeah. We haven't brought any equity. Cause we also did open, we opened up brick and mortar stores, uh, seven of them on our own, right?

So I have bootstrapped. It's, I've opened, you know, one store I, I opened on no interest credit cards. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, there's been a lot, you know, a lot along the way. We also, This is probably skipping ahead a little bit. So the first year we, uh, we saw the model was working and having no experience opening stores or anything like that, or thinking about understanding who the customer is or why it was working or any of those things that we now know are so important.

Thought was, okay, well, let's open another one really quick. Let's go to Wrightsville. Wrightsville has, you know, feels like it's the, uh, the, uh, economic demographic where that might work because [00:46:00] we have a, you know, a high, a high end product or a higher priced product. Although when you look at it price per person, we're not, but, you know, um, generally just because, you know, you're feeding a group, people, uh, perceive it as a, as a high ticket item.

Exactly. And knowing what I know now today, you know, that, was that the, the best place to go? Absolutely. Probably not. The market size wasn't right. The, there's a couple of different things that we now know about a location that we would look at. And so the stores, we, we, that stores open, it still makes money, but you know, to tomorrow, what I open in that particular location in that town and that city, that's No, because we're, we're so much smarter now, right?

It's a great sister store to the, to Surf City store, but there's a lot of lessons we've learned along the way. Right. But when we did open that store, uh, that was May of, uh, 2018. Then we had Florence hit. And Florence was [00:47:00] a huge impact for Topsail and and the Visitors and how long it took us to get those How long it took to get the rental units back to bring the visitors back So that was a really tough time for us.

And that is when I developed the, hey, can we ship this, right? Is this something, if our customers can't get to us, can we get to them? So I, I actually, at the time there was, NC Rural Fund was offering loans for, you know, Businesses to, so that they could learn how to be resilient in the face of what had happened here, like a storm and they shore themselves up or do something so that, um, they can be resilient should it happen again.

And so for me, I thought, well, yeah, I can be resilient in the way that we can figure out how to get this. If this happens again or something happens to the island, we can [00:48:00] ship and we can, we can get it to our customers elsewhere. So. Right. So I first started that, that one, and I remember I was in the store all my own.

If I got an order for four, I was there all day shipping four, right? Like trying to figure out how to, you know, prep it all and get it all and package it up and then get it to the FedEx or the UPS store. You know, and today we can do 500 a day. Five, you can do 500 a day. We can do 500 a day. But that's how it went, right?

That was, and, and so that was 2018. I finally figured, I think we got hit September, 2018. I started. Shipping, really figuring out how to ship in 2019. And this is a great story too for us. And we were shipping a couple a day here and there, and it was just, okay, well, this is something, you know, starting out your own e commerce business is very different than the brick and mortar.

And there's, there's a lot you have to, there's a lot you have to learn about the e commerce business. And so we were doing it, but [00:49:00] in January of 2020, I came across GoldBelly. And I thought, wow, in January of 2020, Gold Belly was a business for local niche food. providers to be able to reach, have a national reach.

So let's say you had your favorite Chicago deep dish pizza and, but in, but you moved to Florida and you want to order it, you can do it through Gold Belly or you're in California and you have your favorite New York bagel from your favorite. It allows that mom and pop shop to be able to leverage the Gold Belly platform to be able to ship nationally.

Okay. So I applied to them in January, and they only took about 1 percent of the people that applied. Oh, wow. And I remember they sent me a picture of, uh, uh, one of our pots, um, cooking in Manhattan, because we, we do it in, you know, we send it to them in New York. And we signed with Gold Belly [00:50:00] on March 1st of 2020.

Okay. Which, that's when the world shut down and everyone was ordering food. Right. Right. So. I mean, the timing was unbelievable, and I think their sales, I think they were, you know, an astronomical amount, I can't remember, a 500 percent increase or something like that, like it was just unbelievable. So yeah.

For us, it was very fortunate that we just got a lot more exposure at that time. And, and that really helped us too during COVID. So, is your product actually at their facility? No, we ship it all out of Surf City. You ship it out all out of here? All out of Surf City. Wow. Out of this, yeah, so it's all the local food here.

The way it works is they, it's a wholesale relationship. I'm a, from an economic standpoint, but they, every day we just get the, the shipping labels of where they need to, of where they go. And we pack everything here in Surf City and ship them out daily. Do you use dry ice? We use, uh, gel packs. [00:51:00] Okay. So, and everything goes out fresh.

We don't self, so it's just as if you were to, the only thing different from going into a store is you need to cut the potatoes when you get there. You only use dry ice when you're shipping something frozen. Okay. So, since we don't ship frozen, we have to do the, we do the gel packs. Yeah. So we do the gels and then we ship it in a styrofoam cooler and everything goes overnight.

But yeah, so that's really, uh, that's been a, and that's one of the things that I think Lori was excited about when terms of, you know, the sharks and coming in that there was that online component of, of that part of the business and, and Todd would be interested in the brick and mortar store. What happens if you're Online sales jumps from 500 to 5, 000.

We can. You can support that? We can support it. Yeah. Now do you, and I understand you source all of your seafood in the local markets that you're in, right? Whatever's available in the local market. Okay. So, um, like for example, you know, we're in New Jersey, we can't source shrimp there because there's no such thing as New Jersey shrimp.

Right. Right. [00:52:00] So, um, but here in North Carolina, and so for every, for all the buckets that are being shipped out of North Carolina, it's North Carolina shrimp. Um, local clams, local oysters. They're the three items that we can source locally here. So you're a godsend to the local, you know, fishermen. We, we buy a lot of shrimp from, uh, from this area.

From Sneeze Ferry. From Sneeze Ferry. Yeah. Davis shrimp is our, is our, is our main, um. Do you enter in some type of a long term arrangement to kind of lock in some of your prices to kind of hedge inflation or? Um, no, not at this point because it's really tough to do, especially with the, and so I, I don't want to say no across the board for some products.

We do. Yes. For some products, we're able to products that we see through major distribution and we have good partners who will, you know, as we see something creeping up or there's, You know, if there's whales mating in three zones in Canada and we know crab prices are gonna raise because of that, then we'll work with our partners where we buy and try to lock in and do you, you've got a pretty extensive relationship with, [00:53:00] with different companies sourcing seafood on the East Coast.

We do. We do. Do you source any seafood from the Gulf? Like I know you opened in Alabama. Now we are. We opened in Anna Maria Island. So, that's where we start because in different regional areas, there's a, there's a request for things. So, for example, in New Jersey, there's a certain oyster called a Cape May Salt that every, you know, people really like and we make sure that we source that.

When we opened in Anna Maria, we found that there's a shrimp, a Key West Pink that people like. They do. And so, and that's a Gulf product. So we'll, we'll bring that in as a, as an option for those stores. Yes, we just opened up in Gulf Shores. We opened up in the off season, so we really haven't seen, you know, the, the volume there yet or, or had a ton of customer, customer requests, but we know crawfish is going to, um, be something that they're going to want to look to do.

And there's a sausage too. I don't know if I say it right, but Bowden, Bodine, something, there's probably a sausage. So if there's a, something specific to the market and it makes [00:54:00] sense for us to bring it in, it works with our buckets, then we're, we're always going to look at that. So seafood, if I remember correctly, makes up about 28 percent of your cost, right?

Uh, it's our food. Yep. So our food costs, so that's our total food cost. Okay. That's corn, potatoes, everything. Corn, potatoes, seasoning, seafood, all of that. Which is not bad because you would think seafood is very expensive and, and you're able to capture some pretty dramatic scale at really what I think is a very attractive price.

Is that one of your competitive advantages you think ? I, I think, I think that lends itself to the model, right? Right. They're the things that we looked at when creating the model and creating the pricing. Also, we buy, the items that we, um, are on our menu right now are not items that you see a lot of fluctuation with.

Okay. It's not like fish where. You know, you can have a flounder, like we, flounder, and just the, there's such price variability in other types of seafood. For us, there's not a lot of [00:55:00] variability. Snow crab, it's caught once a year, you know what the market's going to do. You know, shrimp, like we, there's not, there's some variability in scallops and lobster, but nothing, Our, if you'll see, there's very few things we have market pricing on because we have them all built into our bucket and that would present some real challenges with maintaining our menu pricing and, you know, gross margin and all of that.

So. Do you do any forecasting as far as like anticipated sales versus predictive and supply as far as materials? We do, I mean, we, we do forecasting on our sales, right? And how, and how we'd like to see, and that's, that model is still growing, right? Because there's, it's different in year two, three, four, and we're still collecting data on how we would expect a growth to happen.

And it's going to be very different too, because we're just entering the traditional markets. Like we just opened up in Charlotte. Right. That's a very different, that's a first for us. That, we're already seeing that ramp is going to be different, there, there's just so many different components to, [00:56:00] ways we have to learn about how to open in a traditional market and also understand the customer behavior and how that's, how that's going to work.

It sounds like you're operating a just in time model, whereas you don't really source the material until you have the order in hand. Is that right? For food, um, I would say no. We just look at the run rate of the previous couple of weeks and, and then you order. And then according to based on that, and then also historic.

So if we're running into a Thanksgiving week, we'll look at what did, what were the Thanksgiving sales over the last couple of years? What run rate are we running this year over prior? And then we just make, uh, purchasing. Decisions based on that. The only, we purchase, we, our, our food, the only thing we really purchase ahead of time are the pots.

Okay. And that's a yearly forecast that we have to make. So you, you, you keep all those offsite, like in storage. We do. You just pull when you need. That's right. That's right. But they're the thing that, that's one of [00:57:00] the items that we, um, when you think about forecasting from a, for a purchasing perspective, that we really need to do the work on and make sure.

Cause I didn't know, like from a demand planning point of view, since it's seafood, like for example, around holidays. I didn't understand, like, did you order some of this ahead of time, anticipating, and then maybe you had some leftover inventory that you didn't use, or? Well, all of our items you can order, uh, we get deliveries a couple days a week.

Okay. So you just, we'll, our partners know. Hey, we know that they'll have a high volume and so they'll, on their end, make sure that they'll be able to support us on the high volumes those days. But we don't, because we don't really have a warehouse or somewhere where we can stop, where we can say, let's buy, you know, a couple weeks worth of crab and put it here.

We were able to, our suppliers, they're really good. Great partners. Just know we talk about our levels and we just make sure that they're able to supply it. So there's really not a time where you call up and say, I need 500 pounds of shrimp. They're like, Oh, we only have 200. No, no, [00:58:00] no, no, no, no. Um, you know, I hope that, you know, if that happens, you know, out of the blue, that means we had like some anomaly that we weren't prepared for.

And if it happens once or twice, that's great. That's great. But no, um, we're having consistent conversations with our, with our suppliers to make sure that there are no supply chain issues. No, no. And that was, we had to make, we had to shore that up too, especially as we go inland and we go to other places to make sure that, um, we can source everything through major distribution, which we can.

Right. That's awesome. Yeah. So your 60 percent margin, roughly 40, 60 model. And, and I love that because Typical restaurants are not like that, right? Do you, do you own your storefronts or do you lease them? I imagine you lease them, right? Uh, yep. We only own, I own the Surf City, the, the flagship store, but, um, the rest are lease.

Okay. Yeah. And you enter into two, three, five year leases typically? Uh, typically five years with options. And you have some price control to kind of cap in your rent from that point of view. So there's, A lot [00:59:00] of things that you look into as far as trying to keep your prices intact as costs go up. And how about labor?

Have you had any labor inflation issues over the last couple of years? You know, I mean, we've definitely seen some inflation in labor, but, uh, for us, labor has not been. Nearly as much of a challenge as you heard in other hospitality businesses over the last couple of years. And I think there's a couple of reasons why.

Um, first is, uh, the way that we hire is we hire anybody that works in the store as a STEAM team member. So, the way that works is, when we hire you, you need to be customer facing, build a bucket, um, answer a phone, but you're also washing the dishes and mopping the floors and cleaning the floors. Cutting the sausage, right?

Jack of all trades. Yes. Everybody. And that allows us, from a business perspective, to be able to really fluctuate with our sales and our labor, right? So if we have a day where there's two people, you know, if it's a lower sales day, we can run with two people or up to six. But from the employee standpoint, our operating hours are [01:00:00] ideal.

They're 12 to 7, shift is 1130 to 730. And we pay them from an hourly wage, I think it's like between 11 and 15 an hour, which is, you know, I mean, it's. It's, it's well above North Carolina minimum wage, but where, where I think the real advantage is, is our average price point is about 155, right, for, um, a bucket and they get tips from that.

People tip. So our employees are making, can make anywhere from, sometimes there's a tip rate anywhere from three to an additional 20 an hour, right? So they have the opportunity to make good money, their ideal hours, and I'll go back to the. Feeling and emotion of the store. It's just a happy place to be.

Yes. And for me, in the very beginning, I knew, I didn't know anything about, about opening up a restaurant. So I knew that when, when I started to look at this, uh, in all of my research too, I really looked into different areas of hospitality and [01:01:00] people in that industry. And I came across a book that I, that I absolutely loved.

And I, and we, we, we use that philosophy every day. It's called Set the Table by Danny Meyer. Okay. And, and he talks about enlightened hospitality and that, and that really just, I mean, that really, uh, spoke to me because I think that that's, I knew that when I read it, I was like, oh yeah, that's exactly how, that's the philosophy I want in, in my business.

And, and what that is, it's really 51, like the core to the philosophy of enlightened hospitality is it's 51 percent about how you make a customer feel. Right. 49 percent about the product that you use, right? And so I knew that as I built the business, I wanted to build it on, you know, core values. I, I got to work on, with a lot of different companies, right?

Throughout the, my, and most of them, A 

players, corporations. So I was able to pick and choose those areas that I, those values, those, you know, the things that I want it to pull into my own business. Right. And so for us, you know, some of our core values are collaboration, [01:02:00] integrity, um, you know, kindness, optimism, sense of excellence, those types of things.

And so I, I want it to make sure that as we build, as we, as we built the company, that that was the, With the DNA, the fabric of who we are, how we communicate with each other, how we communicate with external partners, how we deal with customers, you know, all of that. And so I think that we've done a really good job of building that culture in the company.

And, and I, because of that, when people come to work for us, they stay. Right. They just, they like to be a part of it. We have, we have such a great internal culture and, and, and that's just our HQ team, but also store to store. And I think it's a combination of all those things. Right. Yeah. There's three things I look at when I make an investment.

You know, team, traction, and value. And then market opportunity, but really it's all about the team and it starts at the top. So is it just you from a leadership point of view? I mean, does your husband share any responsibilities or other family members is because is it a family business? Well, it's a family business that my [01:03:00] husband, no, my husband's not part of the company at all.

He's my biggest supporter and I definitely bounce things off of him, but he is not involved in the day to day whatsoever. I would say he's more of like a board seat position, right? When we're talking big strategy and those types of things about, you know, where we're going, where we're headed. So it is just me.

I'm CEO, COO. Wow. Yep. How many hours a week do you work? 80? 70? You know, you know, it's never, it's never turned off, right? It's never turned off. When you're on payroll, you're thinking about, where's the, yeah. So now, but let me, it's not just me. It's me running the company. I have a, a very, uh, I have a. HQ team though, a pretty substantial HQ team that is running payroll for me.

Like, so I have somebody who's, I have a director of business administration who takes care of all, you know, all of that. So from an overhead, how many, how many people do you work with? On my HQ, I have about, uh, I think we have seven people on HQ, which is that covers marketing, social, financial, franchise, franchise development, franchise, [01:04:00] um, Uh, field consultants to help, you know, our franchisees.

Are these W 2 full time? They're all W 2 full time. Okay. And then I have, I have a fractional CFO and I have a fractional growth business advisor who's been with me from, from, I guess, probably about five or six years. Okay, good. That's a great story. I once, I don't know if you're familiar with Diane Duran, she was the head of the CIE from UNCW.

I, I joined the, or got involved with Wilma here and they had a mentorship program and I wound up getting Diane as the, as my mentor and she was the head of the center for, for, uh, Um, uh, Entrepreneurship at UNCW. And one of my meetings with her, she happened, she happened to have Dave, his name is Dave Haviland as a, he, he, she was a friend.

He was in a meeting and, and it was great. I remember him giving me a like quick advice, just very, you know, when to play offense, when to pay defense, that type of thing. And about a year later we were, uh, mentioned in a Forbes article and I thought, Oh, I I [01:05:00] think I'm, I think it was Forbes and Goldbelly and everything was happening.

And I thought, I think I'm going to need to bring somebody on to talk about growth and figure out, you know, how we're going to grow, where we're going to grow. Yeah, that's great. So while I say it's just me, I mean, I'm the C, uh, uh, from a, from a leadership, it's me, but I definitely have a large team around me and that's been intentional.

And, you know, one of the greatest keys to success is how to delegate. Because a lot of people get into it and they're like, Oh yeah, I've got to do everything myself. But once you relinquish that control and surround yourself with a good team that understands their function and their role, then you can kind of like oversee and manage and which is then you can start growing and scaling.

So yeah. And that's, that's what we've done. And there's a lot of difference of opinions. Did we. Yeah. I definitely, uh, front loaded ahead of the curve to be able to have a team, develop a team to handle growth when growth came. And when we, when we figured out that's been a conscious, it's not always been the easiest decision in terms [01:06:00] of, you know, definitely the fact that we, I haven't brought in any equity partners.

Right. Yeah. So taking the success that you found in North Carolina, uh, between Surf City and Riceville, when did you decide to start launching businesses in New Jersey? And Florida and other areas in North Carolina, Charlotte, and then obviously up in Delaware, Alabama. Yeah. Um, so, um, we knew, I, I'm, we talked about my, my roots in New Jersey and I knew that there were several towns in New Jersey that were lookalike markets to Topsail.

But again, everything seems to happen on a trip. I, I'd been thinking about, I'd always thought it'd be, it'd be interesting to open one of these in New Jersey because of, of, you know, there was very similar similarities, places where, you know, high number of rental units, families came to vacation week to week, you know, high season, that type of thing.

And I was up there with family [01:07:00] and we, my dad, there was this favorite fudge place that we always went to called Lars Fudge. Anybody from that area will know Lars Fudge. And my dad went out to go grab us some Lars Fudge and he came back and he's like, They're closed. Oh. And I said, how do you know? And he's like, because there was a, you know, for rent sign on, or, you know, he's weren't there and there was a for rent sign.

And this was like on the corner in Ocean City. And I thought, ah, perfect location. Yeah. So I just went. So I just went the next day and it was one of those like orange and black for rent signs. So, you know that there's, There's just an easy way to get to talk to the owner. And so that next day I called, the owner came over.

It was. It was the perfect spot and I just thought, okay, we're gonna, you know, I think we should do this because I think this store will really work. And so was this in 2020? That was in 2019. We opened in May of [01:08:00] 2020. Okay. Yeah. So again, really good timing for us. Right. No store will open like that. I mean, for, for eight months, there were no restaurants open in New Jersey, but we were open.

Right. Right. And everyone was living at the shore. Yeah. So not a model we can use for, you know, measuring what, what an opening will look like. But so that's when I knew. So there, and there, there's another one. I, I, you know, we had to figure out the capital. I opened it with a, Rob's program 401k, right? So each one was a little bit different because we were just trying to figure out because they, you know, The brick and mortar of how to do the upfit and all of the equipment, you know There's investment to opening one right now right now our initial investment somewhere is like between three twenty I think, or I'm sorry, 250, 000 and 375, 000 for a franchise model.

Yeah, for, you know, for just all in, for a franchise model. That includes franchise fee and all of that as well. So you started out with a 75, 000 loan, right, from family. By the time you're launching [01:09:00] your new out of state location in New Jersey, did you take any more debt or were you just recycling profits back into the company at this point?

Yeah, I recycled profits back in. Yeah. So you're in full growth mode, full growth, you know, yep, still leveraging other assets to expand. Yeah, we, I mean, we continue to take debt. We took debt for every store. We, so, um, Ocean City was through, through a ROPS program. So that was my 401k. The, we took the Whirl loan after, after the, um, pandemic or no, no, I'm sorry.

After Florence. Lawrence. And that, and that was to, that was for both stores. And then when we went to different locations to fund those, we did friends and family, you know, loans for particular locations. And then, uh, during COVID there was SBA loans. Right. Right. Oh yeah. Yeah. Everybody's frowning on those.

Everybody's got the SBA lens, right? I mean, it just, it didn't make sense not to take them, [01:10:00] you know, and we needed them at the time. So, so yeah, we have decided to, to, you know, and along the way, I think the question was going to be, how did we get here? Right. To, from a, from a franchise perspective, right.

What I realized in the story I've told you, we were going to continue, we were going to continue to grow, but there was going to need to be capital. So at some point. We thought, okay, there's opportunity here. We didn't know what our total addressable market was yet because we hadn't beta tested the traditional markets, but we knew that we could get up to, you know, like 150 on the coastal market.

Right. Right. That's what we were thinking. Yeah. And then if we, if it works in traditional markets, that just blows it wide open. Oh yeah. Right. But in order to be able to pursue that opportunity, We were going to have to bring in capital because we couldn't can we couldn't finance the upfit of all of the Doors if we were going to continue to do it corporately, right?

And so we started to look at that I started to, you know, [01:11:00] and I was new to venture capital and all of that, all of that, how raising money and how that works and what the ramifications are and what life looks like after that and all of that. Right. Right. Um, so we started to look at it and I think I, I had a, I think I started to drag my feet a little bit on it and I wasn't really sure why.

And then I'd always had a bias to franchising. Based on nothing, based on like those, you know, just the things that people say about franchises, right? But I, someone encouraged me along the route to look at both, look at both raising and look at growth through franchising. And so I thought, okay, well I'll take, I'll take another, I will take a look.

I'll take a hard look at, um, growth through franchising. And what I learned was that there were models out there that were very intentional about their growth and that there are models out there that don't remain, [01:12:00] the brand means very much intact. The culture remains very much intact. Um, and what I liked was the idea of, uh, of being able and finding those partners that, um, are like minded entrepreneurs like me, right?

That maybe just didn't have the idea, but love the idea of running their own business and growing it and improving it if they can, or, you know, all of those things. So when I understood a little bit more about that model, I felt like that was the right way for us to grow. Okay. The franchise model. The franchise model.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. From the, from a, from a unit perspective and growing more units. Okay. So before you went into franchising, how many stores did you open? Let's see. I had, um, one, two, three, four, five, six. Okay. And most of them are in North Carolina, New Jersey. And one in Florida. Oh, I opened Florida as a corporate store.

Okay. Okay. Do you travel a lot between the locations, or do you have somebody in between? Yeah, not so much anymore. I used to all [01:13:00] the time, but not so much anymore. Because when you talk about your culture and the values, and how do you effectively ensure that your vision is facilitated or executed in these other locations?

I think it's my team that I have that is interacting with them all the time. I'm with the new franchisees in the very beginning where, you know, we're having the conversations and I, I, for us, it's not numbers. You'll see some franchise concepts out there that have numbers that they have to meet and sell this many this year.

And we're, we're not there. I mean, we have a forecast and they're, It takes some time to get to be what they call royalty self sufficient, and I know that but we're gonna look at that runway. I'm never gonna sacrifice bringing people into the organization that weren't the right one to meet the, to meet a 

certain number, right?

Like I, we're always gonna be put that first. Oh, but how do you facilitate the culture? Number one, I try to do [01:14:00] it. I try to do as much as I can on the front end to only bring people in to the organization as franchisees or franchise operators that I feel like really are a good culture fit. Yeah. And then we, my team that deals, that works with them through after, through opening and consistently have been, have been with me since the beginning.

And they know, they know me, they know our culture, they know what, how we want those operators to, to build that same culture in their stores. I feel like we have a finger on the pulse of it. And if something feels a little bit out, I know about it, right? So I think that as we scale that will be harder, but the key is building your team to be able to communicate that culture, those values.

Right. And just bringing people into the organization that feel right. Do you offer any continuous education, learning experiences, or do you get them together a couple of times a year? The [01:15:00] franchisees? Yeah. Well, that's kind of new. I'm going to, right? But we only, we only really have franchisees, we're less than a year now of having them.

So the idea is, yes, we want to have continuous education. We want to have that. I want camaraderie around them. Yes. The answer to that is yes. That's that, because that's how we're going to, if that's how we're going to. foster that, especially as we're bringing new people in, and then be able to continue.

Because the more you hear about it, see it, experience in the group, I think the, the, the higher chance for success to be able to continue that, that way. How, do you use any technology or how often do you communicate with these, these markets? And do you keep a pulse on them like, Hey, how's it going out of there?

Oh yeah, we um, we have weekly, right now we have weekly marketing meetings, our weekly check ins because we've got a lot of new, uh, new, uh, products. We just, uh, we just invested in a platform called Plotter, P L O T R, that has helped us take all of the information about our current, like everything we know [01:16:00] demographically, psychographically, about our customers, everything, and, and to build a model nationally as to where we, you know, where we're we'll look at for locations.

So that was a pretty big investment for us because we wanted to do our, obviously technology can tell you only half the story. You got to get out there and be on the ground. But we feel like that investment was really important. So we could get a really good understanding of markets and where, where we should go.

Because I made a few mistakes in the beginning. We were like, Oh my gosh, this place looks great. Okay, great. Let's just go there. Well, I'll come to find out that that they're, doesn't nearly have enough population that we needed. So now we've gotten a lot smarter and we've brought in, you know, I also have done an advisory board where we've brought in people that are, that understand how to scale and open that, so that we knew that there was some technology that we were going to have to invest in.

I felt like, again, I, I decided to go ahead of the curve to try to, to try to, um, work with the community. I'd love to try to ward [01:17:00] off some of the mistakes that people make, you know, by investing upfront. So that's one technology. And then we use a CRM for franchising, for franchise development. Yeah. There's, there's just the pretty consistent communication and conversation with our, with our franchisees.

So your total sales this year, five, five, seven? I think we'll be, I think we'll, we just, we really had a hit with, uh, Anna Maria Island. So I think we're, that, that, that's going to be down a couple hundred thousand because there's just no sales there. So I think we'll probably hit about all, you know, all total about five, five,

yeah. And that's, uh, that's franchising, uh, that's top line revenue for all our stores. And because it's tough to, so many different ways to communicate it, like from the, because there's some of them are, we've sold off some that are now franchises and realty, but, um, but I would say total system wide sales of, is going to be about, five, five, five, four, maybe.

okay. Yeah. So it's about based on the numbers you [01:18:00] gave on Shark Tank, is that 25 percent growth from last year? Yes. Which is great. It is great. Most of it's come through our franchising, through franchising and then additional stores that we've added. Okay. Yeah. Great. Now, one of the concepts or questions, I guess the Raising Cane's gentleman said to you was don't do franchising because number one, it would lower your total enterprise valuation because he kept them private and he, he seems to think his restaurant is, has a higher valuation for not franchising and he was advocating for basically creating like managers or vice presidents or whatever title you give them.

And then give them a healthy salary, you know, six figure salary or upper five figures, maybe commissions, or what are your thoughts about that? And that was, you know, versus the franchising model. Well, you need a lot, you'll need a whole lot of capital, a whole lot more capital than 350, 000. Exactly. You need several million dollars.

So, you know, if somebody wants to give me a couple million, [01:19:00] right, so, so I mean you can't ignore that fact. And then I would disagree with what he said in terms of you'll never find someone to run it as good as you. Yeah, I, I, I disagree with that. I disagree with that and, um, and I'll tell you, we've had a ton of franchise interest The show, and everyone brings that up, right?

And it's funny how I just, uh, talking to a gentleman yesterday, he's like, I got up and was jumping up and down saying that is not true, right? Cause he was a franchisee of some other concepts, and so I, I disagree with that. Um, Obviously it would take a lot of capital. So it's not something that, you know, if we were to go that route, then we would have to go and raise.

And we have to fund the 300, 000 for all the new locations for Upfit. Right. So it would, it would, it would require, um, a fairly significant investment to be able to do that. Nor would it, it would limit your growth potential as well. Right. Because [01:20:00] instead of opening, you 50 or 20 stores. Now we can only open five or 10 because of the capital constraints.

Exactly. And, and, and knowing that we make, you know, and then, but then you look at the bottom line, we make 7 percent on a franchise. You have for a franchise fee and all. And if you can get to 20, like there's definitely, it's more profitable to have a corporate store, but you're right, but there's less that you can open.

So. You can compare the two. Yeah. But, uh, one of the things that, where he talked about the managers, we've seen in, in franchising, there's in this one of, this was one of my mentors too, that he was a multi unit Zaxby's owner. And so oftentimes, and we're seeing interest from multi unit operators, right?

Multi unit operators come in, that is their business. And so the multi unit operators often give those managers a piece of equity of the business or skin in the game so that when they're running, those multi unit operators are running it, they can have a manager in [01:21:00] place that's, that, that has an interest.

Right. And so that's the way that you can put people in place that are managing these stores And have them, I think, have the same sense of ownership as you would in the way that he described Topsail. Yeah, there's different ways to skin a cat. There's different ways to skin a cat. That's exactly right.

And, of course, once we get to a place, and there's, there's, there's work for us to do, right? I feel like there's the, inside the four walls, We've got the store economics right, right? We've got the, the, there's not a lot of variability in the profit, how a store can be profitable. But there's still a lot of work for us to do whether or not we have an investment from the Sharks or they become our partners and on the mechanics of how we'll scale.

Right. Exactly. Um, so in your franchise models, they come up with the 350 to do the initial build out because there's a lot of cost to actually [01:22:00] create the storefront and the menus and order the supplies. A lot of people don't understand there's a lot of money that goes into that upfront. So the franchisee comes up with that capital outlay and then you come in and educate them on your culture.

And this is how our model works. And now they've got the book or the script that they follow. They call you for questions or if you need help, you're there to guide them through whatever. And do you take a split of the profit? Yep. So there's a royalty. So it's a 7 percent royalty. 7 percent royalty of their top line sales.

Okay. And then also 1 percent that they, uh, for brand advertising, like a brand marketing, brand advertising fund. Okay. So that, that money goes back into the back office to help brand the whole. The whole organization. That's right. Yeah. But it's a 7% royalty, so they pay a 45% franchise fee. Mm-hmm . And that franchise fee covers everything that we do for them from the day they sign a franchise agreement Right.

To, to the, when they open their doors. So your, your back office, does your back office help the payroll to all these [01:23:00] locations or does that operator do 'em himself? Operator does all his own payroll. Okay. So that's 7% really goes to fund the expansion and also the. The idea and the model and the culture.

And the profitability of the company, right? Cause eventually we're no longer on corporate stores. We're no longer making, that's our profit from that store. Right. Right. So we want to work with them to increase their top line. Cause as they increase their top line, then, then we increase, we increase our royalty.

Yeah. The initial franchise fee is, is what really pays our back office to get them open, right? Everything from site selection, lease negotiation, getting them up and running, training, all that. Yeah, it's kind of breakeven. Yeah, that's, yeah. Because, I mean, you're paying the overhead to those people to get that site up.

To get that site up. So you're not really making any money off of those. Not on that. You never, in a franchise model, you never look at that, at that money. We're, we're spending that money. Yeah. On getting them open. Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. And some people don't realize that, but that's. I know.

Yeah. It's the things people don't really understand about franchising. Yes. So your, your growth model in scaling, you're, you're targeting [01:24:00] 150 stores right now? Right now. And, but I think that for us, we were, we're working on proving out the model in, uh, away from coastal markets. Okay. We feel like there's a range of our addressable market that could go up to 400 if we're, if we get to a place where we're, we're confident in, in that traditional market.

We prove that out. Right. So the non traditional cities like Charlotte, for example. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. At Charlotte, Raleigh, we, we have a, um, we have a franchisee that's, uh, open up in Raleigh. So they're our first two stores that are outside of that, of the, the coastal market that don't see that seasonality.

Right. So that is, that they're more of a, uh, They're residential markets. I know you mentioned tailgating, but have you thought about maybe NASCAR races or football games, baseball? How do you think about expanding into kind of the sports culture? Yeah, we tried that out last year to attest that. We just focused on NC State games and we offered pre sales and then we delivered them to the, to the tailgates.

[01:25:00] Okay. With a, with a little

Have you thought about, you know, the food trucks, like bringing like a big boil in the truck and then you just come and take your fillet and dump it out. Yeah, that, that is really, so now we're getting into cooking and now we're getting into, you don't want to do that. We really don't want to do that. We want to keep the model the way it is, but there's been some thought about entering markets in, especially as we test out new markets.

Maybe there's. Alternative ways to enter into that market that aren't, uh, brick and mortar to just test it and see it. So, lots of different things, but we also have been partnering with breweries, right? Where they, a lot of the local breweries, we did this in Raleigh too, and some here where you see food trucks at breweries, but we were able to, The burners in the pot and they have a lot of fun just cooking that pot right on their picnic table while they're enjoying some beer.

So lots of different, you know, we just did a big winery event in, um, in New Jersey as [01:26:00] well. So we're, we're uncovering and seeing all of the, the different opportunities. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. So you ever given thought of, of cause you're building a very massive distribution network apparently. And that's, that's, uh, that's a value in itself.

Other than, other than shipping Low Country Boils, have you thought about other products that you can introduce to your market? Not right now. I think for us, we want to, we want to stay in our lane and perfect, uh, we're really concentrating on responsible growth and intentional growth and making sure that we're understanding where the real opportunities are.

I mean, we'll always look at, Tweaking the product, like for example in Charlotte, we just are introducing a product that's um, a little bit smaller. So, because while it's, while people know it for gathering and holidays, it can also be a, you know, a Tuesday night for soccer option because it's convenient and it's healthy and you know, like it hits all those [01:27:00] marks.

So, and it doesn't, you don't have to spread it out on the table and pick and hang around. You can, But you can also put it in a platter and have it be a good, healthy, quick meal on a Tuesday. Absolutely. So we're testing out a smaller, an under 50 bucket. That's a little bit smaller to accommodate that. So we'll, we'll start, we'll continue to tweak the model a little bit to see what makes sense as we, as we venture into these new, new areas.

And I forgot to ask, in a lot of your markets, are they seasonal? Do the, like Memorial Day, Labor Day, do you shut down in the wintertime? Some do. In the northern, uh, the northern stores do. So all of the New Jersey and Delaware stores are closed. Okay. Some will pop open for holidays because we're very easy to pop open, to open up.

Right. But yeah, Uh, for a while we were open because during COVID people were living in those markets. So it made sense to stay open, but I think we're now back to traditional, well, you'll never go back to full, the full seasonality because people are still working from home, but there it's gone back to a place where it makes sense in, [01:28:00] in the North there to close down the stores.

But South Carolina or North Carolina and South were open year round. Yeah. And Florida. Yes. Open year round. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what about Maryland and Virginia? Are you just ignoring those states? No, no, no, not at all. We've had some, we've had some interest in that area. Okay. We have a couple people that are, talking to some people that are interested in that area.

Good. Yeah. Good. So you're, the target area seems like it's the, East Coast and the Southeast, like on the Gulf and the Atlantic. What about the Pacific and California? We've had a lot of interest in the Pacific too. So, um, California is a longer runway to be able to be approved for franchising. Is that just because of state regulations?

It's always difficult. Everything's difficult. Everything, right. So, you know, for us, part of the growth too is you, there's a couple different philosophies on how to, especially in a franchise model, grow. Some people, um, Go by the hub and spoke model, [01:29:00] like making sure that you, um, that you're, there's some awareness and there's a, you're not just going out into the middle of the country with no brand awareness and have a store out all out on its own.

So we, we think about that too, but for the right operator, multi unit operator in an area that who's got experience in an area that we feel really good about, I think that's something that we would, we'll definitely consider. We're seeing a lot of demand. Our second highest. Date that we ship to is California.

Okay. Yeah. Wow. Yes. What's the highest? New York. You shipped in New York? Yeah, New York. You don't have any locations in New York? No. We don't. Why is that? We just haven't had the right upper, right branch. You have to have the right person. We have to have the right person and the right market. So nothing yet.

Okay. But, um, but yeah, they're the, they're, they're the two states that we ship to the most. Okay. What about RV parks? Like, have you thought about that? Yeah, yeah. We have a lot of, in our, in our, uh, New Jersey locations, there's several RV parks [01:30:00] that are there that are, that we market to and that we get a lot of business from, but yeah.

I mean, so many ideas. What about Lake Towns, right? And, um, you know, there's, uh, there's just a lot of different ideas and opportunities. I'm just thinking like from an RV park point of view, you could probably. Contact the RV park owner and say, hey, you want to make a deal? That's right, you know and then basically open up their own clubhouse to do low country boil Maybe twice a week once a week.

Yeah, and then they could you know, plus it up and make some extra money that way Yeah, that's what excites me too about having local owners and local franchise owners is that When you get people in those markets, they're, they can really chase down and pursue those opportunities that are in those markets.

Absolutely. Yeah. So what is next for Danielle Mahon? So you're, you're, you're conquering the world in low country boils. What's next for you? I think for me, it's making sure that we're able to leverage the [01:31:00] opportunity of being on Shark Tank um, and then I'm going to continue on concentrating on on the growth of the company.

Well, hopefully the deal goes through with Lori. And, but if anything, at least it's been a good experience that you've taken. Some of her insight, ideas, and the impact of being, you know, national television, um, to uh, to amplify your sales. Yeah. And forever we'll be a Shark Tank brand. Right. Right. I'd love to, I hope that we are able to get to a place where we have them on board as investors and strategic partners, but if that doesn't happen, we've just seen a lot of interest and opportunity.

My guess is that, that, you know, that we'll have. We'll have some interesting opportunities. Well, I mean, you could save 18 percent too. I can save 18%. I love your ideas. I'll keep the equity. And just put your foot on the gas on the franchise model. I think what you're doing is fantastic. Like you said, [01:32:00] you got to find the right, right people to facilitate your culture and keep it intact and make sure they have all the resources they need to be successful and be there for support.

But it sounds like it's a really. True successful business story. And I'm really happy for you. And I'm, I'm so excited. It came out of this area for sure. That, that has been so fun. Oh my gosh. Just the amount of support that this area has given us, me, my team. It was, it was pretty, you know, electric. It was, it was fun.

Yeah. I think that it was a tough secret to keep for a long time. It really was because you want to, you just want to tell people, but, but I think once it got out, it really spread like wildfire. We had the mayor at our watch party and they gave us a ton of support. And, Just, uh, all I've I've heard from so many different people from different walks and times and ages and stages of my life over the past two weeks, which [01:33:00] has been really, really fun.

Right. Well, I know we get a lot of visitors at Salt Water and they routinely come and get your product and, and fix it in the rooms. Oh yeah. I mean, it's almost like it's a, like you said, it's an annual thing they do. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right. I actually thought, you know, building an outdoor grill just for you, you know, here's where your pots go.

Don't do it inside the room. Do it out here. Do it out here. Well, when we were putting this concept together, as far as like a business focused podcast that Christa wanted to do, you're the first person that came to mind.

Like, We have to talk to Danielle. Well, thank you. This is my first podcast. Really? Yes. This is my first one hosting as well. That's kind of like what Todd and I, did you see what I said on the, on the episode, Todd said, this is my first shark tank deal. And I'm like, . Yeah, 

yeah, exactly.

 Well, best of luck to you with your growth model and hopefully we'll bring you back in short order and we could talk about conquering, conquering The rest of the United States. I would [01:34:00] love it. Thank you so much. You bet. Thank you.

Amplified CEO is produced by Topsail Insider, edited by Jim Mendez Puget and sponsored by Cape Fear Ventures. For more information about Amplified CEO, Amplified CEO, Richard Stroupe, or Cape Fear Ventures, please contact Christa at 910 800 0111 or christa at topsailinsider. com.