An Interview With Martita Mestey
A leadership team that is aligned, and communicates a clear goal to every team member in the company.
As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brandon Assaf, President & CEO, ReBuilt Meals.
Brandon Assaf is President & CEO for ReBuilt Meals. With the motto, “Cook Less, Live More,” ReBuilt Meals is one of the fastest growing meal prep companies in the South East Region of the United States.
Assaf’s roots in hospitality, business, finance, and logistics have contributed to the significant growth of ReBuilt Meals over the last seven years — the company has over 30 pick up locations within 100 hundred miles of Tampa Bay.
Assaf is an active member of the Entrepreneurs Organization, where he has served on the board of directors as the Finance Chair for three years. He is a serial entrepreneur and currently owns and operates several companies. Constantly looking to grow both personally and professionally, Assaf leads his companies by example, following some key core values: Honesty, integrity, and a disciplined work ethic.
Originally from Dartmouth, MA, Assaf has been a Tampa resident for the last decade. He attended the University of Tampa, where he obtained both his MBA and Masters in Finance. Before moving to Tampa he earned his undergraduate degree in Corporate Finance and Accounting from Bentley University.
Assaf is an avid sports fanatic. In the rare chance that he can find some free time, you can usually find him doing something sports-related or attending a sporting event.
Connect with Assaf on LinkedIn at this link.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I’ve always been a leader and visionary, dating back to childhood. I am fiercely competitive, especially when it comes to my own goals and accomplishments. I don’t believe in the term “over achiever”. I’ve always just believed in accomplishing my goals.
Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food or beverage brand you are leading?
I’m not sure there was truly an “ah ha” moment. We began this company by filling a void that we identified. We started in a home kitchen and grew organically at first. Before we knew it, we were working out of a shared kitchen space. Within a year, we had our own kitchen space. Now nearly seven years later, we are in a 15,000 square foot facility!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Our first year in business my former business partner and I decided to open up our home delivery radius to Naples and Gainsveille. We agreed that if we got a Naples order, he would deliver them, and if we got a Gainesville order, I would deliver them. In the first week we got one of each, which we were not excited about. For the next 2 months I had to drive from Tampa to Gainesville twice a week to deliver ONE client’s meals. It was a 4+ hour round trip in the middle of the night. Half the time I would have to take a power nap in a Walmart parking lot just to be able to get back home. That is when we started formulating the idea for Pick Up Locations. That way, we would know that we would have a number of clients to deliver to at once.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food or beverage line? What can be done to avoid those errors?
When it comes to the meal prep industry specifically, a lot of new companies don’t understand how difficult it is to survive in this industry. To grow and sustain a meal prep company, you need to have a robust kitchen operation and understand the logistics of getting the perishable food to the consumer. The food needs to be delivered cold, which is the opposite of a traditional restaurant. A new meal prep owner may not think about how to properly cool down large batches of food to avoid food quality and safety issues.
Also, a lot of companies in this space try to enter without having the capital resources to meet the new barriers of entry (such as expensive meal packing machines).
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Make sure you have the time and passion for it because you will need to make sacrifices to be successful.
Find someone who has launched a similar product in the past and learn from their successes and mistakes
Don’t reinvent the wheel. If there is a part of the process that someone has perfected then use that process and focus on your core competency.
Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?
I would first tell this person to make sure they understand what being a business owner is all about. Most people think being a business owner is easy and automatically profitable. However, being a business owner brings up a whole new set of challenges that most people are not aware of. These challenges are in addition to actually producing and delivering a product, creating systems and operations, etc. If they are willing to accept these challenges, then I would encourage them to join a group of business owners whom they can learn from. No matter what size your business is, most business owners face the same daily challenges.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
If you have the money and no experience, yes, hire a consultant.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
I am an avid supporter of bootstrapping as that is what I have done with ReBuilt meals and my other companies. I personally have not taken any outside capital and do not plan to unless the opportunity is too great to pass up.
There are some industries such as tech where venture capital may be needed. But it’s better to not give up equity if you don’t have to. On the other side though, you need to decide if you are willing to sacrifice part of your personal life in order to start a company by bootstrapping.
Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?
One of our top priorities is to provide top-of-the-line, consistent products to our clients at a very good value. We are constantly working to make sure that our food is fresh, nutritious, and flavorful. This takes time and effort as needs change, and distributors change product pricing and offering. We need to constantly stay on top of our suppliers and make sure we are getting the best product for our clients, and maintaining a consistently delicious end result.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand” and why?
- World Class Customer Service.
- At the end of the day, we would not have a company without our clients. With how much the world is changing and going digital, human communication can be lost. We strive to keep that communication and customer service top of mind to give the best possible experience to our clients.
2. Staying ahead of the curve in terms of Technology.
- As an e-commerce brand we have to continuously improve our online client experience because that is where 100% of our orders take place. We cannot fall behind on technology. It is ever changing, and it’s the best way to stay competitive.
3. Extremely efficient operations that are constantly being improved.
- Every business has its own challenges when it comes to operations. But in order to grow and sustain in the meal prep industry long term, you have to make sure your operations are efficient because the profit margins are not very high. If you aren’t profitable, you will not be able to add value for your clients or even stay in business.
4. A leadership team that is aligned, and communicates a clear goal to every team member in the company.
- Without a solid leadership team, you will struggle to achieve company goals and communicate a consistent message to everyone else in the company. A strong leadership team holds the company together when the company faces adversity. If you have drama in your leadership team, then you are always going to take 1 step forward and 2 steps back.
5. Lastly, a damn good product that is consistent in quality no matter when or where you try it.
- This goes without saying, but if you do not have a good product then, more than likely, you will not create a successful brand, especially in the food and beverage industry, and the product has to be consistently good. In the meal prep world, our clients want to make sure that when they enjoy one meal, the next meal will taste exactly the same, which is difficult to do when you are cooking in such large batches. Consistent quality is the key to a happy and long-term client.
Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?
Figure out what people want, or better yet, need, and figure out how to be better than everyone else.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
By allowing our clients to Cook Less & Live More! Giving back to local organizations whenever possible, and donating 10’s of thousands of meals to people in need.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Our core focus is to empower people to cook less and live more. People lead busy, stress-filled lives. Most feel like they work long hours to make a living and then have to work at home, especially for planning, preparing, and cleaning up meals–and are still not living. With chef-prepared meals that are nutritious, flavorful, and mindful, people don’t have to shop, prep, cook, or clean–so they can do all the living instead.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Brandon Assaf Of ReBuilt Meals On 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.