 I'm Mellie James, host of Let's Mana Up. This show is meant to dive into stories of local product entrepreneurs and how they are growing their companies from right here in Hawaii. My guest today is Blaine Apo, founder of Maui Crisps. Welcome to the show. So why don't we have you start off with how you get started, like how did this whole thing get going? So basically we had an opportunity to take over a gas station which is owned by my father-in-law, my wife's dad, and try and turn it around due to some unforeseen circumstances as like Costco opened up their own gas station there in Maui, which took a lot of the business away from my father-in-law's gas station. So within trying to find new products and different ways to make money, we came across, we're trying to make Pipicolo, we came across the ends come in thin and dry after we cut them up and dehydrated them and thought, hey, maybe we onto something here and try to just perfect it. So we continued on that path and kind of steered away from the Pipicolo which we actually set out to do and looked for the thin and crispy type of beef chips that now we have that's been popular. Cool. So you had to get kind of creative because no one was coming to the gas station anymore because the Costco rates are just like so ridiculously low. Yes, yes. So how did you start to market that? When you started doing the products, like did you have big signs out front? So I actually started, I started with Poki, we did Poki, never did advertise anything, just kind of went with what the customers were purchasing at the time. So when we started giving samples of the beef chips to the people coming into the gas station, they were buying beer and whatnot, so I figured it's like a poo-poo, you know, they're going to take it out. So we started giving samples and then the customer's feedback was just, hey, why don't you sell this? This is good. Where you guys have it, so we kind of pursued that and followed their request and basically they built it. I mean we got to a point where we couldn't keep up with the demand, so we never did advertise because I didn't want to sell a sorry to the customers, so we just, it kind of just grew basically word of mouth where it went from. Cool. Yeah. So you said you started with pipicola and then kind of Poki and then the ends were like crisping and the dehydrator, so how did you, so can you just share what is exactly Maui crisps and how did that really come to be? So Maui crisps is a thin slice of beef, so we take a whole round, we slice it thin, we marinate it and then we put it through a dehydrating process and at the end it has a texture of like a Pringles chip, so it's a crunch but it's not fried, it's dry and it also has like a burst of flavor as you're chewing through it. It's easy to chew, it melts in your mouth, it's something like nothing, no other jerky that's out there right now, it's thin and crispy I guess you could call it. Yeah, I love eating it because you feel like you're eating a lot but then you're not because it's so thin and then you like get that burst in your mouth but it's like super full of flavor but then you don't get like, my brain starts to like expand and feel like it gets numb when I eat too much jerky because I'm like chewing and chewing and suddenly I feel my brain it's all like wide or something, so I love it. This product is basically for all ages, I mean up to the Couponas and young kids everyone can eat it, it's packed with protein, it's really light to carry on trips, it's a great gift for Omelagi as a lot of people that come and support the gas station from off island and to take it back as a gift to their families or wherever it is, so that's been a truly blessing. That's awesome. So Penny walk us through how, so you start in the gas station and obviously just demand just kept growing and growing and you know how did you then start to develop your manufacturing facility because we were just over there and it's like this huge awesome facility and how you've tweaked so many of the machines to exactly how you want to like retrain and all this, how does all this come to be? I actually know, so we're at the gas station, we kind of maxed out on our area where we could put dehydrators, I took my office out of there, moved it to my house, put a dehydrator in my office and we still couldn't keep up with demand, so at that point I said you know we need to start looking to grow the operation and the production, just so happened in the meantime my father-in-law had been putting up a building out in Waikapu, so he asked if we were looking to expand and get bigger and I said yeah, so we kind of started to design while they were designing their building, so took months of research, stayed up late online and looking at all kinds of different equipment, knowing what I was looking for, being doing it every day on my own was kind of a big help to purchase this equipment that we got from outside of the country, so in 2016 we designed the facility, well 2015 we designed the facility, 2016 we started to build it out and in 2017 is where we're in now, so it is a fully functioning USDA certified facility which has been operating since 2017, so as far as the equipment, the designing of the equipment we kind of tailored it, there's no equipment, there's nobody doing this on a large scale, so there was nothing to base it off of on how we're gonna grow our production, so it was a lot of just looking at what we were doing currently and trying to grow it from there and then talking with the manufacturers and seeing if we can make adjustments to the machine to tailor it to our specific needs. And you were just in Vegas for what show was it where it was like a total like candy land of manufacturing. Yeah, so it was a pack expo, which is there's two different shows, I guess it's in Vegas and Berlin New Orleans or something, but basically it's a huge show of packaging equipment for any type of industry, food industry, medical fields, whatever it is, so we were just up there, so our first time at the show and we're looking to automate our production, so we needed to take a step further and go outside and look and see what's out there and what we can find to help us with that specific need because that is one of the areas of the production that's kind of bottlenecked there in the production room where everything we have right now is all hand packaged in our current situation. And that's kind of a bottleneck in terms of like labor is challenging to get access to. Yeah, labor is one. The second one is this to grow bigger than this. It's going to be hard to find a consistent volume coming off of manual labor. There's people, you know, they might not come to work or whatever it is. But that is the bottleneck due to the time constraints on manually packaging all these products. So we figured that was one specific area of the production facility that we needed to make sure we could automate eventually at some point and in order to grow to the next level. Have you guys been able to take advantage of the map grant with Innovate Hawaiian? Can you share with our audience with that? Yes, so we did in 2000, I believe 2016 or something like that. I met Wayne from Innovate and he was at my gas station just looking to purchase some bags of jerky and introduce himself. And I was unfamiliar of any grants at the time. So got us on board, sent us some emails with the application, we filled out the application. And it was a big help that manufacturing grant, I mean, it's for any food manufacturing company out there, which everyone should that's involved in food manufacturing should take advantage of. Go check it out. Google it. I don't have the exact website. I think it's 20%. Yeah, so I think it's up to $100,000 to give you 20% of your total investment or something like that. But specific needs, it has to be specific to making your product different. Like it has to tailor to why your product is unique, though. But I mean, it's a grant that everyone should take advantage of for sure. So you got started, people start liking your stuff. And it's so different because it is like a beef chip. How have you marketed what this product is? Obviously, there's like a huge education of like, it's not a jerky, but it's not a chip. So what has been some of them more like effective marketing or education that you guys have done? So a lot of it came from doing trade shows or not trade shows like pop up events. So we do like the meeting Maui Festival, which was one of the first festival or first event that we actually ever did, which we sold out, I think in like six or eight hours of the event. Two years in a row, we had sold out there. But a lot of the marketing we did was just face to face with the consumer sampling. It's kind of like throwing out some hollow in the water for fish, you know, some little chum and they'll come around and once they try it, it's, yeah, it's really good, you know, but just to try and get these people to try it, it's like beef chips, like really what is that? No one's ever heard of it. So marketing has been basically more face to face one on one with people and try to do that. What about your your flavors? What have been some of like you started with the original, which is can share what that is and then what has been kind of from there and where are you at now? So yeah, the original was just something random mix that I threw together and try to tailor it over to my picky taste buds. And then from that, we just based it off of the that original flavor. And then we did a cracked pepper, white chili. And then I felt okay, what does in the jerky industry, there's teriyaki flavor. So we came up with a teriyaki sauce, we did a furukaki sprinkled on that, and then also a spicy teriyaki. So since then, we've incorporated a new product line that we came up with recently is for our fruit line, our fruit crisps. So we have pineapple crisps, lean pineapple crisps and banana, all cut in all crispy. It's like basically everything we produce out of our plan is thin and crispy. So and then now recently, we got a opportunity to get some grass fed beef in there. And starting to play around with some grass fed flavors. But basically, it's just trial and error and face testing. But it feels like you're like this culinary like chef, and you're also this like, engineer understanding machinery. Did you, you know, go to school for like 30 years prior to starting this company, or like, what were you doing before starting my Chris was you're wearing so many hats. A lot of building Legos when I was young, taking apart remote control cars and figuring out how they work is kind of where I stem from. But yeah, I went to school to be for automotive and welding. So it's completely opposite of this. It's just just a grind. I mean, just trying to prove to yourself that you can do it. Do it as much research as you can. And I don't know, it's just a passion of mine to always build things I've constantly wanted to look into different stuff. I mean, I get old, I get tired of doing things really quick. So it's kind of perfect for me with this this type of business. Can you can you talk a little bit about, obviously, it takes a village and you've got a great family. Can you talk about the different roles that that family is playing with the company? Yes. So my wife is at the gas station running that that operation there. I'm up at the plant. I brought my brother, my brother was in the military. He came up, got out of the military. So he's now about over a year. We trained him got him prepped up. So he's running my he's a production manager. I've got my mom in there. She's retired, but she comes back and helps. She does she wants to do something. So she floats around and then I got my brother, my older brother that's down on the floor. I'm in the cutting room and making sure the process is going to tailor. But it's it's a lot of a lot of it's when they say it's a family run business, it is a family run business. One jury of the employees are and family and that's kind of our backbone of where we started, you know, that's that's who's going to help you build your company. And you have three kids, right? Three kids. Yeah, they're going to start feeling in some walls. Yeah. So so when they're off from school, they come in and help. I know two older ones, my younger daughter, she's too young to do it. So but trying to instill that in my kids that hey, you know, this is something to look forward to in the future. You know, they want to you want to be a worker, but if you can be your own own your business in that it's it's a lot of work. But it's worth it, you know, you can feed a lot of people's mouths, you can make everyone happy. I couldn't agree more. Yeah. Well, we're going to take a quick break. When we get back, going to learn more about what's next for Maui crisps and where people can find you and all the other awesomeness that's happening with the with the near future with this company. Sure. Thank you. Aloha, I'm Catherine Norr and I'm the host of Much More on Medicine on Think Tech Hawaii. We talk about medical issues and I interview guests regarding medical matters. And I'm really excited about upcoming guests. I hope you join us every other Wednesday at three p.m. Aloha and see you then. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, inviting you to join us on Wednesdays at one o'clock for Cannabis Chronicles, the 10,000 year Odyssey, where we take a look at cannabis as food, cannabis as medicine, cannabis and religion, cannabis and your old uncle's family. So please join us to learn all about cannabis. Again, Wednesdays at one o'clock. Welcome back. I'm Mellie James, host of Let's Manna Up and with me today, we're returning back with Blaine Apo, founder of Maui Crisps. Thanks Blaine for being here. Thank you. So we're just kind of getting into growth of the company. You guys got started in the gas station, just natural growth with people just absolutely loving your stuff, building off the machinery, you know, going to Vegas, finding more machinery and increasing growth and building your facility. So what's next? So next, what we're trying to do is we are trying to spread our wings and reach outside of the country. So we've started a process, which is a lengthy process to try and get into Japan. There's a lot of hurdles and challenges, I guess you could say, to getting in there. It is a very tight country to get into. So we're just taking the steps right now as so we've about halfway there to the process of getting our acceptance into Japan. But I feel it's always been a dream of mine. I don't know why, but it's just from when I first started making the jerky. And I said, Oh, yeah, you can go big with it. You can go big with it. And that was my vision. I want to go to Japan. For some reason, I want to go to Japan. Yeah, it kind of makes sense. I mean, Japan has just been such a kind of a sister country to Hawaii. Yes. And you've got quite a bit of practice. I mean, you know, looking at some of the collaborations you've had and the growth on retail and e-commerce. How has that really developed for you? And what are some of the things you've learned? So yeah, doing collaborations, we did some collaboration with 16. For Mary Monarch. Yeah. So basically, I wanted to give back to the community and support the people that's holding up our Hawaiian culture. So we did a giveaway with them and Hawaiian Airlines. They designed some bags Hawaiian Airlines allowed us to distribute the bags to the to the customers. As a thank you to the Maui Halal since we're from Maui, we filled up a whole plane with the two halals and gave it all gave all each person a bag of jerky. How many bags? I want to see it was about 130 something bags. I think we gave away that on that flight. And then we got collaborations. There's been a lot of trying to try to mix it up with local Sheldon Simeon. We're trying to do something with him. Nelly's spice company, we're trying to use some of their spice to try to just get the local products to get together or companies to get together and and grow together, you know, to help everybody has to help each other out. I like all the local products are getting together and that you're all Monop companies, right? Yeah, all Monop companies. Yeah. So Monop has been a huge blessing for us. We've been a part of this accessory program or cohort four. Thank you. So it's opened all kinds of doors to us. Being being by myself kind of trying to grow this company back with my workers. I don't have access to like marketing. It was never involved in sales or anything like that. So this has opened the door and allowed us to meet all different kind of companies and have access to marketing, professional sales and get that extra help that we need to grow to the next level, which is awesome. Thank you. Yeah. It's in terms of retail locations. Where can people find you? So you can find us at we're in ABC stores, Don Quiles. We've recently started launching with Fuland Farms. So we are in the Alamoana. There's Kauai, the brand new store out in Pro City and on the Big Island, our gas station, of course, on Maui where it all started. Go check it out. Is there a full cut out of you in the store people can take pictures with? We got to work on that. So there you can also go to our website, www.mauikrisps.com. A lot of people tend to forget the S at the end of crisp. So it is crisps.com. Other than that, yeah, we're at various gas stations across the state. On the Big Island, there's a store called Big Island Beef Jerky sells abundant supply of beef jerky from across the nation. We got Gator jerky there. They got all kinds of different stuff. So if you're on any island, I'm sure you'll be able to find our product. If not, go to our website and we have all the locations where we're at. What's been, you know, obviously, being a small business in Hawaii is challenging. And then even more so probably on Maui as opposed to Oahu. What have been some of the biggest kind of hurdles that you guys have overcome? Or what are some of the biggest lessons you've learned? So starting the beginning it basically, there was such a huge demand for it. I will call it my pillars. I forgot to put up before I set the building up. My foundation wasn't there. I just was just kind of flew in my face super quick. So there's a lot of learning experience, trying to grow the business to the next step. The USDA for sure was one of the huge hurdles to get through. There's no, at the time, I didn't know where to access any help to get the application going. So it was like turning the application and then they're like, Oh, it's incomplete. You ask them what's what's missing and I'll go to Code of Federal Regulations. The book is like about 800 pages long. You got to find for yourself. But it just made me stronger. It actually was a blessing because it made me learn every little thing, every little avenue I had to go through. I've been through it and hired somebody to do it for me. So yeah, there's been a lot of hiring employees, dealing with employees. I mean, it's from doing it myself and it's been a huge change. Yeah. Would you give any advice for people starting up their business or they've got an idea or they're just getting started that could have maybe helped you a little bit if you'd learned this early on. Yeah, so there are programs out there that you that new food businesses or any new companies that can take advantage of small business development. I'm now seeing all this stuff colleges, community colleges have programs that they can help you create your food product and perfect it and make sure it's shelf stable or whatever you want to do. Basically, believe in your heart, anything you want to do in life, you can it's possibly just got to be able to grind it out and commit to it. It's a lot of work. But it's not impossible. Anything is possible. I couldn't agree with that more. I think we know at Monta up we've just met so many awesome entrepreneurs and you're being definitely one of them. And just really impressed with, you know, that you didn't get trained at all this, but you're having all these different hats and just literally like stepping up to whatever the challenges that's needed. Yeah, you know, it's been a wild ride. I must say it's every little obstacle. I used to listen to Billy Kinoi speech at the HPU graduation and it's his thing was any obstacle or hurdle is meant to go over a round or through. So I just kept that in the back of my head as a saying like, Okay, it's possible, just find there's got to be a way to do it. If other people are doing it. But so access to help, I mean, strongly advise, look at all the avenues you can get help with, set your plans, make sure you have a goal in mind, which I kind of just shot from the hip along the way. But now we're kind of in that stage. So if I can give advice, yeah, look, seek, seek help as much help as you can get. There is grants. There is a lot of free help out there. So take advantage of it. You mentioned Billy Kinoi. Do you have any other? I guess business people are heroes or people that inspire you, whether they're local or not? My father law, he's always kind of gave us the rope gave us the kind of freedom at the station to make a decision all while sitting back. And soon as you make a little hiccup, and he's right there to correct, he's like, Hey, why didn't you help me off before that? But I think he kind of like steered us in a way to get on our own feet and and grow from that. So yeah, he's he's a he's a super inspiration to me. I mean, he's done it for 40 something years. So I always think of it as be a sponge, soak in whatever you can soak in from all these knowledgeable businessmen. And then when it's time for your turn to decide make a decision in your own company, then you can squeeze out whatever you want to squeeze out. But at least you have all that water in that sponge and knowledge in that sponge built up. So that's just the path I always took. And never let me down. So like that. In terms of growth of the company. Are you what would be your next hire? Or are you hiring now? And if not, looking at kind of the team, what would be your next hire? So right now, we're trying to put together a long strategic plan. But at this point, it's something to do with marketing, someone in marketing that could help me along the way with that. Somebody on the right hands that will stay within my company, submit me a little graphic design to do like posters or events, pop up little programs or whatever it is. But I think that's the next step we're gonna we have to take advantage of, along with some accounting somewhere there. But yeah, the marketing for sure is some is a mark is is an is a tool in a business that we have never tapped into or y'all used it. So I think there's a lot to grow on that end. I think for marketing, I already have so many fun ideas of like contests you can do. The Crispin. What was the line that you that you said? Um, dried? Was it down the one you texted me? Oh, shoot, I forget. I think it was thin and crispy, dried and not fried, or it was an alternative to beef jerky that won't hurt your jaw dried, not fried like a potato chip. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, good. It's a unique. It's a unique product. It's a very temperamental product. Because it's so thin, a little too much cooking or a little too much sauce, it just makes it become something else other than other than what you normally eating. So it's just a constantly close monitoring product as we send it through a process. We have installed a safety program where we data log everything from start to finish. So we know temperatures from when raw beef enters our facility to when it's cut, marinated, cooked and then bag. So we have a track record, we have a lab on site, which we created to ensure the safety of the product. So before it leaves our facility, it's already had been tested. So there's no reason for us to even try and think of a recall as I just hear it just makes me scared to hear that word recall. So I don't want to get involved in that. But yeah, so we did that to ensure quality of our product. And every day testing keeps us on top of it. My favorite flavor is Italian. So anytime you're coming by I'm on a new line, we're coming out with a grass fed line. There's been a lot of people asking questions about that. So we're coming up with two flavors in Italian and a lemon pepper grass fed. We did some testing with some other use the kosher flavor, which is like citrus pepper flavor. So stay tuned for that. I don't know what we're doing in a process of testing with it now. But we're sure in the next few months, we'll be coming out with a grass fed line. That's awesome. What's the shelf life? Our shelf life is about six months for a product as far as quality. It's been lab tested for a year for safety. But because if you buy the product at seven months, it won't be the same type of Christmas that you would get in the between one and six months. So and it's due to not not using a sodium nitrate or any preservative. I try to stay away from that and try to keep it as clean as possible. Well, I'm so excited for you. I think you're just one of those entrepreneurs. That's such an executor. And that's something that we like seeing. You've had a lot of great opportunities come your way and taken advantage of them. And just learned everything you need to just like you were saying been a sponge. Yeah. Are there any last last things we're working everyone find you? You guys can find us at my week, www.mychrist.com. You can go to our gas station, Elima Shell, which is located 137 Comon Avenue. You can Google it, Yelp it. It's all up there for you. Other than that. Yeah. Thank you for having me on the show. Appreciate it. Thanks, Blaine. And thanks. Thanks for sharing your awesome journey so far. And I can't wait to keep up with you, which I know I will already. And just see that growth really happening from our which is awesome. Thank you. Alright. Thanks for being here. I'm Mellie with Let's Manna up. Aloha.