The co-founder of a popular meat sticks brand sold at Trader Joe’s says his upbringing in an immigrant family on Long Island taught him resilience — one of the various things that has led “Chomps” to runaway success.
Growing up, Chomps co-founder Pete Maldonado would often snack on greasy, gas station jerky sticks. The Manorville native knew he desired to in the future turn into a private trainer, nevertheless it wasn’t until he began working with clients within the Hamptons that he realized his favorite snack and love of fitness were at odds.
“I ate more gas station snack sticks or meat sticks than I’d ever wish to admit,” Maldonado, 42, told The Post, later adding, “But once you begin training and reading labels differently, I noticed I shouldn’t be eating those.”
At a time when Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig dominated the market of accessible healthy options, Maldonado couldn’t help but wonder why nobody had invented a “higher for you” version of his favorite gas station snack. Not long after, Chomps was born.
Maldonado’s pitch for a “healthier” beef jerky impressed Rashid Ali, who quickly became his business partner in Chomps after the 2 met in 2011 during a poker night at a mutual friend’s house in Chicago.
“We were just chatting about business and I noticed that I would like someone like him to achieve success. He’s good with the finance and operations side of things. I like the large ideas, sales, marketing,” Maldonado told The Post over the phone from his home in Naples, Florida. “Our skills really complemented one another.”
After pooling together a meager $6,500 in startup capital, the duo began working on a product they might bring to market.
Their first order of business: creating something healthy that folks would actually need to eat.
“Doesn’t matter what dietary attributes you check the boxes for, if it doesn’t taste good, you’re never going to sell it again, he said. “We had that intuition very early, which I feel loads of brands ignore so we spent loads of time on the taste.”
Once Chomps launched, they began going door-to-door to sell at different CrossFit gyms and dealing with nutrition and fitness bloggers to construct their brand and credibility inside the billion-dollar meat snacks industry.
“About 4 years in we got a call from Trader Joe’s, that was in 2016, and so they desired to launch the product with us,” Maldonado said.
“That was a game changer for us. Overnight, tens of millions of people were trying the product for the primary time and so they loved it and they might come back to purchase it again,” he said.
While Chomps has doubled its business annually, sales increased tenfold the 12 months their product hit the shelves at Trader Joe’s, Maldonado said.
After selling over 350 million jerky sticks between 2012 and 2023, Chomps estimates that it could herald near $500 million in 2024. Chomps didn’t disclose how much Maldonado and Ali could be making
Despite the corporate’s projected earnings, Maldonado stressed that things weren’t so glamorous when he and his partner were relentlessly chasing the dream.
“I didn’t come from a special type of upbringing, a wealthy family, I used to be never the neatest kid in class. All of this was exertions and resilience,” he said.
That resilience, he says, was learned from his family. His grandmother, who immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia when his father was five, raised six children alone after her husband died from brain cancer and would at all times discover a method to “make it work.”
“It’s kind of the mentality that she raised all her kids with, similar to, you understand, it doesn’t matter what life throws at you, you simply need to make it work, make it occur. That’s resilience,” he said.
“Growing up in an immigrant family, for me, I feel was similar to a game changer in terms of my mindset and my work ethic and the best way I take into consideration providing for my family.”
Maldonado says his family-first mindset propelled him to be a diligent employee from a young age.
“It takes an extended time to see the outcomes of all of your work,” he said. “But just having that motivation was really impactful for me.”