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  • #277: Down Dating – Part 1 – Created, Sold and Bought Back Again

    #277: Down Dating – Part 1 – Created, Sold and Bought Back Again
    2026/10/07
    Colin Hodge created a dating app the took off and got a lot of attention. He just did expect to buy it back after he sold it. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Travis Crawford HVAC Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, it’s Stephen Semple here and I have with us, we’ve given Dave Young a bit of a break, and I have with us Colin Hodge, who is the founder of… It’s such an interesting story. So he’s a founder of a dating app. We’re going to talk a little bit more about that dating app. He grew it, sold it, bought it back. Again, one of those really crazy stories. And I actually remember, we talked quite a while ago and I remember that we squeezed in this call, literally, I was traveling into downtown Toronto and I pulled off off the road at one spot to do this telephone call. And it was literally one of those ones where I think three or four minutes into the call, I was like, “Oh, this is such a good story. We have to talk about this.” And Colin, you’re also a bestselling author, so you’ve got a book out. Let’s explore what happened because it’s, again, one of those build it, sell it, buy it back stories, which I always love. Colin Hodge: I’m so happy to hear that, Stephen. Thank you for having me, and I hope your listeners enjoy it as much as you did in our initial call. It was an absolutely crazy journey starting this company, getting international attention, what felt like overnight and being on the front of every webpage, getting on national TV in the US, and then eventually selling the company and buying it back. So I’m happy to walk through all that stuff and hopefully there’s some good lessons in here for other builders out there. Stephen Semple: I’m sure there will be. So tell me about the starting of the dating app, how you got this started and what was the inspiration for starting that? That’s not something that everybody wakes up in the morning going, “I’m going to do a dating app.” Colin Hodge: Like most founders, I had the problem myself first and I went on a few bad dates and one was just incredibly insufferably bad. I won’t go into that, but suffice it to say that it endangered my physical health. Let’s just put it that way. Stephen Semple: Wow. Colin Hodge: After that, I knew I could do better, right? I knew I could do better. I was always very curious about sociology and psychology. Why are we attracted to the people we are? How do dating rules work? How do you learn how to date? How do you even make friends? All these things about social dynamics that I was curious from a young age. I really, during my early 20s, started to look into it more. And then by my mid to late 20s and I had these dating issues, it all came together and it became clear to me, this is what I should start. I should try this because I could tell you right that back then, nothing else, nobody else was doing a good job at it. So I figured why not me? Why can’t I do better? Stephen Semple: And the dating app that you built again was called…? Colin Hodge: So my first one, and it completely failed the first one that I made, I called it Heard About You. And the idea was I thought, okay, one of the best ways to meet people is if you have a mutual friend in common, so you have some shared interest potentially, you have people you can vet them with. And while that might work as a way to meet people, it was not a motivating enough factor for all the parties that you need to be involved. And so I pretty quickly, within about a year, year and a half, figured out that model wasn’t going to work. And what I realized, frankly, during a very drunken night when I was confessing and just blurting out all my fears about my startup failing and all that stuff, was that the key element that everybody was dancing around in the ...
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    24 分
  • #276: General Mills Fruit Roll-Up – Good Food Marketed as FUN!

    #276: General Mills Fruit Roll-Up – Good Food Marketed as FUN!
    2026/09/30
    First they tried to make a cake filling product, but figured out that healthier foods need to be fun for kids to eat them. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Kooler Garage Doors Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Stephen Semple is here. I’m Dave Young, and then Stephen’s going to bring us part two of the engaging Fruit Roll-Up story, and this time we are heading to the evil empire of big corporate food. Stephen Semple: I was expecting that. Dave Young: It’s probably not evil empire, but it’s big food. I don’t know. How big is General Mills? Stephen Semple: Oh, god. Dave Young: They own pretty much all of it unless it’s owned by Nestlé. And maybe they own Nestlé or Conagra. Stephen Semple: Yeah. To put it in perspective, just their Fruit Roll-Up sales of their business is estimated to be like $200 million a year. Dave Young: Oh, okay. Just Fruit Roll-Ups. Stephen Semple: Just Fruit Roll-Ups. Dave Young: Forget about anything else you’ve ever seen with General Mills. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: Cap’n Crunch. I don’t know how big the Cap’n Crunch empire is with the- Stephen Semple: Yeah. General Mills is a massive, massive company. Dave Young: They’re huge. So if you remember where we left off, the Syrian immigrant and his son develops this Fruit Roll-Up product, fruit leather thing back in the early 1900s. It’s still going today. Stephen Semple: No, no. Sorry. The Fruit Roll-Up was 1960. Remember the early 1900s- Dave Young: Oh, it was [inaudible 00:02:50]. Stephen Semple: …was when the father immigrated. He did this in the 1960s. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Okay? Yeah. Dave Young: Okay. But he was still doing the bakery product, right? Stephen Semple: Yes, yes. Dave Young: That you could buy in strips at the bakery. Stephen Semple: Correct. Correct. Dave Young: So in the 60s he puts it out as an actual product that can sit on a shelf. Stephen Semple: Correct. Dave Young: And so I think we’re up-to-date, probably. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So last episode we basically met Louis Shalhoub, who was the son of the Syrian baker, who basically invented the modern Fruit Roll-Up as we know today, and basically in the 1960s in New York. Yet today, almost no one remembers Joray because that was what he called the product, and everyone knows about Fruit Roll-Ups. And again, we don’t know exactly the Fruit Roll-Up sales, but from what I’ve been able to find, it’s probably 100, $200 million a year in sales. So what happened? Well, by the early 1970s, Joray had been selling Fruit Roll-Ups for about 15 years. The company expanded beyond New York. Other companies started expanding and copying the idea. Sunkist even introduces its own Fruit Roll-Up. And there was one trade publication that described Joray’s manufacturing process in enough detail that competitors realized that they can make similar products. Dave Young: Oh, no. Stephen Semple: And this was a mistake that Louis Shalhoub was being interviewed… He’s even been quoted as big mistake. I got a little too excited and expanded, talked about it too much. Dave Young: I understand that completely. Man, I get what happens when somebody’s interested and you’re trying to talk about the thing that you love and you say a little bit… It’s like Colonel Sanders giving up the 11 herbs and spices. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So the category is no longer unique to them, but at the end of the day, somebody would’ve been able to figure out how to do it anyway because it was based off of already a well-known product in the Middle East called amerdeen. But here’s the part that surprised me. Fruit Roll-Ups did not begin as a snack project. So General Mills’ dessert division was working on new fruit fillings for a cake mix in 1975, and the fruit filling, they’re having a hard time turning it into a cake. So instead, what somebody ...
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    19 分
  • #275: Joray Fruit Roll-Up – Yup, They Invented It!

    #275: Joray Fruit Roll-Up – Yup, They Invented It!
    2026/09/23
    Have you ever heard of fruit leather? You know, that famous Syrian treat. Well, let’s learn how that became the iconic Fruit Roll-Up. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us. But we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So, here’s one of those. [A&A Roof Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, I’m Dave Young. Steve Semple is here with another story, and he told me that this episode’s going to be a two-parter because this product has two phases. Stephen Semple: It does. Dave Young: The invention phase and then sort of the suborbital stage one. But fruit roll-ups, or as we like to call it in Nebraska, the devil’s lettuce. Stephen Semple: The devil’s lettuce. Dave Young: No, that’s something else, nevermind. Fruit roll-ups. Stephen Semple: Fruit roll-ups. Dave Young: Man, I missed the… I mean, they were starting to come around out in Western Nebraska, you barely got fruit that wasn’t just ugly, let alone rolled up and put in a package. But I remember it came on big cellophane sheets. Stephen Semple: Yeah. It’s a billion dollar product category today. Dave Young: Is it really? Stephen Semple: I could argue that probably just about every child has had one, right? Dave Young: Oh yeah. No doubt. Stephen Semple: It’s crazy, it’s crazy big. But I’m going to say most people probably have not heard of the company that invented them, because this isn’t a story about General Mills, this is a story about a little company that’s actually not been heard of much. The story starts with a Syrian baker in New York, who, quite frankly, sort of accidentally creates an entirely new snack category, and then watches somebody else build it into an empire. So, we’re going to do this, as I said, in two parts. So, this is part one, which is the origin of the idea of the fruit roll-up. So, it’s the early 1990s… Or 1900s, sorry, the early 1900s. Dave Young: Early 1900s. Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And- Dave Young: It goes way back. Stephen Semple: It does go way back. And Joseph Shalhoub & Sons is a small family bakery in New York, and they specialize in Middle Eastern pastries, and they introduce this one unusual product called amardeen. Dave Young: Amardeen. Stephen Semple: Yeah, it’s this traditional Syrian fruit leather. It’s pureed apricots, sweetened, sun-dried into large sheets, and sold by cutting the pieces from these large slabs. Dave Young: I remember the phrase fruit leather, yeah. Okay. Stephen Semple: And customers love it, but it’s another imported specialty food. That is until his son Louis Shalhoub comes along. Now, he started working in the bakery, like a lot of family businesses, at the age of 12, he’s an exceptionally talented baker, and he loves making new confections. Now, he served in the Korean War, and when he returns from the war, he has some bigger ambitions, he wants it to become more than just a neighborhood bakery. But when he returns from the Korean War, the business is facing some real challenges. There’s political instability in Lebanon and Syria, and this disrupts imports. So, their signature product, amardeen, is becoming hard to find. So, he decides we’ll make it ourselves. Problem is no one’s really done this commercially. The process is pretty primitive. You’re pressing the fruit, laying it out on cellophane, hanging it literally in sheets on a clothes line. Setting it out to dry. Dave Young: Yeah, so it can dry on both sides. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So, it’s hard, it’s slow, it’s labor-intensive, but he works on it. He works on it, works on it, works on it. Because one of the things that he found is his homemade version has more flavor, better texture, less leathery, and frankly, it’s just a better product. He keeps working on it, and the other thing he realizes is people really don’t want these giant sheets, they want something more convenient. And if you think about it, this is kind of the same insight ...
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    15 分
  • #274: Palm Pilot – Inspired By A Failed Product

    #274: Palm Pilot – Inspired By A Failed Product
    2026/09/16
    Apple’s PDA device Newton was a little too ambitious. So Jeff Hawkins, did the opposite and removed capabilities to create Palm Pilot. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Kooler Garage Doors] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple, who’s been out digging up stories about empires, giant empires that took over the world and then somehow lost it. Stephen Semple: Well, this one sure did. Dave Young: Yeah, they sure did. Stephen made an assumption as he whispered the topic into my ear just as he hit the record button, and that is that at some point in my life I owned a PalmPilot because that’s the topic for today’s is the PalmPilot. Everybody remembers that. And, Stephen, the answer to your question is, no, I didn’t. I did not own a PalmPilot. Stephen Semple: You did not? Dave Young: No, I was too cheap. I had a cheap Sony knockoff of a PalmPilot. Stephen Semple: Wow. Dave Young: It had a little camera in it, though. Stephen Semple: Oh, the [inaudible 00:02:18]. Dave Young: That was back before … Cell phones didn’t have … If they did, they were just a little flip phone sort of camera. My little Sony version of a PalmPilot had a cheesy little potato quality camera in it. Stephen Semple: Wow. Dave Young: In fact, some of the earliest pictures of the Wizard Academy campus that I have were taken on that device. So I have these grainy pictures of Roy Williams in the woods showing me where the tower was going to be- Stephen Semple: That’s cool. Dave Young: … and standing in the pole barn that got remodeled into Tuscan Hall, all of those things. Stephen Semple: Ah, that’s- Dave Young: Yeah. I remember it was always fun to play with. I don’t remember much about it, to be honest, other than it had a camera on it. Stephen Semple: Wow. Dave Young: I don’t think most PalmPilots did. Stephen Semple: No, they didn’t. They did not. Because so many of these early technology things you’ve been an adapter of, I thought for sure you would’ve had a … So I guessed wrong. I guessed wrong. Dave Young: I just needed … Well, first two things. This is 2004-ish, 2003-ish. They came out a few years earlier than that. Stephen Semple: 1996 is when they launched. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: I was just cheap is the problem. I was broke and cheap at that time. So I guarantee you I had PalmPilot envy up until the point that Sony came out with this one that actually had a camera at a low price point, and I’m like, “All right, I’m going to …” Stephen Semple: Well- Dave Young: Oh, oh, wait a minute. I’m wrong. Now that I think about it, they had a cheap version of a PalmPilot that was colored plastic. Stephen Semple: Yeah? Dave Young: Yeah. I actually did have that, and the Sony was an upgrade. I’m visualizing … Because I got them for my kids, too. So not only did I have one, but my kids each had one. I don’t think they did anything with them. Stephen Semple: Here’s the crazy thing is there could be tons of people listening to this, there’ll be a bunch of people who know what we’re talking about and a bunch of people who won’t know what we’re talking about. One of the things is there was a period there in the early 2000s where Palm OS was 50% to 60% of the PDA, personal digital assistant, operating systems in the world, and there was a point where the value of the business was $50 billion. Dave Young: Yeah, that’s really nuts. Stephen Semple: They were a big deal and then disappeared. Dave Young: Well, then the iPhone came out, so you had your phone, your camera, your PalmPilot all in one. Stephen Semple: Yeah, between the BlackBerry and the iPhone, it was a combination of those two. BlackBerry’s now gone as well or diminished. But what’s really interesting is how this piece of technology was developed, and ...
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    20 分
  • #273: BNI – Part 2 – Continuing The Growth

    #273: BNI – Part 2 – Continuing The Growth
    2026/09/10
    Dr. Misner learned that the law of reciprocity is the strongest form of connection and now “Givers Gain” is the philosophy that all the members of BNI live by. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Wagmore Garage Doors Ad] Gary: Told you, Brian. Brian: Told me what? Gary: This is part two of last week’s episode. Brian: Oh, yeah. And it was getting good. Gary: If you missed it, go back and listen to part one first. Take it away, fellas. Stephen Semple: Was there a big moment? Was there a big challenge? Was there a setback? So what are some of the things that you face that you had to deal with in this journey? Dr. Ivan Misner: Feature Creep is ongoing. I didn’t quite set up BNI to be as smooth a business as it could have been. Franchising in the early days was complex to figure out, but that’s not the single biggest thing. The thing that almost bankrupted me was what’s called BNI Connect. And I don’t know, Stephen, if you were part of BNI when we introduced BNI Connect. Stephen Semple: I think it was- Dr. Ivan Misner: Our online platform- Stephen Semple: I think it was just around the time. Dr. Ivan Misner: Yeah. Imagine LinkedIn for BNI. It’s a walled garden. You can’t really use any of the services on BNI Connect unless you’re a member. Yeah, that was horrible. And I actually wrote a book about this. It’s called The 3rd Paradigm, and the first paradigm being competition, the second paradigm in business, second paradigm being cooperation, and the third paradigm is co-creation. And we talk about how we solved this problem with BNI Connect through co-creation. And if somebody really wants to read the story of how I dealt with my most serious problem, pick up a copy of The 3rd Paradigm, and here’s a secret. We surveyed 2000 people, so there’s survey data. We talk about what are the top seven characteristics of co-creation, what are the seven problems with co-creation? And then interwoven in every chapter is a story about this platform and a guy named Richard. And we say it’s a true story, but we don’t say the platform is BNI Connect and Richard’s my middle name. So it was me. I tell the story about all the really, really stupid things I did and how I eventually resolved them through co-creation, through getting people to work with me. And one of the most important statements that I continually said was hold the vision, not the obstacles. There’s lots of obstacles. What we have to do as a group is hold the vision. Just keep holding that vision. We’ll work around the obstacles. We’ll work under the obstacles. We’ll go over the obstacles. We’ll knock the dang things down. Hold the vision, not the obstacles. And there was a very seminal moment, and I talk about it in the book where I felt I was ready. They were ready to take me out and draw and quarter me in the courtyard. They were so mad at me. And I talked about how we, through co-creation, did something amazing. I couldn’t give you that 27 billion number, 27.1 billion number if we didn’t have BNI Connect. Stephen Semple: So BNI Connect was a massive undertaking- Dr. Ivan Misner: Yeah, it almost bankrupted me. Stephen Semple: Almost bankrupted you, but you saw the vision and you just stuck with it. Dr. Ivan Misner: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Now talk to me a little bit more about how this co-creation helped with making that happen. Dr. Ivan Misner: Well, the first thing that I had to do was to acknowledge that what I had done wasn’t working. And so I took responsibility for… It was with a small group of people, we call them the founder’s circle. It’s about 35 people, top directors in BNI. And so you just throw yourself on the sword. And generally, if you throw yourself in the sword right from the outset, it’s hard for other people to hack away at you because you’ve already done it to yourself. ...
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    30 分
  • #272: BNI – Part 1 – The Unexpected Origin

    #272: BNI – Part 1 – The Unexpected Origin
    2026/09/10
    Dr. Ivan Misner was looking for more business so he set up a business networking meeting. What happened next he didn’t anticipate. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Kooler Garage Door Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, it’s Steven Semple here for another episode of the Empire Builders Podcast. And Dave Young hasn’t joined us today, but I’m really excited by the guest that we have for today. We have Dr. Ivan Misner and boy, this is going to be an exciting story. So Dr. Misner started an organization called BNI. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it, but those of you who aren’t, let me give you an idea of how much of an empire this is. According to the information I have, over 350,000 members, close to 12,000 chapters, 78 countries, annual member-generated business, almost north of $25 billion. I used to be in a BNI chapter, and in fact, I used to run a BNI chapter many, many years ago. The average chapter size is 30 members. That is just massive, especially when you consider it was founded in 1985, and as we were talking about before hitting the recording, out of your garage. Dr. Ivan Misner: Yeah, my garage and just a room above my garage. Stephen Semple: Oh, well, there you go. You started in the lap of luxury, room above your garage. But when you think about that, that’s like 12,000 weekly meetings happening around the world. Dr. Ivan Misner: That’s exactly it. Every week. And you mentioned 25 billion, in the last 12 months, it’s 27 billion in what we call thank you for closed business. And what I think is important to say is that’s not how much money the company has generated, that’s how much money the members reported that they generated in referrals. Now, what I love about that number is, Stephen, if you take a look at the United Nations estimates of GDP, UN estimates of GDP, there are actually a hundred countries in the world, a hundred countries in the world with a lower GDP than what BNI generated for its members last year. Stephen Semple: That is just a remarkable number, just absolutely remarkable number. So tell me a little bit, because there is an interesting story here in terms of how you got started. So what started this? Oh, and the last thing I want to say is when we think about this in terms of institutions, in terms of whether it’s business referrals or business groups, this makes it one of the largest in the world. I think I’d be hard-pressed to find something that rivals the size. Dr. Ivan Misner: In person, you’re correct. We are the largest referral marketing platform in the world. Online, you can get a lot of people online, but we, as you said, have over 350,000 members who meet every week in person. Some of them are Zoom meetings now, and some are hybrid, but most of our groups still meet in person. Stephen Semple: And I think the thing that I’d like to stress just for listeners to understand is there’s lots of places that will have lots of members and the 80/20 rule. Some members are active, some members are not active. But in BNI, for you to be a member, you have to be active. You have to show up, you have to participate. So when somebody like BNI says, “We’ve got over 350,000 members,” that’s a real number. Dr. Ivan Misner: It’s a real number. Stephen Semple: It’s a real number. Dr. Ivan Misner: And we do expect participation in the chapters. And so some people don’t like that, because there are rules. We have rules and systems and processes, but I have found that the most successful businesses have systems and processes. The thing is that you have to apply the rules more like Mandela than Attila. And if you do that, and you do it in a caring way, it works. But I mean, look, hockey without rules would be boxing on ice. You got to have rules. Stephen Semple: True. It’s true. I love that analogy. ...
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    27 分
  • #271: Hi-C – Scurvy No More

    #271: Hi-C – Scurvy No More
    2026/08/26
    Can you believe we didn’t really discover vitamin C until the 1930’s? Well, Nile Foster, knew what to do with it. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Handyside Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to The Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And Steven has just told me what today’s topic is and made the assumption that it’s probably something from my childhood and sort of… We were more Tang kids than Hi-C. Stephen Semple: Okay. Dave Young: So Hi-C is the topic and I’m probably a little old maybe because it was the little Hawaiian guy, right? Their TV- Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: … commercials were the little Hawaiian guy with the pow or something like he’d come and I remember what he would do, saki or something, but he was kind of an obnoxious little mascot. But this is a orange drink or a fruit drink for kids that had some vitamin C in it, which made it a health food. Stephen Semple: Basically. Dave Young: Yeah. But I was the Apollo generation, so the fact that the astronauts drank Tang- Stephen Semple: Yeah, that was the- Dave Young: … all I really wanted was some Tang. Stephen Semple: You wanted Tang? Dave Young: Mm-hmm. Stephen Semple: All right. Well, Hi-C is actually kind of a surprising story because it’s actually a story about a company that built a product around a technological constraint and then had to pivot as the technology eliminated that constraint, which is kind of similar to Swiss Miss. Remember when we did Swiss Miss, there was a couple of these technological changes that forced them to pivot. So Hi-C was launched in 1946 and originally as Hi-C orange. And then of course, as they added a bunch of other flavors, things like that, they eliminated the word orange from it. And it was created by Niles Foster in Florida and in 1954, it was acquired by Minute Maid for approximately $40 million. So they did really quite well. And it’s estimated that they were doing $5 million in sales at the time. And then in 1960, Coke buys Minute Maid and Hi-C now finds itself with bigger distribution. So today Hi-C is a Coca-Cola brand. For generations of kids, it was this brightly colored fruit drink that we all grew up with. And frankly, if you ever ate at a McDonald’s, there’s reasonable chance that you had a Hi-C there. But Hi-C started with essentially a problem. And the problem was this, how do you give Americans orange juice when most Americans can’t easily store orange juice? Dave Young: Ah, okay. Stephen Semple: Even though it was launched in 1946, our story actually starts in the 1930s. Here’s the thing that I kind of found interesting is that basically vitamin C had only been identified as a vitamin in the early 1930s. Dave Young: So people are still getting scurvy or? Stephen Semple: Well, people knew that you should be having fruit, but they didn’t identify- Dave Young: Vitamin C. Stephen Semple: … vitamin C specifically. So vitamin C was discovered as a vitamin in the early 1930s. And then in 1941, the National Research Council published the first recommended dietary allowance. So for the first time, Americans were given specific guidance on nutrition, including vitamins. “Here’s how much you should consume.” So nutrition was now something that could be measured and that created interesting marketing opportunity because instead of simply saying, “This is good for you,” we can now say, “This gives you your daily allotment of vitamin C.” Dave Young: Your recommended daily allowance. Yeah, yeah. Stephen Semple: There you go. And this becomes important because along comes Niles Foster who’s working in Florida. Florida has lots of oranges, but there’s a problem. Orange juice is not the breakfast staple we think of today because fresh oranges were seasonal, fresh juice did not travel well, and storing and distributing juice was a ...
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    18 分
  • #270: Kraft Singles – Keeping Up With The Times

    #270: Kraft Singles – Keeping Up With The Times
    2026/08/19
    When Norman Kraft took over the company he wanted to leave his mark. I think he succeeded. What do you think? Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is… Well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So, here’s one of those. [Wagmore Garage Door Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here. Stephen Semple is sitting here and just told me that we’re… You keep… Man, do you know how to dial into my childhood, Stephen? Stephen Semple: It’s all about you, Dave. Dave Young: It is. Stephen Semple: It’s all about you. Dave Young: I don’t want to make it about me, but it always is. It’s the Swiss Miss and the… So, he’s like, “It’s not the company, but it’s the product inside the company.” We’re going to talk about Kraft Singles. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: I’m assuming we’re talking about cheese… Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: … or the American cheese product, whatever that means. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: But my God, did I eat a lot of cheese as a kid? I don’t know why. My mom would just let me, my sister sit in front of the TV and grab a stack of Kraft Singles and watch Gilligan’s Island and all the things that were on TV right after school. So, we had a dachshund who knew what a Kraft Single being opened sounded like. Stephen Semple: Oh, that does not surprise me. Dave Young: Right. Is like, “Oh, someone is opening some cheese.” Stephen Semple: You have my attention now. Dave Young: I might get myself a little bite. So, today we’re going to learn about the Kraft Singles story. Stephen Semple: Yeah, and I know it’s a bit unusual because Kraft is a massive company and was a massive company even at the time that this was created, but they were going through a bit of a problem. And I just thought there was some innovative ideas inside the development of Kraft Singles. And look, they sell billions of slices every year. It’s like, look how recognizable it was. Kraft Singles. “Oh, you’re talking about the cheese thing that’s wrapped in the plastic and…” Talk about recognized. Whether you eat the product, like the product, don’t like the product, we all know what it is. The moment I say it, everyone would know what it is. It was very much driven by a change that was happening in the world and a bunch of things that Kraft had recognized because the Second World War has ended and basically what ends up happening was the baby boom. And instead of roughly two million births a year, suddenly the country is having three and a half million births a year, 60% increase. That changes everything. Schools overcrowded, new classrooms being built, neighborhoods appear overnight, but there’s also the whole thing of feeding the kids. School lunch programs were still developing. Kids brought lunch from home, and these lunches were uninspiring. They were yesterday’s pork chops. They were deviled eggs. They were bologna sandwiches. It’s just they were boring, and convenience hadn’t yet caught up to the sandwiches that kids were taking to school. So, it’s the late 1940s. Kraft wasn’t a small food company. It was the largest cheese company in the world. It was primarily cheese at that point, and it was selling roughly a million pounds of cheese a day, generating tens of millions of dollars. So, they were big. And James Kraft had built the company around processed cheese, the product that kind of spoilage and consistency. That’s what the business was built on. But after James retired, the leadership passed to his brother, Norman Kraft. And Norman wanted to make his mark on the business, and he noticed something. What he noticed was… This is the thing I found interesting. He looked at it and he went, “Wait a minute. Pre-sliced bread has changed the bread industry.” Wonder Bread, pre-sliced bread. Dave Young: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, wait. When Norman took over, they weren’t even slicing ...
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