How This Meat Snack Company Devoured The Competition And Became A $1 Billion Bus [0:00-5:00]

Today on Forbes, how this meat snack company devoured the competition and became a $1 billion business. Over the past few years, Chomps has become the fastest growing meat snack in America, despite the fact that it couldn't keep up with its customers' enormous appetites. Rashid Ali, co-founder and CEO of the Chicago-based snack brand, says, quote, We've been living in this endless world of allocation, where we can only fill so much of the demand. Well, not anymore. Consider Chomps Unleashed. This year is the first, Ali says, where Chomps is up to the challenge and has enough infrastructure to produce enough meat sticks to satisfy the estimated $2 million it sells a day. Chomps is on track to top $900 million in annual revenue this year, according to Forbes estimates, up from $660 million last year, with 10% of the meat snack market. Its meat sticks, made with grass-fed and finished beef, venison, and antibiotic-free turkey, are resonating with consumers seeking on-the-go protein, particularly women, who make up about 70% of its customers. Chomps sticks can now be found in some 50,000 retailers, including Walmart, Target, Costco, Kroger, Publix, and HEB. According to Forbes estimates, Chomps is worth north of $1 billion, or more if it reaches $1 billion in annual revenue. Ali, who is 45 years old and co-founder Pete Maldonado, who is 44 years old, controlled the majority of the company. Maldonado has an estimated 35% stake, worth at least $350 million, and Ali owns an estimated 20%, worth $200 million. The co-founders say Chomps has been profitable since it was 30 days in, but its profitability is limited by the cut that its manufacturers take, as well as the impact of rising prices for beef and other key ingredients. Maldonado's estimates Chomps' 2025 EBITDA was about $50 million, or an EBITDA margin of roughly 7%. Chomps declined to comment on his financials. Maldonado, who moved from the co-CEO role to Chairman last year, says, quote, just having Chomps getting to the level where it is right now, and then on top of it, understanding that we've only scratched the surface of where it can go is just mind-boggling to me. Now is the first time we've got all the capacity from a production standpoint, and so now we get to find out really how high is high. Maldonado and Ali met thanks to mutual college friends who introduced them at a poker-themed birthday party in Chicago. Maldonado, a personal trainer, had an idea for a grass-fed meat startup, and the pair decided to go in together, with each putting up a modest $3,250. The business's first iteration was a grass-fed alternative to e-commerce meat boxes, like Omaha Steaks. Called Logic Meat Locker, it was born out of the CrossFit exercise craze, which had many die-hard switching to high-protein diets. After six months with barely any sales, Maldonado had the idea to pivot to meat sticks, particularly because shipping dried meat instead of frozen products was less expensive and required far less capital. That way, they could bootstrap the business, and it soon became profitable. Ali says, quote, we learned how to manage our cash, build the business properly, and make sure we price it the right way. Then at a critical moment for the meat snacks industry, along came investors Carter and Courtney Reum. Investors who later went on to co-found the Santa Monica-based M13 venture capital firm. The Reums had backed grass-fed, jerky brand Crave, and did well when Hershey acquired the business for $240 million in 2015. Maldonado reached out to the Reums around that time to see if they wanted to sample chomps and learn more about the company, and the next year, the brothers invested more than $500,000. Courtney Reum says, quote, we thought we could help supercharge top-line sales and marketing. We wanted to get our hands dirty, because we believed in the product, existing team, and category. For its first four years, chomps products were only sold online, and the co-founders kept their day jobs, with Maldonado and Naples selling commercial real estate, and Ali and Chicago working in consulting and private equity. By the time the Reums invested, however, the side hustle had become a full-time job when chomps secured its first retailer, Trader Joe's, which decided to bring in chomps as one of its few branded items and stores.