YouSaid · the spoken record

Hamdi Ulukaya

lines on the record: 120
first: 2022-11-14
most recent: 2022-11-14
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I guess combination of all. I don't know. I sometimes pitch myself to see that this is really happened. I always say I brought a seed. Maybe it was loaded with a lot of tradition, love, you know, knowledge and whatever it is. But this land was a great soil for that seed to become something. And I have three kids. Find the land the way that we found it, and if anything is improved. But I think it's in enormous amount of stress and we cannot take this as like granted. We just have to make it work and we need to work harder to make sure that this stays alive”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I look at it from the human perspective side of it. I said, why can't we do things that is good for the society and community? And yet, I can prove the only reason Chobani is extremely successful if it is, is because of those angles. I didn't follow the craft route. I followed the kid from Kurdish Mountains, I believe, mixed with the farmers in that community and say, you know what, let's open the doors. Let's open the windows. Let's open the walls that people can come in and participate. And be part of the sixth method you built, but never, ever in my statements, I have said something that I have not implemented into my own place for years and prove that this works before I have a credential to go out and talk about it.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, right. Because you in the last sort of seven, eight years, really Very much publicly, kind of made Chobani into a company that was big advocate of immigration reform to hire hiring refugees, supporting refugee admissions into the United States, things like that, that are risky, right? Because a lot of companies don't want to, for understandable reasons, don't want to take stances on hot button issues because they just want to focus on their brand. And oftentimes that's a good decision, right? We just want people to buy Coke and Pepsi. Don't ask me what our politics are. But you decided We're going to actually stand for these things that lots of people in America aren't happy about. So why? I mean, it's risky.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Problem with the CEO things is through this journey of 2009 to 2011, I probably interviewed Five, maybe six candidates for CEO. And every time I interview the person and I would see a dimension that would not fit Chobani, I would see a dimension that it would be risky. I would see a dimension that it would not. It would not be a good working relationship with me. Whatever that might be. Was extremely worried about the culture and what I want this company to be. Now it's coming to a place that business can be really, really powerful force. It is not about money. It's not about this, but what is the role that company can play in society? I can't say I had that state of mind in 2009, 2010, 2008. No. Right.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think you come to a realization in certain time and you say, okay, I'm good at certain things, but I'm not good at this and this and this. I was very convinced that I knew how to start things, how to scale things, but not necessarily put the infrastructure in place to be able to run the company day in, day out without being involved in the floor every single day. So that I saw that value. And that's not because we were not growing, that's not because there was a lack of opportunity, all that kind of stuff, or I was tired or I didn't want to do it. I was questioning myself if I'm capable of taking this company from what it is to next level because I had never done this before.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. I mean, but the one thing is how do you go become one of the fastest growing company in the history? Because we literally went from zero to billion in sales in five years without taking a penny from our side in that factory.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Night before a night before. Yeah. One night before we file, the banker called and said Hamdi, we hear that you're going to do this. It's going to make us look so bad. I think they were also acting really out of ordinary at that time, forcing me to do something. And he says, wow, why don't we give you so much money and six months as long as you promise you're going to do an event that you're going to deleverage yourself in a certain things? I said, yeah, sure. But I had no idea that's what's going to come. I knew this was we were going to end up and this company was going to be a bankrupt and maybe it wouldn't exist later on.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, ask my wife about that. So she was very same. You have a way to make me say things that I've never said before, but I love that conversation because Because we come close to making decisions like that that people normally don't know. It is hard that people make decisions. But I had no doubt at that moment, I remember walking from my apartment, at the time I had an apartment in New York to an office where I was meeting one of my colleagues and a lawyer and a financial person. And next to the park, I cried. And I saw the tears coming because it's... It's hard. It's hard that you are about to. Buries something that you give your best to and you build, and the options were not good enough for you to be able to save it.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You are entrepreneur, you build things, and you make one misstep, and then someone comes with the money and say, hey, take it or leave it, or this is our conditions for you to do it. And I look at this and I say, I must say no to you. And I tell you why. Because if I'm going to die, I'm going to die now. I'm going to die one time. I'm not going to die every day rest of my life. So I said, I'll take this company to bankruptcy. You say, How do you go from the top of the mountain to the bottom of a hole within three to four months? Right, and I'm not expecting that, accepting that. And I said, okay, it's fine. I built it, I'll bury it.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, and then they use different reasons to come up with those things. A time came. And I remember the gentleman called me and he said, here's the amount that you will get, here is the percentage of the company that you have to give away, which is what was almost majority at the time. And you will be out of the company. I take this. I said, okay, what will happen if I take this? I'll probably regret every day going forward.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, there's People want the world. They want so much from it. And the people who are showing interest looking at your situation and they start acting opportunistic.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It wasn't that damaging What it is the banks got really nervous and they wanted their loan to be paid back. And that loan was used to build a factory supported by EBITDA. Now you have enormous amount of losses because of that factory.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly And there was a time that I will never forget, which is another. Moment that I will always go back to, you're about to file bankruptcy.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I will never forget that gentleman came to our plant in Idaho. He said, Hamdi, this is mold. Mold is in the rooms, in the bread, it's everywhere You open the cup and you see green mold, and it's not nice It was a recall, and as you said, it was very damaging. But we came out, we fixed it, all the issues, and it took us three more years after that to get the bottom of the structural issues like peoples and all that kind of stuff. But to my bone, to my cell, I knew the investment in Idaho was the right thing. I would question now the way that I did it, right? I would have been more prepared and I would have done in stages. I wouldn't do it in as fast. I would be more cautious. I would put more team members in place, make some changes.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think now it's 1.4 at that time, it was close to 1 million square feet plant. With 14 lines, we build it less than one year. So that really It was in the borderline stupidity, meaning I underestimated how complex that was going to be and I underestimated how crucial would that be on the health of the company if I was wrong and if I did something not right. And one plant or one location or early company's journey is completely different than the second phase. And if you don't make that transformation, it's going to be extremely damaging. And it became almost, the problem with that is you do not know how to make separation with your people that you started with when the company grows.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Produce more and de risk it being in one location and bring more innovation to it when people will copy the first thing I do I would be on my way to the second thing and third thing And I built a factory in Idaho, which I went to Idaho first time. I said, we need to build this factory really fast”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was very worried I was very worried. And when I said no to those things, I knew that I needed to build another factory out west.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was more excited about the journey these things was happening than the value was generating from it and it felt like I'm in this soccer game, I'm in the middle of the soccer game and I love it and I'm into this game in such a massive way and I'm completely elevated. First time in my life. I feel like things are coming out of my being that I didn't even realize it existed. And I feel alive. Like the childhood I used to be is like I'm wondering what is behind that mountain, what is behind that mountain. And I have this enormous amount of curiosity. And I wasn't going to stop it for anything that in the world, that desire to see where this was going to go.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Imagine I am in upstate New York. I am mid 30s, right? Maybe at the time. I don't know, close to 40. And I have... Offer this huge amount of money and”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. And then somebody says you can be a billionaire. And I can even spell billion. Really, literally, I didn't even have to spell billion. So now, That's you yourself having this real moment, right? No one can tell you what to do. No one can stop you what to do. I have done no promise to anyone, I have no partners, it's just this thing is in front of me.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So now imagine this guy, you know. Working in the factory 247, living in one bedroom apartment in Utica, the bed hasn't been fixed maybe. Chain smoking.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's very scary. And all this time I'm betting on they're going to be very slow and they were slow. So by the time they wake up really, I was at $500, $600 million sales area. And they did come and they said, What about selling? And the numbers were with billions.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I don't even think it sinks at me that what I have just made it. I don't even realize what it is. Until, like you just touched it a little bit, that I realized that this is how it is. You build something, the big food is going to come with two things. One, do you want to sell? And indeed, another information. If you don't sell, I'll make the same thing.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Are and I'm getting a lot of phone calls from private equity people, venture capitalists and all that kind of stuff. I'm getting calls from the ordinary banks. But this is the blessing I had. I was isolated in that small town upstate New York. I have no previous network of people in business. I don't know anyone. I am kind of unreachable. I have no board, I have no advisor, I have no investors. The people in the company is factory workers and salespeople. And that kind of stuff. So we are kind of from Mars.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, and having a micro attention on the cost, keeping it extremely simple. You know, at that time, not only 250 million until 600 million dollars, I run that company on QuickBooks. And everything, everything in Chobani was internally. Finance. We never had an outside investors. So I had over a billion in sales in five years and making really, really good margin, good profits. Every penny, I had not even taken a penny from the company. I just put it back into the company and invest in equipment.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One of the best things that I had is the price architect that I put it in place. Was giving me enough profit to be able to invest back into the company.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know my people. And that was started very slow and the people who started working there brought their brothers, their sisters. It became a community. And I never thought that was a refugee work. It was people in the community. Opportunity for them to participate as much as everybody else participated.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I lived in a park in Utica. And I hear that people are settering in Utica as refugees from around the world, and they're having a hard time to find a job. And I called the refugee center and I said, What is the problem? And she said, These are people who have the right to work legally settled and they don't speak the language, they don't have transportation or people don't want to touch it because it's an unknown and all the others social issues. Immediately said we can solve these problems. I drive from Utica to plant every day, so why don't we get some cars and buses that people can come with and we will hire some translators and we will train them at the work and we will make this work. And people had concerns and said, well, are you sure how people are going to take this? I said, I'm pretty sure”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, this is how it happened Utica is about 30 minutes drive from where the plant is in South Edmondson. And I lived in Utah.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, so you obviously, this thing is taking off, and then you start to get more accounts, and there's BJs and then Costco, but you had to, I mean, now you really have to bring lots of people in. And one of the things that you did was there was, I guess, like this refugee resource center in that part of upstate New York. And they had people who just needed work, and you were like, great, we need people to work. Tell me how you connected with them”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I was physically mess. Most of the nights I'm sleeping on the floor in my office. There is an office, I guess, on chairs. We're eating pizza every day. I mean, it's pretty horrible.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is, I mean, you're talking about Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th of July, weekends. Anyone who has a minute to spare, they're back in the factory, and it's not even, I'm asking, they're doing it by themselves. You have to realize, guys, this is a plant that was the last factory that got closed, right? So you have a large corporation closed and left, you know, they're looking at me and says, what are the chances? And then they see the orders are coming. And this is like, what the hell is going on? Like, is this ever possible that this could happen? So everyone went from complete disastrous mindset or soul set to exciting place where Everyone gets so elevated. We were just high in a way”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then you look at your blueprint, you look at available equipment and the volume, you look at all the limitations that you can think of. And they all cost money, right? And how you're going to meet the demand So you're converting. Cooler space into a filler room. We convert in toilets into the offices. Whatever needs to be done outside of jeopardizing the quality of the food, we're trying to find.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly And when he put it into an ordinary shelf, like a common shelf where everybody shop on yoga tile, I received an order and it said $25,000. And I'm looking at this order and I'm saying, is this $25,000 or is it 2,500? I'm not sure. And I call Kyle. I said, is this accurate or is they missing one zero? He says, no, that's accurate. I said, Is this for a month? No, that's for the week”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, it's all of them. I think it was over 100 and 120 something like this at the time. You get into system-wide, yeah. But I had a simple napkin calculation. If I reached the twenty thousand cases, I will break even. Everything after that it would be profitable.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I said I'll give it back. And the guy laughed, and I think he found out that this is pretty crazy and bold. And he made a decision to take it. But two weeks later, I had a phone call from him. He asked Kyle to call me and he called me. And he says, I don't know what you're putting inside this yogurt. I don't want to know. I cannot keep it on the shelf. When he called me, That was the combination of three years of doubt, hard work, finding solution being on the road, trying to figure out things, and all that kind of stuff hassle. That call really summarized the whole thing for me.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. I was very convinced once I can make this to a main channel and people tasted it, this is going to go. Everybody was going to happy. All I needed was one example. The Sharright guy said. Are you going to pay for the list MP? And this is a true story. The guy said, Well, we need to get paid and we had no money. And we said, can you take percentage of that $150,000 from each invoice when we ship it to you? And the guy said, Yeah, that's fine, but what if he doesn't sell? I have no invoice. I have no. What am I going to cut it from? I personally said if it doesn't sell, I will give you the factory.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I did not have huge interest on natural channels I wanted this product to be in a mass channels where ordinary people shop.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's the only way. That's a revenue generation for them. And for a small startup, it's a big block if you want to play on a mass supermarket chains. You can pay, I don't know, if you have four SKUs, four products that you put on the shelf. So four times $120,000, $150,000. And $150,000 massive money. And if it doesn't work within three to six months, it comes off the shelf. So he has to perform to stay. There's no obligation.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That is the biggest event in the history of Chopani. Now, in order to be able to make it to Shopright, That kind of conventional stores, you have to pay what they call it, listing fees. And every cup, I don't know what it is now, but I think at the time it was $30,000.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I made that first yogurt, it took us all night. Kyle and I, one of my colleagues who led the sales side of things, we were in the plant probably until like one or two o'clock in the morning. And we made four flavors, each about 50, 60 cases. And we shipped it to this person. And I'm waiting. For some kind of response, how is that going to come? And when I received the second order, I call the person and I said, what do you see if you could show me some observation? He says, He didn't say this is flying off the shelf. He didn't say this is amazing. He said, okay, well, looks like people are buying it, and some people came back and bought again. So, yeah, send it me some more. And that was encouraging.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. I wanted to make it something that they look at from every dimension. This is something that they've never seen before. And probably halfway through, it would have made the job because this is huge standards I'm going. But I have no luxury of, oh, I wish I had done that. I wish I had done that. This is one shot if it's not successful. I'm out. And I'm out in a very, very bad way.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You didn't want to sit on the Exactly. It wouldn't touch the lid. Exactly. I would open a cup, and if I see yogurt on the lid, that was a bad day.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, his lumps, and you need to smooth that without breaking the texture, right? That's extremely important as well. I used to get really upset when I see yogurt on the lid.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly right, and unless you make the flavor ones, but the basic thing is very simple milk and culture. And you don't want to use preservatives and you don't want to use any other ingredients. So it was just trial and error until you find it.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The recipe is simple it's milk and a culture, but I guess when you talk about perfecting it, it was about how long you sort of heated it and how long you sort of let it kind of rest. I mean, because the basic ingredient is two things. It's milk and culture, right?”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. Small cups, yeah. And then I wanted to have a foil that every flavor has its own foil design on top of it. And at that time, you know, for now it's very normal. It's not a big thing. But at the time, people said... People never do those things. Don't you wasting your money? Aren't you making yourself competitive and all that kind of stuff? My view was I spent so much time making this yogurt. And I think it's one of the best that I've made. And people will not see the difference if I put them in the same cups. So if I can't catch their eye, have them to try it once, the yogurt will finish the work. That will be the convergence.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have some more yoga. I was Convinced that if I am going to make this yogurt and it's going to make it In this shelf, it cannot be in the cups that is available in this country. It used to be some European cups. But the cups are as simple as it sounds if it goes into yogurt. It needs to be FDA approved. So you can't just get the cups from anywhere. It needs to be FDA inspected plant. And I found out that there is a plant in Bocota, Colombia that I went and they said we will make it for you, we will sleeve it for you and we'll ship it for you. And I said, that was good because none of the packaging companies here would make it for me.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was so excited with the name. I couldn't wait until I get back to Chicago to go to my room and see if that Chobani.com was available.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So there's no way in the hell I have a million dollars to buy something like this. Yeah. Only have maybe a couple of hundred thousand that I can spare, and that includes everything. So I'm going on internet looking at everything I can and see if I can find something that is used. So I found one in Madison, Wisconsin. And I call the person, they said they have it. I wanted to go see it, so I went to Chicago drive from Chicago to Wisconsin. And in that drive, basically, I came up with the name Chobani. Means shepherd in Turkish. And Sopani, in a little bit of different way of saying it, also means shepherd in Greek. But the meaning of the word is always pure, simple, you know, someone who helps, someone who leads, someone, it's a very beautiful word in all dimensions.”
2022-11-14 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT