YouSaid · the spoken record

Josh Hochschuler

lines on the record: 111
first: 2025-06-30
most recent: 2025-06-30
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

“So, towards the end, before they went bankrupt, they ordered this huge order, like way larger than normal. They received it, and then they marked it way down and sold it off, but I never got paid. So it was really bad for the business that, and then a couple of the restaurants had gone out of business as well. I was owed a lot of money. And it was getting close to Christmas time. Everyone who worked for me celebrated Christmas. And it was an important time for them. completely out of money. I basically didn't know how to make payroll. I owed payroll.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And had let them slide because I wanted to be able to sell to them. There was always the fear that if you lay down the law and say I'm not going to deliver till you pay me what you owe me, that you lose the customer. It is a dangerous slope. And that is exactly what happened. I got way past 30 days, past 60, probably past 90. So it was a very important client of mine and I didn't know how to kind of get myself out of that situation.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did not know that. I got into this bad cycle where you allow for a customer, let's say you have 30 day terms where whatever they buy from you, they can pay you 30 days later, where they would go beyond that timeframe.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I did that for a very long time. I drove around the entire state. So at the time, I did have Costco as a customer on a very limited basis for a short period of time. It was very, very helpful. And we were getting new restaurants and that specialty store that I had been in had expanded. They had several locations in different areas. They had all picked up the product. So I had like five or six of those as well. That year we did 430 grand in sales. So things were growing and I was starting to take on more help employees at the warehouse and sales were building.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For Texas, and she called me and said, I love your product. Would you consider working with Costco Texas? And of course, I was excited, thrilled, said yes. And the first thing they said is that the only way to get in is to do something called roadshows. So you would actually go to the whichever store it was, set up a little stand, and sit there and sell your product to everyone who's shopping.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I did have that sensation that that came more about a year later, but yes, in 2006, there was a broker who had seen the gelato.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was making any flavor anyone wanted. I had certain chefs that said wasabi ice. One guy wanted wasabi ice. Whatever you want, I will come over the formula. I will make it and it will be exclusive to you. And I did that for any restaurant that was willing to work with me.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very tough, very tough. I mean, I was selling furniture. I was selling anything I could to fund the business. And keep in mind, I was now dating my current wife. Ended up buying an old beaten up white delivery van and started picking her up for dates in this van. And she's just like, what the hell is going on here? This is crazy. Milk's in the back with sugar because I'd go and buy all my raw materials with the van. Walgreens and CBS used to have a special where you could buy so much milk at a certain price, but you could only buy so much. They wouldn't allow you to buy more. So I would go around to every CVS and Walgreens in the whole city buying milk and putting it in the back of the van to take back and make gelato. And so anyways, she lived through that whole episode.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. I was making it. I was delivering it. I was doing the accounting. I was the lawyer. I was the janitor. I had one employee. She was hourly. And she would help me. So if I'm out making deliveries in my old green Chevy Tahoe, she would stay there and make sure everything's running properly. And that went on for that year, 2005. That's what it was like.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, pints to specialty stores as well as the larger containers to restaurants. The plan was we're going to sell bigger ticket items in pint format as well as in these larger containers for restaurants, hotels, convention centers, stadiums, cruise lines, you name it. That was the model”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I built up. I got I was able to buy a house with like 5% down a little house, and then I took a second mortgage out on that and then put it into the business. So I was doing everything I could to come up with any penny I could to stick it into this business. And it was all on me personally at that time. And I was carrying the investors because I had told them I would do everything I can to take care of them. There was a couple capital calls that they had the option to put in some more money and some of them ended up putting a little bit more money in. But the vast majority was on me.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. And I don't know if you remember this too, but it used to be handing out credit cards 0% interest all the time. So I had like 16 of those.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I was one of those guys that they were handing money to had it not been for those times it would not have qualified. Yeah.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very stressful, and it just kept getting more stressful because I kept taking on more debt. But you might recall that those years, five, six, seven, banks were very willing to hand out money. Oh yes, they were.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Probably something like that, like two to three hundred thousand as long as you don't consider the fact that at the time there was a lease, right? I had to figure out a way out of the lease, and the easiest way is to find someone to take it over.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, had to meet with the landlord and explain to them the plan, and I had to go out and find someone to take over the lease. And I found someone who took over the lease. And then I negotiated with them to buy my own freezer back because it was considered part of the building. So there was a lot of work trying to wind it down. It was a lot of work.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He totally disagreed with me He was very opposed to kind of this new direction we were going in. It's frowned upon down there. You don't take artisanal high-end products and sell them in the quote unquote industrial setting. So they just lost all interest. The relationship was dwindling. And it just seemed like the right time to say, look, I will do what I can to buy you out. So let's come up with a number. It might take me five years, but give me time, but over time, I will buy you your part out. But I was riddled with debt.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who owned a frozen distribution company who I asked, do you mind if I put a palette of product in your freezer? I'll pay you rent or whatever you need. I just, I have to have product to get through the next couple weeks while I move. And he just said, don't worry about it. You just use it. You don't have to pay me anything.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All the above. There was a lot of emotion involved. I had spent quite a long time working on it. I spent long hours there. It was a dream. And, you know, it felt like somewhat of a failure closing it down. I had to let everyone go, including my wife. And I basically ended up moving into a tiny little warehouse, taking the machines over there and had one hourly helping me. And actually guy that move was scary because I had already started to sell to these restaurants in this one store. And you can't just disappear for a while because all of a sudden you're moving and they need it every week. They need the product because they're selling it. And I didn't have a freezer anymore once I was shutting down. And there was a very kind man.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Probably some level of disappointment, but for the most part I was dead set on making sure they were all whole. So I said, you're coming with me. You're going to own part of this business. But I just think that the opportunity is elsewhere. Again, these were friends and family at the time. So most people were like, look, we're betting on you. We want to see you succeed. So if you really think this is the direction that it needs to go and it's sad to see that store close, but let's go for it. Let's try this new angle.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we eventually started dating, but this was all in 05. So as I was starting to try to say, maybe I need to start thinking about there's a better opportunity out there going into this other space of restaurants, which is food service.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I hired my wife to be the pastry chef at the store. We had a little pastry display. I was crazy about her. It took her a little longer to figure out that she loved me too.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, from morning to night. And the most intense times were when everyone would be either having dinner or going out or whatever they're doing. And I'm always working. So I said, wow, this is, you know, I'd rather work when people are working and not work when people aren't working because I want to be able to do things as well.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it wasn't making up for the loss. We were losing money and this one chef from a very popular steakhouse here in town. Which is owned by a gentleman who also owned a little specialty supermarket. Said, look, we love your product. Would you now put it in the container that we can set inside this little specialty supermarket and we'll sell it there? And sales were amazing. And that's when I started to say to myself, I'm being held down. I can't, first of all, I hate the retail life. It was not for me the way I would describe it was I'm always working when everyone else wants to be having fun, right? Nights. You were there seven.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I had some chefs from around town that love to come. And the chefs really liked it, and they were asking me, hey, can you make it a really large size for me? And I'll buy it from you. I'll sell it at my restaurant. In 2004, so the second year of the store, I started doing that. I would have a cooler, I would sit there and help make it, put it in the cooler, deliver it to the restaurant. And I was doing that and they loved it. And it just kept growing. I was like, wow, there's something here about going this other route. This is going to be really helpful and amazing.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Buy one, get one, or whatever the promotion was, or here's the container you should take it home and have a party and look how we can beautifully present it and this, that, and the other. It was like hitting my head up against culture. It was like trying to convince people to change the way they did things. It just wasn't working.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, I had A frames everywhere outside. I had signage everywhere. We were doing running specials. There was signage all over the store. I had the...”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Problem is the average ticket, the small size was let's say $2 and almost everyone was just buying that and the store itself was quite large and there was a lot of overhead and the business model was built on there being a considerable amount of people that would buy the larger containers in the styrofoam and take it home in order to get that transaction up.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, when the sun was out, it was lasting. The summers were great. Winters were really hard. People loved it. But yeah, the summers were great, but the numbers weren't working out.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was great. We got a lot of great coverage, and people loved the product and we had long lines of people coming to buy it. So in that regard, it was wonderful. We were really making a name for ourselves. I remember the Dallas Morning News did a whole article talking about the best ice creams and gelatos in all of Dallas, and they ranked us number one. So we were getting some good coverage and people loved it.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I know I actually had in the business plan when I built the plan, I'd already had the name. It was going to be Talenti Gelato from the very, very, very beginning. I was doing research trying to understand gelato in the history of gelato, I was reading a lot about this gentleman Bernardo Bontalenti from Florence. He lived in the 1500s and he was credited with basically inventing gelato actually as the story goes guy there was this huge banquet by Catherine de Medici and each course, subsequent course was going to be more fantastic than the previous and it culminated with his gelato. I basically took part of his name and it was like a tribute to him. Okay, this guy invented it. I'm going to name it after him. I've got this very old world labor-intensive way of making things. And I'm sure he did it that way. So I'm going to name it after him.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, yeah, the bigger idea was that it would become a chain. The pitch was look, I've got these experts from Argentina who know how to make a product. The product is second to none. There's a great opportunity here to do this. And part of the plan is we want to introduce to people that once they've gone out for dinner, they come by and have gelato and people also bring it home. It was kind of like I wanted to create this culture that I had become accustomed to when living in Argentina where. Is a series of stops. You go one place first, maybe have an appetizer or a cocktail or a glass of wine, next place for the meal, next place for the dessert. It didn't all take place in the same spot.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Business plan I had built, which was one of the longest business plans you could ever imagine, and the vast majority, probably 95 of them or so said no.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did have savings of my own, and I basically made a list of people to speak to, friends and family. And I went and met with them one by one. It was about 110 people”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Super dense, super dense. So you get a totally different mouthfeel. It also has much, much lower fat. It could be half the amount of butter fat. And then it has really high solids. So you're avoiding water. And that lends itself to texture and flavor.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I always describe it with three main differences. It's like when you say churned more slowly, it's basically how much air is being incorporated into the product. So gelato has very low amounts of air”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I'm learning his way of doing things. And it was a very old world approach. It was all starting with the original ingredients, whatever that could be, an entire raspberry, a block of chocolate, he would caramelize nuts. He would roast the nuts. He would make his own paste and make his own butters, like nut butters and... So he was showing me how they did things there, and it was a very manual, slow, and tiny little batches. Started to show me how he manages a store, who does what, what are the roles inside the store.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Actually, the plan was that one of the guys that makes gelato for him, who was really good, was supposed to come and work with us in Dallas. So it wasn't initially going to be Jorge. It was going to be this other person”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who owns the Urgelladaria? How do I get in touch with this person? I'd like to speak to them about the possibility of bringing the concept to the States. And one of them obviously worked out, and I was able to speak to the owner, and they liked the ideas I had.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No. There was now good cook, I didn't How to make any of those things really? The thought was I will be able to find someone who can help do that part of the business. And then I was going to concentrate on other aspects of it.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And especially at the time, you could buy gelato in places that had one or two stores kind of a mom and pop type style, but it was pretty new. It was like cutting edge at the time.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, the whole concept was replicate the Geloterias that are in Argentina and open one, and then eventually more than one, starting in Dallas.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. So funny enough, the guy, what he said to me was this terrible ideal, never work. But everyone told me that when I decided to get into the milk business. So don't listen to a word I'm telling you.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, friends, old friends, by parents' friends. There was one gentleman who had bought an apartment for my mother who came from, I don't know if you ever heard of Dean Foods, but it was a big dairy. And I was able to get a meeting with him, and he told me that my idea was horrific”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. I put it onto a little PowerPoint and I walked around, and anyone who would listen to me, I asked them which idea do you like better?”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I was already missing Argentina and I immediately started to think I really want to do something that combines Argentina with the states. Somehow I want to be tied to Argentina. And the thinking at the time after the dot-com bust was I really want to come up with something that's super basic, like something people will always want. And so it was food-based. And I was thinking about Maulbeck wine or gelato.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was a thought, but also my father, he had always told me that if you're going to try to start a business, it'll be a lot easier for you if you do that before you have a wife and children. So that kind of was going over and over in my mind. And I started to think maybe this is a sign that this is the right time for me to start thinking about doing something I can live off pasta for six months.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I did that. I actually started in Easter Island and then headed east and made my way around the world but spent a lot of time in Asia. So the last stop along the way was in Dallas see my folks and I get an email from my boss from Argentina who says everything has been stopped, all of the hires have been dissolved. There is no job here anymore for you. It's gone because the.com had busted.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So the gentleman who was leading the office had come down from the States and he had grabbed me because at that point I was bilingual. So I was able to help him manage the team. He was the one who got the offer to come back to Boston and then in turn made the offer to me. That was January or even before January of 2001. And I simply said to him, I want to take the job, but I want a few months because I'd like to go travel.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, there were moments of that. The hardest part for me was I missed my family. Back then it was harder to get home. There weren't direct flights to Dallas. You would go through Miami. My mom's mother, my grandmother passed away and it was very hard for me to make it in time. I didn't for her funeral. That made a big impact on me. And then also my sister, my older sister started having children. And I felt very far away because it was hard for me to see them. Although I loved being there and in many ways was thinking maybe this should just be home forever, there was that pull as well to come back.”
2025-06-30 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Talenti: Josh Hochschuler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT