Guy Raz

private equity or somebody like that.

All right.

So the packets are working and you've got the nut butters and you decide to move into peanut butter cups as a really interesting idea, right?

An elevated version of Reese's peanut butter cups, but like Reese's peanut butter cups, it's iconic.

I imagine it

dominates the the category but you felt like hey this could be the next thing imagine but it's also a shift right because it's it's you're kind of going into candy like you're going into a slightly different category

Okay, so you've got these out there, but you need to scale and grow, and you know in the back of your mind you're looking for institutional money.

What did you have to do to attract a big institutional backer who was going to put in significant cash to help you guys really scale?

Because you're doing $20 million a year in 2012, still small, but maybe attractive to a private equity group or a VC firm or something like that.

When you brought in – when VMG – I think they invested about $47 million initially.

Now you've got a big private equity firm behind you, which is great because there's cash, but there's also complications.

You've got to – it's a different beast now, and they need a return on it.

What kinds of challenges did it create?

I mean now you've got – it's not just these small angel investors.

It's a big professional company.

private equity group.

Yeah.

And he, I guess he becomes a co-chief executive and you guys are now working together.

And I mean, what were you able to do with that?

I mean, I imagine a lot with that infusion of cash.