How Chomps Built a $1B Meat Snack Brand Without Outside Capital: Lessons from Founders Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali

12 years ago, Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali started Chomps with $6,500 and no outside investors. Today, it’s the fastest-growing food brand in America. Their story isn’t about overnight success — it’s about timing, discipline, and building a business the right way… even if that means saying no to glamorized growth.

In an interview on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Show, the Chomps founders opened up about the early missteps, hard-won insights, and what it really takes to grow a household name in food — all without venture capital.

From Personal Trainer to Protein Snacks: The Origins of Chomps

Before Chomps, Pete Maldonado was a personal trainer frustrated by clients falling off their meal plans. "They’d go back to Manhattan and stop following the plan. I realized I needed to make healthy eating easier,” he recalled.

After a failed frozen food venture (too expensive to scale), Pete experimented with shelf-stable meat sticks — convenient, high-protein, and portable. Enter: Chomps.

The early MVP? A clunky WordArt logo and refrigerated sticks packaged in multi-packs. But the name stuck. “People kept saying, ‘We love these Chomps.’ So we knew we had something,” Pete said.

The Cofounder Chemistry: Fuel and Steering Wheel

Rashid Ali came from a management consulting background, with a talent for numbers, ops, and scaling. Pete, on the other hand, was the product and brand visionary.

Their dynamic was described like this: “If Chomps is a truck barreling down the road, I’ve got my foot pinned on the gas. Rashid is steering and putting up guardrails,” Pete joked.

Their complementary strengths became the backbone of Chomps' deliberate, sustainable growth.

Lessons in Bootstrapping (And When to Take Money)

Pete and Rashid bootstrapped Chomps for nearly a decade. Their first major break came in 2016 when Trader Joe’s gave them a $1.1 million purchase order — a 10X jump from their $400K annual revenue the year before.

They didn’t raise VC. They raised debt from friends and family — fast.

“We did it over a weekend. But we were transparent,” Rashid said. “This is a PO from Trader Joe’s — that's certainty. But it’s a food product, and there are risks. So we gave them a 10% interest rate with personal guarantees”.

They paid it back in four months.

"Don’t take money until you absolutely have to. When you do, you’re on the clock. And if you haven’t figured out your product, customer, or distribution yet — that pressure can lead to bad decisions," Rashid cautioned.

Innovation, Timing & Focus: The Chomps Growth Playbook

From 2012 to 2016, Chomps stayed DTC-only: chomps.com, Amazon, and Thrive Market. Only after proving traction did they expand to retail — starting with Trader Joe’s.

Their breakout strategy wasn’t sexy. It was focused.

“We didn’t hire sales first. We hired data analysts. That let us walk into retail meetings and show we weren’t stealing share — we were bringing new customers to the category,” Pete shared.

That insight-driven approach powered their exponential growth: 272% YOY and a $200M+ valuation before ever raising institutional capital.

Today, 90% of their revenue comes from just three SKUs.

From Meat Sticks to Movement

Chomps is more than a snack — it’s becoming a lifestyle brand. Originally embraced by paleo and CrossFit communities, it now resonates with time-starved moms, busy professionals, and GLP-1 users looking to preserve muscle while losing weight.

“Our customers are passionate. They feel good eating it. No guilt, no crash. Just clean, quality protein,” Pete said.

They’ve even seen user-generated content with people making meals using Chomps sticks — topping salads, making tacos, or using it in recipes during COVID meat shortages.

And yes, there’s even talk of how meat sticks can help sculpt your jawline.

What They'd Tell Their Younger Selves

When asked what they'd tell earlier-stage founders, Pete and Rashid didn’t hesitate:

• Don’t overbuild before you launch. Pete spent too much time and money perfecting a website for a previous venture — and it never went live.
• Avoid copying your competitors. “We used to say, if RX Bar uses this co-man, we should too. It never worked. Now we look at everything through a ‘Chomps lens,’” Rashid said.
• Build a business before building a brand. Product-market fit, data, and ops matter more than hype.
• Surround yourself with complementarity. “We doubled down on our strengths. That’s why it works,” Pete said.

What’s Next: Optionality and Legacy

The founders aren’t sure whether Chomps will IPO, sell, or remain private — but they’re designing for optionality.

“This is our legacy,” Rashid said. “We want Chomps to be the noun, like Kleenex or Red Bull. We’re setting it up so that no matter where it ends up, you can’t break it”.

And despite now having 140+ employees (in a fully remote setup), the team remains deeply aligned on mission, quality, and culture.

Their advice for other wantrepreneurs?

“Stay focused. Build slow. Don’t raise until you need to. And know what you're building — not just what you’re selling.”