From Sweet Potatoes to a $100M Family Business feat. Jessie and Adrian Capote

Mark Abbott

[0:00:06]

Hey, guys.

Jessie Capote

[0:00:07]

Good morning, sir.

Adrian Capote

[0:00:08]

This is cool.

Jessie Capote

[0:00:09]

This is awesome.

Mark Abbott

[0:00:10]

This is awesome.

Jessie Capote

[0:00:12]

So.

Mark Abbott

[0:00:15]

I feel like I should do an introduction, but a part of this.

Jessie Capote

[0:00:18]

Is.

Mark Abbott

[0:00:21]

Sort of the Wayback Machine. So we'll start with now and then we're going to go to the way back. So we've been working together seven, eight.

Adrian Capote

[0:00:36]

Years now, for sure. Eight, eight, for sure. I think it's beyond.

Jessie Capote

[0:00:40]

Coming up on 10 real fast.

Mark Abbott

[0:00:42]

Coming up on 10 real fast. Yeah, yeah. And what I wanted to do today is start with a little bit of what the company is right now and how you two, what you two do inside the company. And then we're going to go into the Wayback Machine all the way to the company's beginning. Right. And the arc of this is going to be the founder's journey and then the founders sons taking over the business and then the story of the founder's sons getting control of the business and all the good and all the bad that's taken place over the years and then all the way to the moment we're in right now and why we're sitting here in Park City.

Jessie Capote

[0:01:33]

Love it.

Mark Abbott

[0:01:34]

All right, so Jesse and Adrian Capote company is JNC Tropical. Why don't one of you give a sort of a summary of what you guys do.

Jessie Capote

[0:01:46]

Okay, I can start. I'm the company CEO and I've really worked most areas of the company. The company is a fresh produce distribution company with a presence in the US and suppliers all over Latin America, the Caribbean and now Asia. So to learn JNC Tropicals, you kind of have to learn operations and purchasing and a little bit of sales, but not as much as Adrian. And then on to management and currently the CEO, although candidly we run it almost as a co CEO thing. And that seems to be a good. Like Adrian said one day to someone, we're very different and that's why it works. So that's what I do.

Adrian Capote

[0:02:36]

Yeah. Well, from my. I started in the company in 1997 shortly after graduating high school.

Mark Abbott

[0:02:47]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:02:48]

You know, since I was, you know, since I was even younger than that, I, I knew that I wanted to work for the family business. Yeah. You know, the generational. My father and even going back to my grandfather in Cuba and my father, that whole legacy always was a big thing for me. So I joined the company in 97. I mean I started really just one day called my dad and said, yeah, man, I'm wasting my time here in college. It's just not for me, you know. Yeah, never was. So I said, well, come down and Start learning from the bottom up. It was truly from the bottom up. You know, working for, like a Cuban founder, they really put you through the wringer. So I really learned the whole business from, you know, the shipping, forklift, driving, prepping orders all the way to where I am today, which is I'm in charge of all seals and procurement for the company and going On, I think, 28 years now in the company. And it's been great. It's been a great journey. Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:04:03]

Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[0:04:04]

And just to give people a sense for the size, we don't have to, you know, talk revenues if that's uncomfortable, but we can certainly talk about some of the customers, number of employees. That'll give people a sense for the size of the company. Right. So how many employees now?

Jessie Capote

[0:04:19]

Today we're probably at, I want to say, between 60 and 70, maybe a seasonal aspect to the business. Yeah. So we swell up at certain times. Yeah. And then taper off. Don't mind talking revenues. We're proud of revenues.

Mark Abbott

[0:04:33]

All right, let's talk about it.

Jessie Capote

[0:04:34]

We should be doing 80 by the end of this year. Yeah, that's. That's a big deal for us.

Adrian Capote

[0:04:39]

We're.

Jessie Capote

[0:04:39]

We're scaling, aiming towards 100 here soon.

Adrian Capote

[0:04:44]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:04:45]

But some of the customers, regional and national retailers.

Adrian Capote

[0:04:51]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:04:53]

You know, at the Walmarts and. And Kroger's not a client yet, but on our radar. And then some of the regional guys, like Publix.

Mark Abbott

[0:05:01]

Yep.

Jessie Capote

[0:05:01]

In the Southeast. And then in Texas, we got Heb.

Adrian Capote

[0:05:06]

Yes. I mean, you got Safeway. Yeah. Oh. Basically all the top 10 national retailers in the country. Yeah. Walmart, you know, Aldi's, Publix, Heb. Kroger is a customer. We sell to a banner. Yeah. Of Kroger. So we are a Kroger vendor. I mean, supplier. Yeah. Safeway as well. Yeah. It's a big one for us. You know, now you're getting the. The Audis and the Lidos of the world, and obviously Costco's up in our alley. Just came from that one. Yeah. So, yeah, the customer acquisition in the past five years has been like what it's never been in the history of the company. Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[0:05:47]

No, you've been rocking it and the products. So give us a sense for what you guys are putting on people's plates.

Jessie Capote

[0:05:57]

So we always start by saying it's fresh produce. It's not frozen, it's not processed. We don't do anything to it. Comes off the ground or off a tree, gets packed and shipped to us, and we make sure it's the right quality and then ship it on to our customers. So it's all fresh produce. It is what the industry would probably call specialty.

Mark Abbott

[0:06:18]

Yep.

Jessie Capote

[0:06:19]

For us there's a segment of a specialty that is also called tropicals.

Adrian Capote

[0:06:24]

Yep.

Jessie Capote

[0:06:25]

And that's sort of where we're at. But really our growth has come from focusing on specialty items that are starting to trend or where we can catch.

Adrian Capote

[0:06:37]

It before it starts to trend.

Mark Abbott

[0:06:39]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:06:39]

As an easy example, we were an early distributor of dragon fruit and are now probably the largest in the country. So that's a product that 15 years ago nobody was talking about when we started talking about it.

Mark Abbott

[0:06:54]

No. And now you've got my wife addicted to it, so me too.

Jessie Capote

[0:06:58]

There's always a good stock where you can come get fly to Miami.

Mark Abbott

[0:07:02]

Exactly.

Jessie Capote

[0:07:04]

Yeah. So that, that, that, that's the product. And you know, at probably what would you say 20 make up 80% and then there's another 30.

Adrian Capote

[0:07:14]

So 25%. 25, 25 top products represent 90% of our business.

Mark Abbott

[0:07:20]

Yeah, yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:07:21]

Total SKU.

Adrian Capote

[0:07:22]

What is it? Total products? Total product SKUs. Well, total commodities is about 70. SKUs is over a thousand, Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Abbott

[0:07:34]

And so during over a year, how many pieces of product fruit do you guys probably distribute?

Adrian Capote

[0:07:45]

So we distribute around 3.4 million individual units on average.

Mark Abbott

[0:07:52]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:07:52]

Right. Individual units range from 30 pound, as big as 30 pound down to about 10 pounds in weight.

Mark Abbott

[0:08:00]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:08:01]

So we distribute about 3.5, 3.6. We'll probably this year we're surpassed 3.6 million.

Mark Abbott

[0:08:06]

So probably if you count the individual pieces like a dragon fruit, 20, 30 million.

Adrian Capote

[0:08:13]

Oh yeah. So we do. So just take an average. We do 700,000 10 pound cases of dragon fruit. So that's 7 million pounds of dragon fruit. Yeah. To kind of summarize it.

Jessie Capote

[0:08:26]

Yeah, I looked at it that way. That's a good question.

Mark Abbott

[0:08:28]

It's wild, right, to think about it.

Adrian Capote

[0:08:29]

Yeah, I like it.

Mark Abbott

[0:08:30]

Yeah, yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:08:30]

£7 million and go with an average of a 10. 10 pieces per box.

Mark Abbott

[0:08:36]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:08:36]

So seven extrapolates pretty fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Abbott

[0:08:41]

So now we'll get in the wayback machine.

Adrian Capote

[0:08:43]

Okay, so.

Mark Abbott

[0:08:48]

I know you guys have a very warm and respectful memory of your dad. So tell us about his story and sort of the start.

Jessie Capote

[0:09:04]

Okay, so let's see. He was born in Cuba in the late 20s. Our grandfather was also born in Cuba in the late 1800s. His parents came from Spain. Like a lot of Cuban, Cubans at that time. And he, you know, he was one of three. He had two siblings. And it was a good time in Cuba, 30s and 40s, there was a lot of growth. There was a lot of things going on. He was not in the city. A lot of folks that emigrated were from Havana. He was outside of Havana, maybe a couple of hours in the country town, and grew up a country boy. My grandfather was a potato farmer and had other land holdings, and they were basically farmers. That was most of their business. But the old man very early on was very entrepreneurial and started working probably as early as 12, 14. And a good story is that he was working for his dad and then at one point he decided to start growing his own crop, but didn't tell his dad. So at one point, obviously, his dad finds out, and my dad thought he was just gonna ream him. Who knows what he was gonna do? And he was actually a very proud father son moment where he was like, you know, that takes, you know what, and I'm proud of you. And so they continued. They collaborated. They were very close.

Adrian Capote

[0:11:00]

They were very close.

Jessie Capote

[0:11:02]

And my dad went on to not only farm, but he had all sorts of business interests in that, that town. He had the car dealership, he had a construction company. He was the last mayor of the town as Fidel rode down the mountains to do what he did. And he was not as bad as things were in Cuba under Batista. He was not a Castro supporter. He suspected all fanfare and revolutionary type things. He just didn't see it. And so he opposed it openly, was jailed for it. And luckily he was jailed in the countryside and not in the city. And so between the time that they were going to get him to relocate him, my grandfather was able to get, spring him, put him on a plane and don't come back. And he landed in Miami. And what year was that?

Adrian Capote

[0:12:09]

Probably 1959. He landed in Miami, 1959. He always told us a story that he never forgets. He got off the plane, and Miami internationals being the Runway, runways were being expanded and constructed. And we went to the foreman of the construction site and asked him for a job. And I told him, if you can show me how you can operate that, that equipment, you got a job. And I got. Wife said the first thing he did was check the other guys like, you got a job. So that was his first actual real job in Miami.

Mark Abbott

[0:12:53]

Yeah, right up right. Literally right off the plane.

Jessie Capote

[0:12:56]

Right off the plane.

Adrian Capote

[0:12:57]

Right off the plane, yeah. Had to probably spend, I think he told us he spent about two to three days sleeping in his car before he was able to get, you Know, some, you know, back then there was, There wasn't the support there is down Miami amongst Cubans. Yeah. It was a lot, it was a lot more limited.

Mark Abbott

[0:13:15]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:13:15]

But he was able to find a friend that was able to say, hey, yeah, come stay with us for a couple till you got, you know, on your feet. Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:13:22]

So he was well traveled though.

Adrian Capote

[0:13:24]

So.

Jessie Capote

[0:13:25]

So he had left Cuba and his. While he was in his. Let's see, at that point in his life when he gets to Miami, he's probably in his mid-30s.

Adrian Capote

[0:13:34]

Okay.

Jessie Capote

[0:13:36]

At that moment.

Mark Abbott

[0:13:36]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:13:37]

And in his late 20s and early 30s, he had traveled out of the country. He had, he had been to Miami before. I think he had honeymooned in Miami.

Adrian Capote

[0:13:44]

Okay.

Jessie Capote

[0:13:45]

And so he kind of knew a little bit of his way around.

Adrian Capote

[0:13:48]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:13:49]

But regardless, it was starting from scratch. And he had to leave his wife and our two older siblings behind. He literally went from the jail to the airplane, some Runway in the country, and they whisked him off.

Mark Abbott

[0:14:06]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:14:06]

And so the family at that time stayed in Cube stayed behind for about a year and eventually he got them over through Jamaica. And so eventually they, They're. They're all together in. At this point, it's I guess the mid-60s.

Mark Abbott

[0:14:22]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:14:23]

A third child is born.

Mark Abbott

[0:14:24]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:14:26]

About that time. And then he, again, he kind of knew his way around. So he was exploring opportunities. He did a bunch of different things early on to make money. But possibly the most famous story of the young company, even before it's incorporated, is that he had his. He was renting an efficiency and it had a little bit of dirt in the back. And he had our grandfather, his dad, send him slips of sweet potato, of the sweet potato variety that they were growing in Cuba. And he, My grandfather sent it through the mail every week for I don't know how many weeks until he had enough that survived and started a little bit of a seed bank and then didn't discover, but ended up understanding where the ag region was down south. And with some, With. With a. With a. With an investor that gave him $5,000 to put in a crop. He took that sweet potato, put it first, five acre sweet potato crop just to. Again, just as something to get by.

Adrian Capote

[0:15:49]

Right.

Jessie Capote

[0:15:51]

He didn't know how well received it would be. He didn't know if it was going to grow. But that was the impetus of JNC Tropicals, that first five acre sweet potato crop that he eventually takes up to New York to sell at one of the terminal markets and sells it right.

Adrian Capote

[0:16:09]

Off the back of a truck.

Mark Abbott

[0:16:10]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:16:10]

And then it all crystallizes. And then he sees it. Then he's like, he understands, oh, there's a market for this stuff. And it's pretty significant because it only took him a couple of hours to sell all that product. He came back and the rest is history.

Mark Abbott

[0:16:29]

What year was that that he sold the. Off the back of the truck?

Jessie Capote

[0:16:33]

65.

Mark Abbott

[0:16:36]

So the origin story. So that's like 65. 66 is really the beginning of the company.

Jessie Capote

[0:16:41]

That's the beginning.

Adrian Capote

[0:16:42]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:16:42]

It's incorporated and formerly incorporated in 67. We know that. But there was business activity at least.

Adrian Capote

[0:16:51]

A couple years before.

Mark Abbott

[0:16:52]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:16:52]

His real passion, you're gonna like this was automotive. So he had. He had an auto part store in. On H Street in Miami.

Mark Abbott

[0:17:05]

Okay.

Adrian Capote

[0:17:05]

In that time. And he also had a car dealership in or a lot in Venezuela with a part of. And he would procure here in South Florida a used car market and export it to Venezuela. And he had a partner over there with a lot. And that was in the 1980s. And then Venezuela had that uprise, the whole turnaround, government and everything. He lost everything. Yeah. But the interesting thing about my father was that it was really driven. You know, one of the things about him is that I think was the number one thing from us was he was a big time visionary guy. Like, he started. He really started the produce business pure. Based on vision. He knew that the demographics in the United States was going to change dramatically from his personal experience and what was going on in Cuba.

Mark Abbott

[0:18:00]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:18:00]

Versus everything else going on in the world. He. He at that time knew that. That the demographics, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years was going to change dramatic. You know, so he was. He was very visionary. Very visionary person.

Mark Abbott

[0:18:17]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:18:18]

Yeah. So if you go back then to the beginning, he starts, well, what's the next product?

Adrian Capote

[0:18:28]

Right.

Jessie Capote

[0:18:28]

And down. And not a lot of people know this, but Miami actually has and ag region. When you say Miami, he's like, you don't farm down there. That's not right. But there was a pretty significant ag region down there. And he started.

Mark Abbott

[0:18:41]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:18:41]

And that.

Mark Abbott

[0:18:41]

And just for folks. Right. So you have Miami obviously on the water. Right, right. And then you go all the way down to the Keys and the ag regions. Really south and west of Miami. That's correct, right.

Jessie Capote

[0:18:54]

That's correct.

Adrian Capote

[0:18:54]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:18:54]

You drive into the Keys, you pass through it.

Adrian Capote

[0:18:57]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:18:58]

On the way down south.

Mark Abbott

[0:18:58]

Yeah. And. And you know what's, what's obvious when you're, when you're passing, going from Miam to. To the Keys is you Know what? Acres upon acres upon acres of palm tree, you know, whatever you want to call them. Right. I don't want to use the term plantation. That's not right. But whatever that's called.

Jessie Capote

[0:19:21]

The nursery.

Adrian Capote

[0:19:22]

The nursery, nurseries.

Jessie Capote

[0:19:23]

Right.

Adrian Capote

[0:19:24]

But that's, that's more recent than before.

Jessie Capote

[0:19:26]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:19:27]

When my father started in the business and he went down to that area called Homestead, the ag down there was much more significant than what it is today. Yeah, yeah. I mean, South Florida was the leading provider of fresh limes in the whole country. Yeah. Because back then, Mexico was even allowed to come into the country with their, with their products.

Mark Abbott

[0:19:49]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:19:49]

So South Florida supplied the whole country with fresh lines.

Mark Abbott

[0:19:53]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:19:54]

It was one of the largest tomato growing regions in the country. Yeah. You know, potatoes, you know, I mean, you go down the list. I mean, it was a big.

Jessie Capote

[0:20:04]

All mangoes is a good set. All mangoes up until 1993 consumed in the US came from Florida or small crop in California.

Adrian Capote

[0:20:13]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:20:14]

Isn't that crazy?

Adrian Capote

[0:20:15]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:20:17]

But. But there were other things down there and, and he couldn't. Started to dabble. He started to grow more of the specialty items that he, that he knew the demographic, the Cuban, Caribbean, Hispanic demographic was into. There are other root vegetables, tarot root and their strain of pumpkin. Sugar cane. Well, sugar cane has always been a big deal in South Florida, but sugar cane and so on and so forth. Then he started buying avocado and mango groves. And so the company started to take form at that time. It only sold what it produced. Up until the mid-70s, I would say it's only selling what it's producing. Another good founder type story is the gentleman that lends him the original $5,000 investment in 1963, probably 64 by the mid 70s. They were very close by the mid 70s. One day tells my dad, you know, I'm so impressed with what you've done with $5,000 that if you give me the five grand back, you keep the company. I mean, it's amazing. It's incredible. And so my dad ends up now taking 100% ownership of the company.

Mark Abbott

[0:21:39]

Wow.

Jessie Capote

[0:21:39]

10 years in.

Mark Abbott

[0:21:40]

Right.

Jessie Capote

[0:21:41]

And he.

Mark Abbott

[0:21:41]

That's a great story.

Jessie Capote

[0:21:42]

That's a good story.

Mark Abbott

[0:21:43]

Right? Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:21:44]

That just doesn't happen anymore.

Adrian Capote

[0:21:45]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:21:46]

Or maybe it does, but maybe you don't hear about it anyways. But he had already 10 years out. There was a big clientele in the Northeast, as Adrian said, where the demographics were going, because the immigrants community, South Florida back then, there was nothing to offer. There was not much industry. Everyone was Immigrating towards the Northeast, where all the factories were. And so the Cubans, the Puerto Ricans, the Dominicans. Yeah, they were all in the Northeast, and that's where all the original. Original clients of the company were. And every time he'd go visit, they'd say, bring more. Bring different varieties, bring this and that. And so probably, what, 10. 10 years, the mid-70s, he starts to venture, starts to travel outside of Miami to Latin America.

Adrian Capote

[0:22:37]

Costa Rica. Yeah, Costa Rica. Yeah. But he was spending a lot of time in Costa Rica because also at that time, he already obviously met my mom. You know, one of the things that, you know, my father was very resilient. Like, he went through so much. Yeah. You know. You know, it wasn't definitely not all kosher. Like, you know, a couple years after his arrival and bringing the whole family and finally getting settled in. Mm. His wife dies in a car accident. Man. So, you know, my father. My father was one of these guys that he. You know, life would just throw him the cards, and in some cases. Most cases, you take two steps back, but five steps forward. Yeah. So he had a lot of setbacks throughout that period. And it was, you know, for him, for me, you know, that resilience that he always expressed. And I saw, I mean, from that Hurricane Andrew.

Mark Abbott

[0:23:38]

Right.

Adrian Capote

[0:23:38]

You know, we lost. I remember losing everything. And waking up in the morning of Hurricane Andrew, 92. We had lost our entire facility. I mean, the only thing that was left was found was a foundation. Yeah. And so restarting himself and reinventing himself was like the theme of his life. From the car industry, the produce industry, obviously, personal life, you know, meets my mom, starts a, you know, family gets back together, foundations back in place. So. So it was, you know, he was a very resilient man.

Jessie Capote

[0:24:17]

I guess when you get plucked from a jail cell, put on a plane, and forced to leave, you end up learning to pivot really fast.

Mark Abbott

[0:24:24]

Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah, he did.

Jessie Capote

[0:24:27]

He did pivot. It's amazing. Resilience is the right word.

Mark Abbott

[0:24:31]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:24:32]

He constantly. Not much phased him. You would see him. He was very stoic. Very stoic. A man of few words. Loved his family and loved to laugh with the family, but on a regular basis. Just very stoic and very focused. But even at the worst times, he'd just be like, okay, well, let's. Let's keep going.

Adrian Capote

[0:24:55]

Right.

Jessie Capote

[0:24:55]

Let's do this. That's.

Adrian Capote

[0:24:56]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:24:57]

But anyways, the business, despite the setbacks, the business continues to thrive. He starts traveling. He starts looking for other places to farm. Florida starting to change in the mid-70s, land is starting to get more expensive. He's starting to realize that it's not sustainable to just farm South Florida.

Adrian Capote

[0:25:17]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:25:18]

And he starts traveling, he starts meeting more farmers and what he thought was going to be opportunities to farm ends up being opportunities to distribute because a lot of folks would tell him, hey, that's great, we can farm. But I already have some of this stuff, why don't I send it to you and you make it part of your catalog. And so some of that starts to take form in the late 70s, early 80s, at which time he has a, there's an issue internal in the company. There's a, call it a mutiny, sort of a plan to take him under some folks that he had working for him basically secretly or organizing a competitor. And from a Friday to Monday leave, open up competition and just, you know, guns a blazing to take down jnc. And he, it was, it was a really bad time, a really, really tough time economically. And for him particularly, he, you know, he was, he was working 24, 7. But it was also around that time that my brother Carlos, who is 10 years older than Adrian and I was about wrapping up high school or in high school, and my dad tapped him and said, listen, I need some help. And so Carlos starts to get involved in the business, starts to help out and graduates, starts to go to school, continues to help out. And Carlos had a lot to do at that point in time with shouldering some of the burden from my dad, allowing my dad to be able to focus on the high level stuff and knowing that Carlos, someone that he trusted, was there.

Adrian Capote

[0:27:13]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:27:14]

And so like Adrian said, two steps back, five forward, that company eventually fails within a couple years. And, but, but the, but the competition fueled him to now get even bigger. Yeah. So he, he's now, it's, now it's maybe mid-80s, he's in Costa Rica. Costa Rica becomes a hub for many different reasons. For a lot of these products, he, he, he starts farming Costa Rica. They build a packing facility in Costa Rica. And at one point, I would say by the late 80s, the JNC is the largest exporter of fresh produce out of Costa Rica.

Adrian Capote

[0:27:57]

Yeah, yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:27:58]

And now Carlos has come into his own.

Adrian Capote

[0:28:00]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:28:01]

And they're just, they're, they're, they're humming along probably you know, 25 million in revenue, you know.

Adrian Capote

[0:28:09]

Yep.

Jessie Capote

[0:28:09]

But at a time where the margins were different and you know, I say that almost enviously because a lot of this stuff was coming on the market, not too many people were doing it.

Mark Abbott

[0:28:21]

Right.

Jessie Capote

[0:28:21]

They Were they had cornered that market in Costa Rica and we're just doing really well.

Adrian Capote

[0:28:26]

A lot of these countries, too, had incentive programs to fuel agriculture. Yeah. The export of these countries. Yeah. So, you know, you had ability to leverage that significantly. So like Jesse said. Yeah. Like any, Any, any. Any development of any product, like. Yeah. Or market that you bring to you. To the market. Yeah. First phase is you're going to. You're going to make great margin. Yeah. And that's, that's good. But it's dangerous. Right, right. Because like everything. Competition comes. Yeah. People start seeing what you're doing. They're like, I could do that.

Mark Abbott

[0:29:05]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:29:05]

And then it starts. Then competition starts becoming a reality.

Mark Abbott

[0:29:09]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:29:11]

And you know. Yeah. Like Jesse said, you know, my father was able to, you know, farming was in his blood and his DNA. And the last day of. The last day of his work was the day he passed away. Literally. We went from the farms to dinner and that night he passed. Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[0:29:33]

And what year was that, guys?

Adrian Capote

[0:29:34]

That was in 2001. 2001.

Mark Abbott

[0:29:38]

So we're back in the late 80s. We go to the early 90s. You've already foreshadowed Hurricane Andrew.

Adrian Capote

[0:29:45]

We got past Hurricane Andrew. Hurricane Andrew was 92. 92 was 92. We weren't settled. We didn't. We didn't settle after Hurricane Andrew till 96. 97. So for those. I came into the business in 97, and for about 97 to 98. From 92 to 97 or 98, we were. We didn't still have our back. Our facility. We were leasing facilities throughout Miami.

Mark Abbott

[0:30:17]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:30:17]

And operating through that.

Mark Abbott

[0:30:19]

Did revenues decline significantly or did you guys manage to keep it going?

Adrian Capote

[0:30:23]

Revenues did not suffer, actually. Yeah, they increased.

Mark Abbott

[0:30:26]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:30:27]

My father. My father, again, was such a visionary person. I never forget. I never forget the morning of Hurt and Andrew be in the living room, you know, because. Kind of like the Godfather scene, right?

Mark Abbott

[0:30:40]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:30:40]

Where my father, his. His other passion was baseball. So every Sunday he would be sitting in his recliner watching baseball all days in his underwear.

Mark Abbott

[0:30:51]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:30:51]

And all the brothers and siblings had to spend the day there. Yeah. And have lunch. And all he talked about, if it wasn't baseball was business. Yeah. And I never forget the day after Hurricane Andrew. We're all there sitting in shock, lost for words. Yeah. My brother Carlos is in tears. In his mind, we lost it all.

Mark Abbott

[0:31:10]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:31:11]

And my sad dad said no. He says. He says, carlos, what we need to do is you need to go up to North Carolina, you know, take up, take money and, and get A get us a generator. I already got a generator secured, a standby generator. And we're going to hook up the opera, the packing, the packing of the growing products in Homestead. We're going to hook it up to that and we're going to be the first. We're going to be harvesting product next week. And everybody's like, you're crazy. Because Homestead was devastated. Yeah. There was not going to be, There was empowering homestead to. For like eight months. Yeah. So he sends my phone, my, my. He says, carlos, go get the generator. We're going to hook it up and we're going to set the markets every morning. And sure enough, they went, they procured a big generator. They hook up the whole washing machine and packing plant to it. A week after Hurricane Andrew, my dad was harvesting product and selling it for, I mean, top dollars.

Mark Abbott

[0:32:13]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:32:14]

He had a monopoly at that.

Jessie Capote

[0:32:15]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:32:15]

I mean he did that to recover. Yeah. That was a recovery. Because of that. In 97, we had just finished building the brand new facility which my dad said, this facility I'm going to build will never be touched by hurricane. I mean the thing was a concrete vault.

Mark Abbott

[0:32:33]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:32:34]

Yeah. It was massive. Yeah. And I remember when we had the inauguration, I had just met my wife. I just moved down. I just moved down and started working there at the shipping desk.

Mark Abbott

[0:32:45]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:32:46]

So, yeah.

Mark Abbott

[0:32:46]

I mean, for those. So I was supposed to go down and work on a big acquisition for one of my clients the day that Andrew came in. And so I'm not. Whether it was two days after or three, I was back, I was down there. Right. And you know, right or wrong, I had to see. So I drove all the way down to Homestead. Right. And you will like, so before the National Guard came in. Right. And I mean you talk about just pixie sticks. It was, it was unbelievable.

Jessie Capote

[0:33:36]

So we grew up on Miami beach and when Andrew came through, so my dad was a type that would never leave.

Adrian Capote

[0:33:45]

And Mike said, well, I'm not leaving.

Jessie Capote

[0:33:47]

He wouldn't even. And Mike, pick up the damn patio.

Adrian Capote

[0:33:49]

And Mike, my dad.

Jessie Capote

[0:33:55]

Playing chicken with a hurricane.

Adrian Capote

[0:33:56]

And then.

Jessie Capote

[0:33:57]

But on that one, you know, on that one he actually said, okay, fine, let's go. Only he wasn't concerned about wind. He was concerned about the rising water. We live on a, an island. The house is still there on the Venetian Causeway beach.

Adrian Capote

[0:34:12]

He's like, yeah, let's go.

Mark Abbott

[0:34:14]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:34:15]

And so he, he, he goes to our grandparents house which is close to the downtown area, close to Brickell, the road west of the roads. And, and he sends Us to our oldest brother's house who lived in Kendall. So when he says, you guys go.

Adrian Capote

[0:34:35]

Help your brother out.

Jessie Capote

[0:34:35]

Help your brother out and stay with him and we're gonna go to your grandparents place and we'll talk in the morning. So that was the. That was the strategy. Yeah. Well, Adrian and I and. And everyone in my brother's house really got the brunt of that.

Adrian Capote

[0:34:48]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:34:49]

Because the storm shifted. The famous video is the damn thing got. Is going north and then all of a sudden takes like a hard left and barrels right through Homestead. Yeah. And so the. The morning after.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:03]

So.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:04]

So everyone, like you said before anything had arrived and everyone jumps in their cars. And I had an SUV at that.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:11]

Time, 4Runner, a 4Runner Toyota 4Runner.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:14]

And we jump in it and we. First thing we do is we head down to Miami Beach.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:17]

We're like the house done.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:18]

So this is what Kendall looks like the house.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:20]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:21]

So the beach was intact. So nothing happened on Miami beach for the most part. And except for some fish in the pool.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:28]

That's about it. Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:29]

And.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:30]

And.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:30]

And so. And. And then he's. And then he says, all right, so now everybody heads out.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:35]

So everybody go see what's going on.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:37]

And so. So whether it's Providence or. Or good luck or whatever you want to call it. He was very good so at choosing.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:47]

And my parcels to farm and my.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:49]

So and he was always very wary. Sweet potato like a tuber grows obviously.

Adrian Capote

[0:35:55]

On the ground to row crop.

Jessie Capote

[0:35:56]

So and so he was very good at choosing parcels and with an eye on and like not flooding and my.

Adrian Capote

[0:36:03]

Higher elevation.

Jessie Capote

[0:36:03]

Higher elevation. And on the morning after Hurricane Andrew, he was already in his pickup truck running around Homestead. So he knew so that he had product and no one else had product.

Adrian Capote

[0:36:17]

So.

Jessie Capote

[0:36:17]

So to kind of complete Adrian story. Yeah. When he's gathered us all and he already knows what he's going to do. Yeah. He tells Carlos, here's go get the generator. Here's go get the generator. Get to the packing facility. And we're going to start packing tomorrow. Yeah. We're going to start pulling and packing them all.

Mark Abbott

[0:36:35]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:36:35]

And they. Those guys. I wasn't involved back then, but those guys sold product that averaged 1820 for like $60 for a good year.

Adrian Capote

[0:36:45]

So.

Jessie Capote

[0:36:46]

And nobody could say anything. And they're the only ones that had it.

Adrian Capote

[0:36:48]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:36:49]

That was it.

Adrian Capote

[0:36:49]

So.

Mark Abbott

[0:36:49]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:36:50]

And so. But yeah, it was again. It was. And like he was. That's just the way he was. He was good at picking his spots.

Mark Abbott

[0:36:59]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:37:00]

And knowing how to pivot so never.

Adrian Capote

[0:37:03]

Never was down. Yeah. So.

Mark Abbott

[0:37:05]

So let's now start to make our way into you guys.

Adrian Capote

[0:37:10]

All right.

Jessie Capote

[0:37:10]

And Adrian goes first.

Adrian Capote

[0:37:12]

Exactly.

Jessie Capote

[0:37:12]

Right.

Mark Abbott

[0:37:13]

Yeah. So. So when does. When does. When does it. Does your dad up until he passes away, is he CEO and run and everything?

Adrian Capote

[0:37:23]

So at that time, him and. Yeah. Yeah. So my father, you know, the culture there was the buck stops with me. He was the security blanket. He did have the last word, you know, my way or the highway. Right. You know, which was great for us. Right. It was good and bad. Right, Right. So. Yeah, so that was the one that called the shots. Yeah. Carlos was acting as CEO as well. Right. But, you know, Carlos ran more of the. The sales, distribution, warehousing, stuff like that.

Mark Abbott

[0:38:01]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:38:02]

And my father at that time was. Had completely gotten off sales because my dad did sales for. For many years. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and in the same Recliner, they're at 4 in the morning calling New York and selling them product. He was a very good salesperson. My dad would. I mean, he would call people and say, hey, don't worry. I'm gonna send you free product. You let me know how it does, and then we can pay. He was really good salesman. By that time, my dad phased off out of that. I left all that to Carter's. Yeah. And he was only on the. On the farm, in the fields. Yeah. With the labor, making sure that every process he was doing correctly, making sure that he was maximizing the yield. Right. So. So at that time, when I come into the company, that's the structure in place. Right. Carlos and a small group of salespeople, and my uncle was the warehouse manager, per se. And I come into the business in 96, 97, like I said, very young age. I knew I was always in love with the generational. You know, even my father had his uncle. My uncle in the business with him when he. When he started it. So I was very fortunate that at that time, my father was already, you know, in his 70s, you know, and late 60s, early 70s. So I came into the business 97. And I never forget. I always say the story. And so, you know, I was. I was in. I was in Jersey. I had left to Jersey to live with my sister and change the scene and try to study out there. And I meet my wife. We dated for a year and a half. And one morning I just woke up. I'm like, man, I'm just wasting my time. I called my dad. I'm like, you know, dad, you know, I'm wasting your money here. I want to get back and learn the business. He says, okay, come on down, you start. Pack your stuff and come. So I got to Miami with my wife. We hadn't been married at that time, but she was my girlfriend at the time. And I was 17, 18 years old at that time. And he says. I said, well, dad, what's my first job? He says, well, he says, I got a job for you. He says, you see that box truck up there? I said, yeah, this is all right. You're gonna go. You're gonna get that truck, and you're gonna go to every little bodega, mom and pop supermarket, and you're gonna buy from them for 25 cents. Empty cardboard boxes. You're gonna consolidate them, you're gonna put them in that truck, and you're gonna bring them back to the facility every day. And I'm gonna pay you 75 cents a box. I'm like, wow, this is a business. Every day I could pick up 3, 400 boxes. He's giving me the truck. Long story short, the first day I spend, wake up at five in the morning, go to every supermarket, collect like five, six hundred boxes. I'm driving down home, down the turnpike. State trooper pulls me over. Like, what the hell did I do? Pulls me over and says, son, do you know that your box has been flying out of your truck since you left my hand? When I look back, my whole inventory was on the turnpike. Lost everything. I did that for, like, a couple weeks. I got to my dad, I'm like, I don't want to do this. This sucks. This is the worst job.

Jessie Capote

[0:41:28]

I like that.

Adrian Capote

[0:41:29]

He says, okay, no problem. So they got another job. And the other job was even worse, was rebuilding broken pallets. Like a carpenter.

Mark Abbott

[0:41:38]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:41:39]

So he was having fun with this, obviously, right? Yeah, knew I was. He was having a lot of fun. So, same story that my fingers are broken. My fingers were the hammer. I don't want to do this. Get me in the warehouse. He says, all right, you're going to start working with in the warehouse. You're going to be a forklift driver. You're going to prepare orders, you're going to pick. You're going to offload containers, and you're going to report to your uncle. He's going to be your boss. And I did that for about three, four years. And, man, I got to tell you, it was. It was a very fundamental part of my development. And at the same time, it was the best shape I was in my life because we were loading trucks back then. So, you know, I worked probably 70, 80 hours a week. I used to start at 10 in the morning, and especially in the holidays, I wouldn't get in my car after finishing loading trucks till 6 in the morning. I would see sunrise loading trucks and loading trucks. And, you know, we didn't have the efficiencies we have nowadays. You know, it was. It was very manual, very labor intense. And then from there on, I didn't know at the time where my play was going to be. Right. But I also felt like, you know, at that time I was very fortunate also that I spent a lot of time with my father. So at that time, my father was starting to have health issues, so I started driving him right everywhere. And that was a very valuable time for me because I learned he mentored me a lot in that time of going, and he would also vent to me with disagreements with my brother Carlos and stuff like that. So I was able to see the, the good and the bad dynamics of partnerships. Yeah. With a father and son. And I learned a lot from him. And, you know, he was, he was an incredible mentor. He was an incredible people person to everybody. My father was someone that when he walked into the room, he just felt that great energy. This guy's just, you know, just great energy authority, but very good energy. He loved his employees. Mainly the, like we call it the level three and four people, the labor guys in the fields. A lot of them, you know, considered my dad more as a father than the boss. Yeah. Was very good to his people. And, and, but he wasn't, you know, he didn't trust people very much. You know, so. So after that, you know, I spent about three, four years. Then that I became shipping manager. And, you know, that's when I was really, at that point when I. When I got into the warehouse is when I really got a good bird's eye view. Of course, Culture.

Mark Abbott

[0:44:21]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:44:22]

And. And it wasn't by no means, you know, Hispanic culture and business is nothing like what we're doing today. Yeah. The Hispanic culture, especially from my father knowing now that, you know, his background.

Mark Abbott

[0:44:36]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:44:36]

You know, he is. He didn't want to lose anything. So everything was firm grip on him. Yeah. You know, there was no. Yeah, I'm going to trust you to make decisions knowing that you might. No, no, no, you don't make decisions. I. I do.

Mark Abbott

[0:44:48]

Yeah. Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:44:49]

Right. So. And I started seeing really the dynamic of the culture between the office people and operations, and it was like tub of war. It was like, you know, then here and then here. There wasn't A cohesive collaboration. Right. So that's when I really started seeing and getting a good idea of what culture means. And, you know, I always. At that time, I always knew, you know, that we. We weren't appreciating our people as we should. Right. And then when we came to you, that's where that really accelerated. Right. But back then, I was, you know, I was that young, that young son that was seen just a lot of cultural things that weren't. Right. Yeah. And, you know, you know, we come from a culture where, hey, I'm your brother and. Is this your dad? You're the youngest. Do as I say, not as I do. Right. You know, don't trust anyone. You know, don't be friends with any employees. They're not your friends. This. And I'm like, yeah, but we're not. You know, there's something here that doesn't add up. Yeah. Then. Then after that, I morphed into sales, and again, the generational thing, kind of similar to my father and Carlos. Carlos started getting. I want to say a word. Wind down.

Mark Abbott

[0:46:18]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:46:18]

Or not wind down, but kind of exhausted of the sales and dealing with the customers and the issues and all that. So by natural progression, I knew that. I said, okay. You know, when I walked into the sales, the first thing I did was I analyzed our target market.

Jessie Capote

[0:46:37]

Right.

Adrian Capote

[0:46:37]

And again, I say target market, but back then, I didn't know what target market meant. Right, Right. But I realized I'm like, man, where am I going to make my mark here? And back then, I started. I realized that all our target markets were wholesale distributors and terminal markets, and it was a bloodbath. I mean, we were getting, I mean, claims clips, and I'm like, yeah, I already can see. This ain't gonna pan out. Yeah. You know, there's got to be diversification. Yeah. I said, man, where can I make my mark?

Mark Abbott

[0:47:07]

What year is this about?

Adrian Capote

[0:47:08]

This is 99. Okay, 99. No, this was 2000. 2001. Okay, right about 2000. 2001.

Mark Abbott

[0:47:16]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:47:16]

And.

Adrian Capote

[0:47:19]

You know, I get into sales, and my mentor back then was a. A senior salesperson we had named Fernando Fonseca. Great guy. He was a great guy. He taught me a lot. And. And I said, I gotta make my mark here. Where am I gonna make my mark? I'm like, I don't see a single retail presence. And it was funny because, you know, my dad and Carlos, although they were very successful, because you're a Cuban immigrant, there's intimidation. Oh, those American corporate retailers are never going to Give us the time of day. Yeah. You know, we're a small pea in the pod. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know about that. I'm going to give it a try. Yeah. So at that time, I. I started realizing. Yeah. I got. I got to. I got to sit my teeth and being a salesperson. Yeah. And that's where I jumped into Dale Carnegie.

Mark Abbott

[0:48:09]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:48:10]

And started self training myself of how to be a good salesperson. Right. And then we started diversifying, and then we went. We were 100% wholesale distributors in terminal markets. Then we started becoming 10% retail, 90%. And that kept growing. Right. The first retail con I ever landed was HEB in Texas. And I was like a holy grail. And I remember when I told my dad in Carlos, hey, I'm going after Publix. They're like, you're wasting your time. Those guys are never. I'm like, I'm gonna try it. And we landed it.

Mark Abbott

[0:48:49]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:48:50]

Yeah. And just what happens to be. In that time period, retailers, there was a massive opportunity because they were getting all our products through third and fourth hand people.

Mark Abbott

[0:48:59]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:49:00]

And so they were paying these. The. The opportunity for margin was huge.

Mark Abbott

[0:49:04]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:49:05]

Some so. And then date. And then the Hispanic demographics started becoming very important in the world of retail. Yeah. Right. Because now retailers like Publix are noticing. Yeah. Man. If we don't start offering all this stuff, with all this change of demographics, we're not going to grow. So. So fast forward, you know, I took over all of sales, me and, you know, small group of people back then. And, you know, we started developing retail. Probably 0405 is when we just started getting speed. Yeah. And the rest is history, basically.

Mark Abbott

[0:49:46]

Yeah. Yeah. And so then what brings you.

Jessie Capote

[0:49:51]

What brings ye here? Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[0:49:53]

Mr. Lawyer. Past lawyer. Still a lawyer, right?

Jessie Capote

[0:49:56]

You're still. I still. My license is still active.

Adrian Capote

[0:49:58]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:49:59]

And I do free stuff for people all the time.

Adrian Capote

[0:50:01]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:50:02]

Pro bono list is big. No, my story's a bit different. I wanted to go away to school, which I did. And then I went to law school. And even before that, the dynamic at home with my dad, who I loved to death. You have to understand, the house was like Hyannis port for my Cuban family.

Mark Abbott

[0:50:30]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:50:30]

It was where. It was the compound. Everything happened there. My dad even had an office there. And he. And he had all. Even though the warehouse was at a different location, all checks had to be sent to the office at the house. And his favorite thing in the morning was to sit there with his coffee.

Adrian Capote

[0:50:47]

And look at the check. It's a ritual.

Jessie Capote

[0:50:50]

But I saw some of that and I was always very grateful. They. We had a great upbringing.

Mark Abbott

[0:50:57]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:50:58]

Nothing to complain about. Yeah. But I, I would hope. I, I by 17, 18, seeing the dynamic with him and Carlos and the company and all that, I. I started to openly declare that I was never.

Adrian Capote

[0:51:10]

Going to do this.

Jessie Capote

[0:51:12]

I'm not doing this. Don't count on me for this. I would say, yeah. And what the hell did I know? And idiot. And so I went away to school and got my law degree and started practicing. Was home at 99. I'm a deal junkie at heart. I'm a transactional person. So immediately, very early on knew that my legal career was gonna be anything business related. So I practiced at a couple firms and it was always banking or real estate or corporate or there was always a deal at hand. And I really, I loved it. I left the law firm when a client. I started representing a client that was developing real estate in Miami. And this is now 2002. And right after the dot com boom, all that money went into real estate, all that money in the sidelines up to real estate. And Miami has his first sort of run up in condo buildings and all that. And so I leave the practice of law to work for a condo developer who was also building hotels in the Caribbean. It was all very sexy, very attractive. And I went and I learned a lot. I learned a lot and saw a lot of big transactions. And that really, that got me amped up. And so during all that, my dad passes no one. And that's one of those moments in life where I had a charmed existence up until that point in time. Like, there's my life before and after the old man passes. It's clear, like, clear as day. Obviously, many wonderful things have happened to me since, but that was, that was at one point. And I, and you know, I also, I was, even though I was doing, I was up to all the things that I was doing, I was still very close to the family, still there on Sundays, even though he wasn't there still on Sundays. Everybody would gather and I would listen. And I worried for Carlos a lot early on because it took Carlos a bit. It took Carlos. My dad meant everything to Carlos. And he was there from high school. Yeah, he was, you know, his, his, his, his guy. And so I worried for Carlos. And Adrian was young, into the business, and I never, they were always in the back of my mind. And the business and the family and all the mouths that it fed and everybody that depended on it was always in the back of my mind. But I kept going. And it's probably sometime in 0607 that the world of real estate in Miami starting to get a little bit weird. A lot of people that don't know what the hell they're doing or buying properties, getting architects, you know the story, it's a move. It's probably 10 movies they've made about this.

Adrian Capote

[0:54:30]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:54:30]

And. And I was living it. I was in there and I was like, yeah, this ain't gonna work. And so I leave. I actually left the, the firm that I was with and I went on sort of a sabbatical. I had, I had actually, I did very well because I had partners and I had partnerships and I had invested in real estate up until that time. So that four or five year run was great to me. But I left and just didn't know what was next. Hung up my license at a buddy's firm, small firm, helped, did some cool things, but really was rudderless and spending a lot more time at my parents house where Adrian and Carlos would usually end up two or three times a week. And listening to everything that was going on. Adrian was now starting to pick up speed. I can tell he's the conversations around retail and around opportunities and. But Carlos was, you know, Carlos was definitely maxed, maxed out. He was, he was tired. We'd been at it for a while and, and I started giving out free advice and you know how that goes. So at one point, you know, Carlos says, well, why don't you, why don't you help us? Why don't you help me? I don't think Adrian was in the room that day. Carlos said, well, why don't you help me? He said, give me all this advice. I said, okay, yeah, I got time. I'll help you, of course. And I said, but I'll help you only if like you really want to make a run at doing something grand or something. But yeah, sure, I'm interested. And so I thought it was going to be a short stint. My original intention was to help Carlos and Adrian personally, to help them get a little organized. But soon after I was in there and my. I didn't go straight to operations. I actually ended up doing some farming and some other stuff. But within a couple of years I realized that there was something special going on and there was a big opportunity and, and these guys were very good at what they did.

Adrian Capote

[0:56:56]

Every.

Jessie Capote

[0:56:56]

Adrian was getting very good at, at selling and Carlos was very good at purchasing.

Adrian Capote

[0:57:02]

Yep.

Jessie Capote

[0:57:02]

And I said, great. You guys focus on that and I'll do the rest. I'll organize middle management, I'll organize operations. And. And we did that. That's how we ran for, I would say, 07 to 11. We ran that way and we started to pick up a lot of speed and I still didn't know enough about the business, but we started to gain a lot of momentum and then we really, we really had a hard time in 11. We grew a little too fast and ran into some financial trouble. And it was also kind of a perfect storm because farming at that time was a big part of our business. Currently we're simply a distribution company. Non asset based. It's very, very simple. Meant to scale. At that time we had our hands in many things.

Adrian Capote

[0:58:00]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:58:01]

We were farming. We owned a packing house in Costa Rica, a logistics company, packing house in Florida. We had trucks. It's just like a lot. And that year 11 was a bad year for farming and a bad year for distribution. And we got a little bit ahead on expenses, forecasting revenue. That was right there. And it didn't work out that way. So we, we struggled. I remember in 11 or 12, many nights where I said, I think we, I think we, I think we ruined my father's company.

Adrian Capote

[0:58:38]

We were six months away from shutting doors.

Jessie Capote

[0:58:40]

I think we ruined my dad's company. I didn't sleep, man. I remember ending up in the, in the hospital one night and I thought I was having a heart attack and it was just. I had a panic attack.

Mark Abbott

[0:58:50]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:58:51]

And anyways, we, you know, I think that's, I think that's the moment in time where Adrian and I looked at each other and we said, okay, it's on you and me. Like this is on us. And so we quickly rallied the troops and Carlos, to his credit, kind of stepped, took one step back and said, okay. And we, I was, we were lucky. I had some cash saved up. So we did a small infusion and we just from scratch, you know, just zero based budgeting style.

Mark Abbott

[0:59:34]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:59:34]

Like, what do we need for next week?

Mark Abbott

[0:59:36]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:59:37]

And let's just work on that.

Adrian Capote

[0:59:38]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[0:59:39]

And one week was the next week and the next week and the next. Next week.

Adrian Capote

[0:59:42]

And then when we scaled the business down to bare minimum. Minimum. I mean. Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[0:59:47]

You had to, right?

Jessie Capote

[0:59:47]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[0:59:48]

And I mean now, now mind you, we were in our late 20s, early 30s. Yeah. So we were still, we still didn't know what the we were doing. Yeah. But we knew that we had to scale the business down to bare bones and make sacrifices. We ended up selling our own asset that we had back then. Yeah. Warehouse, you know, and actually, you know, the company's always been, you know, we were very grateful from my perspective, I was always very grateful that the company was always a foundation. It was, it was, I always believed, you know, it was, it was, you know, prior to Jesse coming, my oldest, our oldest brother Pedro had stopped practicing medicine. He was already in his 50s. Right. And he came and my dad told him, hey, why don't you come and help me out? This is a brother never. This one really never had any interest in the business. Never. It was just a doctor's all his life. Yeah. I don't know why, how life works, but he literally came into the company two years before my dad died and you know, that he left. He didn't, you know, he was, we were, I was very grateful that, you know, accompanying my oldest brother came and I don't know if that's the way world the life works, but it aligned. Yeah. Right. And then right when he exited, he said, look, now it's time for Jesse to come and put his part. Yeah. You know, so, you know, that's when I realized this company is a solid company. Oh, we're going through a tough time. This company has been through hell and it's still here.

Mark Abbott

[1:01:33]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[1:01:33]

Hurricane Andrew financial crisis. I mean, it's, it was non stop. Yeah. There's many more stories that I could share with you. The resilience of that company. Yeah. Of what it went through. Yeah. I mean, they had to reinvent itself.

Mark Abbott

[1:01:53]

And then you guys are working it. Right. And then decide that maybe there's a better way to do. Run this business.

Adrian Capote

[1:02:04]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:02:04]

Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[1:02:05]

And somehow you found out about this thing called eos.

Adrian Capote

[1:02:09]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:02:10]

So we're now, you know, three, four years later. We're now, Adrian and I are really knee deep and we're gaining momentum and we have a cousin who is curious and always finding stuff. And he calls her, sends an email one day. He says, hey, I read this book or there's this thing called Eos and this is the book and you should look into it. I think that with everything that you and Adrian are doing, it would serve you well. And so, you know, being the thrifty Cubans that we are into the website and we figure out that we could buy the manuals to learn to be implementers.

Adrian Capote

[1:02:57]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:02:58]

And I said to Adrian, I said, adrian, I think we could use this, but I'm going to buy these manuals and then you and I are going to sit in a conference room one day and we're going to learn how this shit works.

Adrian Capote

[1:03:09]

And we're going to. We didn't even have a conference room. We had to borrow conference room.

Jessie Capote

[1:03:12]

We borrowed a conference room. Yeah. An attorney friend of mine and we sat there all day and said, we got it. We're going to, we're going to do this. And we, we attempted to self implement that lasted like six months, as you might recall. And then, yeah, then it sort of died. But that was actually exactly 2015.

Adrian Capote

[1:03:34]

Yeah, 2015. Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[1:03:36]

So 10 years.

Adrian Capote

[1:03:36]

I know exactly when that was because I had started my aviation hobby. Yeah. And the first meeting we had, I'm like, well, we don't have a conference room, but I'm a member at the FBO in Opelaka and I have access to a huge conference room. Yeah, that's how I always remember when we started. Got it.

Jessie Capote

[1:03:54]

So, so yeah, we, but, but it died on the vine early on and, but I knew that we needed something and it seemed so easy, at least relatable. It was very relatable. And we had run into some of the stuff, some of the things, concepts. We had seen them before, at least I had. But the way that it had been put together made a lot of sense. So I told Adrian, I said, adrian, we can't give up on this, but we need a coach. We need someone that knows how this runs, because clearly we're in the room, we're trying to do this, and we're going to get, when we get stuck, we got no one to look at to give us the answer. And it was also at that time that I really wanted someone from the outside to come into the company on a race regular basis and either call our, or tell us you're on, you're on the right path.

Adrian Capote

[1:04:58]

Keep going.

Jessie Capote

[1:04:59]

Just keep your heads on and keep going. So I said, man, I wonder. I know exactly where I was. I was on U.S. 1, driving south. And I said, man, I wonder if the same person that could teach us EOs can be that badass business person that, that, that Adrian and I will connect with and that has a track record that speaks for itself and that we can bring in. And, and, and this would be great. This would be like the win, win, win. And I, I, I went online and, and I saw that there were three coaches in Florida at that time, and there was one in Miami. I said, look at this guy named Mark. Let's call a guy in Miami. And that was when I called, and that was our first conversation. I knew exactly where I was. And, you know, we hit it off. And I said, now. And I said, now, Mark, the key is Adrian. You gotta connect with Adrian because this is a two person package. We're a package here.

Mark Abbott

[1:06:04]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:06:05]

So you gotta, you gotta. And. And he said, no problem, no problem. And we had lunch. And as soon as you opened your mouth and started talking about your boat and fishing, I was like, I'm good.

Mark Abbott

[1:06:21]

And the rest is history.

Jessie Capote

[1:06:22]

And the rest is history. And the rest is a great.

Adrian Capote

[1:06:25]

A great. And that was a really turning point for the business. You know, that's where things really, really, from my perspective, really started taking off.

Mark Abbott

[1:06:37]

But it's interesting, right? I mean, obviously, you know, we've been doing this together for 10 years and there's been ups and downs. Right. Like there always is. And. But, you know, the business now has gotten to a place where, you know, you guys, you know, there's. You always want it to be better. You always can see the flaws in. In the work you're doing. Right. And in the system and in the people and the areas of the culture you want to focus on. Right. But the core business now runs pretty darn well. But yeah, there's the market and you know, when, you know, just when you're procuring product, there's.

Jessie Capote

[1:07:20]

There's just.

Mark Abbott

[1:07:20]

There's always exogenous factors that can impact things. And, And. But I think, you know, know what? Last two or three years, almost every quarter's been an A. The last quarter was not. But we know, right. It was part of sort of exogenous factors. But, you know, we're here today, now and for the next couple of days, because you guys, now you're going through your own. Okay, so now we got to think about, right, Legacy, the future. Right, Right. And so it's an interesting moment, right, because we're, you know, it's like, okay, so how do we think about the next 10 years? And how do we think about. This is a family business. And so, you know, it's.

Jessie Capote

[1:08:08]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think. No, I don't think we're at a point where clearly it's Adrian and Michael.

Adrian Capote

[1:08:18]

Co.

Jessie Capote

[1:08:20]

Internally and externally.

Mark Abbott

[1:08:22]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:08:22]

And so Adrian and I have been feeling that.

Adrian Capote

[1:08:30]

Wow.

Jessie Capote

[1:08:31]

It was a sense of accomplishment and sort of, oh, wow. This, for the first time in many years, is in the hands of two people. Not since my dad ran it on his own, even before Carlos got there, has it been so concentrated.

Adrian Capote

[1:08:50]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:08:51]

And so it was definitely a sense of accomplishment and awe. But then at the same time, it was now a responsibility and to. Okay, now. Now we have to, you know, make sure that we're looking beyond three to five. What does this look like? 10.

Adrian Capote

[1:09:11]

10 years?

Jessie Capote

[1:09:12]

What do we want it to. How do we want it to evolve?

Adrian Capote

[1:09:16]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:09:18]

And because you've been very good at always telling us, hey, if you're not growing, you're dying, growth. Not just the numbers, but growth of the organization, evolution of the culture. Our evolution as partners, which is, you know, has come, Has. Continues to evolve. All of that is on our mind, and that's why we're here.

Adrian Capote

[1:09:47]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:09:48]

To the grand wizard.

Mark Abbott

[1:09:52]

To see what our brains can do together.

Jessie Capote

[1:09:54]

Yeah, absolutely.

Adrian Capote

[1:09:55]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:09:55]

Absolutely.

Mark Abbott

[1:09:56]

Yeah. Crazy, right, though.

Jessie Capote

[1:09:59]

I mean.

Mark Abbott

[1:10:03]

All the way back to the. Did the. Did the. Did your dad's dad come then? Come to the U.S. yeah, he did. Yeah, he did.

Jessie Capote

[1:10:09]

And. And he worked. He. My. My dad brought. Eventually his parents and my. My grandfather worked in the company.

Mark Abbott

[1:10:18]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:10:18]

For years.

Adrian Capote

[1:10:19]

You never saw him in the office. You never saw my grandfather in the warehouse anywhere. He was always in the fields. Yeah, they were. They were just dirt hands of the dirt farmers. Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:10:30]

But he also. But he was. He's also. My dad led him all the number two product. My dad would say, well, you. You can either discard. And he had a nice little side hustle.

Mark Abbott

[1:10:43]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:10:44]

Where he was selling all the number twos and, and, and, and, and the old man, my grandfather usually had a wad of cash.

Adrian Capote

[1:10:49]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:10:50]

You know, from all the weekly sales he had, his little clientele and. Yeah, I clearly remember him.

Adrian Capote

[1:10:55]

He's. It was a. The. Of. Part of it. Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[1:10:56]

Yeah. And it's cool. I mean, you know, with this story, you know, we go all the way back to Spain.

Adrian Capote

[1:11:02]

We do.

Mark Abbott

[1:11:03]

Right. And so then you go to Spain, to Cuba. Cuba to the US. Seeds in an envelope.

Jessie Capote

[1:11:16]

Yes.

Mark Abbott

[1:11:17]

Right. To a business that's going on 100 million. And now the next phase, figuring out sort of how the legacy gets moved forward. And, you know, you don't want to say it's a classic American story, but.

Jessie Capote

[1:11:34]

It kind of is.

Mark Abbott

[1:11:35]

Kind of is. Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[1:11:37]

When you talk about the American dream.

Mark Abbott

[1:11:39]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[1:11:39]

I mean, my father is prime example.

Mark Abbott

[1:11:42]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[1:11:42]

I mean, you're talking about someone who said that no other country would have given him what he. What he's earned.

Mark Abbott

[1:11:51]

But it's interesting, too, because, you know, I think when people talk about the American dream, it's this idea that, you know, it's easy.

Adrian Capote

[1:11:59]

No, it's not.

Mark Abbott

[1:12:01]

Right.

Jessie Capote

[1:12:02]

Definitely not easy. No, no. And look. And, you know, I also think that I think the fact that, that it's a family business, there's a whole other dimension to it.

Mark Abbott

[1:12:17]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:12:19]

And you know, I have a lot of respect for family run business.

Adrian Capote

[1:12:27]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:12:28]

I really do. Because it requires a lot of thinking and a lot of just looking at things from many different angles.

Mark Abbott

[1:12:44]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:12:45]

And you're really carrying two batons. You're carrying the baton of company first. And let's, let's, you know, let's make sure we're doing what's best for the company. But at the same time, you're, you're, you're, you're also carrying the family baton with you.

Adrian Capote

[1:13:02]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:13:02]

And so that, that, that, that I won't call it tension, but that constant play of how both of those things relate is another challenge.

Adrian Capote

[1:13:16]

Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[1:13:16]

And it's interesting. I think a lot of people don't appreciate that there are an amazing amount of great family businesses that to this day. Right. That, you know, are extraordinarily successful. And there's a lot of research on the family business. But one of the things that's really interesting about a lot of family businesses is because they're thinking generationally, they get into businesses that are capable of being there for generations. Right. And because they're playing a long game and they're trying to, you know, so they're not getting into some, you know, quick bake a buck and get the heck out of it. Right. Because no, you got to be in a business where you can pass it from generation to generation to generation. And there are certain industries where that's, you know, possible and there are certain, certain industries where that's not very possible. So it's, and it's fascinating because there's some just amazingly well run family businesses and, and a lot of people just don't understand that there are successful family businesses. You know, you get in this whole thing about nepotism and all this other kind of stuff and it's like, yeah, I think you need to understand this a little bit more deeply. But yeah, once again, you don't need to do anything. You just, you know, if you're curious, you should go and check out the story of family businesses because some of them are amazing.

Adrian Capote

[1:14:53]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, honestly, I think we're a testament to that. I'm a firm believer that if companies, in our case. Right. The growth of the company today where it's at has been. Because there has been an evolution of generation. Right. Yeah. You know, you know, it started my father, my grandfather. Yeah. And they get old and they get Old. And then Carlos comes in.

Jessie Capote

[1:15:19]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[1:15:19]

And then that. That company keeps growing. Right. And then Jesse and I come in and that company keeps growing.

Mark Abbott

[1:15:24]

Yeah.

Adrian Capote

[1:15:25]

It's a real thing. Yeah, it's definitely a real thing.

Jessie Capote

[1:15:28]

I, you know, there's also, I think, going back to what you're saying, that families get into businesses that are. That are generational or they can be generational. I agree with that. I also think, though, that, I mean, I have a friend that has a very successful business and he could sell it for, you know, a ridiculous amount of money. And I asked him, like six months ago, I said, it's just eggs. He's like. Because within a year, I'd start another one.

Mark Abbott

[1:16:01]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:16:01]

And I. Or I'd buy another one.

Mark Abbott

[1:16:03]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:16:03]

And so what, you know. Know, what's the point?

Adrian Capote

[1:16:06]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:16:06]

You know, so I, I think also, as for me, I'm. I'm now. I just turned 51amonth ago. For me, as I. At this point, as I'm looking forward, there's also the. Well, what, what, you know, what am I going to. What am I going to enjoy doing 10 years from now or 20 years from now? Where, Where. How does it. As the individual.

Mark Abbott

[1:16:32]

Right.

Adrian Capote

[1:16:32]

Next.

Jessie Capote

[1:16:32]

And there's a third dimension. Right. There's. There's the company, there's the family, and now there's the individual.

Adrian Capote

[1:16:39]

Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[1:16:40]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:16:40]

And you. And so you're balancing all those. But I start to think about, well, you know, what is. What is. Where do I want to be.

Mark Abbott

[1:16:50]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:16:50]

And how do I want to contribute? And then listen, like anything else.

Adrian Capote

[1:16:57]

Like.

Jessie Capote

[1:16:57]

You said, there are very successful family businesses, and there are some that are not clearly the ones that are successful is because they do it a certain way. Like I tell Adrian all the time, I'm like, we're not the only ones with these issues historically or currently. Like, some of this shit, some of this stuff, you know, many people deal with on a regular basis and they figure it out.

Adrian Capote

[1:17:22]

Yeah, it's.

Jessie Capote

[1:17:22]

But it's a matter of. Of.

Adrian Capote

[1:17:24]

Of.

Jessie Capote

[1:17:24]

Of being upfront with them saying, yeah, we.

Adrian Capote

[1:17:27]

We need to.

Jessie Capote

[1:17:28]

We need to figure this out. We need to structure this properly so it can continue to. To.

Adrian Capote

[1:17:33]

To grow. Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Abbott

[1:17:36]

Well, we're going to start working on the next chapter.

Jessie Capote

[1:17:38]

Yes, sir.

Mark Abbott

[1:17:39]

Hey, guys. This has been awesome.

Jessie Capote

[1:17:40]

Yes, it has. You hosting us.

Adrian Capote

[1:17:43]

Yeah.

Jessie Capote

[1:17:43]

Thank you.

Adrian Capote

[1:17:44]

Thank you. Ra.