In restaurant speak, to "86" something is to kill it, cross it off, we're out. So naming your podcast the 86 Reason Podcast is a wink, and I'm here for it. This week's Shoutout goes to its host, Xavier Mariezcurrena, a friend of Branded, and to the show he's building.
Xavier runs the mic over at Over Easy Office, the back-office firm that handles the deeply unglamorous, absolutely essential work of keeping restaurants solvent: AP processing, bookkeeping, inventory, the whole Restaurant365 grind. If you've read me on the back of house lately, you know I think that's exactly where restaurants are won or lost. So it tracks that the folks handling the numbers also tell great stories about the people behind them. The 86 Reason Podcast is Xavier doing precisely that, and doing it well.
Now, the episode I actually want to point you to, b/c it lets me do something I don't get to do often enough. Xavier sat down with Kimberly Smith, the CEO of Copia. Full disclosure, and I'll give it to you straight: Copia is a Branded portfolio company, and honestly one of the ones closest to my heart. Which is exactly why I'd rather you hear about it from Kimberly than from me.
So I'm doing my best impersonation of John Stockton (the NBA’s all-time assist leader) and passing the mic.
Listen to Kimberly explain, in her own words, why America doesn't have a food scarcity problem so much as a logistics one, and how Copia turns the surplus a kitchen would otherwise pay a hauler to destroy into meals for its community and a real return on the P&L.
It lands better than anything I could write, b/c it isn't a pitch. It's the CEO, on someone else's show, talking about the work.
That's the whole point of this Shoutout, really. Two people I admire, doing the thing: Xavier building a platform that gives our industry's builders a voice, and Kimberly building something that quite literally feeds people.
Go give the episode a listen, and while you're there, subscribe to the 86 Reason Podcast. The good ones deserve the download.
If you would like to connect with the Branded Hospitality to discuss opportunities with Copia, please click here.
