When guys at home and you want a snack, maybe you grab some chips, cereal, a protein bar, or cookies, whatever (and obviously when I say cookies I mean chocolate chip cookies, because if you tell me there is a better cookie than chocolate chip, we’re already gonna have a problem)
But, you just grab that snack and demolish it, you don’t inspect it like a scientist, you don’t really call the company and ask who made it, you just trust that somebody, somewhere, already made sure this little snack is safe for you to demolish.
And when you guys think about it, it’s actually kind of crazy, because the company cannot just make some random snack or food or whatever, put it in a bag and tell people: “trust me bro, you won’t get sick, you won’t get infected with some weird medieval bacteria nobody has heard of since 1432.” There has to be something behind that trust.
Think about it like the guy standing at the door of a nightclub. His whole job is basically:
“You’re good, you can come in. You look suspicious, stay outside.” Except instead of checking whether some 17-year-old has a fake ID, these companies are checking whether your chocolate chip cookie is about to give somebody a medieval disease from 1432.
Sometimes they take the food into a lab and test it, sometimes they check the factory, sometimes they check how the food is being made and stored, sometimes they might even give them a certification that basically says: “yep, somebody outside this company actually checked this.”
**BOUNCER** **CONNECTOR**
Can enter? Can send?
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YES / NO FIT / NO FIT
They have to pay them, they can’t just do that for free. Life isn’t free. Everything in life costs money, which sounds stupidly obvious, but it’s actually one of the most useful things you guys need to remember in business. Because every time someone is forced to pay for something, somebody else wants that money, and the person in the middle always gets paid more than both.
So, of course, they pay, can’t sell food without having their blessing.
The interesting part about this industry is that, a food company doesn’t just pay food safety companies one time, get a little certificate and never think about it again. They might have to test new batches of food. They have certifications that need to be renewed. Factories get inspected again. So as long as that company keeps making and selling food, money keeps leaving the food company and going to food safety companies.
And now we have something very useful: a business that has to keep spending money, and thousands of companies that want to be the ones receiving it.
None of these food safety companies get some magical notification saying:
“Hey, a snack company will be selling cookies next month, here’s their address, the owner’s name, email and phone number. Go find out what testing or certification they need before another lab gets there first.”
They can want new customers all day long. Wanting customers does not mean knowing who needs you, when they need you, or getting there before somebody else does.
FOOD MAKER SAFETY COMPANY
"I need someone" "I need customers"
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│ both don't know │
└──────────────┐ ┌───────────────┘
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YOU
resolves uncertainty