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How HelloFresh Uses Consumer Data to Make Home Cooking Easier and Drive Product Growth

January 16, 2026 / 27:17

This episode of Marketing Matters covers meal kits, nutrition, and customer behavior with guest Jorge Samayoa, CMO of HelloFresh. The discussion includes New Year’s resolutions, the importance of home cooking, and HelloFresh’s approach to meal delivery.

Co-hosts Barbara Khan and America Reed engage Jorge Samayoa in a conversation about the challenges of maintaining healthy eating habits and how HelloFresh aims to simplify meal preparation. Jorge shares his background in marketing and his journey to becoming CMO at HelloFresh.

The episode highlights the competitive landscape of meal kits, with Jorge discussing how HelloFresh differentiates itself by focusing on quality, customer experience, and addressing food waste. He emphasizes the importance of home cooking and the brand's commitment to providing fresh, honest food.

Listeners learn about HelloFresh's strategies for personalization and data-driven recipe development, as well as how the company adapts to trends in consumer health and preferences. Jorge also touches on the impact of GLP-1 medications on meal planning.

Finally, the episode concludes with Jorge inviting listeners to explore HelloFresh and its offerings, emphasizing the brand's mission to make cooking enjoyable and accessible.

TL;DR

Jorge Samayoa discusses HelloFresh's meal kits, nutrition, and the importance of home cooking in this episode of Marketing Matters.

Episode

27:17
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Hello and welcome. You're listening to
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Marketing Matters on the Wharton podcast
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network, our weekly podcast where we
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analyze the latest in advertising,
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marketing, customer behavior, and new
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product launches. I'm Barbara Khan, the
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Patty and JH Baker Professor of
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Marketing, and I'm joined by my co-host,
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America Reed, the Whitney M. Young
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junior professor of marketing and the
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brand identity theorist and the national
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broadcaster America. You've been like
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all over the media recently, haven't
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you?
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>> I have, Barbara, and I'm excited to be
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here with you back in the studio doing
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our thing on Marketing Matters. I have a
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question for you. It's 2026
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and we're going to talk New Year's
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resolutions at some point. I'm going to
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give you my New Year's resolution. I
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have to dial in my nutrition. Okay? So,
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I have been talking to a lot of friends.
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I can be as healthy as you. You should
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not get healthier.
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>> But you know the thing I I you know I'm
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trying to do the workout stuff, Barbara,
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but I got I've got to get the nutrition
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piece right. I've got to get my macros.
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I got to figure out an efficient way
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that I can bring the nutrition the diet
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piece into this and to do it in a way
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that would be very cool. And so I'm
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wondering do we have anything on tab
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where we can talk about products,
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services that can really feed that kind
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of need? What have you got for me?
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>> So you're looking for a hack, huh?
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>> I'm looking for a hack. What what have
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you got?
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>> Well, lucky for you, we have with us
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Jorge Samayoa, who is the CMO of
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HelloFresh. And for those of you who
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don't know what HelloFresh is,
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HelloFresh delivers meal kits which are
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designed to reduce the friction and
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decision fatigue while trying to eat
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better, which is exactly what America's
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asked for. So, Jorge, thank you for
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being with us.
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>> Thanks to you guys. very happy to be
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here and listening to you is very
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exciting.
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>> Awesome.
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>> Well, Jorge, I'm looking at your
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background and before we get into your
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talking about HelloFresh, tell us why we
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should believe you. It looks like you
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have lots of experience, more than 20
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years or close to 20 years experience,
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including at PNG, PayPal, and now at
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HelloFresh. You do B2B, B to C, B to C,
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B C, B to B to C. [laughter]
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Anyway, tell us a little bit about your
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background and how you got to HelloFresh
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and why you believe in the HelloFresh
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model.
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>> Well, listen, I am born and raised in
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Guatemala. I'm an industrial engineer
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with a master in science in operations
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research. Uh, I started my career at
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Proch Gamble in Guatemala and then they
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moved their headquarters to Panama,
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their Latin America headquarters. So, I
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work there in multiple brands. As you
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know, PNG believes that 95% of their
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CEOs come from marketing. So they have a
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long history of believing on marketing
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as a function and they give you a P&L
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since you're very little. So I was 20
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years old. They gave me Old Spice. My
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first P&L was $10 million and they're
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like, "Go grow it." But you don't have
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resources.
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>> That's one of America's favorite brands.
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>> Big time. Old Spice, right? That's an
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iconic brand, Barbara. Just like you're
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saying. Yeah.
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>> It was fantastic actually because I
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joined the moment when they have
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repositioned the brand to be more
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exciting. Right. You remember the the ad
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like look at me, look at your man.
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[laughter]
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>> No. It was a great campaign. I was
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actually in the before and then the
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after. It was great how we were pretty
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much chasing axe uh positioning like
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being trying to make men look good and
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hot for women and then it was more about
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like actually no what does that loser
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way we're like men. [laughter]
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>> So it was pretty fun. So you know pretty
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much PNG I I ended up spending about
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eight years working different brands
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Pantene Head and Shoulders Gillette uh
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always and Pampers. Um then I went on to
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do my startup for about two years and a
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half. I started in Latin America. It was
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pretty much impossible at the time to
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raise capital. So went on to the US. We
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ran out of cash uh as probably many
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fates of many startups. Uh and ended up
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working at PayPal uh for about five
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years on marketing and product
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management doing growth. And lately I
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joined HelloFresh about three years ago
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uh managing some of the growth channels
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uh eventually becoming the VP of growth
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and recently about six five months ago I
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became the CMO for HelloFresh uh US.
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>> Interesting.
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>> Wow, that's a pretty impressive
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background. So you know there's like a
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lot of question about there's a lot of
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competition in this field of nail kids
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and some of them that have like Blue
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Apron I think is one that hasn't done
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that well. um what's different about
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HelloFresh and you're in charge of
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growth. Where's the growth? [laughter]
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>> So, you know, despite we we we can
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believe that there's a lot of
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competition, right? But there's also a
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huge market out there, right?
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>> We definitely see everybody eats. Us
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[laughter]
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that at the you've got the whole world.
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>> Our addressable market is people who eat
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>> pretty much, right? [laughter]
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>> That's a good segment. But but if you
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start looking at when we narrow who are
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are actually people who really we can
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help, right? And we're here to serve
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them, right? People who really love home
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cooking, people who are trying to bring
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people around the table, enjoy
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[clears throat] the family moment, enjoy
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the meals, and that's kind of like what
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you see in our campaign that we just
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launched a few days back, which is
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nothing hits like home cooking because
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we honestly be believe that we're the
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champions of hope home cooking and we've
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been for a while, right? I think during
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the pandemic there is this sensation of
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like let's go and get collect the demand
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and you might see how the brand a little
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bit went away from like it's about
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discounts. It's about these things that
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we we were doing more like a tactical
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growth levers but you can see how more
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and more HelloFresh has become superior
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in its quality of products in its number
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of recipes um in in experiences like you
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know very very good on the consumer
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experience uh from the app and actually
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on the delivery. So
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>> from a positioning standpoint, we are
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the champions of home cooking and
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>> I think as you're talking, I noticed
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that RFK Jr., our health guru in the US,
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has recently taken the food pyramid and
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turned it on its head. And
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>> while I don't agree with everything RFK
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Jr. says, "I have to say the idea of
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eating fresh products and this move
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towards protein, I think there's a lot
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of consensus on that." And it sounds
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like what you're saying is is actually
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pretty consistent with the movement that
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he's saying, move away from
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ultrarocessed food, move away to healthy
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food. And it seems like what you're
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proposing on HelloFresh is is consistent
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with that direction.
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>> So HelloFresh has always been about real
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honest food, right? So, it's not that
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we're trying to lean towards or
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backwards or trying to be right or left
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or center.
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>> Well, I'm not trying to say you're
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trying to be political, but
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>> clearly no one wants to like weigh in on
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one politics or another, but I don't
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think that it's actually out of sorts
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with that move, you know?
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>> Yeah. If you if you think about it, we
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we've been trying to help people to eat
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more protein. If you see, we double our
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menu on proteins. We've been announcing
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this since since July. We have
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wholesome, we have fiber, we have pretty
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much all the the foundations that that
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right now the pyramid is is outlining,
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right? So again, if you if you think
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about it, we we're always about real
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honest food and we're about home
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cooking. We believe that if you cook
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more at home, you'll be healthier.
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>> One of the biggest challenges, right,
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that that people have when they start
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the new year is around how do I cook
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more at home and pretty fast, right, on
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the quitter's day, you kind of start
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seeing people giving up with their new
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year resolution because it's hard. It's
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hard to maintain a good healthy habit of
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cooking at home, right? And that's where
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HelloFresh comes in, right? Like we make
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it very simple for you. We make it
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delicious. We make it fun. We make it
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joyful for you. So that's kind of like
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where we we we really sit. Um we
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recently did a survey that was pretty
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telling for me. It was about 5,000
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America Americans and about 82% said
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that 2026 was the year of the kitchen,
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meaning this is the year they're going
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to actually cook more at home. I was
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very excited because obviously it's part
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of our fear of the dragon or the tiger
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but they hear of the kitchen.
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>> Yeah, that's interesting.
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>> And and that pretty much, you know, we
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found that 30% of them feel that cooking
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them helps cooking at home helps them
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decompress. 80% feel better when they
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cook at home despite when only 8% feels
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good when they order food. So, it's just
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we know that home cooking is at the
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heart of Americans and we just want to
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be there to serve them better. I love
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this point because I I do want to give a
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bit more and I want Barbara jump in on
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this as well because I because your
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question when you asked about
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competition Barbara peaked something in
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my mind and I want to unpack it a little
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bit and it's the idea that okay you can
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go to the grocery store yourself buy all
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the stuff and maybe you're even doing
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the Costco model where you buy a bunch
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of stuff and then you you make a lot of
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stuff for the entire week or you have on
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the other end of the spectrum you have
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you just have it brought in right like
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an Uber Eats model or whatever and so
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and then there's There's like there's
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the prepared like meals that you can
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sort of bring in and they're already
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prepared. You just kind of heat them up
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in an air fryer or something.
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>> We're talking about people who eat.
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You're also talking about the whole
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world of competition.
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>> Yeah. So, it's like how do you how do
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you conceptualize that? Because what I'm
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hearing to Barbara's point, I'm hearing
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this human component where there's
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something social in this or there's
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something that there's there's a piece
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of this that's a collective thing that
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is a utility on top of the actual
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ingredients and eating and stuff. And is
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that that sounds like that's a big part
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of the model. Is that correct? Am I
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getting this right at all?
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>> I mean, you're getting it right. The big
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part of the model is we when when you
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think about HelloFresh started as we
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shouldn't waste that much food, right?
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So, you can see how when you go to the
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supermarket, you go to Costco or other
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competitors, right? you buy all these
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these uh groceries that you stock in
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your fridge and I'm pretty sure you open
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your fridge, you have like 10 bottles of
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something that you use once and then
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sitting there and you're hoping you're
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going to use it again, right? So, when
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you think about like food waste is one
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of the biggest problems we're tackling,
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but then you start seeing the
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convenience of it. You don't have to go
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to the groceries and spend hours trying
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to collect what you're going to order.
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Well, in this case on our or HelloFresh
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or our product brings the food packed
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already and whatever is in there you
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cook and it's perfectly made for the the
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portion. Let me let me push back on that
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a little so I understand your model like
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and and you know I don't mean to bring
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up the competition but I knew a little
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bit about Blue Apron and one of the
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things I had some friends who did Blue
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Apron and one of the problems was they
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had exotic ingredients and they made
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products that actually once the kit was
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gone people couldn't reproduce. They
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were using it to kind of not to make
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life easier. Actually I think that was
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positioned in How to Learn to Cook. And
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it sounds like what you're describing in
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HelloFresh is a different positioning
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than what I'm describing. Can you tell
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me exactly, you know, like what kind of
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food comes in the kits? How it says, you
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know, like I'm looking at the background
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that you sent us about your product and
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you say you leverage data also to figure
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out what what to put together. So
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exactly what is your model?
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>> So in terms of recipe development,
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right? Um we have one of the largest
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data sets around consumer behavior on
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choosing recipes right so that's a big
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mode right when when you see how they're
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choosing their meals
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>> uh and then we leverage that to like
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produce new concept of of recipes that
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we can use right that's one aspect of
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like innovation how we innovate on on
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different data fronts at the same time
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how can we customize more if you see our
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president uh Assaf did a good article on
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forbes around how we're Now thinking
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about going from a meal for the week to
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actually your meal, right? How can we
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are in ingesting more personalization
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into our decisions on how do we show
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those meals? Now in terms of unique of
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produce being honest,
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>> you can see how some producers you you
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can get them almost everywhere. But then
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how the recipe comes to light. We have
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fantastic developers. We have our head
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chef Michelle that you can see her all
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over our ads also. You can talk to her.
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Great. It's a great person to talk to.
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We develop in-house all these recipes
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and we think really clearly around what
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is the best for the customer. Ultimately
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we're trying to serve our customers,
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right? So we give them delicious food
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that is easy to make, right? Like people
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really struggle with a meal that takes
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more than 30 minutes. So the innovation
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is like how do you give great taste on
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less than 30 minutes, but then you have
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some people who are cooking so much that
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you can give them this specialty that
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you know some sophistication that
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they're willing to take. So
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>> um that's pretty much if you think about
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as a model we we leverage our user uh we
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give them great recipes once we start
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understanding more about them we can not
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only develop new recipes but at the same
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time be consistent with what they really
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want in their family.
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>> So what is that? So that's a that's
00:12:43
really interesting because you know
00:12:45
we're going to get into how artificial
00:12:47
intelligence might be playing into this
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uh personalization protocol that you're
00:12:51
talking about Jorge but talk to me a
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little bit about let's use me as a case
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example.
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>> Yeah let's use America.
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>> So [laughter] let's imagine that
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>> cooking let's start let's set you up
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Americas.
00:13:02
>> Yeah let's exactly what you currently
00:13:03
do. Do you cook?
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>> I I I do a little bit of uh I use some
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of these services. I don't do a lot of
00:13:10
cooking because I feel like I'm one of
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these people, Barbara, where I feel like
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my time, first of all, I don't enjoy
00:13:15
cooking. And I'd love for that to change
00:13:17
if someone can teach me how to actually
00:13:18
enjoy it. But, um, I'm I'm just I'm
00:13:21
trying to be efficient, but get really
00:13:23
good quality nutrients in the food that
00:13:25
I'm eating. And so, I'm I'm paying a lot
00:13:28
of attention to that. So, if I went to
00:13:29
HelloFresh and talked to Michelle the
00:13:31
chef, and said, "Listen, I I need like
00:13:34
protein and I need, you know,
00:13:35
disproportionate disproportionate amount
00:13:37
of, let's say, clean protein and I had
00:13:39
some other sorts of, you know,
00:13:41
macronutrient sort of requirements.
00:13:44
Would that is that the kind of input
00:13:46
Jorge that I would be submitting or what
00:13:48
what exactly would you be asking me in
00:13:50
in the inboarding kind of process that
00:13:53
would allow you and Michelle and
00:13:54
colleagues to say hey we've got
00:13:56
something for you Americas and you're
00:13:57
going to love it because it's so well
00:13:58
personalized.
00:13:59
>> Yeah, you can actually see it. You have
00:14:01
two problems, right? You have the
00:14:02
problem of the cold start like you're
00:14:04
the first time coming here. You can see
00:14:06
right now if you go through a funnel we
00:14:07
ask you different type of questions,
00:14:08
right? Like what is your goal? What is
00:14:09
your objective? What type of meals you
00:14:11
like, right? uh and that that is kind of
00:14:13
like the first input that we definitely
00:14:15
use. Then we have the weekly cadence
00:14:17
that you have on ordering food and we
00:14:20
can start and on the app you can see we
00:14:22
have health conscious, we have uh high
00:14:24
protein, we have okay specialties, you
00:14:26
have different sections that you start
00:14:28
picking on and we have about a hundred
00:14:30
recipes per week. So you have enough to
00:14:32
choose and we obviously organize to
00:14:36
>> that's cool.
00:14:37
>> Pretty cool. It's pretty cool. So it
00:14:40
really more like the input is not like
00:14:41
hey this is my macros this is how I want
00:14:42
to get it. It's more like the meals that
00:14:44
you start picking and obviously on the
00:14:46
meals we have all the nutritional facts.
00:14:48
So you can also like what is good what
00:14:50
is not and at the same time you can
00:14:51
customize items like hey instead of
00:14:54
turkey I want chicken or instead of got
00:14:56
different
00:14:56
>> veggies and then you pick those recipes
00:14:58
and you send us all the ingredients.
00:15:00
>> All the ingredients and the recipe and
00:15:03
we have a recipe card too. So this
00:15:05
recipe card is like
00:15:07
>> I know you guys are fans on identity,
00:15:09
right? And and and if you
00:15:10
>> That's America. [laughter]
00:15:12
>> So that is an understatement. But but I
00:15:14
appreciate that shout out.
00:15:16
>> It's not it's not an understatement.
00:15:17
Actually a true believer in that because
00:15:19
you have to think about what artifacts
00:15:21
made part of your identity for the
00:15:22
people who use it, right? Like
00:15:24
>> this recipe card you can see on
00:15:26
Facebook, you can see on social media
00:15:27
how people like cook and they put the
00:15:29
recipe card, they put the plate and they
00:15:30
take a pictures like like I almost got
00:15:32
it like similar to this. So, so it's
00:15:34
like, you know, this this artifact of
00:15:36
how they're showing their identity that
00:15:38
they care about home cooking and their
00:15:39
health of their family and themselves.
00:15:42
>> So, so we send you that, we send you the
00:15:44
meals, we send you the protein and once
00:15:46
a week and then you put on your fridge
00:15:48
and then every day you come out, you
00:15:50
cook, you eat.
00:15:51
>> There must be a part of this where
00:15:52
you're encouraging them to docu Maybe
00:15:56
this is true or not. Let me ask you, are
00:15:57
you encouraging the consumers to like
00:16:00
film the process, take a picture of the
00:16:02
food, post it up, here's a hashtag,
00:16:04
share it with Is there is there a
00:16:06
protocol that's built into this?
00:16:08
>> You know, there is a I will say a mile
00:16:10
protocol on it where we do have certain
00:16:13
I would say own channels where we like,
00:16:15
hey, you want to share, but to be
00:16:17
honest, our our our loyal customers love
00:16:21
our product that they just do this like
00:16:22
by themselves. Like if you look at our
00:16:24
Facebook groups are not even ours. Like
00:16:25
someone created it. They have thousands
00:16:27
of people there and then they're the
00:16:29
ones who are like incentivizing and
00:16:30
we're just like, "Hey, can we
00:16:31
participate?"
00:16:31
>> Oh, that's better. You know, that's
00:16:33
better. Authentic.
00:16:35
>> Yeah. So, I would say our product, you
00:16:38
know, touches a lot of people's hearts
00:16:40
uh and lives every day and you can see
00:16:42
how passionate they are because the
00:16:43
product is really good. Um
00:16:44
>> let me let me ask you a practical thing
00:16:46
just because if I was going to consider
00:16:48
this, I need to know it. What happens if
00:16:50
you travel a lot or you don't want to do
00:16:52
it? Like what are the rules of the
00:16:54
service? How how how much do I have to
00:16:56
buy or whatever?
00:16:58
>> It's very simple. So as I will tell you
00:17:00
as an example, my wife is also a CMO. So
00:17:03
we both are quite busy. She travels full
00:17:05
time. [laughter]
00:17:06
>> So
00:17:08
heavy users of the service.
00:17:10
>> Yeah. So I one of the features that we
00:17:13
have is the subscription, right? We
00:17:14
don't see this as a constraint. We see
00:17:16
as a feature because we want to help
00:17:17
you. So, it's convenient. You forget,
00:17:19
but you also have pause and cancel
00:17:20
anytime. So, for example, right now, my
00:17:23
wife is traveling on the 25th and she's
00:17:24
like, "Hey, this week I'm going to be
00:17:25
out. I'm going to be out. Maybe it's
00:17:26
good for you to pause uh for that
00:17:29
moment. I just pause that that box." So,
00:17:31
you can pause the different weeks ahead.
00:17:33
Um, and then if you like say, you know
00:17:35
what, I'm going to be traveling for
00:17:36
eight weeks. I'm just going to cancel
00:17:37
instead of like pausing them and then
00:17:39
I'll come back. That's also an option.
00:17:41
So, it's not really a subscription where
00:17:42
you're like locked in and you can't
00:17:44
cancel. It's really about we see the
00:17:46
subscription as a feature that will help
00:17:47
you to set it and forget it type of
00:17:49
thing.
00:17:50
>> Interesting.
00:17:51
>> Well, let me ask you one more question
00:17:52
then I know he's bristling at it, but
00:17:55
these are more in the macro kind of
00:17:56
thing. Like there's two trends that I'm
00:17:58
curious maybe you can talk about. One of
00:18:00
them is what America started with. You
00:18:03
know, it's New Year's Eve. There's got
00:18:04
to be seasonality. Everybody's being
00:18:06
healthy in January and they're not
00:18:08
drinking and by February it's all over.
00:18:10
You know, like I mean do you see that
00:18:12
kind of thing? That's one trend. And the
00:18:14
other trend I'm curious is how has
00:18:16
GLP1's affected your business?
00:18:18
>> Oh, interesting.
00:18:19
>> That's a good one. So, let me talk to
00:18:21
the first one. Um, historically,
00:18:23
obviously the first two, three weeks
00:18:25
before Quer's Day, you see a spike,
00:18:27
natural spike of people really
00:18:28
committing to the idea of staying
00:18:31
healthy this year, right? This year has
00:18:32
been interesting because we're seeing
00:18:33
actually something more consistent, not
00:18:35
so spiky. So which which gives me hope
00:18:38
in in a sense that we know that
00:18:39
customers are actually really trying to
00:18:41
cook more at home and trying to be
00:18:43
healthy right
00:18:44
>> I think this whole health trend that we
00:18:45
have over the last two or three years
00:18:47
has been really good for all the
00:18:49
business are trying to do the right
00:18:50
thing which is real honest food right
00:18:53
>> um so I would say micro trends we see
00:18:56
health as an important matter but now
00:18:58
it's not just on the first month but
00:18:59
more like through the year you see
00:19:01
people more concerned around health now
00:19:03
the second part of GLP1 you know it's
00:19:04
it's funny GLP1 one um for many
00:19:07
businesses was bad. We actually have a
00:19:09
menu for GLP-1 users. Uh and in the
00:19:12
moment we saw that GLP1 had other needs,
00:19:15
right? Like way more protein because of
00:19:16
the muscle.
00:19:18
>> So we went on and created a menu for
00:19:20
GLP1 users and we launched it and and
00:19:22
that's interesting. [laughter]
00:19:24
>> Yeah. I I love that point, Barbara,
00:19:25
because when when Jorge was talking
00:19:27
about this and I asked him, you know,
00:19:28
what's the protocol, the gateway to be
00:19:31
able to start giving some input, it
00:19:32
sounded like you have already sort of
00:19:34
set forth some personas, some segments.
00:19:37
That's the healthy guy, here's the
00:19:38
weightlifter guy, here's the GLP person
00:19:41
and and so on. And so starting with like
00:19:44
some personas that can sort of at least
00:19:46
because I think Barbara, you what what
00:19:48
do you think about this? It's one of the
00:19:50
challenges for me which is and I want to
00:19:53
know how you handle this
00:19:54
>> weightlifter guy. You're the
00:19:55
weightlifter guy.
00:19:56
>> I'm the Yes. I but I guess I'm also kind
00:19:58
of a GLP1 person in the sense that I
00:20:00
need more protein as well but not
00:20:01
because I'm trying.
00:20:02
>> Are you a GLP1? Are you
00:20:03
>> I am not but but I have a
00:20:05
disproportionate because I lift a lot of
00:20:07
weights. I have a dis disproportionate
00:20:09
need for protein. Uh so but but finding
00:20:12
so but I love this point Barbara because
00:20:14
a big challenge for me Jorge would be
00:20:17
being overloaded. In other words, coming
00:20:19
in too much variety and feeling
00:20:21
paralyzed and not really having the
00:20:23
experience that I need to have.
00:20:24
>> You just want to eat steak every day.
00:20:26
[laughter]
00:20:26
>> That's it's literally that simple. Just
00:20:28
give me a steak and get out of my way.
00:20:30
But uh so to that point, like how do you
00:20:32
and Barbara is a guru on variety
00:20:34
seeking? How do you balance out,
00:20:38
you know, figure out how much should I
00:20:39
have? Not too much, not too little. How
00:20:41
do you figure out that balance? Maybe
00:20:43
that's a data driven question that you
00:20:44
answer, but how what's the approach? So
00:20:48
le let's talk about the the the person
00:20:50
we're trying to serve in this case you
00:20:52
right. So you have your own needs and
00:20:53
you're very aware of your own needs
00:20:56
right so we're we're here to serve you.
00:20:58
So in a sense that we will show you the
00:21:00
cards in a sense of like all right cool
00:21:01
we'll start we'll show you the options
00:21:03
and we immediately we'll start doing
00:21:05
some analytics in the data science on on
00:21:07
the back end trying to use some LTE
00:21:09
tactics that will give us obviously what
00:21:11
is the best recommendation we think will
00:21:13
work for you but obviously with more
00:21:15
usage we can understand much better what
00:21:18
you really need and what and because
00:21:20
immediately you start cooking you start
00:21:21
seeing you're like oh this meal was
00:21:22
probably way too high on calories or
00:21:24
this one was too low on protein and at
00:21:26
the same time we have options where you
00:21:28
and double down the protein on the same
00:21:29
plate.
00:21:30
>> So, for example, this week I ordered
00:21:31
some lamb chops and I said like 2x lamb
00:21:33
chop, but I didn't know that I order
00:21:35
another lamb chop.
00:21:36
>> That's really cool.
00:21:37
>> That's very cool.
00:21:38
>> Massive amount of lamb chops.
00:21:40
>> So,
00:21:41
>> I would be 5x, but that's a whole
00:21:42
another issue. So, [laughter]
00:21:44
but if you think about it is you you
00:21:46
have we're here to serve you. So, we
00:21:48
really show you and we make best
00:21:50
recommendations, but ultimately you're
00:21:51
driving, right? You're driving your
00:21:52
health. You're driving what you want to
00:21:54
eat at home. So, we're we're here that
00:21:55
to give you that option. Interesting.
00:21:57
>> Let me ask you one more friction point.
00:21:59
Like how do you deliver all this food?
00:22:01
That's another thing. Like is it common
00:22:03
in refri? I mean is it frozen or how
00:22:05
does
00:22:06
>> Yeah, that seems like a big challenge.
00:22:08
Yeah,
00:22:09
>> it is a big challenge. But we I think
00:22:11
one of the strength that HelloFresh has
00:22:12
developed over the years is a
00:22:14
sophisticated distribution network um
00:22:17
across the United States. um ultimately
00:22:20
uh on on the actual process on like step
00:22:24
by step I think the operations folks
00:22:25
will be much better positioned to answer
00:22:27
that but I can tell you is that we can
00:22:29
get you fresh food to your door with
00:22:32
definitely able to eat uh the moment you
00:22:35
get it right and it comes with a box and
00:22:37
the box you have obviously ice packs and
00:22:39
you have your protein and you have your
00:22:40
produce and it's at your door and you
00:22:43
you can get it immediately to your
00:22:44
fridge
00:22:45
>> and you get it like a big package for
00:22:47
the week Or is it is that how you get it
00:22:49
>> for the week and depending right this
00:22:51
week as I told you I order lamb chops
00:22:53
because I really like those. So I order
00:22:55
I I got two boxes. [laughter]
00:22:59
>> Nice. Nice. Here's a question that I
00:23:01
think is is a little bit interesting as
00:23:03
well. One of the things we always try to
00:23:04
do Jorge is project into the future and
00:23:07
try to figure out you know what does
00:23:09
what do things look like years from now?
00:23:12
And I was thinking about this, does
00:23:13
HelloFresh have a strategy where they're
00:23:16
trying to build out build out the brand
00:23:18
because you've given us a good sense of
00:23:20
the ethos here, but build out the brand
00:23:22
and have a permission structure to do
00:23:24
other kinds of things that you may enter
00:23:26
into market. So for an example, you
00:23:28
know, could you could there be like a
00:23:30
HelloFresh cooking school or partnership
00:23:33
where you're trying to actually like
00:23:34
facilitate the love of cooking?
00:23:36
>> How about a
00:23:37
>> Yeah. or or you know like other sorts of
00:23:39
ways to build out the brand and engage
00:23:41
and and it's talk about that talk about
00:23:44
some of the the interesting sorts of ex
00:23:46
product extensions that could that could
00:23:48
be cool in the future.
00:23:49
>> So something you can see from from our
00:23:52
recent campaign right is that we're
00:23:54
actually competing to home cooking. We
00:23:56
are going to be championing this. We
00:23:58
strongly believe that that's best for
00:23:59
the customer and that also gives us more
00:24:02
breath in terms of what else can we do
00:24:04
right uh I think in the past we've done
00:24:07
I would say almost everything you
00:24:08
mentioned right we've done activations
00:24:09
we do partnerships so I don't think from
00:24:12
a tactical perspective things might
00:24:13
change that much I think where
00:24:15
creativity will spark is more on now the
00:24:17
vector that we're going after which is
00:24:19
home cooking right like we we strongly
00:24:20
believe that that's what the best thing
00:24:22
is for for the consumer and that's why
00:24:24
we think we should be doing more of that
00:24:25
so in the future I I'll Yes, as any
00:24:28
brand will will think of building their
00:24:30
brand with different activities that
00:24:31
that connect that message and that
00:24:33
identity. So yeah, that's something that
00:24:35
>> I would say BAU in certain way.
00:24:37
>> Okay.
00:24:38
>> Uh but the ideation, the creativity, I
00:24:40
think right now is going to be a more
00:24:42
fun path
00:24:43
>> and we were before.
00:24:44
>> Let me get you guys thoughts on this
00:24:45
because it it sparked something that
00:24:46
Barbara said a few minutes ago and this
00:24:49
idea of Could you do something where
00:24:51
it's like you you you set it up for the
00:24:54
family? In other words, there's four of
00:24:56
us and I'm going to give like the dad
00:24:59
and the mom tasks. They're going to do a
00:25:00
certain preparation piece and there's
00:25:02
another task for the 12-year-old that's
00:25:05
specifically designed for her or
00:25:06
[laughter] him.
00:25:07
>> Is that too much? Is this like way that
00:25:09
department's like, "Nah, this is getting
00:25:11
too much at all."
00:25:14
>> Uh that we have people who have reached
00:25:16
out to us thanking us that how we have
00:25:19
helped them to teach their kids to cook
00:25:21
since they're very young. So once they
00:25:23
go to college, their kids are like
00:25:24
almost
00:25:25
>> like very independent cooking, right? So
00:25:27
and and you can see across all our
00:25:29
social listening many many families
00:25:31
saying like hey this is my moment to
00:25:33
cook with my kid and I give them to you
00:25:35
know wash the produce while I'm like
00:25:36
chopping and they season the meat or you
00:25:39
know the fun stuff that that feels a
00:25:41
little icky but trying to break the the
00:25:43
ice for the kids. So we do see that.
00:25:45
>> I don't think we we have right now this
00:25:47
particularly like oh this step for each
00:25:49
person. We have six steps usually
00:25:52
>> pretty pretty standard, you know, wash
00:25:54
and produce, cut the to produce, prepare
00:25:55
the meat, prepare the sauce, and cook.
00:25:57
So,
00:25:57
>> so you have pretty much all of that
00:25:59
already.
00:25:59
>> What I love about this, Barbara, you
00:26:01
tell me your thoughts as well. I love
00:26:02
this idea of like the the utility.
00:26:04
There's emotions happening. You're
00:26:05
cooking with your family or friends or
00:26:07
whatever.
00:26:07
>> Oh, yeah. That's cool.
00:26:09
>> Yeah. The theory has to be this is
00:26:10
transferring over to HelloFresh brand,
00:26:12
right? I mean, that's the whole point of
00:26:14
this is like you're creating a a a
00:26:16
holistic content
00:26:17
>> and then you're spontaneously creating
00:26:19
your Tik Tok and you're filming it.
00:26:21
>> I love this. I love this.
00:26:23
>> Yeah. You know, this is wonderful stuff,
00:26:25
but we are out of time. So, Jorge, I'd
00:26:29
like the CMO of HelloFresh. I'd like you
00:26:32
to tell people where they can go to find
00:26:34
out more about this and to sign up if
00:26:36
they want.
00:26:38
>> Absolutely. They can go to
00:26:38
hellofresh.com.
00:26:40
uh you will see some very nice offers
00:26:42
for you to try the first time. You will
00:26:44
have a fantastic onboarding that will
00:26:46
tell you what kind of product you can
00:26:48
choose and hopefully we can serve you
00:26:49
the best we can uh on that same day.
00:26:53
>> That's pretty cool. [laughter]
00:26:54
>> That's awesome.
00:26:54
>> Well, thank you so much for joining us.
00:26:56
Um and that's all we have time for
00:26:58
today. I thank like like to thank all of
00:27:01
you for listening and we'll be back next
00:27:03
week. Till then, this has been Marketing
00:27:05
Matters on the Wharton podcast network.
00:27:07
I'm Barbara Khan here with America
00:27:09
Street.
00:27:13
[music]

Episode Highlights

  • Subscription Flexibility
    The subscription service allows users to pause or cancel anytime, making it user-friendly.
    “It's not really a subscription where you're locked in.”
    @ 17m 42s
    January 16, 2026
  • Health Trends
    There's a consistent trend of people focusing on healthy cooking throughout the year.
    “Customers are actually really trying to cook more at home and trying to be healthy.”
    @ 18m 39s
    January 16, 2026
  • Cooking with Family
    Families are using HelloFresh to bond and teach kids cooking skills.
    “This is my moment to cook with my kid.”
    @ 25m 31s
    January 16, 2026

Episode Quotes

  • It's not really a subscription where you're locked in.
    How HelloFresh Uses Consumer Data to Make Home Cooking Easier and Drive Product Growth
  • Just give me a steak and get out of my way.
    How HelloFresh Uses Consumer Data to Make Home Cooking Easier and Drive Product Growth
  • This is my moment to cook with my kid.
    How HelloFresh Uses Consumer Data to Make Home Cooking Easier and Drive Product Growth

Key Moments

  • Subscription Flexibility17:42
  • Health Trends18:39
  • Family Cooking25:31

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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