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Your Morning Coffee: 10/04/2018
4th October 2018 #EARNINGS Constellation Brands (STZ) Q2 EPS USD 2.87 vs. Exp. USD 2.58, revenue USD 2.30bln vs. Exp. 2.24bln. Q2 comparable EPS USD 2.87, consensus USD 2.60. FY 2019 EPS guidance raised to USD 9.60-9.75 from USD 9.40-9.70. (Newswires) SYNNEX (SNX) Q3 Adj. EPS USD 2.57 vs. Exp. USD 2.46, revenue USD 4.9bln vs. Exp. USD 4.88bln; sees Q4 Adj. EPS USD 2.90-3.10 vs. Exp. USD 3.07, sees revenue USD 5.2bln-5.4bln vs. Exp. USD 5.36bln. (Newswires) #DJIA American Express (AXP) – The credit card provider is planning major changes to its Gold Card to attract millennials with rewards programme, exclusively focusing on food and travel rather than on purchases made at US gas stations. (Newswires) Apple (AAPL) – The tech behemoth has outreached to some iPhone XS and XS Max users who have suffered from weak LTE connection. It is also being sued by Uniloc, again, over its AirDrop technology. (Newswires) Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) – The two co.s denied a Bloomberg’s report that their systems contained malicious chips inserted by Chinese intelligence to give Beijing access to internal networks. (Newswires) Merck (MRK) – The pharma co.’s HIV-1 treating Phase 3 DRIVE-SHIFT trial for drug DELSTRIGO has reached its primary endpoint showing promising results. (Newswires) Verizon (VZ) – The telecoms co. has sent voluntary severance packages to 44,000 employees, over a quarter of its workforce, in an effort to cut USD 10bln in costs as it upgrades to a 5G network. (Newswires) Walgreens (WBA) – The drug store giant is ramping up its beauty efforts with a new partnership with Birchbox, a pilot programme will see 11 stores selling Birchbox products as well as the online store. (Newswires)
S&P500
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) – The video-game maker has appointed company veteran J. Allen Brack as its president of Blizzard Entertainment. (Newswires) Albemarle (ALB) – The chemicals co. will find out next week if Chile’s state government agency Corfo will take the co.’s contract dispute to arbitration. (Newswires) AT&T (T) – The telecoms co. has announced it plans to implement 5G Evolution in over 400 markets by the year-end, making it available to over 200 million people. (Newswires) Campbell Soup (CPB) - Third Point seeks the co.’s board records. (Newswires) CBS (CBS) – The broadcaster confirmed its executive Vincent Favale has been placed on leave as the co. performs an additional review. (Newswires) Chipotle (CMG) – The restaurant chain has launched a partnership with the esports organisation, TSM. Elsewhere, the co.’s head of food safety, James Marsden, is retiring next year. (Newswires) Cummins (CMI) – Suzuki is to hold talks with the industrial machinery co. to enter a partnership on engine development. (Newswires) Eli Lilly (LLY) – The drug maker mid stage trial of its experimental type-2 diabetes drug showed clinically meaningful blood sugar reduction by up to 2.4% and weight loss by approx. 12.7%; according to a statement. (Newswires) FirstEnergy (FE) – The electric co. has announced a Request for Proposal for the purchase of Solar Renewable Energy Credits and Renewable Energy Credits for its Ohio utilities; helping the co. meet its renewable energy targets. (Newswires) Garmin (GRMN), Spot (SPOT) – Garmin has announced it will integrate Spotify on its new electronic watches. (Newswires) General Motors (GM) – Cadillac surpassed Tesla (TSLA) in a new ranking of partial automated vehicles tested by Consumer Reports. The institution compared systems from Cadillac’s Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot with others from Nissan and Geely’s Volvo Car; Nissan’s ProPilot Assist was ranked third and Volvo’s Pilot Assist fourth. (Newswires) HP (HPQ) – The computer co. announced its FY19 Adj. EPS view at USD 2.12-2.22 vs. Exp. USD 2.17. It also raised its quarterly dividend by 15%. (Newswires) McKesson (MCK) – Change Healthcare, which MCK has majority ownership, has tapped underwrites for an IPO that could be values as much as USD 12bln. (Newswires) MGM Resorts (MGM) – The resorts co. has been denied a bid to centralise the lawsuits filed against it by victims of last year’s mass shooting in Las Vegas. (Newswires) Morgan Stanley (MS) – A federal judge determined that a former black employee, who filed a suit against the bank for exhibiting racial bias, must pursuit his claims in private arbitration. (Newswires) United Continental (UAL) – No incident was reported after a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney landed as an emergency was triggered by a call caused by low fuel. (Newswires) V.F.Corp (VFC) – The apparel co. has announced it will sell its Reef brand to The Rockport Group of Newton, Massachusetts, terms not disclosed. (Newswires)
NASDAQ
Comcast (CMCSA) – The broadcaster said it has agreed to buy a 39.1% stake in Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA) for USD 15.10blntaking the co. closer to its finalisation of the USD 40bln takeover of Sky (SKY LN); Comcast has now secured over 75% of Sky’s shares. (Newswires) Facebook (FB) – The social media giant will now make users wait 30 days to delete their accounts rather than 14. (Newswires) Semiconductors (MU, AMD, INTC, QCOM, AVGO) – Deutsche Bank is very cautious on semiconductors; states estimates are trimmed on cyclical concerns. (Newswires) Tesla (TSLA) – BMW (BMW GY) has said that the automaker is increasing competition in the US luxury market. Elsewhere, some board members have recommended FOX (FOXA) CEO, and existing Tesla board member, should take over as CEO from Elon Musk. (Newswires)
OTHER NEWS
Alnylam (ALNY) – The pharma co. announced positive results of its Phase 1/2 study of its primary hyperoxaluria type 1 treating drug Iumasiran. (Newswires) Avon (AVP) – The cosmetics co.’s former global head of procurement has filed a lawsuit claiming she was fired after revealing she was a high-risk pregnancy. (Newswires) Barnes & Noble (BKS) – The book store has gained pre-market after it entered a formal review process to discuss strategic alternatives for the co. (Newswires) Blackstone (BX) – The investment firm is to acquire a leading global life sciences investment firm which has raised USD 2.6bln since founding; terms not disclosed. (Newswires) Cloudera (CLDR), Hortonworks (HDP) - The two software groups have made pre-market gains on the announcement of a merger, in an all-stock deal. Cloudera shareholders will own 60% of the equity and Hortonworks will own 40%. (Newswires) Penn National (PENN), Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK) – The casino co. (PENN) has received final regulatory approval for its acquisition of Pinnacle, anticipated to close in mid-October. (Newswires) Sarepta (SRPT) – The pharma co.’s gene therapy AAVrh74.MHCK7 micro-Dystrophin for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy showed functional improvements across all measures. (Newswires) Trinity Industries (TRN) – The co. withdraws its FY18 EPS guidance. (Newswires)
Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Jeffrey Mora of Food Fleet, a brand that makes mobile food service solutions. Some stats:
Product: Mobile food service solutions.
Revenue/mo: $1,500,000
Started: February 2012
Location: Los Angeles
Founders: 2
Employees: 6
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
I started my career at the world-famous Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles Apprenticing under Certified Master Chef Raimund Hofmeister. Since then I have worked in more than 22 countries around the world working for some of the world’s finest chefs from Cas Spijkers, 2 Michelin star Restaurant De Swann Hotel in Oisterwijk, to Paul Prudhomme's K-Paul's Louisiana kitchen. I was on the 92 and 96 US Culinary Olympic Teams. I have been involved in all aspects of the foodservice industry. My main focus has always been on healthy sustainable foods; working in every aspect of the business from fine dining to airport foodservice and food manufacturing. I personally took care of the Los Angeles Lakers Foodservice providing all meal periods for the team in the season for 8 years including the 3-year title run with two world titles receiving two championship rings for my efforts. My passion is volunteering for Environmental and other health-related causes. I helped coordinate one of the first sustainable dinners in 1998 with the Earth Pledge Foundation in NY, I served on the boards of American Ocean Campaign, Oceana, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and currently serves on the Boards of Jean Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society ,The Green Sports Alliance Food advisory board the Pioneers of Sustainability and the Carbon Underground. My partner and I started Food Fleet in 2012 to help mom and pop mobile food vendors work within a corporate environment. Since then Food Fleet has secured a National Contract with Sodexo, has multiple contracts with Levy Restaurants, Guckenheimer and others, providing services for Convention Centers, NASCAR, PGA, Concerts, Colleges and Universities, Hospitals, MLB All-Star Week and more. We also provide design and build services as well as food manufacturing and consulting for a number of large scale companies. Food Fleet’s growth Year after year has been at an at over 30 %. From 2017-2018 we had an unprecedented 160% growth spurt. With a team of 6, including my partner and I, we managed over 20 million in sales for our clients. As an example. We took over a convention center 3 years ago managing their food truck business. For their largest event of the year, we were up 53% over the previous year. I honestly would have to equate some of that success to the under-reporting of sales by the previous operator. But the following year we were up 19% from that figure and again close to that this year. That is due in large part to our understanding of transaction times, menu mix, the equipment in each truck or pop up and other factors.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
We started the food truck business in 2012. We kept finding it very difficult to find locations to operate. We had a booker that we used to find our locations but fell short and we let her go. I took over our booking and found that most people did not want to book just one truck, not only that they were upset that most of the time the trucks didn’t show up or were late. After a few calls, I started saying I was with the Food Truck Alliance and had as many trucks as they wanted. I knew I could because my partner Rudy was working most events every night and establishing a relationship with the owners of a large number of trucks. I did this to ensure we would be part of the mix, as well as make a little extra money booking the other trucks. What I learned is that most truck owners while passionate at what they did, had little to no experience working in a structured corporate environment. What we also did differently then most lots/events and companies booking trucks at the time was, if they didn't make money we didn't collect a commission. I then put my 35 years of Food Service experience to work helping them with everything from food safety to insurance. We learned the real need was not only helping the trucks but providing a turnkey service for the corporations. This was a game-changer for us, we were really struggling financially. Developing this service helped keep us afloat. At a certain point the services we provided far outweighed the need to continue to operate the truck financially. My partner and I decided to seek out contracts for locations to operate at. We secured with a lot of time, effort and energy, our first contract with the Navy to put trucks on bases. This was the launching point for us. We then used that to leverage other types of accounts from Universities to B&I, hospitals, and casinos.
Take us through the process of designing and launching the business.
My partner and I were fortunate enough to bring back a former employee that worked for us when we were pretty much-doing catering and events with the truck. She was well organized and very detail-oriented. This enabled us to help further develop the systems we started using into a more formal approach… We also decided there and then we would not be charging a membership fee to the trucks to belong to Food Fleet. We felt it was a conflict of interest to have the trucks pay us to belong. We would be beholden to them and not our clients. From there we then developed a vetting system that covered all the essentials of what we required for them to meet our client's needs. The principles included first and foremost food safety, then transaction times. Those two were key factors. We did not want it to take long for people to get their food. We then added over 50 more. The other major key was the insurance piece. Most trucks only carry the min required. And little to no one carried workman's comp. Most of our clients required a 5 million umbrella and WC. We were lucky once again to find Burnie Tappel the President of Cobbs Allen Insurance Burnie is a third-generation Lloyds of London insurer that only dealt with risk management. They were experts in Oil and Gas and risk Management. He liked the challenge of trying to insurance us nationally for what we were trying to do. He was able to help us find a policy that met our client's needs. We were then able to offer the clients a larger pool in which to choose. Having them to help us understand liability and indemnity issues along with a lot of other contractual obligations that would need to be met was critical. They have been a key part of our growth and a partner we couldn't do without. Once we had the basics secured, all three of us set out to accomplish different tasks. Carly worked on the website and booking platform we were going to use. Rudy worked on Logistics as well as local regulatory compliance issues operating in multiple states. I worked on the vetting systems, insurance piece and securing the contracts. I will tell you were ran more than we walked and had to clean up and fix more things along the way. We still are. Our financial model was a simple one, don't spend money we don't have or will have. We didn't take out a loan or even credit cards, We only used debit cards. Only 2 years ago did we get Credit cards and within the last 6 months got a second one. I understand the term other people's money but we didn't look to borrow or bring in investors. Not that we were not sure of what we had or what we were doing, we needed to understand better what we had and what we were doing. The model that we started with has changed and evolved many times over the years. Honestly, we didn't want to be beholden to anyone.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
While there were others doing what we were doing, I noticed early on what the key difference was. Others were in the booking / Broker business, and the tech business. Most if not all of them were not in the hospitality business. This is the key factor. Being in the business for 35 years I understood what our customers and clients really wanted and needed. I knew how to come up with solutions for their problems. We were in the hospitality business, were in customer service. It's what this business really is. Working on trucks and understanding how to operate then for many years really helped us. Understanding how to use my experience, and being able to relate that to our clients made the difference. I came to find out more than anything that even to this day no one really understands the business and more importantly they don’t want to. Our first real call for consulting along with design and build came from my old Olympic team manager. He was the Sr VP of food and beverage for Pinnacle entertainment at that time. They operated 19 casinos. He also had been the Corporate chef for Disney, opened Epcot, Sr VP at Darden for Red Lobster, CEO of the California Culinary Academy, worked in a leadership role at Levy Restaurants. He called me because he had no understanding at all of the food truck business and needed help. He is one of the most brilliant talented people in the hospitality business and he called me for help. I realized more and more that this was the norm. Most thought in the traditional manner of Brick and Mortar, when it came to start-up costs, daily costs P&L. it is not the same at all and that where most go wrong. For lack of a better word, I was able to crack the code and translate it into language they could understand. More importantly, they did not want to have to deal with the trucks or the owners. They were happy to have someone else do it for them that they knew understood what they wanted and needed. We provide world-class customer service. The highest quality mobile food solutions for events and catering were professional and respond to all inquiries by the end of the day no matter what. We pick up the phone and talk to people to connect with them, as well as better understand their needs. Our employees are not allowed to text or email clients or vendors until they have spoken to them and established a relationship with them. All our staff comes from the hospitality business they aren't salespeople or tech people, they all have worked in restaurants, B&I, hotels, etc. How can we truly help our clients when we don't understand their business. We fully understand their financial models and requirements. We then expanded into Design and Build food Manufacturing and consulting. Due to my background, network and expertise we were able to grow our business exponentially. When we got on the phone with clients they not only understood that we knew what we were talking about. They had trust in us to take care of their needs no matter what. Of course a lot of things we had some limited experience in the beginning. But I knew if we said, we could deliver we would. More often than not, my team has to hold me back from bringing in more business.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
I have to assume everyone exaggerates and embellishes here a bit. But the truth is the future looks bright. We are tightening up all our standard operating procedures and our quality assurance specs along with our policies. Since every client is different this is a constantly changing and evolving area that we work on weekly. Implementing new policies and procedures goes along with that. Things come up all the time that we address and add into our policies and procedures We have been preparing for a large expansion for the past year and are working toward taking that next step. We are not the same as any other business. We have a number of different models and services based strictly on each client and location account. No two of our client's contracts are alike, so we have to be able to adapt to their individual needs. This makes having the same margins a bit more difficult. Our model is scalable and can be done globally and we are working toward that goal.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Start with a partner that has your back, this is step one. My partner is the most loyal honest person I have ever met. I am lucky to call him my friend and partner. We both have struggled financially and emotionally through this whole process. We both have ebbed and followed when one of us was going through a rough patch the other picked up the slack no questions asked. Then bring in a team of caring and passionate people that love this business and understand what it means to be in it. This will help you avoid a lot of mistakes. When you find the right person to vest them in with benchmarks and goals. It was the best decision my partner and I made. Now we have a core team where each of us has finally developed into our roles and each complement the others skill set. That doesn't happen too often. While we have made a few mistakes they were all short term ones. For example, taking an account that we felt was going to do well financially and it failed miserably and quickly. That comes back to one of the lessons. We do learn by our mistakes. At this point, we have pretty much seen it all. We can tell our clients what the pitfalls are as well as the pinch points. Lost money made money hired the wrong web developer, hired the right one small little things. Dumb luck, being at the right place at the right time. That honestly has been one of our biggest assets.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
We have tried a number of them and currently, our VP of Ops found us a platform that we use. She has been able to make it work for us till now. We will have our own tech platform within 60 days. This will be a game-changer. Our business is so unique we have tried to find third party solutions but nothing that has worked for our needs. We have spent 2 years searching for a solution and finally decided to do it ourselves. This is once again where dumb luck and being in the right place at the right time comes into play. I found our builder, Freshin Up while having a bowl of Ramen in the Tokyo airport. We were at the counter eating and talking to the guy next to us, and it came out what he did. We continued to talk until my flight was leaving. He was heading to Thailand and I just came from there. We connected when we got home. I sent him the specs of what we needed, and they were the only company that truly understood our needs. They got what we were trying to accomplish and had a team that we're able to think the way we did.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Both my partner and I were fortunate to be around the great Phil Jackson on a daily basis. He was more than me. That being said, Phil was an inspiration, along with countless other mentors and friends. They have been way more influential to me than any book or podcast. Chefs and Coaches are in many ways exactly alike. They both lead a team of people. They both have to train, coach, mentor, listen, care, and teach. They are only as good as their weakest link. Chefs also say we are only as good as our last meal. They succeed and fail daily, learn from it and move on. Chefs, coaches, and players all have good and bad days, when you go home at the end of the shift or game it's over. Tomorrow is another day you get to prove yourself again. It’s great. When I was an apprentice there was a banquet chef named Jimmy Wong. Jimmy was the finest banquet chef I have ever known. The Century Plaza where I trained served on average 3,000 meals a day in banquets. It was the flagship of the Westin hotel. The Corporate chef brought Jimmy to the hotel when it opened as one of his anchors. Jimmy was from Hong Kong by way of Vancouver Jimmy was a legend, to say the least. Every Chef that wanted to be an executive chef for Westin had to come through Jimmy's station, if he did not give them the thumbs up they never were promoted. Were talking about some of the most iconic chefs of the day. All thinking they knew more than him and wondering why they had to have his approval. Most learned quickly that they were not in his league and couldn't keep up. The corporate chef knew the real money in every hotel came from banquets without that they would fail and lose money. Banqueting supported most of the specialty and fine dining restaurants in the hotel. If the chef didn't get that then they were out. Jimmy was fearless doing 1000 breakfast and 1000 lunches or more by himself almost every day. When I first started at the hotel they had me in one of the restaurants. Every day when I came to work I would clock in and go and say hello to Jimmy, then go to work. The others always said Jimmy is a hard ass, he won't show you anything, he is old school send you to go get something, then make the sauce while you were gone. I was not going to let that happen to me, I realized it was more often times the lack of respect they paid him. I found out Jimmy's routine every morning like clockwork he would show up at 5:50 am set up his station, then clock in at 6 am and go get a cup of coffee and sit for 10 minutes to figure out his day. At 10 am he would take lunch no matter how busy. I would come in and watch how he set up, draw diagrams of where the pots and pans went and what he would do to get ready. On my first day working at Jimmy's station, I came in at 5 am and set up the station. When he walked in at 5:50 it was ready to go. He smiled from ear to ear, he checked it and then clocked and invited me to go have coffee with him. Needless to say, he taught me everything I know about large events. This comes back to another lesson I learned from him. If he didn't respect someone or thought they were a shitty cook, he would call them a shoemaker. One day I asked Jimmy why. He said because they stopped learning and caring about being a good cook or chef. If you stopped caring and learning about cooking you were done with that, then you might as well become a shoemaker since your not going to be a cook anymore. Lesson don't rest on your laurels or past always be willing to keep learning. You will never know it all. The real joy is learning something new. I have been going to MIT for the last year to recruit as well as learn. Nothing has made me happier than to have the ability to be around such brilliant creative minds. The future of everything is there. I am lucky to have the opportunity to take advantage of it.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Do what you say you’re going to do. Never apologize unless you have a solution to the issue. Otherwise, it's just an empty apology. No one wants to hear that unless you can follow that up with what you're going to do to fix the reason you're apologizing for. My father taught me two important lessons that I live my life by. “Be nice to everybody, give them the shirt off your back, but if they fuck you, hang them by their balls.” That is simple direct and to the point. “Pick the hill you want to die on.” That means is that battle worth going down for, or do you let it go and move on. There are a great number of them that you will say that's the hill, but make sure it is for something your willing to lose it all for. Only care what your friends and family think the rest doesn't matter. Never let others drag you down. Try and lead whenever possible, following leads to mediocrity, and zero creativity. Always look at the whole chessboard and think 5 years ahead, Certain things you need narrow focus on, but someone has to think long term and strategy. If you cant you will get passed by very quickly. There is always someone that is going to try and copy you or take it to the next level. It's the nature of all things, stay ahead of them by being an innovator and not a follower. Be willing to go all in, and not worry about failing. I throw 100 things at the wall, and from that, I really do get a few amazing ideas. Just because it didn't work at that time doesn't mean it wasn’t a good idea. Be willing to hear everyone out on any crazy idea they have. That what changes the world. If you can figure out how to make money and do the right thing, there is nothing better. You will be a lot happier and create a more sustainable business. If you work and care about what you do, the money will come, it always does. Always hire people that are smarter than you, and you won't have to work as hard. Always bring a gift with you to give to whoever your meeting, and make it personal from you. Not something generic. If you make something special, then make it for them, it shows you care. Lastly, “have fun, laugh a lot, enjoy what you do” otherwise why bother. If I can't have a good time doing it the chances are others won't as well.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Were always looking to hire when the right person comes along. We want talent creative innovative people that want to have fun enjoy life be a part of the greatest industry in the world. I tend to go to MIT and try and talk kids out of going to work for investment bankers, private equity, etc. Bringing food always helps at the job fair.
Where can we go to learn more?
Your local post office wall, or the Cook county correctional facility
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below! Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data. For more interviews, check out starter_story - I post new stories there daily. Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM
Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Jeffrey Mora of Food Fleet, a brand that makes mobile food service solutions. Some stats:
Product: Mobile food service solutions.
Revenue/mo: $1,500,000
Started: February 2012
Location: Los Angeles
Founders: 2
Employees: 6
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
I started my career at the world-famous Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles Apprenticing under Certified Master Chef Raimund Hofmeister. Since then I have worked in more than 22 countries around the world working for some of the world’s finest chefs from Cas Spijkers, 2 Michelin star Restaurant De Swann Hotel in Oisterwijk, to Paul Prudhomme's K-Paul's Louisiana kitchen. I was on the 92 and 96 US Culinary Olympic Teams. I have been involved in all aspects of the foodservice industry. My main focus has always been on healthy sustainable foods; working in every aspect of the business from fine dining to airport foodservice and food manufacturing. I personally took care of the Los Angeles Lakers Foodservice providing all meal periods for the team in the season for 8 years including the 3-year title run with two world titles receiving two championship rings for my efforts. My passion is volunteering for Environmental and other health-related causes. I helped coordinate one of the first sustainable dinners in 1998 with the Earth Pledge Foundation in NY, I served on the boards of American Ocean Campaign, Oceana, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and currently serves on the Boards of Jean Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society ,The Green Sports Alliance Food advisory board the Pioneers of Sustainability and the Carbon Underground. My partner and I started Food Fleet in 2012 to help mom and pop mobile food vendors work within a corporate environment. Since then Food Fleet has secured a National Contract with Sodexo, has multiple contracts with Levy Restaurants, Guckenheimer and others, providing services for Convention Centers, NASCAR, PGA, Concerts, Colleges and Universities, Hospitals, MLB All-Star Week and more. We also provide design and build services as well as food manufacturing and consulting for a number of large scale companies. Food Fleet’s growth Year after year has been at an at over 30 %. From 2017-2018 we had an unprecedented 160% growth spurt. With a team of 6, including my partner and I, we managed over 20 million in sales for our clients. As an example. We took over a convention center 3 years ago managing their food truck business. For their largest event of the year, we were up 53% over the previous year. I honestly would have to equate some of that success to the under-reporting of sales by the previous operator. But the following year we were up 19% from that figure and again close to that this year. That is due in large part to our understanding of transaction times, menu mix, the equipment in each truck or pop up and other factors.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
We started the food truck business in 2012. We kept finding it very difficult to find locations to operate. We had a booker that we used to find our locations but fell short and we let her go. I took over our booking and found that most people did not want to book just one truck, not only that they were upset that most of the time the trucks didn’t show up or were late. After a few calls, I started saying I was with the Food Truck Alliance and had as many trucks as they wanted. I knew I could because my partner Rudy was working most events every night and establishing a relationship with the owners of a large number of trucks. I did this to ensure we would be part of the mix, as well as make a little extra money booking the other trucks. What I learned is that most truck owners while passionate at what they did, had little to no experience working in a structured corporate environment. What we also did differently then most lots/events and companies booking trucks at the time was, if they didn't make money we didn't collect a commission. I then put my 35 years of Food Service experience to work helping them with everything from food safety to insurance. We learned the real need was not only helping the trucks but providing a turnkey service for the corporations. This was a game-changer for us, we were really struggling financially. Developing this service helped keep us afloat. At a certain point the services we provided far outweighed the need to continue to operate the truck financially. My partner and I decided to seek out contracts for locations to operate at. We secured with a lot of time, effort and energy, our first contract with the Navy to put trucks on bases. This was the launching point for us. We then used that to leverage other types of accounts from Universities to B&I, hospitals, and casinos.
Take us through the process of designing and launching the business.
My partner and I were fortunate enough to bring back a former employee that worked for us when we were pretty much-doing catering and events with the truck. She was well organized and very detail-oriented. This enabled us to help further develop the systems we started using into a more formal approach… We also decided there and then we would not be charging a membership fee to the trucks to belong to Food Fleet. We felt it was a conflict of interest to have the trucks pay us to belong. We would be beholden to them and not our clients. From there we then developed a vetting system that covered all the essentials of what we required for them to meet our client's needs. The principles included first and foremost food safety, then transaction times. Those two were key factors. We did not want it to take long for people to get their food. We then added over 50 more. The other major key was the insurance piece. Most trucks only carry the min required. And little to no one carried workman's comp. Most of our clients required a 5 million umbrella and WC. We were lucky once again to find Burnie Tappel the President of Cobbs Allen Insurance Burnie is a third-generation Lloyds of London insurer that only dealt with risk management. They were experts in Oil and Gas and risk Management. He liked the challenge of trying to insurance us nationally for what we were trying to do. He was able to help us find a policy that met our client's needs. We were then able to offer the clients a larger pool in which to choose. Having them to help us understand liability and indemnity issues along with a lot of other contractual obligations that would need to be met was critical. They have been a key part of our growth and a partner we couldn't do without. Once we had the basics secured, all three of us set out to accomplish different tasks. Carly worked on the website and booking platform we were going to use. Rudy worked on Logistics as well as local regulatory compliance issues operating in multiple states. I worked on the vetting systems, insurance piece and securing the contracts. I will tell you were ran more than we walked and had to clean up and fix more things along the way. We still are. Our financial model was a simple one, don't spend money we don't have or will have. We didn't take out a loan or even credit cards, We only used debit cards. Only 2 years ago did we get Credit cards and within the last 6 months got a second one. I understand the term other people's money but we didn't look to borrow or bring in investors. Not that we were not sure of what we had or what we were doing, we needed to understand better what we had and what we were doing. The model that we started with has changed and evolved many times over the years. Honestly, we didn't want to be beholden to anyone.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
While there were others doing what we were doing, I noticed early on what the key difference was. Others were in the booking / Broker business, and the tech business. Most if not all of them were not in the hospitality business. This is the key factor. Being in the business for 35 years I understood what our customers and clients really wanted and needed. I knew how to come up with solutions for their problems. We were in the hospitality business, were in customer service. It's what this business really is. Working on trucks and understanding how to operate then for many years really helped us. Understanding how to use my experience, and being able to relate that to our clients made the difference. I came to find out more than anything that even to this day no one really understands the business and more importantly they don’t want to. Our first real call for consulting along with design and build came from my old Olympic team manager. He was the Sr VP of food and beverage for Pinnacle entertainment at that time. They operated 19 casinos. He also had been the Corporate chef for Disney, opened Epcot, Sr VP at Darden for Red Lobster, CEO of the California Culinary Academy, worked in a leadership role at Levy Restaurants. He called me because he had no understanding at all of the food truck business and needed help. He is one of the most brilliant talented people in the hospitality business and he called me for help. I realized more and more that this was the norm. Most thought in the traditional manner of Brick and Mortar, when it came to start-up costs, daily costs P&L. it is not the same at all and that where most go wrong. For lack of a better word, I was able to crack the code and translate it into language they could understand. More importantly, they did not want to have to deal with the trucks or the owners. They were happy to have someone else do it for them that they knew understood what they wanted and needed. We provide world-class customer service. The highest quality mobile food solutions for events and catering were professional and respond to all inquiries by the end of the day no matter what. We pick up the phone and talk to people to connect with them, as well as better understand their needs. Our employees are not allowed to text or email clients or vendors until they have spoken to them and established a relationship with them. All our staff comes from the hospitality business they aren't salespeople or tech people, they all have worked in restaurants, B&I, hotels, etc. How can we truly help our clients when we don't understand their business. We fully understand their financial models and requirements. We then expanded into Design and Build food Manufacturing and consulting. Due to my background, network and expertise we were able to grow our business exponentially. When we got on the phone with clients they not only understood that we knew what we were talking about. They had trust in us to take care of their needs no matter what. Of course a lot of things we had some limited experience in the beginning. But I knew if we said, we could deliver we would. More often than not, my team has to hold me back from bringing in more business.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
I have to assume everyone exaggerates and embellishes here a bit. But the truth is the future looks bright. We are tightening up all our standard operating procedures and our quality assurance specs along with our policies. Since every client is different this is a constantly changing and evolving area that we work on weekly. Implementing new policies and procedures goes along with that. Things come up all the time that we address and add into our policies and procedures We have been preparing for a large expansion for the past year and are working toward taking that next step. We are not the same as any other business. We have a number of different models and services based strictly on each client and location account. No two of our client's contracts are alike, so we have to be able to adapt to their individual needs. This makes having the same margins a bit more difficult. Our model is scalable and can be done globally and we are working toward that goal.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Start with a partner that has your back, this is step one. My partner is the most loyal honest person I have ever met. I am lucky to call him my friend and partner. We both have struggled financially and emotionally through this whole process. We both have ebbed and followed when one of us was going through a rough patch the other picked up the slack no questions asked. Then bring in a team of caring and passionate people that love this business and understand what it means to be in it. This will help you avoid a lot of mistakes. When you find the right person to vest them in with benchmarks and goals. It was the best decision my partner and I made. Now we have a core team where each of us has finally developed into our roles and each complement the others skill set. That doesn't happen too often. While we have made a few mistakes they were all short term ones. For example, taking an account that we felt was going to do well financially and it failed miserably and quickly. That comes back to one of the lessons. We do learn by our mistakes. At this point, we have pretty much seen it all. We can tell our clients what the pitfalls are as well as the pinch points. Lost money made money hired the wrong web developer, hired the right one small little things. Dumb luck, being at the right place at the right time. That honestly has been one of our biggest assets.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
We have tried a number of them and currently, our VP of Ops found us a platform that we use. She has been able to make it work for us till now. We will have our own tech platform within 60 days. This will be a game-changer. Our business is so unique we have tried to find third party solutions but nothing that has worked for our needs. We have spent 2 years searching for a solution and finally decided to do it ourselves. This is once again where dumb luck and being in the right place at the right time comes into play. I found our builder, Freshin Up while having a bowl of Ramen in the Tokyo airport. We were at the counter eating and talking to the guy next to us, and it came out what he did. We continued to talk until my flight was leaving. He was heading to Thailand and I just came from there. We connected when we got home. I sent him the specs of what we needed, and they were the only company that truly understood our needs. They got what we were trying to accomplish and had a team that we're able to think the way we did.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Both my partner and I were fortunate to be around the great Phil Jackson on a daily basis. He was more than me. That being said, Phil was an inspiration, along with countless other mentors and friends. They have been way more influential to me than any book or podcast. Chefs and Coaches are in many ways exactly alike. They both lead a team of people. They both have to train, coach, mentor, listen, care, and teach. They are only as good as their weakest link. Chefs also say we are only as good as our last meal. They succeed and fail daily, learn from it and move on. Chefs, coaches, and players all have good and bad days, when you go home at the end of the shift or game it's over. Tomorrow is another day you get to prove yourself again. It’s great. When I was an apprentice there was a banquet chef named Jimmy Wong. Jimmy was the finest banquet chef I have ever known. The Century Plaza where I trained served on average 3,000 meals a day in banquets. It was the flagship of the Westin hotel. The Corporate chef brought Jimmy to the hotel when it opened as one of his anchors. Jimmy was from Hong Kong by way of Vancouver Jimmy was a legend, to say the least. Every Chef that wanted to be an executive chef for Westin had to come through Jimmy's station, if he did not give them the thumbs up they never were promoted. Were talking about some of the most iconic chefs of the day. All thinking they knew more than him and wondering why they had to have his approval. Most learned quickly that they were not in his league and couldn't keep up. The corporate chef knew the real money in every hotel came from banquets without that they would fail and lose money. Banqueting supported most of the specialty and fine dining restaurants in the hotel. If the chef didn't get that then they were out. Jimmy was fearless doing 1000 breakfast and 1000 lunches or more by himself almost every day. When I first started at the hotel they had me in one of the restaurants. Every day when I came to work I would clock in and go and say hello to Jimmy, then go to work. The others always said Jimmy is a hard ass, he won't show you anything, he is old school send you to go get something, then make the sauce while you were gone. I was not going to let that happen to me, I realized it was more often times the lack of respect they paid him. I found out Jimmy's routine every morning like clockwork he would show up at 5:50 am set up his station, then clock in at 6 am and go get a cup of coffee and sit for 10 minutes to figure out his day. At 10 am he would take lunch no matter how busy. I would come in and watch how he set up, draw diagrams of where the pots and pans went and what he would do to get ready. On my first day working at Jimmy's station, I came in at 5 am and set up the station. When he walked in at 5:50 it was ready to go. He smiled from ear to ear, he checked it and then clocked and invited me to go have coffee with him. Needless to say, he taught me everything I know about large events. This comes back to another lesson I learned from him. If he didn't respect someone or thought they were a shitty cook, he would call them a shoemaker. One day I asked Jimmy why. He said because they stopped learning and caring about being a good cook or chef. If you stopped caring and learning about cooking you were done with that, then you might as well become a shoemaker since your not going to be a cook anymore. Lesson don't rest on your laurels or past always be willing to keep learning. You will never know it all. The real joy is learning something new. I have been going to MIT for the last year to recruit as well as learn. Nothing has made me happier than to have the ability to be around such brilliant creative minds. The future of everything is there. I am lucky to have the opportunity to take advantage of it.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Do what you say you’re going to do. Never apologize unless you have a solution to the issue. Otherwise, it's just an empty apology. No one wants to hear that unless you can follow that up with what you're going to do to fix the reason you're apologizing for. My father taught me two important lessons that I live my life by. “Be nice to everybody, give them the shirt off your back, but if they fuck you, hang them by their balls.” That is simple direct and to the point. “Pick the hill you want to die on.” That means is that battle worth going down for, or do you let it go and move on. There are a great number of them that you will say that's the hill, but make sure it is for something your willing to lose it all for. Only care what your friends and family think the rest doesn't matter. Never let others drag you down. Try and lead whenever possible, following leads to mediocrity, and zero creativity. Always look at the whole chessboard and think 5 years ahead, Certain things you need narrow focus on, but someone has to think long term and strategy. If you cant you will get passed by very quickly. There is always someone that is going to try and copy you or take it to the next level. It's the nature of all things, stay ahead of them by being an innovator and not a follower. Be willing to go all in, and not worry about failing. I throw 100 things at the wall, and from that, I really do get a few amazing ideas. Just because it didn't work at that time doesn't mean it wasn’t a good idea. Be willing to hear everyone out on any crazy idea they have. That what changes the world. If you can figure out how to make money and do the right thing, there is nothing better. You will be a lot happier and create a more sustainable business. If you work and care about what you do, the money will come, it always does. Always hire people that are smarter than you, and you won't have to work as hard. Always bring a gift with you to give to whoever your meeting, and make it personal from you. Not something generic. If you make something special, then make it for them, it shows you care. Lastly, “have fun, laugh a lot, enjoy what you do” otherwise why bother. If I can't have a good time doing it the chances are others won't as well.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Were always looking to hire when the right person comes along. We want talent creative innovative people that want to have fun enjoy life be a part of the greatest industry in the world. I tend to go to MIT and try and talk kids out of going to work for investment bankers, private equity, etc. Bringing food always helps at the job fair.
Where can we go to learn more?
Your local post office wall, or the Cook county correctional facility
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below! Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data. For more interviews, check out starter_story - I post new stories there daily. Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM
Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview. Today's interview is with Jeffrey Mora of Food Fleet, a brand that makes mobile food service solutions. Some stats:
Product: Mobile food service solutions.
Revenue/mo: $1,500,000
Started: February 2012
Location: Los Angeles
Founders: 2
Employees: 6
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
I started my career at the world-famous Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles Apprenticing under Certified Master Chef Raimund Hofmeister. Since then I have worked in more than 22 countries around the world working for some of the world’s finest chefs from Cas Spijkers, 2 Michelin star Restaurant De Swann Hotel in Oisterwijk, to Paul Prudhomme's K-Paul's Louisiana kitchen. I was on the 92 and 96 US Culinary Olympic Teams. I have been involved in all aspects of the foodservice industry. My main focus has always been on healthy sustainable foods; working in every aspect of the business from fine dining to airport foodservice and food manufacturing. I personally took care of the Los Angeles Lakers Foodservice providing all meal periods for the team in the season for 8 years including the 3-year title run with two world titles receiving two championship rings for my efforts. My passion is volunteering for Environmental and other health-related causes. I helped coordinate one of the first sustainable dinners in 1998 with the Earth Pledge Foundation in NY, I served on the boards of American Ocean Campaign, Oceana, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and currently serves on the Boards of Jean Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society ,The Green Sports Alliance Food advisory board the Pioneers of Sustainability and the Carbon Underground. My partner and I started Food Fleet in 2012 to help mom and pop mobile food vendors work within a corporate environment. Since then Food Fleet has secured a National Contract with Sodexo, has multiple contracts with Levy Restaurants, Guckenheimer and others, providing services for Convention Centers, NASCAR, PGA, Concerts, Colleges and Universities, Hospitals, MLB All-Star Week and more. We also provide design and build services as well as food manufacturing and consulting for a number of large scale companies. Food Fleet’s growth Year after year has been at an at over 30 %. From 2017-2018 we had an unprecedented 160% growth spurt. With a team of 6, including my partner and I, we managed over 20 million in sales for our clients. As an example. We took over a convention center 3 years ago managing their food truck business. For their largest event of the year, we were up 53% over the previous year. I honestly would have to equate some of that success to the under-reporting of sales by the previous operator. But the following year we were up 19% from that figure and again close to that this year. That is due in large part to our understanding of transaction times, menu mix, the equipment in each truck or pop up and other factors.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
We started the food truck business in 2012. We kept finding it very difficult to find locations to operate. We had a booker that we used to find our locations but fell short and we let her go. I took over our booking and found that most people did not want to book just one truck, not only that they were upset that most of the time the trucks didn’t show up or were late. After a few calls, I started saying I was with the Food Truck Alliance and had as many trucks as they wanted. I knew I could because my partner Rudy was working most events every night and establishing a relationship with the owners of a large number of trucks. I did this to ensure we would be part of the mix, as well as make a little extra money booking the other trucks. What I learned is that most truck owners while passionate at what they did, had little to no experience working in a structured corporate environment. What we also did differently then most lots/events and companies booking trucks at the time was, if they didn't make money we didn't collect a commission. I then put my 35 years of Food Service experience to work helping them with everything from food safety to insurance. We learned the real need was not only helping the trucks but providing a turnkey service for the corporations. This was a game-changer for us, we were really struggling financially. Developing this service helped keep us afloat. At a certain point the services we provided far outweighed the need to continue to operate the truck financially. My partner and I decided to seek out contracts for locations to operate at. We secured with a lot of time, effort and energy, our first contract with the Navy to put trucks on bases. This was the launching point for us. We then used that to leverage other types of accounts from Universities to B&I, hospitals, and casinos.
Take us through the process of designing and launching the business.
My partner and I were fortunate enough to bring back a former employee that worked for us when we were pretty much-doing catering and events with the truck. She was well organized and very detail-oriented. This enabled us to help further develop the systems we started using into a more formal approach… We also decided there and then we would not be charging a membership fee to the trucks to belong to Food Fleet. We felt it was a conflict of interest to have the trucks pay us to belong. We would be beholden to them and not our clients. From there we then developed a vetting system that covered all the essentials of what we required for them to meet our client's needs. The principles included first and foremost food safety, then transaction times. Those two were key factors. We did not want it to take long for people to get their food. We then added over 50 more. The other major key was the insurance piece. Most trucks only carry the min required. And little to no one carried workman's comp. Most of our clients required a 5 million umbrella and WC. We were lucky once again to find Burnie Tappel the President of Cobbs Allen Insurance Burnie is a third-generation Lloyds of London insurer that only dealt with risk management. They were experts in Oil and Gas and risk Management. He liked the challenge of trying to insurance us nationally for what we were trying to do. He was able to help us find a policy that met our client's needs. We were then able to offer the clients a larger pool in which to choose. Having them to help us understand liability and indemnity issues along with a lot of other contractual obligations that would need to be met was critical. They have been a key part of our growth and a partner we couldn't do without. Once we had the basics secured, all three of us set out to accomplish different tasks. Carly worked on the website and booking platform we were going to use. Rudy worked on Logistics as well as local regulatory compliance issues operating in multiple states. I worked on the vetting systems, insurance piece and securing the contracts. I will tell you were ran more than we walked and had to clean up and fix more things along the way. We still are. Our financial model was a simple one, don't spend money we don't have or will have. We didn't take out a loan or even credit cards, We only used debit cards. Only 2 years ago did we get Credit cards and within the last 6 months got a second one. I understand the term other people's money but we didn't look to borrow or bring in investors. Not that we were not sure of what we had or what we were doing, we needed to understand better what we had and what we were doing. The model that we started with has changed and evolved many times over the years. Honestly, we didn't want to be beholden to anyone.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
While there were others doing what we were doing, I noticed early on what the key difference was. Others were in the booking / Broker business, and the tech business. Most if not all of them were not in the hospitality business. This is the key factor. Being in the business for 35 years I understood what our customers and clients really wanted and needed. I knew how to come up with solutions for their problems. We were in the hospitality business, were in customer service. It's what this business really is. Working on trucks and understanding how to operate then for many years really helped us. Understanding how to use my experience, and being able to relate that to our clients made the difference. I came to find out more than anything that even to this day no one really understands the business and more importantly they don’t want to. Our first real call for consulting along with design and build came from my old Olympic team manager. He was the Sr VP of food and beverage for Pinnacle entertainment at that time. They operated 19 casinos. He also had been the Corporate chef for Disney, opened Epcot, Sr VP at Darden for Red Lobster, CEO of the California Culinary Academy, worked in a leadership role at Levy Restaurants. He called me because he had no understanding at all of the food truck business and needed help. He is one of the most brilliant talented people in the hospitality business and he called me for help. I realized more and more that this was the norm. Most thought in the traditional manner of Brick and Mortar, when it came to start-up costs, daily costs P&L. it is not the same at all and that where most go wrong. For lack of a better word, I was able to crack the code and translate it into language they could understand. More importantly, they did not want to have to deal with the trucks or the owners. They were happy to have someone else do it for them that they knew understood what they wanted and needed. We provide world-class customer service. The highest quality mobile food solutions for events and catering were professional and respond to all inquiries by the end of the day no matter what. We pick up the phone and talk to people to connect with them, as well as better understand their needs. Our employees are not allowed to text or email clients or vendors until they have spoken to them and established a relationship with them. All our staff comes from the hospitality business they aren't salespeople or tech people, they all have worked in restaurants, B&I, hotels, etc. How can we truly help our clients when we don't understand their business. We fully understand their financial models and requirements. We then expanded into Design and Build food Manufacturing and consulting. Due to my background, network and expertise we were able to grow our business exponentially. When we got on the phone with clients they not only understood that we knew what we were talking about. They had trust in us to take care of their needs no matter what. Of course a lot of things we had some limited experience in the beginning. But I knew if we said, we could deliver we would. More often than not, my team has to hold me back from bringing in more business.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
I have to assume everyone exaggerates and embellishes here a bit. But the truth is the future looks bright. We are tightening up all our standard operating procedures and our quality assurance specs along with our policies. Since every client is different this is a constantly changing and evolving area that we work on weekly. Implementing new policies and procedures goes along with that. Things come up all the time that we address and add into our policies and procedures We have been preparing for a large expansion for the past year and are working toward taking that next step. We are not the same as any other business. We have a number of different models and services based strictly on each client and location account. No two of our client's contracts are alike, so we have to be able to adapt to their individual needs. This makes having the same margins a bit more difficult. Our model is scalable and can be done globally and we are working toward that goal.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Start with a partner that has your back, this is step one. My partner is the most loyal honest person I have ever met. I am lucky to call him my friend and partner. We both have struggled financially and emotionally through this whole process. We both have ebbed and followed when one of us was going through a rough patch the other picked up the slack no questions asked. Then bring in a team of caring and passionate people that love this business and understand what it means to be in it. This will help you avoid a lot of mistakes. When you find the right person to vest them in with benchmarks and goals. It was the best decision my partner and I made. Now we have a core team where each of us has finally developed into our roles and each complement the others skill set. That doesn't happen too often. While we have made a few mistakes they were all short term ones. For example, taking an account that we felt was going to do well financially and it failed miserably and quickly. That comes back to one of the lessons. We do learn by our mistakes. At this point, we have pretty much seen it all. We can tell our clients what the pitfalls are as well as the pinch points. Lost money made money hired the wrong web developer, hired the right one small little things. Dumb luck, being at the right place at the right time. That honestly has been one of our biggest assets.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
We have tried a number of them and currently, our VP of Ops found us a platform that we use. She has been able to make it work for us till now. We will have our own tech platform within 60 days. This will be a game-changer. Our business is so unique we have tried to find third party solutions but nothing that has worked for our needs. We have spent 2 years searching for a solution and finally decided to do it ourselves. This is once again where dumb luck and being in the right place at the right time comes into play. I found our builder, Freshin Up while having a bowl of Ramen in the Tokyo airport. We were at the counter eating and talking to the guy next to us, and it came out what he did. We continued to talk until my flight was leaving. He was heading to Thailand and I just came from there. We connected when we got home. I sent him the specs of what we needed, and they were the only company that truly understood our needs. They got what we were trying to accomplish and had a team that we're able to think the way we did.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Both my partner and I were fortunate to be around the great Phil Jackson on a daily basis. He was more than me. That being said, Phil was an inspiration, along with countless other mentors and friends. They have been way more influential to me than any book or podcast. Chefs and Coaches are in many ways exactly alike. They both lead a team of people. They both have to train, coach, mentor, listen, care, and teach. They are only as good as their weakest link. Chefs also say we are only as good as our last meal. They succeed and fail daily, learn from it and move on. Chefs, coaches, and players all have good and bad days, when you go home at the end of the shift or game it's over. Tomorrow is another day you get to prove yourself again. It’s great. When I was an apprentice there was a banquet chef named Jimmy Wong. Jimmy was the finest banquet chef I have ever known. The Century Plaza where I trained served on average 3,000 meals a day in banquets. It was the flagship of the Westin hotel. The Corporate chef brought Jimmy to the hotel when it opened as one of his anchors. Jimmy was from Hong Kong by way of Vancouver Jimmy was a legend, to say the least. Every Chef that wanted to be an executive chef for Westin had to come through Jimmy's station, if he did not give them the thumbs up they never were promoted. Were talking about some of the most iconic chefs of the day. All thinking they knew more than him and wondering why they had to have his approval. Most learned quickly that they were not in his league and couldn't keep up. The corporate chef knew the real money in every hotel came from banquets without that they would fail and lose money. Banqueting supported most of the specialty and fine dining restaurants in the hotel. If the chef didn't get that then they were out. Jimmy was fearless doing 1000 breakfast and 1000 lunches or more by himself almost every day. When I first started at the hotel they had me in one of the restaurants. Every day when I came to work I would clock in and go and say hello to Jimmy, then go to work. The others always said Jimmy is a hard ass, he won't show you anything, he is old school send you to go get something, then make the sauce while you were gone. I was not going to let that happen to me, I realized it was more often times the lack of respect they paid him. I found out Jimmy's routine every morning like clockwork he would show up at 5:50 am set up his station, then clock in at 6 am and go get a cup of coffee and sit for 10 minutes to figure out his day. At 10 am he would take lunch no matter how busy. I would come in and watch how he set up, draw diagrams of where the pots and pans went and what he would do to get ready. On my first day working at Jimmy's station, I came in at 5 am and set up the station. When he walked in at 5:50 it was ready to go. He smiled from ear to ear, he checked it and then clocked and invited me to go have coffee with him. Needless to say, he taught me everything I know about large events. This comes back to another lesson I learned from him. If he didn't respect someone or thought they were a shitty cook, he would call them a shoemaker. One day I asked Jimmy why. He said because they stopped learning and caring about being a good cook or chef. If you stopped caring and learning about cooking you were done with that, then you might as well become a shoemaker since your not going to be a cook anymore. Lesson don't rest on your laurels or past always be willing to keep learning. You will never know it all. The real joy is learning something new. I have been going to MIT for the last year to recruit as well as learn. Nothing has made me happier than to have the ability to be around such brilliant creative minds. The future of everything is there. I am lucky to have the opportunity to take advantage of it.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Do what you say you’re going to do. Never apologize unless you have a solution to the issue. Otherwise, it's just an empty apology. No one wants to hear that unless you can follow that up with what you're going to do to fix the reason you're apologizing for. My father taught me two important lessons that I live my life by. “Be nice to everybody, give them the shirt off your back, but if they fuck you, hang them by their balls.” That is simple direct and to the point. “Pick the hill you want to die on.” That means is that battle worth going down for, or do you let it go and move on. There are a great number of them that you will say that's the hill, but make sure it is for something your willing to lose it all for. Only care what your friends and family think the rest doesn't matter. Never let others drag you down. Try and lead whenever possible, following leads to mediocrity, and zero creativity. Always look at the whole chessboard and think 5 years ahead, Certain things you need narrow focus on, but someone has to think long term and strategy. If you cant you will get passed by very quickly. There is always someone that is going to try and copy you or take it to the next level. It's the nature of all things, stay ahead of them by being an innovator and not a follower. Be willing to go all in, and not worry about failing. I throw 100 things at the wall, and from that, I really do get a few amazing ideas. Just because it didn't work at that time doesn't mean it wasn’t a good idea. Be willing to hear everyone out on any crazy idea they have. That what changes the world. If you can figure out how to make money and do the right thing, there is nothing better. You will be a lot happier and create a more sustainable business. If you work and care about what you do, the money will come, it always does. Always hire people that are smarter than you, and you won't have to work as hard. Always bring a gift with you to give to whoever your meeting, and make it personal from you. Not something generic. If you make something special, then make it for them, it shows you care. Lastly, “have fun, laugh a lot, enjoy what you do” otherwise why bother. If I can't have a good time doing it the chances are others won't as well.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Were always looking to hire when the right person comes along. We want talent creative innovative people that want to have fun enjoy life be a part of the greatest industry in the world. I tend to go to MIT and try and talk kids out of going to work for investment bankers, private equity, etc. Bringing food always helps at the job fair.
Where can we go to learn more?
Your local post office wall, or the Cook county correctional facility
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David Freeman A hard boiled rebel detective for the Federal Bureau of Cyberneurics. David recalls Rustin Cohle, Joe Miller, Jimmy McNulty, Sherlock Holmes with a shot of Christian Bale on the rocks. David is a caucasian male in his late forties, approximately six feet two inches. Some long line of introspective European, maybe German or Jewish. He is medium built with coiled muscles and razer reflexes from prior military training and cardiovascular exercise. He has a gaunt angled face framed with stiff black hair just beginning to edge grey. His nose, bent from too many bar fights, watches over chapped and sealed lips. His eyes are hollow almond, the kind that wish they were somewhere else. He wears a prussian blue work suit which hasn’t been ironed in a while and a coffee-stained dress shirt. Loss drives David, loss of his daughter. He spends his days remorsing on her death and his nights searching for her killer. All the while drowning in the closest drink. After his daughter’s death David had her neural network digitally entombed, the demi-soul of her thoughts now dwelling on a cerebral implant inside his head. He wants his daughter back but knows he can never have that. He harbors burning vengeance for the one who took his daughter away for him but six long years of searching have brought him no closer. His is a relentless pursuit of truth. David is a rowboat of self-inflicted rage amid a tempest of sorrow. David keeps mostly to himself and has trouble trusting the intentions of others. Experienced at sensing the order of things, David focuses on objective facts and patterns to solve crimes. Everything is processed through logical filters and his curiosity is often more interested in finding answers then the answers themselves. Always vigilant, David adapts to changing circumstances spontaneously. His voice is monologue and melancholy, the kind talking directly to you. His vocabulary, down to earth and working man but all to often straying toward existentialism. David is a heterosexual man. His ex-wife used to break out the kinky handcuffs, but that was before she left, taking his chance of a happy little family with her. And the dog, he liked the dog. It is not that David won’t stop and momentarily contemplate the taunt wet curves of the stripper at the bar. But it always comes back to the pointlessness of it all which prevents him from forming human connections. Politically, David supports the Hegemony because the Hegemony supports his paycheck. He knows the government does bad things but, the way he sees it, it is not his problem. Whether it is this party in power or that one makes little difference. David holds much the same beliefs on religion. He is apatheistic, whether or not God exists being irrelevant since God clearly has no intention of interfering down here. Sophia “Jax” Mao A retro hacker determined to change the world. Jax multiplies Lisbeth Salander, Trinity, Sombra, Major Mira Killian, Elliot Alderson, with a hit of Tiny Tina straight to the veins. Jax is a hispanic female in her early twenties, approximately five foot one inch. She is fluent in mexican and ryukyuan. Growing up on the street, Jax was a parkour fanatic and her body is thin and lithe with viperious agility.. Her face is a mocha teardrop laced with a midnight lavender mohawk and not-so-subtle eyebrow extensions. A platinum nose ring clips a petite nose above sensual lips the most irresistible violet. Her eyes scream neon pink from cybernetic iris implants. An ink black dragon scrawls across her elegant curved back. Her nails are hieroglyphic LED. She wears a short leather jacket, studded rivet belt and frayed mini-skirt, all shades between onyx and pitch. Her scent is lilac. Pleasure and fame drive Jax. She wants nothing more than to be remarkable among a sea of forgotten people and ride every thrilling sensation she can achieve on her way to the top. Orphaned at a young age Jax was raised on the streets and it was on the streets that she learned to hack. At age seven she had broken into her first cryptocurrency bank. At age eleven she had programed a class III artificial intelligence. But it was Retros, the virtual reflections of the past, where Sophia truly found her domain. Here in the Retros, Jax is queen, bending chance and circumstance to her will. She spends her days dominating cyberspace under her alias, telecasting her performances to a captive holo-vid fan club. She spends her nights lit by hazers, empathogens and psychoanaleptics in underground rave discotecas. Jax is an ecstacy firecracker illuminating a starless night. She laughs, loves and lives her life to the fullest. She is seductive, daring, and optimistic. Yet she knows her waves in the web have made her some deadly enemies. She uses her cleverness and flexibility to constantly evade these foes, always having an alternative contingency. Jax is charged up by being around other people and can multitask like a processor in parallel. She focuses on possibilities and values creativity and innovation. Feelings give her direction and she is sensitive to the emotions of others often using these to manipulate them. Her voice is quirky and hyperactive. Her vocabulary playful tones but a penchant for awkward cursing. Romantically, Jax is bisexual woman with preference for women. She has seen it all but don’t make the mistake of thinking she is a slut. Every partner she has ever been with has had to earn it. Problem with a girl like Jax, she is rarely satisfied for long. She is not narcissistic, nor high maintenance, she just has space rocket standards. Jax falls somewhere between libertarian and anarchist. Part of her dreams of a future where triumphant democracy allows us to live free. But a smarter part of her knows that it is all going to have to come burning down to get there. On triple proxy encrypted channels there are messages with certain rebel elements. Whether she would even take the next step even Jax doesn't know for sure. Jax is a Catholic. She knows her Madre would have never approved of her lifestyle but nevertheless she still clings to the old religion. She finds ironic comfort, like a fairytale amidst the swirling chaos of everything else. Be a good person and upload to heaven. Someday. Eli Achebe Malik A slave mechanic for the Keays War Raiders. Eli is constructed from Idris Elba, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hardy, and nitro primed with Ludacris. Eli is an african american male in his mid thirties, approximately six feet seven inches. Before the Fall, genetic engineering was widespread and in the post-apocalyptic nomads these mutagen chromosomes have been evolutionarily selected. His bones are ultra-dense from rare earth metal ossification. Myosacro hyperplasia reinforced by years of junkyard weight lifting have built his muscles brutish. Eli’s face has a rough texture and granite jawline, his hair is corded dreadlocks adorned with cerimonial trinkets. His skin is scarred ebony hide. His hawk eyes are shaded moss green. His left arm is a military-grade cybernetic aug with hydraulic servos and piezoelectric twitch fibers. He wears a threaded dirt linen tunic with camouflage leather breeches. When traveling in the mantle tunnels he wears a mole suit, water cooled trench coat and strapped oxygen tank. He speaks rarely but when he does his voice is calm and bass. His vocabulary is english mixed with Akkadian. Survival drives El, survival at any conceivable cost. Taken from his birth clan as annual tribute, his first memories are of the long trek across the Oklahoma floodplains. He was sold at the outskirts of the Mojave irradiated zone to the Keays Boys. The savages brought him to the trash mesa ruins of San Diego. They forced him into the mechanic trenches, but under the encouraging touch of thorn whips, Eli found he had a gift. He was adept at turning rusting metal into diesel-spitting machine. His cars, whether screaming past salt-flat speedways or pillaging neighboring tribes, always seemed the fastest. On his name day he was sold to the Boss for work on the warlord’s personal mech walker. He spends his days tinkering with gatling machine guns and squeezing every ounce of horsepower out of turbine engines. Eli is a calm wind over scorching desert. He has a serenity that comes from having everything taken away. He seeks a harmony with nature and shows a gentleness towards lingering life. But buried underneath that is loathing and fury for what his tormentors have done to him. He is independant save for the shackles that bind him, yet dependable, pragmatic and tenacious. In his mind what separates mankind from beast is values, chief among them honesty and justice and he judges others by this same code of honor. Eli is a heterosexual man. At an early age his genitals were mutilated both to boost testosterone for cage fights and render slaves unable to reproduce. David’s religion prohibits sexual desires outside of marriage and he is quick to temper errant thoughts. David, despite being a lone wolf, longs for a family some day. Eli is an outsider. All he has ever known is gang tyranny and tribal castes. Eli believes deeply in the shamanistic creed of his birth, loosely translated as the Quake Brotherhood. This religion preaches that a prophet will come some day to reclaim the earth and only those who follow the rituals strictly will be saved. Eli has practiced these rituals in secret for many long years.
Neo Angeles
The Towers Neo Angeles. Founded circa 2058 in the still cooling radioactive ash of old Los Angeles, the city was an amalgamation of constructed mountains and excativated canyons. On a clear day, from the outskirts of the Mojave Irradiated Zone you could just make out the Towers gleaming against the bay. Massive citadels formed from titan alloy skeleton and indomitable granicrete core, these mammoth institutes formed the foundation upon which humanity's future would be built or her soul finally crushed. There were seven towers. Lakshfi, Vault of Prosperity, home of the banking guilds and mega finance firms, was bedecked opulent golden whirls on decadent silver, her enormous clockface rang constantly trading marketplace cash, commodities and wealth from the Trans-African Republic to the Russian Confederacy. Anbal, High Seat of Justice, adorned marble columns with blind lady justice overwatching, in her halls the Judicators safeguarded the populace from unrelenting lawlessness. Seshrat, The Bureaucratic Monolith, tubule stylus where legions of unnamed bureaucrats churned the gears of society. Genaea, Birthplace of Gen-gineering, verdant helix whose spiraling terraces overflowed with designer vegetation and rejuvative stemcell tanks. Budyha, The Happy Corporation, supplier of franchised acme products worldwide, cartoon animations dancing along prismatic cubic surfaces. TyrX, NanoRobotic Industries, an ominous scarlet ziggurat, empty scarab husk abandoned since the Drone Wars. The last Tower, Irez, rose above the rest. Her triangular heights crawling with vid screens and vox speakers. Pinnacle crowned satellite array broadcasting Pan-China syndicated programming. Irez was the nexus for the Neuro Electronic Terminus and it was said those working in the server bunkers underneath Irez could still feel the vibrational dreams of all those lost in the NET. The Boxes The Boxes were the labyrinth sprawl at the foot of the Towers, a concrete jungle of condominiums squares and overlapping residential zones. Make enough credits and you live in a penthouse in the Highrizers. Don’t make enough and you sleep in an individual coffin bed slotted next to a couple hundred of your neighbors. For everyone in between there was the apartments. A billion people lived her, all struggling to find purpose among rampant commercialism, racial divides and a society become machine. The residential zones were checkered against the ever busy commercial sectors where your happiness was only a price tag away. Mega-malls, prefabricated chain stores and retail outlets reproducing at the limits of supply and demands. Here buzzing stream of delivery drones ferry online orders to the convenience of home. Interconnecting the residential zones and the commercial sectors was an expansive web of bridge, magnetic track and hoverway. The major transit hubs pumped the citizen lifeblood to the city through pneumonic hyperloops. Supersonic flights continuously taking off and landing at Asimove International. Perched on the hill overlooking the airfields was a lone X-21 Traveler, the launchpad on darkened lockdown since the moon colony went dark. Streams of fishing trawlers, cargo freighters, juvenile sportscraft and private yachts filtered through the cities two ports, North Marina and Rancid Harbor. At the northern end of the Boxes was Gates University, you did well in primary schooling, you went to Gates with a chance at a better life someday. Next door was the Neo Angeles Archival Library, buried in those dusty mainframes were stories from before the Fall and even the occasional banned religious texts. Nearby Genaea Memorial, High Cross and Children’s heals those with priority insurance. Those more indigent queue for St. Bellevue, coughing in the exhaust from the Infirm Crematoriums. The Boxes, for all it’s toil was not without its points of pleasure. In the Art district were the Grand Aero Theater, Bard Studioway, the Hover Speedway, and the Rave Circuses. The Entertainment Complex humed with upscale nightclubs, aroma restaurants, and the privilege casinos. Hybrid Gardens was home to reanimated birds and beasts from the extinct wild, now thriving in a photosynthetic jungle. Lakeshore Hills to the south offered serenity living for country club suburbanites. Vacation Island, pristine beach resort of the Elite, rested just offshore. And not to be forgotten was the theme park Budyha Land, family centric incorporated fun for all paying customers. The Industrial Pits Beneath the Boxes were kilometer deep bore holes penetrating the earth’s crust. Hollowed out shortly after the Twenty Minute War, they were originally intended to serve as massive fallout shelters for the city populace. However, they had since become dark fallen places where societies most undesirable seemed to settle. The poor, villainous and lost condemned to a subterranean life sentence. The Tech Caverns housed the massive nuclear facilities and hydroponics plants, life support for surface side. Augs, those who had chosen cybernetic enhancement for medical or cultural reasons were shunned by society but welcome in the engineering communities down here. The Indentured, civilians who sold their rights for protection, food and shelter, worked laborious and short lives in factory towns. Slugs, those addicted to drugs or virtual stimulation litered the sewer tunnels down here. Among these factory towns were the ethnic enclaves, Little India, Euroburg, Asiatown and Latinville, each with a dedicated crime family engaged in all out gang warfare amid ghetto squalor. Descend down a level and you would find the Subterrestrial Farms, growing luminescent biovats, gengineered plantations and meat slime nurseries. Harvesting drones nurtured and protected these pitch black fields from the hungry. The deepest abyssal Pits were mostly unknown. Hole 64 was a black site prison restricted to the most craven criminals and their machine wardens. Hole 51 was omega classified, some say it collapsed long ago, some say it contained pre-Fall relics. Those who said anymore, disappeared.
Characters David Freeman A hard boiled freelance detective for the Federal Bureau of Cyberneurics. David recalls Rustin Cohle, Joe Miller, Jimmy McNulty, Sherlock Holmes with a shot of Christian Bale on the rocks. David is a caucasian male in his late forties, approximately six feet two inches. Some long line of introspective European, maybe German or Jewish. He is medium built with coiled muscles and razer reflexes from prior military training and cardiovascular exercise. He has a gaunt angled face framed with stiff black hair just beginning to edge grey. His nose, bent from too many bar fights, watches over chapped and sealed lips. His eyes are hollow almond, the kind that wish they were somewhere else. He wears a prussian blue work suit which hasn’t been ironed in a while and a coffee-stained dress shirt. Loss drives David, loss of his daughter. He spends his days remorsing on her death and his nights searching for her killer. All the while drowning in the closest drink. After his daughter’s death David had her neural network digitally entombed, the demi-soul of her thoughts now dwelling on a cerebral implant inside his head. He wants his daughter back but knows he can never have that. He harbors burning vengeance for the one who took his daughter away for him but six long years of searching have brought him no closer. His is a relentless pursuit of truth. David is a rowboat of self-inflicted rage amid a tempest of sorrow. David keeps mostly to himself and has trouble trusting the intentions of others. Experienced at sensing the order of things, David focuses on objective facts and patterns to solve crimes. Everything is processed through logical filters and his curiosity is often more interested in finding answers then the answers themselves. Always vigilant, David adapts to changing circumstances spontaneously. His voice is monologue and melancholy, the kind talking directly to you. His vocabulary, down to earth and working man but all to often straying toward existentialism. David is a heterosexual man. His ex-wife used to break out the kinky handcuffs, but that was before she left, taking his chance of a happy little family with her. And the dog, he liked the dog. It is not that David won’t stop and momentarily contemplate the taunt wet curves of the stripper at the bar. But it always comes back to the pointlessness of it all which prevents him from forming human connections. Politically, David supports the Hegemony because the Hegemony supports his paycheck. He knows the government does bad things but, the way he sees it, it is not his problem. Whether it is this party in power or that one makes little difference. David holds much the same beliefs on religion. He is apatheistic, whether or not God exists being irrelevant since God clearly has no intention of interfering down here. Sophia “Jax” Mao A retro hacker determined to change the world. Jax multiplies Lisbeth Salander, Trinity, Sombra, Major Mira Killian, Elliot Alderson, with a hit of Tiny Tina straight to the veins. Jax is a hispanic female in her early twenties, approximately five foot one inch. She is fluent in mexican and ryukyuan. Growing up on the street, Jax was a parkour fanatic and her body is thin and lithe with viperious agility.. Her face is a mocha teardrop laced with a midnight lavender mohawk and not-so-subtle eyebrow extensions. A platinum nose ring clips a petite nose above sensual lips the most irresistible violet. Her eyes scream neon pink from cybernetic iris implants. An ink black dragon scrawls across her elegant curved back. Her nails are hieroglyphic LED. She wears a short leather jacket, studded rivet belt and frayed mini-skirt, all shades between onyx and pitch. Her scent is lilac. Pleasure and fame drive Jax. She wants nothing more than to be remarkable among a sea of forgotten people and ride every thrilling sensation she can achieve on her way to the top. Orphaned at a young age Jax was raised on the streets and it was on the streets that she learned to hack. At age seven she had broken into her first cryptocurrency bank. At age eleven she had programed a class III artificial intelligence. But it was Retros, the virtual reflections of the past, where Sophia truly found her domain. Here in the Retros, Jax is queen, bending chance and circumstance to her will. She spends her days dominating cyberspace under her alias, telecasting her performances to a captive holo-vid fan club. She spends her nights lit by hazers, empathogens and psychoanaleptics in underground rave discotecas. Jax is an ecstacy firecracker illuminating a starless night. She laughs, loves and lives her life to the fullest. She is seductive, daring, and optimistic. Yet she knows her waves in the web have made her some deadly enemies. She uses her cleverness and flexibility to constantly evade these foes, always having an alternative contingency. Jax is charged up by being around other people and can multitask like a processor in parallel. She focuses on possibilities and values creativity and innovation. Feelings give her direction and she is sensitive to the emotions of others often using these to manipulate them. Her voice is quirky and hyperactive. Her vocabulary playful tones but a penchant for awkward cursing. Romantically, Jax is bisexual woman with preference for women. She has seen it all but don’t make the mistake of thinking she is a slut. Every partner she has ever been with has had to earn it. Problem with a girl like Jax, she is rarely satisfied for long. She is not narcissistic, nor high maintenance, she just has space rocket standards. Jax falls somewhere between libertarian and anarchist. Part of her dreams of a future where triumphant democracy allows us to live free. But a smarter part of her knows that it is all going to have to come burning down to get there. On triple proxy encrypted channels there are messages with certain rebel elements. Whether she would even take the next step even Jax doesn't know for sure. Jax is a Catholic. She knows her Madre would have never approved of her lifestyle but nevertheless she still clings to the old religion. She finds ironic comfort, like a fairytale amidst the swirling chaos of everything else. Be a good person and upload to heaven. Someday. Eli Achebe Malik A slave mechanic for the Keays War Raiders. Eli is constructed from Idris Elba, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hardy, and nitro primed with Ludacris. Eli is an african american male in his mid thirties, approximately six feet seven inches. Before the Fall, genetic engineering was widespread and in the post-apocalyptic nomads these mutagen chromosomes have been evolutionarily selected. His bones are ultra-dense from rare earth metal ossification. Myosacro hyperplasia reinforced by years of junkyard weight lifting have built his muscles brutish. Eli’s face has a rough texture and granite jawline, his hair is corded dreadlocks adorned with cerimonial trinkets. His skin is scarred ebony hide. His hawk eyes are shaded moss green. His left arm is a military-grade cybernetic aug with hydraulic servos and piezoelectric twitch fibers. He wears a threaded dirt linen tunic with camouflage leather breeches. When traveling in the mantle tunnels he wears a mole suit, water cooled trench coat and strapped oxygen tank. He speaks rarely but when he does his voice is calm and bass. His vocabulary is english mixed with Akkadian. Survival drives El, survival at any conceivable cost. Taken from his birth clan as annual tribute, his first memories are of the long trek across the Oklahoma floodplains. He was sold at the outskirts of the Mojave irradiated zone to the Keays Boys. The savages brought him to the trash mesa ruins of San Diego. They forced him into the mechanic trenches, but under the encouraging touch of thorn whips, Eli found he had a gift. He was adept at turning rusting metal into diesel-spitting machine. His cars, whether screaming past salt-flat speedways or pillaging neighboring tribes, always seemed the fastest. On his name day he was sold to the Boss for work on the warlord’s personal mech walker. He spends his days tinkering with gatling machine guns and squeezing every ounce of horsepower out of turbine engines. Eli is a calm wind over scorching desert. He has a serenity that comes from having everything taken away. He seeks a harmony with nature and shows a gentleness towards lingering life. But buried underneath that is loathing and fury for what his tormentors have done to him. He is independant save for the shackles that bind him, yet dependable, pragmatic and tenacious. In his mind what separates mankind from beast is values, chief among them honesty and justice and he judges others by this same code of honor. Eli is a heterosexual man. At an early age his genitals were mutilated both to boost testosterone for cage fights and render slaves unable to reproduce. David’s religion prohibits sexual desires outside of marriage and he is quick to temper errant thoughts. David, despite being a lone wolf, longs for a family some day. Eli is an outsider. All he has ever known is gang tyranny and tribal castes. Eli believes deeply in the shamanistic creed of his birth, loosely translated as the Quake Brotherhood. This religion preaches that a prophet will come some day to reclaim the earth and only those who follow the rituals strictly will be saved. Eli has practiced these rituals in secret for many long years. Neo Angeles The Towers Neo Angeles. Founded circa 2058 in the still cooling radioactive ash of old Los Angeles, the city was an amalgamation of constructed mountains and excativated canyons. On a clear day, from the outskirts of the Mojave Irradiated Zone you could just make out the Towers gleaming against the bay. Massive citadels formed from titan alloy skeleton and indomitable granicrete core, these mammoth institutes formed the foundation upon which humanity's future would be built or her soul finally crushed. There were seven towers. Lakshfi, Vault of Prosperity, home of the banking guilds and mega finance firms, was bedecked opulent golden whirls on decadent silver, her enormous clockface rang constantly trading marketplace cash, commodities and wealth from the Trans-African Republic to the Russian Confederacy. Anbal, High Seat of Justice, adorned marble columns with blind lady justice overwatching, in her halls the Judicators safeguarded the populace from unrelenting lawlessness. Seshrat, The Bureaucratic Monolith, tubule stylus where legions of unnamed bureaucrats churned the gears of society. Genaea, Birthplace of Gen-gineering, verdant helix whose spiraling terraces overflowed with designer vegetation and rejuvative stemcell tanks. Budyha, The Happy Corporation, supplier of franchised acme products worldwide, cartoon animations dancing along prismatic cubic surfaces. TyrX, NanoRobotic Industries, an ominous scarlet ziggurat, empty scarab husk abandoned since the Drone Wars. The last Tower, Irez, rose above the rest. Her triangular heights crawling with vid screens and vox speakers. Pinnacle crowned satellite array broadcasting Pan-China syndicated programming. Irez was the nexus for the Neuro Electronic Terminus and it was said those working in the server bunkers underneath Irez could still feel the vibrational dreams of all those lost in the NET. The Boxes The Boxes were the labyrinth sprawl at the foot of the Towers, a concrete jungle of condominiums squares and overlapping residential zones. Make enough credits and you live in a penthouse in the Highrizers. Don’t make enough and you sleep in an individual coffin bed slotted next to a couple hundred of your neighbors. For everyone in between there was the apartments. A billion people lived her, all struggling to find purpose among rampant commercialism, racial divides and a society become machine. The residential zones were checkered against the ever busy commercial sectors where your happiness was only a price tag away. Mega-malls, prefabricated chain stores and retail outlets reproducing at the limits of supply and demands. Here buzzing stream of delivery drones ferry online orders to the convenience of home. Interconnecting the residential zones and the commercial sectors was an expansive web of bridge, magnetic track and hoverway. The major transit hubs pumped the citizen lifeblood to the city through pneumonic hyperloops. Supersonic flights continuously taking off and landing at Asimove International. Perched on the hill overlooking the airfields was a lone X-21 Traveler, the launchpad on darkened lockdown since the moon colony went dark. Streams of fishing trawlers, cargo freighters, juvenile sportscraft and private yachts filtered through the cities two ports, North Marina and Rancid Harbor. At the northern end of the Boxes was Gates University, you did well in primary schooling, you went to Gates with a chance at a better life someday. Next door was the Neo Angeles Archival Library, buried in those dusty mainframes were stories from before the Fall and even the occasional banned religious texts. Nearby Genaea Memorial, High Cross and Children’s heals those with priority insurance. Those more indigent queue for St. Bellevue, coughing in the exhaust from the Infirm Crematoriums. The Boxes, for all it’s toil was not without its points of pleasure. In the Art district were the Grand Aero Theater, Bard Studioway, the Hover Speedway, and the Rave Circuses. The Entertainment Complex humed with upscale nightclubs, aroma restaurants, and the privilege casinos. Hybrid Gardens was home to reanimated birds and beasts from the extinct wild, now thriving in a photosynthetic jungle. Lakeshore Hills to the south offered serenity living for country club suburbanites. Vacation Island, pristine beach resort of the Elite, rested just offshore. And not to be forgotten was the theme park Budyha Land, family centric incorporated fun for all paying customers. The Industrial Pits Beneath the Boxes were kilometer deep bore holes penetrating the earth’s crust. Hollowed out shortly after the Twenty Minute War, they were originally intended to serve as massive fallout shelters for the city populace. However, they had since become dark fallen places where societies most undesirable seemed to settle. The poor, villainous and lost condemned to a subterranean life sentence. The Tech Caverns housed the massive nuclear facilities and hydroponics plants, life support for surface side. Augs, those who had chosen cybernetic enhancement for medical or cultural reasons were shunned by society but welcome in the engineering communities down here. The Indentured, civilians who sold their rights for protection, food and shelter, worked laborious and short lives in factory towns. Slugs, those addicted to drugs or virtual stimulation litered the sewer tunnels down here. Among these factory towns were the ethnic enclaves, Little India, Euroburg, Asiatown and Latinville, each with a dedicated crime family engaged in all out gang warfare amid ghetto squalor. Descend down a level and you would find the Subterrestrial Farms, growing luminescent biovats, gengineered plantations and meat slime nurseries. Harvesting drones nurtured and protected these pitch black fields from the hungry. The deepest abyssal Pits were mostly unknown. Hole 64 was a black site prison restricted to the most craven criminals and their machine wardens. Hole 51 was omega classified, some say it collapsed long ago, some say it contained pre-Fall relics. Those who said anymore, disappeared.
Synaptica Chapter 1: Everything Connected (3059 words) David Fletcher, freelance detective for the LAPD cyberneurics unit, was searching. Three days ago his cerebral interface had woken up. He did not know how his augmented intelligence was working after six long silent years. But he knew it was connected to a murder. John McCarthy, the inventor of the Ahtaga Implant, had been found dead in his penthouse that same day. And David was going to discover why. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sR9aQ6TvgvR-RsPLnlXxUsbrnrEtuOUAEj-qN2_oqnQ/edit?usp=sharing Any thoughts on plot flow, character development, setting descriptions, themes and writing style is appreciated. Hope you enjoy!
Bonus Excerpt from the Synaptica Lore Bible
The Towers Neo Angeles. Founded circa 2058 in the still cooling radioactive ash of old Los Angeles, the city was an amalgamation of constructed mountains and excativated canyons. On a clear day, from the outskirts of the Mojave Wastelands you could just make out the Towers gleaming against the bay. Massive citadels formed from titan alloy skeleton and indomitable granicrete core, these mammoth institutes formed the foundation upon which humanity's future would be built or her soul finally crushed. There were seven towers. Lakshfi, Vault of Prosperity, home of the banking guilds and mega finance firms, was bedecked opulent golden whirls on decadent silver, her enormous silver clockface rang constantly trading marketplace cash, commodities and wealth from the Trans-African Republic to the Russian Confederacy. Anbal, High Seat of Justice, adorned marble columns with blind lady justice overwatching, in her halls the Judicators safeguarded the populace from unrelenting lawlessness. Seshrat, The Bureaucratic Monolith, tubule stylus where legions of unnamed bureaucrats churn the gears of society. Genaea, Birthplace of Gen-gineering, verdant helix whose spiraling terraces overflowed with designer vegetation and rejuvative stemcell tanks. Budyha, The Happy Corporation, supplier of franchised acme products worldwide, cartoon animations dancing along prismatic cubic surfaces. TyrX, NanoRobotic Industries, an ominous scarlet ziggurat, empty scarab husk abandoned since the drone wars. The last Tower, Irez, rose above the rest. Her triangular heights crawling with vid screens and vox speakers. Pinnacle crowned satellite array broadcasting Pan-China syndicated programing. Irez was the nexus for the Neuro Electronic Terminus and it was said those working in the server bunkers underneath Irez could still feel the vibrational dreams of all those lost in the NET. The Boxes The Boxes were the labyrinth sprawl at the foot of the Towers, a concrete jungle of commerce squares and overlapping residential sectors. All connected by web ways of bridge, surface track and hoverway. A billion people lived her, all struggling to find purpose among rampant commercialism, racial divides and a society become machine. The major transit hubs pumped the citizen lifeblood to the city through pneumonic hyperloops. Supersonic flights continuously taking off and landing at Asimove International. Perched on the hill overlooking the airfields was a lone X-21 Traveler, the launchpad on darkened lockdown since the moon colony went dark. Streams of fishing trawlers, cargo freighters, juvenile sportscraft and private yachts filtered through the cities two ports, North Marina and Rancid Harbor. At the northern end of the Boxes was Gates University, you did well in primary schooling, you went to Gates with a chance at a better life someday. Next door was the Neo Angeles Archival Library, buried in those dusty mainframes were stories from before the Fall and even the occasional banned religious texts. Nearby Genaea Memorial, High Cross and Children’s heals those with priority insurance. Those more indigent queue for St. Bellevue, coughing in the exhaust from the Infirm Crematoriums. The Boxes, for all it’s toil was not without its points of pleasure. In the Art district were the Grand Aero Theater, Bard Studioway and the Rave Circuses. The Entertainment Complex humed with upscale nightclubs, aroma restaurants, and the privilege casinos. Hybrid Gardens was home to reanimated birds and beasts from the extinct wild, now thriving in a photosynthetic jungle. Lakeshore Hills to the south offered serenity living for country club suburbanites. Vacation Island, pristine beach resort of the Elite, rested just offshore. And not to be forgotten was the theme park Budyha Land, family centric incorporated fun for all paying customers. The Industrial Pits Beneath the Boxes were kilometer deep bore holes penetrating the earth’s crust. Hollowed out shortly after the Twenty Minute War, they were originally intended to serve as massive fallout shelters for the city populace. However, they had since become dark fallen places where societies most undesirable seemed to settle. The poor, villainous and lost condemned to a subterranean life sentence. The Tech Caverns housed the massive nuclear facilities and hydroponics plants, life support for surface side. Augs, those who had chosen cybernetic enhancement for medical or cultural reasons were shunned by society but welcome in the engineering communities down here. The Indentured, civilians who sold their rights for protection, food and shelter, worked laborious and short lives in factory towns. Slugs, those addicted to drugs or virtual stimulation litered the sewer tunnels down here. Among these factory towns were the ethnic enclaves, Little India, Euroburg, Asiatown and Latinville, each with a dedicated crime family engaged in all out gang warfare amid ghetto squalor. Descend down a level and you would find the Subterrestrial Farms, growing luminescent biovats, gen-gineered plantations and meat slime nurseries. Harvesting drones nurtured and protected these pitch black fields from the hungry. The deepest abyssal Pits were mostly unknown. Hole 64 was a black site prison restricted to the most craven criminals and their machine wardens. Hole 51 was omega classified, some say it collapsed long ago, some say it contained pre-Fall relics. Those who said anymore, disappeared.
http://www.stanleymatthew.com/life-as-a-food-beverage-manager Hey Matthew, Just wanted to run you an update of where & what I've been up to so far. Try hit you up each week and keep you up with everything i'm doing. I've been in the hospitality industry for 10 years now and if there is one thing I have learnt; it would be that the goal posts you are aiming for are like the end of a rainbow. No matter how close you think you are getting they keep finding a way to move further away. It's easy to think then, What's the point? Why do I keep at it? Why do I put up with the unsociable hours? Why do I continue to deal with delusional customers? Why do I endure the painful conversations with difficult or emotional staff? And the list could go on and on. I think the answer to these questions is very surprising when I truly think about it. It's not because I love alcohol and food. I mean I do love both of those things.... very much. And it’s not because I love interactions with people. I mean this one time I did an introvert/extrovert test at university and scored the highest in a class of 300 or so on the introvert scale, I was one score away from being as introverted as one person could be. So interactions with people exhaust me, especially those I have trouble relating to. No, why I do it is because of the challenge. It's just so complete as a problem. Almost all facets of life are encompassed by this industry. Ok almost everyone could say that about their own industry and find ways of proving the statement they have made. But hear me out, let me start with where I have come from and what has bought me to where I am today. So I moved out of home at 19, the only job I had ever had was working with dad during school holidays helping him flip houses. So when I found myself living in a shoe-box apartment in the middle of Auckland City I was stumped as to what to start doing to pay my rent. Across the road from where I lived was the Sky City Casino and they were looking for staff in a bunch of the outlets and gaming floor. As I was still 19 I was too young to work on the gaming floor, but because I was a guy I was given an interview with one of the restaurants who were looking for more men to balance out the team. This was my first dip in. Now I admit, I was a joke when I first started. I was one of "those" workers, you know the ones. The ones that call in sick all the time, ask to go home early and just have an overall lack of effort. As time went on I slowly learned the trade and got better and better, learned how to make coffees and a few basic cocktails. I also gained confidence in talking to random strangers as I asked them what they would like to drink with their buffet dinner. But at no point in this 12-month experience did I ever think that I was now a hospitality worker. It was a means to an end. Then in 2008, I moved to the Gold Coast in Australia, quit university, ran away from debts, ex-girlfriends, and just general life struggles. At the time I thought it was a great idea and it would solve all my problems. Instead I was young, dumb and well you know the rest. I was unemployed for 3 months. In that time all I achieved was to learn how to solve a Rubix cube in less than a minute and a half. Don’t get me wrong I still pull out that trick at parties but it didn’t exactly help me eat or pay rent. Instead I bludged heavily on other people and ruined friendships because of my incompetence. I managed to find a job at a factory that lasted a month before getting fired for not showing up enough. Then along came Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise. I remember when I took this job I felt like I was getting desperate and this was my job to keep me afloat not actually start a career in. I mean, it was hospitality. People only work in hospitality while studying for their real job right? Well 12 months went by and I found myself standing with an eventual very good friend who at the time was my big boss. My F&B Manager. He asked me if I wanted to make something of my career and take this job seriously for once. After a few days I came back and told him I was in. I was going to do whatever it took to become the best F&B Attendant at the hotel. And within 6 months I was promoted to a team leader. I spent the summer as this team leader and by the end of it the timing was perfect and I managed to land an F&B Supervisor job. My career had really started. I was now a salaried worker for the first time in my life, I had responsibility and I guess I still felt I had nothing better going for me so I would stick at it and not screw it up. Of course I almost screwed it up a number of times. What can I say? I get bored and when I'm bored I do dumb stuff. After a couple of secondments at other properties around the country I landed the Meetings & Events Manager at Holiday Inn Brisbane. It was now 2011 and I had a 12-month contract. I had already decided with my partner at the time that at the end of the contract we would go travelling and head to London to live. So after 12 months of intense personal growth that is just what I did. I had really become an adult at this point and my career was no longer something that I did because nothing else was going to pay the bills. I was doing it because I just overcome the hardest 12 months of work in my life and I loved it. I grew leaps and bounds as a leader and enjoyed the rush. It is hard to explain but I started to feel satisfaction for overcoming all the challenges being thrown at me. So 2012, I just finished 3 months of travelling Asia and landed in London, the next day I had a job interview for a little restaurant called Charlotte’s Place. The day after I was at a two-day trial and then I was hired as the Assistant Restaurant Manager. I was now running one of the most successful independent restaurants in London. We ended up winning Top Restaurant in London in the Good Food Guide awards while I was there. 7 months after arriving in London I had to head home due to family reasons and I found myself back at the Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise, but it was now called the Outrigger Surfers Paradise and I was the Restaurant & Bar Manager. I lasted here 9 months and although I had the worst General Manager ever, I learned so much here. I learned how to earn a pay cheque. This job was tough! I once served 700 customers for breakfast with 2 chefs and 6 wait staff, and the funny part was that I felt it was an easy day because of all the help that I had. I was used to doing 100-150 covers with one chef and one other staff member. That was my typical day. I never ran so much in a job ever. But what it taught me is efficiency and how to still offer a great customer experience with absolutely no staff. I had to think outside the box so often. I had to find ways of being prepared for everything. And I did. I was so good at it. We hardly ever had complaints at breakfast and we were getting smashed every day. September 2013 I had had enough and I needed something else. I took on a role of Assistant Bar Manager at Palazzo Versace which lasted 6 weeks before being offered the role of Four Winds Restaurant Manager at the Crowne Plaza in Surfers Paradise, which evolved into the Assistant F&B Manager. And during these 13 or so months I learned more about leadership than ever before. My boss had a way of opening my eyes up to it and it all started to click. I started to realise why I was doing this. Why I was putting up with the unsociable hours, Why I continued to deal with delusional customers, Why I endured painful conversations with difficult or emotional staff. The concept hadn't completely formed in my head but it was starting to take shape and with success after success the picture started to become clearer and clearer. And then December 2014, I got a transfer to Crowne Plaza Terrigal as the F&B Manager. This was it, I had reached department head level and this was kind of the pinnacle of my F&B career. Yeah I will go on to bigger roles with more revenue and more outlets and bigger teams but essentially it is all the same thing, just the stakes are higher. I am the authority on F&B in this hotel reporting directly to the General Manger and until I make the jump to a General Manager the dynamic of the role is never going to really change much from this. I will always report to the General Manager and I will from now on always be in charge of everything F&B. It’s been 16 months in this role now and I am on the verge of my next step. I have started applying for other roles and this time I am looking to Asia, specifically South East Asia. So now I am in a position to explain my love for this industry, the challenges I face and the reason I keep asking for more, every time I think I have it all figured out and have taken my department or hotel to new heights I realise that the goal posts have picked up and run away from me. Maybe only last year did I really realise there is no perfect hotel or perfect restaurant. You can always be better, you can always improve. And that goes for everything in life. Don't just accept mediocrity. I now wake up each morning and ask myself "What can I do today to improve on yesterday?" Talk to you next week bro. Stanley
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