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The Best One Yet

The Best Idea Yet 🌶️Sriracha: From Refugee to Billionaire

The Best One Yet

Nick & Jack Studios

News, Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Follow our The Best Idea Yet, our 2nd podcast series, to get episodes like this every week:

https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ 


Chances are you’ve got a bottle of Sriracha chilling in your fridge right now, but have no idea who invented it — and the spicy story of how he did it.  Entrepreneur David Tran fled Vietnam in the late 70s, smuggling gold bars into the US to start his venture - selling hot sauce out of a van. Little did he know his thick, spicy red jalapeño concoction would make him the world’s first hot sauce billionaire… without ever spending a single dollar on advertising (FYI: Kraft dropped $750M on marketing alone in 2023). For over 40 years, David’s stayed laser-focused on making “a rich man’s sauce at a poor man’s price.” But when massive pepper shortages threatened the entire business, he faced a choice more painful than Tabasco on a paper cut. Find out how David puts “Co’s before Pro’s” (customers before profits)...and why Sriracha is the best idea yet.


Spotify Poll:

Best Dish to Spice Up With Sriracha?



Pho, Scrambled Eggs, Fried Rice, Burritos, Pizza, Ice Cream,  Sriracha… on Sriracha


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is Nick. This is Jack. And today's pod is the best idea yet. That's right. We got a bonus treat for you right before Thanksgiving. And that bonus treat is the best idea yet. It's our weekly show that we launched what, like a month ago, Jack, we're like six episodes into this thing. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. So besties, here's what Jack and I are thinking.

0:21.6

Since you're either traveling, digest in, or stuck in 12 hours of traffic this week,

0:26.2

we wanted to keep you company with our latest deep dive series, our latest deep dive episode.

0:31.5

And that's a 45-minute deep dive on the wild story behind Saracha hot sauce.

0:37.1

And not just Saracha. Also, the incredible refugee who became the first hot sauce billionaire

0:42.0

making Saracha.

0:43.5

Saracha.

0:44.2

David Tran, he's a hero.

0:46.2

So, Yetis, tell this Saracha story over the weekend and you will be the most interesting

0:50.2

person at the Thanksgiving table.

0:52.4

And then, follow the best idea yet.

0:55.1

Our separate podcast series to hear stories like this every single week.

0:59.1

We drop the link in the episode description so you can follow the show and listen every Tuesday.

1:03.4

Don't forget to leave five stars because that's how we grow on the pod platform.

1:07.0

So Jack, let's whip it up.

1:08.3

Here it is besties.

1:09.3

The best idea yet.

1:11.6

Saracha. One at his besties. The best idea yet, Saracha.

1:22.5

It's 2011. Nick, you and I are roommates living in our shared apartment in the East Village of New York.

1:28.5

In a tiny four-bedroom apartment up a four-floor walk-up above the beauty bar where you could literally hear people making drinks at three in the morning. You could even hear the L-Train from that apartment,

1:33.2

remember, man? The next Brooklyn-bound L-Train. We'll arrive in four minutes. Okay, but my favorite part

1:40.5

about the apartment was every Sunday night, without fail, all four of us would get together and we would

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