Andrew Steinthal: How He Built The Infatuation and Sold It To JPMorgan Chase

In this episode, Andrew Steinthal shares the story behind building The Infatuation — from his early days in the music industry to launching one of the most trusted restaurant review platforms in the country. He reflects on the moment he met his co-founder, the creative spark that led to their first reviews, and the highs and lows of growing a startup from passion project to acquisition by JPMorgan Chase. Andrew opens up about resilience in entrepreneurship and what it takes to build a brand people truly love. A conversation about curiosity, community, and staying true to what moves you.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, it's your friend Kate Max and welcome back
to Post run High. Today's guest is Andrew Steinhal, the
co founder of The Infatuation and if you live in
New York you already know, but The Infatuation is basically
the city's restaurant bible. It's where everybody goes to figure

(00:21):
out where to eat, from last minute date nights to
new spots that you have to try. Before we sat
down for this conversation, Andrew and I went for a
run through Brooklyn, which fell especially full circle because we
found out in today's conversation that in the early days
of The Infatuation Andrew and his team actually hosted run
clubs that would end with the group eating at a
local restaurant. And I just love knowing that running was

(00:41):
a part of the brand start and a way to
build community through movement and food. In this episode, we
talk about how The Infatuation began as a side project
between two friends, how it turned into one of the
most trusted food media brands in the world, and what
it was really like navigating its massive acquisition by JP
Morgan Chase. This is Andrew stein Fall on Post Run High.

(01:01):
Let's get into it. Andrew Steinthal, welcome's post run high,
happy to be here, Thank you so much for comming. Absolutely,
how was the run for you?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
It was great. I've been listen. I've been a big
fan of what you are building here with this whole thing.
Is somebody who runs a lot and very much enjoys
talking on the phone while running a lot. It's fun
to do an interview while running.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Aha, who's your go to call?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
That's a great question. It just depends. I feel like
I have a friend Brent Montgomery, who it's always given
me a hard time. You can't believe that we can
have twenty minute conversations while we go over various business
things on the phone, and he likes to tell everybody
about it. So shout out to Brent.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Wait, do you know that I love Brent Montgomery. He's
kind of a friend. I would call him a friend.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, I think we should probably make a show out
of the running show to distribute to all of the
platforms and evolve this as just you know, right now
you're on TikTok and Instagram, But like, there's a way
larger swath of people that could be interested in a
running interview show like this should be a segment on
the Today Show. Someday, this should be a segment somewhere else, Like,

(02:12):
there's just so many places this could go because it's
such a fun, informal way to get to know people.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, did you hear that, Brent?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
He's got it.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
That's so funny and it's so true. He's such a
great guy and Wheelhouse is doing such cool stuff. So
it's cool to know that you guys are good friends
and that he's your go to call when you're running
and makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
He's definitely a talker.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
So Andrew is the co founder of Infatuation, you're also
a great runner. We're going to get to everything that
you guys built with Infatuation, But I want to start
out talking a little bit about the run because I
like finding out that co founders are runners, because I
think oftentimes people misconstrue being busy and having this like
crazy job with not having the time to work out

(02:53):
or move your body. Right, So, has running always been
a big part of your life?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, I mean you got to make the time. I
think that's with anything, right, Like you, if you care
about it and are passionate about it, you find the
time and you figure out how to get it done.
And for me, like running has always been like I've
never done therapy, so running is my own therapy right
where like I kind of need it and if I
don't do it for a couple of days, I get

(03:17):
a little crazy. Like my wife is like, can you
please go on a run or something to clear your
mind so you can stop being a grouch. And I
think it's just something that I've been doing for a
long time and very much enjoy and it's time for
myself with my music or my podcasts and nobody else
for the most part unless' making phone calls.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Mm hmm, No, I mean I completely really agree. It
really is therapy in a big way, and it's a
nice time to collect your thoughts and also come up
with some of your best ideas maybe.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
For sure, no, one hundred percent. I mean that is
I will voice note all kinds of things that I
think about on my run, Like the run is basically
for other people their showers, right where you're like, oh,
I think of the best ideas in the showers, Like
my best idea is generally come when I'm out running,
because you're finally like alone with your thoughts for a
little bit and the creative juices are flowing.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
And you were talking to us on the run saying
that in the early days of Infatuation, you guys bridged
running with infatuation as you were kind of starting the company.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
So let's talk about that.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, we would, you know, we were as we were
discussing on the run. The Infatuation, which was originally called
Immaculate Infatuation, was a side hustle for five years while
we had jobs in the music business, and both my
business partner, Christang and I both loved run, like we
were both runners, and like we were doing half marathons
and just kind of messing around and having fun. And

(04:38):
we started we started doing the half marathon, specifically the
Brooklyn Half Marathon, and we got our community to come
run it with us. And so we would organize training
runs for like I'd say, eight weeks leading into the
race and bring people together in Central Park or Prospect
Park or you know, out here in Dumbo or wherever,
and get people together to run, meet each other, hang
and then we'd go eat somewhere great afterwards. And so

(05:00):
this became a thing that we would do and we
would get everybody's shirts with our logo on it, and
you know, ultimately had fifty seventy five one hundred people
running with us every time, and it was just a
great way to build community and build our brand, right
And I think so much of building a brand is
bringing together like minded people and that is such a
powerful thing. And so I met some great people that way,

(05:23):
and people I still have relationships with. And I was
telling you before, but like one of the best things
that happened out of that run club era for us
was I remember we got an email from this woman
who it was a photo of her and a bride
and she was like, FYI, I am the bride'smaid in
this wedding. And we met on an Immaculate Infatuation training

(05:43):
run for the Brooklyn Half Marathon, and that's where we
became friends.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
So you guys really like the immaculate infatuation. Those run clubs,
you guys did them for a while in New York.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, I mean it was we didn't call them run
club you know, I feel like you ruined that for everybody.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
We see this boom of run clubs happening right now.
But it's just so awesome to know that that existed
for It's been around for so long, right, like run
clubs and the idea of coming together through running.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
It's correct, It's just do you think have we reached
peak run club already? In New York City? I feel
like it can't get like the oversaturation point and like
the like dating run clubs and all the insanity that
I see on the internet, Like can we keep going up?
Or have we reached the peak?

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Okay, well what do you think? I feel like you're
the RD.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
I mean, I'm an old man now, so I'm not
in it every day. I'm not going to them. I
don't know what's going on in the streets. But but
you're still running. I'm still running a lot. Yeah, it
looks like we've reached the peak and like we need
to settle down a little bit and find the next
club thing to like date around.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
No, it's interesting.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
It's like when I went to school here, I feel
like run clubs weren't definitely weren't as big. I don't
feel like like when I was in I went to
college boredom Lincoln Center, and when I would go to
a run club, it was like I was running the
New York City marathon through obviously New York Roadrunners or
the Team for Kids, and I would be going to
the New York road Runners organized runs, or I'd be
going to the Team for Kids organized runs. And now
it's literally like everybody has a run club. Like I

(07:02):
think Jeremy was at a run club the other day
for Founders. You know, there's literally a run club for
every single niche. I think it's awesome. I'm a big
believer in coming together through like being active. I think
it's awesome. I think a lot of people think about
New York and like my older brother would say to
me when I was younger, the only things to do
in New York are eat and drink, and I'm like,
you know what, he's a finance bro. I totally get
that from his perspective, But for me, I always felt

(07:23):
totally different because you know, I love running with people
and connecting through movement. So I think the run club
thing is great. I would like to be able to
go for a run on the West Side Highway without
being swarmed by a flock of like one hundred people.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, it's crowded out there, but it's great. I mean, listen.
I also love I love that brands, I mean, like
brands like Bandit are building out communities around connection and
membership and run clubs and all that stuff, and it's
really interesting and it's a cool model and that idea
similar to what Infatuation was originally. Yes, we reviewed restaurants

(07:57):
and like you know, help people figure out where to go.
But what we always have been is a brand that's
building community and building connections around with people that are
like minded, and running is such an amazing tool to
do that.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Right.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
So how did you and Chris meet you were working
in music?

Speaker 2 (08:16):
The story is we were both music directors at our
respective college radio stations when we were both in college,
and so I was at Ithaca College WICB was was
the music radio station. I was a music director at
he was at KCSU, Colorado State. We actually met at
a CMJ music convention in the year two thousand. We
were both invited to MTV TRL Total Request Live and

(08:41):
we were six like this guy that worked US Records
picked his six favorite music directors to go to TRL,
and he and I met online walking into TRL, and
ultimately we're sat next to each other. Destiny's Child was
the guest on TRL that day. Jump and Jump In
was the song they removed me and Chris within the

(09:01):
first commercial break because we were not freaking out enough
behind Carson Daily. But that was how we met and
we became fast friends and drank a couple of beers
that night and we're like, oh, we're gonna we're gonna
take over the music business together. And you know, he
he moved to New York after college, and we both
ultimately got jobs at Warner Music Group and always sort

(09:22):
of just had this like bond and entrepreneurial idea and
spirit that we wanted to do together. We always wanted
to do something and ultimately immaculate infatuation was was the
path and that's that's that's how it started.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
What we're sending the other ideas that you guys would
be like brainstorming together.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
We had all right, So I had I wanted to
start a T shirt company. I've always been obsessed with
like a pail, and there was this T shirt store
in the East Village that you could like make these
custom T shirts. And I was making all these stupid
custom T shirts. So I made one. I called it.
We had the T shirt company called My Future. We
made one total T shirt that never got anywhere. The
best business I do that I still think is a
good idea was we both had single moms and we

(10:05):
had an idea for datearmoms dot com, which was a website,
a dating website where the kids would post for their parents,
right or they're like, it could be a niece or
nephew or coworker or like somebody, because you know, my
mom was not somebody and isn't somebody who's going to
go put herself on a dating platform. And I think,

(10:25):
but I think there is a the there is a
bond that can very quickly be formed between two older
people who both have really close relationships with their kids.
And if the kids have a close enough relationship with
the parents that they care enough to go on spend
their time trying to help set their parents up with
somebody special, Like there could be something there. So that

(10:46):
one that one we never ultimately did, but that was
that was in the hopper, is an opportunity.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Did you ever pitch that idea to your mom?

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah? She was like embarrassed and was like what are
you doing? But she was like, I'm available for somedings
literally going to.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Say, You're like, mom, I have this idea, and not
only do I have this idea, but you're also gonna
be the poster mom for it.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
So get ready.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
She doesn't like being in the spotlight, but yeah, she's
the best.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
That's so cute.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Okay, Well, so you guys were working at Warner Music,
and at what point did you I start infatuation.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
So this whole thing started. We became myself and Chris
at least in our group of friends at work. We
became the guys who like knew the city well right,
Like we would go to restaurants and bars and like
had strong opinions and could help get tell people where
to go. And it ultimately came to the fact that, like,
when we were getting all these inbound requests from friends

(11:43):
and coworkers, you're like, maybe we should do something with this, right,
And at that time, there wasn't. There was nothing that
was relatable for us as it related to restaurant reviews. Right.
There was very serious criticism right in the newspapers and
the magazines and even on the blogs. It was all
like very serious food people. And we were more of

(12:03):
these guys in the music business for like, yeah, the vibes,
the playlist, the food the Burger, like situational dining needs
where you need someplace to go on a date with
your boyfriend or girlfriend, which is different than a date
first date with somebody you just met right or you're
going out with your parents, or you got people coming
in from Europe that you want to entertain, or you're
looking for something late night, and like, there just wasn't

(12:25):
a situational dining discovery platform in a way that like
we wanted it to be. And so we were we
would go to the back of New York Magazine, right,
and like they had like little listings about the restaurants
back there that was the most useful tool for us,
and it wasn't really that useful ultimately, right, and so
we were like, screw it, Like let's let's write restaurant

(12:46):
reviews and build it all around this like perfect for
ecosystem of tags so that you could find the right
place for the right occasion or the right place near
a music venue. Obviously you worked in music business. So
it was like we'd tag all the restaurants that were
near Bowery Ballroom or Madison Square Garden or Williamsburg Music
Hall or any of those places, right, because we needed
places before or after shows. So that was how it started,

(13:08):
and we basically applied everything we knew about building bands,
which we'd been doing for twelve years, to building a
brand that happened to represent restaurant Discovery. It was write
hit songs and play shows right, and so it was
like cool, we had to come. We had a new
restaurant review every day. We flip flopped every single day.
There was never a day off, and every Friday I
was a publicist, so I would go chase down celebrities

(13:31):
like basically what you're doing on the show, like try
and go get you know, Jerry Seinfeld and Anthony Bourdain,
may He Rest in Peace and pad Malakshmi to like
give us their five favorite restaurants in New York City
and then cross our fingers that they would post it
on their back then Facebook page, because if they posted
on their Facebook page, we would get all these new,

(13:51):
you know, new eyeballs on us, right, and so we
were just really consistent with the content. So it was
like write hit songs and then play shows. Get people
to get right, whether that was getting together to run
training runs for the Brooklyn Half Marathon or hosting parties.
We threw parties, Like we did a lot of events
and we just brought people together. We used to have
an event that we did called the Turkey Leg Ball,

(14:13):
which was our first foray into like larger scale events,
but it was right before Thanksgiving. Our logo was a
turkey leg back in the day. Yeah, it's like it's
evolved into what it's a hamhorn. But this is ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
It makes so much sense.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
And like, when I think about Infatuation, I do, like
I do think about how conversational the platform was, right
and it was like your first date, this is a
good spot to go on Beyonce's X, Like it was
very situation and.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
The idea was always like I talked to talk write
the review like you're talking to your friend, right and
like always like when people would be like, oh, how
do you write for the Infatuation? We never hired food writers, right, like,
and we always me and Chris wrote everything for the first.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Six years, right, So your day to day life was
like you would go to work, right, you'd work your
job with the music industry, and then you'd be going
out to dinner, out.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
To dinner, and then you'd stay up till two am
writing the review for the next day. We would flip
flap who wrote what, and then do it all over again, right,
And so it.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Was like no sleep, go to work full meal, right.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
And the running was really important then because you had
to have a balance because we were gross. Like back
at that it was it was you towards the After
doing that for like six seven years, I felt horrible,
which then had me, you know, like really transitioned to
be like, all right, I need to work out as
much as humanly possible.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
I mean that is like I feel like one of
the things that's so under talked about. And I know
you guys don't like the word foodie, but with foodies online,
like content creators that are because there's a lot of
content creator and creators now that specifically do food reviews.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
And I am always wandering with them.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Like some days they'll do reviews where it's like they're
going to five places in one day, trying out like
five different burger joints, right, and I'm thinking to myself,
how do they possibly stomach all this food and not
you know, get on health No.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Way they eat it all right, right, But yeah, no,
it's it's that was the lifestyle and so like the
events were a big part of us building this brand
and bringing people together, and that's what ultimately led us
to really, you know, building something in New York to
start that people cared about, People were into it. People,
it was like a thing. It became, you know, something
that people identified with, which was which was really cool,

(16:17):
and it led, like the Turkey leg Ball ultimately led
to us starting our own festival called Eatscon, and like
you know this this all this whole thing, like it
was like one thing after the next after the next.
And we were first generation social media. So when we
launched the same year Twitter started, right, Yeah, so maybe
Twitter started in two thousand and eight, but like same
same era, right, And we were early on Instagram, Like

(16:41):
beginning of Instagram, we would post, we had a we
would do hashtag contests, and then eventually land on the fact,
oh no, we need our own hashtag and make people
use it. And so we started the eat hashtag with
five e's because it was like, oh, people are like,
what is that? What is eats? It's like people are like,
we didn't want to do like infatuation Graham or something
weird like that. So we used eats as our calling card.

(17:03):
And I remember, I mean I spent I ran all
our socials and just spent hours and hours and hours
and encouraging people, engaging like with anybody who was using
the hashtag, liking their photos, commenting, building community through social
and reposting photos that were great and people would be like,
oh my god, you know that, like I'm famous, moment
you're on the infatuation Instagram, which back then didn't have

(17:24):
that many followers, but like that was just something that
fueled our growth and built community, right and that ultimately
that Eats brand almost became bigger than the Infatuation brand
almost on Instagram, and it led us to be like, Okay,
we had come from the music business, know a lot
about the music festival ecosystem. We had been working with
the guys at Governor's Ball for a long time to

(17:45):
like curate the food there. That was always an amazing
platform for us to be able to get involved and
see how they ran their festival from the vending perspective,
and you know, ultimately come up with our own concept
around you know, being a music fan and working in
the music business and then working with a lot of
the festivals from outside lands to Coachella to Governor's Ball

(18:07):
to be like, look, people are really interested in the
food almost as much as they are the music these days,
Like we should do the music business music festival model,
but with a food festival and make it something that
is you know, has headliners, has discovery things, but that
is like a really fun, programmed, culturally vibrant place, which
is what birthed our festival Eats con that we now

(18:28):
do in fur markets. So it's been this like evolution
of like we started in the music business and know
how to do stuff from the music business and then
taking that approach to like something that is kind of different.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
And I mean what I find so impressive is for
five years, it seems like from what you're saying, like
you guys had so much momentum, right, and like Infatuation
was a grassroots approach, but it was starting to take off.
You're starting to work on iconic events like Governor's Governor's Ball,
I mean that's a huge New York festival music festival.
Did you guys have moments during those five years were
you ever like, oh, this is unsustainable, Like I'm just

(18:59):
too busy with work, and what did you kind of
do in those moments and what kept you guys going, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Think I think what kept us going is that we ultimately,
like we really once this thing started to hit and
once you feel and I'm sure that you feel this
with what you're doing, when you get that positive reinforcement
from people, when you feel it starts when it's like,
you know, your friends and family like yeah, that's cool,
that's cute whatever. Right, But then all of a sudden,
when you start getting emails from random people or you

(19:24):
meet somebody out that they're like, oh my god, I
know what you do and I like it, right, you
just start to like feel this and when and when
that momentum starts to build, you know, you can have
down moments, you can feel you know, life, everything goes up,
everything goes down. You gotta stay as grounded as possible.
But those positive reinforcements really can keep you going. And

(19:44):
if you really see that you have something people care about,
it's hard not to want to chase it even further,
to make it as the big as it could possibly be.
You know, it was at first it was so slow
and like but like we would be there every day
on Google Analytics, just looking at the website, Like like,
look like got to one hundred, can we get to
a thousand? Can we get to two thousand? Can we

(20:06):
get to ten thousand? You know what I mean? And like, ultimately,
like getting to a million was our We were you know,
we were dying to get there, you know. And and
we never we didn't pay It was all organic, you know,
we never we never spend any money. It was all bootstrapped, right,
it was all real. And I think that that was
such an important thing that we didn't even plan really

(20:29):
in a sense, right, Like we had the luxury of
spending five years while we had full time jobs figure
out if this thing had product market fit right, and
like got to the point where this thing was it
was undeniable that this was a thing. That thing was
going to be, What this business was going to be,
how what the end result was going to be, who knows.
But but ultimately we were like we can build this brand.

(20:51):
People are into it what we're doing, and there's a
huge opportunity out there because there's nothing really like it, right.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
No, And you know, it's interesting because I was interviewing
the CEO of builds Bear the other day and something
that she said to me. That was really interesting is
when they think about like selling products, you think about
like somebody's daily life, right and like their day to day,
So like they're you know, nine am till ten pm,
and you kind of figure out, like where are the
ways that we can infiltrate somebody's day. And I think

(21:19):
it makes so much sense infatuation for New Yorkers because
New Yorkers we go to work and then sometimes when
we're on our lunch break or after work, we're on
Google trying to figure out where should we go to dinner?
I want to plan this event with my friends for
the weekend. So you guys really broke into like the
daily habits of people's.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Lives in New York.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, you nail it. I mean I think that that
was always the thing is like if when you're thinking, oh, restaurant,
I need to figure out where to go, and now
all of a sudden, you're going with the infatuation because
you associate that we are your beacon of trust as
it relates to figuring out where to go. You know,
that becomes something that people start to use in their
daily life. And look, the big challenge for us it

(21:58):
was always the two of us who were writing, and
then it was like, can we transition this off of
just us two to other people in New York and
then ultimately find other people like us who weren't professional
restaurant critics, but were you know, people who worked in
you know, who were actors, who were lawyers, who worked
in cosmetics, who you know. We have all kinds of
hilarious stories. Like one of the women who was writing

(22:20):
for us in Chicago for a long time was a
hairdresser and like you know, was super passionate about food
and like was one of the best writers we've ever had.
You know, She's amazing and now is like one of
our managing editors for the whole site and is the best.
Shout out to Adrian, But like, you know, how did
you find her? She so the guy Sam.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Fay who was sort of expanding into other cities.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, well, this is when we left our job, when
we were getting ready to leave our jobs. I actually
it was hilarious because you talk about positive reinforcement and
people knowing what you were doing. I actually had jury
duty and got put on an a as an alternate
for this case, and we were in your job, right right, right,
I was like about we were close to leave, and
we were like probably six months away from leaving. And

(23:03):
I went to Jerry Duty and we were all sitting
in this little room and introducing ourselves to one and
we were going to be together for two weeks. And
it was like it's Andrew, I worked at you know,
I work at a record label.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
So I also go to Jerry Duty. But you got selected.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
I got selected, you know. I tried really hard to
get out and so I and I was like, I
have a restaurant review website. And this guy who was
sitting next to me was like, oh my god, immaculate infatuation.
Oh my god, and was like losing his mind. And
all these other people like we're looking at like what
is wrong with this guy? And like he was like, no,
I'm from Chicago, and like you guys need to come
to Chicago, Like we're upset. We need this so badly.

(23:36):
In Chicago. You got to meet my friend. I'm like, dude,
find me somebody in Chicago and like maybe we'll see
and he's like I'm gonna email all my friends. I'm
like great, and so whatever. Cut to months later, and
like two weeks later, I got an email from somebody
that I didn't really look at or think about, but
he was a friend of this guys and I remember
he was like, I'm in Chicago whatever, and then cut too.
Four months later we had left our jobs and we

(23:58):
and the first week we had this conference in Chicago,
and I remember Chris being like, is there anybody we
should meet in Chicago? And I was like, you know,
I've got this email from this guy. And I pulled
up this email from a guy named Sam Fay, who
ultimately became one of our first employees who we wound
up meeting that day and loving, and he has been
with us forever and ultimately Sam built Chicago for us.

(24:21):
He now does other things at JP Morgan Chase on
the sponsorships and talent front with us. But he used
to get his haircut by this woman, Adrian, and so
he would go in and get his haircut and talk
about restaurants with his hairdresser and Adrian. Ultimately, when he
was looking to expand his role and stop writing all

(24:43):
the restaurant reviews because you can only do this for
so long before you are you are gonna burn out,
to burn out on eating at restaurants up bazillion days.
She was like, yeah, that would be amazing. So like
the web of hilarity of Jerry Duty to this guy
leaving his job as a lawyer to be like, screw it,
I'm going to go write restaurant reviews and build the
Chicago thing to like us hiring the woman that cut

(25:05):
his hair as the next person. It's just it's just
amazing and it's kind of fun.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, yeah, And you know food.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Food is one of those things where obviously we eat
it every day and people are really passionate about it,
so it's like you can find it's so it's so
funny that like shit.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
And that was always what we said to people. It's like,
you know, everybody, that's why we hate the word foodie
so much, where it's like, oh my god, I'm such
a foodie. I want to write for the infatuation. It's
like congrats, everybody loves food, like right, but like what
kind of value, what kind of story can you tell?
What kind of perspective can you bring, and like how
can you make restaurant reviews entertaining and fun but also

(25:42):
with the perspective that people are going to be like, oh,
I want to read it something else by them, right,
I want like I trust them?

Speaker 3 (25:48):
What do you look for in a writer for infatuation?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Like levity, humor, storytelling ability, How do you weave in
references that are pop culture that like you know? And
how do you how do you analyze the experience of
the restaurant and not just like the food right and listen.
Writing is hard. I've never been a great writer. I

(26:12):
mean I've figured out how to do it. But Chris
was always a way better writer and editor than I was.
It was didn't come easy to me. Like I would
go in stretches where I was like, I can't be
I can't figure like it just what it like? You
know you It was hard, but.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
That's really the voice that you guys were writing for people.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Probably people would find you right, you could get and
like you. There would be emails that would land in
our inbox sometimes from somebody and be like, oh my god,
yes this person. Find this person immediately because this is
our kind of person and it just you know, they
had that that personality, that humor, that swag about how

(26:49):
they how they wrote, and it stood out.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
So was Chicago the first city that you guys expanded
you outside of Newark.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
It's a great question. I think we try. I think
I think it was Chicago and then La and then
we did Denver. Chris was from Denver, and the Denver
was sort of a failed experiment. But I think you've
also realized that, like, oh, Denver's a market that people
don't use restaurants the way they use them in their
daily lives like in New York or in La or
an even in Miami or Chicago. Right, It's like people
go out to eat every once in a while, and

(27:16):
it's not like there aren't a lot of new restaurants
that open every year. So it was like, oh, we
need to focus first on the markets that have the
saturation from a restaurant perspective and all the new stuff
opening and people who like are really dialed into the
restaurant scenes.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
What was the hardest part about expanding outside of New York.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
It was the voice, like trying to translate the voice
that we had built in New York with the two
of us to other markets with other people, right, And
I think that credit to Chris and Hillary Reinsberg, who
was our first employee who's still with us. You know,
they wrote up an amazing style guide, and they spent
so much time building out a handbook about how we

(27:56):
do things. And everybody's different. But if you can take
the fatuation, idea and voice and make it your own,
that's incredible. And that's what's happened in a bunch of
these markets. And we have some amazing people that have
been writing for us for a long time and we've
found all these different voices that you know, have continued

(28:17):
to grow the brand and build what it is today,
and it's just it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Is it wild to think about, like where you guys
are now compared to money first started.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
It's absolutely insane. Like if you had ever told me
that this is how this would all net out, be
like a pipe dream, right, But it somehow has worked out,
and I'm extremely grateful and I can't believe that this
is what's happened. I think we made a lot of
right decisions along the way. I think we screwed some
things up, but I think in general, Chris had a

(28:45):
vision for a lot of this with the voice and
saying no to so many different opportunities and being very
focused on, you know, just doing one thing and doing
that one thing really well. And I think it's a
testament to like, you can't be every to everybody. We
never did recipes, we never did news, we never did
traditional video. We were like, we do restaurant reviews and guides.

(29:06):
That's what we do, and all of our content is
geared toward that on the infatuation front, and then we
bring people together through experiences.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Is there ever an experience that you guys said no
to that you regret saying no to?

Speaker 2 (29:17):
No, no, no, I think.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
Or was there ever an experience that you said no
to at first and then came back around and you
were like, yes, now we can say yes to it.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
I always wanted to do. We were a little torn
on it. I wanted to go. I was like, we
were huge Top Chef fans. And one of the first
brand partnerships we ever did was with Bravo around Top Chef.
It was just some little like local event thing, but
I thought it was so cool because we were like,
oh my god, we got to top we got to
do something with Top Chef, and we were just like
Padma and Gail and just like the whole dynamic they

(29:47):
were building. I mean, Top Chef. We were born out
of a moment where so much of the energy around
dining when we started was what Top Chef had created, right,
And so I had always dreamed of being on Top Chef,
like being a guest judge or whatever. That that never materialized,
But that's one of those things that I look back
on and I'm like, damn.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
I wish we I feel like you could still do that.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, probably you'd be good.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
You have such like the personality for it. You know,
my first ever celebrity guest on the Running Interview Show.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
Do you know who it was? Bobby Flay.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Oh, Bobby Flay. That guy's great. Yeah, he's he's the best.
He was in We did this video. We didn't do
traditional video, but we did. Chris wrote this fake restaurant
review once called Underfinger. That's probably, to this day the
best thing we ever did is Infatuation. He wrote this
fake restaurant review when like there was this Nordic craze,

(30:35):
which is absurd to say. It was like all these
restaurants from Copenhagen and Denmark and like had all of
these interesting restaurants that were opening up in Brooklyn and
it was just like a thing for a while in
New York. And Chris wrote this hilarious review of a
fake restaurant on the Lower east Side that was serving

(30:56):
seahorse to see me and a meat glove, and and
and people thought it was real. And The New York
Times picked it up the knowing it was fake but
saying that it was hilarious. But you had people call
a number on it. And it became this thing for
a minute on the internet. And there was a chef

(31:17):
named Justin Warner who had this restaurant do or Dying.
He was like this, like he just he did creative, weird,
wild stuff and he was on Food Network and he
was super into that restaurant review. He was like, dude,
can we make this reel? Can we please make this real?
And so Chris and Justin made this real and filmed
this like spinal tap type of movie. As we made

(31:39):
the restaurant reel for a night right and then and
Bobby Flay played a key role in it because he
was super into it as well. And he was he
was in the film and film it was so good.
But we loved but Bobby. We we are appreciative to
Bobby forever because he was he was into what we
were doing as weird and stupid as it was. You know,

(32:01):
he got into it and it was really cool. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
You know, Bobby Flay's got his finger on the pulse,
he really does.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah. I remember Chris. Chris told a story. I'd said,
like The Underfinger had just come out, and Chris was
eating at the bar at Gatto, which was at that
time one of his new restaurants, and Bobby had come
that they'd never met before. And I remember Chris was
always a big Bobby Flay guy, and Bobby came up
to Chris and was like, yo, Underfinger and thing was
like what he was like, He's like, yeah, we're making
a video. You want to be in it? And he

(32:26):
was like hell yes. So Bobby Flay's good people.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
What finally gave you the confidence after those five years
of you know, managing both your full time job and
starting infatuation to go full time with infatuation, Well.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Chris, my business partner, was ready to go, and he's
like all right, dude, like it's time. I was ready
to stay and have I had just had my first
kid and I liked my like paying job. But at
the end of the day, like if you want to do,
if you want, if you want to realize your full
potential for something, and we had product market fit. We
could feel it right like you could you had all
of this positive reinforcement consistently. You could feel that there

(33:09):
was something there. And if you're not willing to dive
in full time and do you know, commit your entire
being to this thing that you are building, you are
not going to be successful at all. And it got
to the point where it was like it no longer
could we do our real jobs and our side hustle
at the same time. It was you had to pick
one or the other. And it was obviously going to

(33:30):
be the thing we'd been building for five years, right,
and so it was like, okay, you rip the band
aid off and you go figure it out. And it
was not easy, but we had the luxury of being
able to work full time jobs for five years to
get ourselves to a point where we were ready to
commit to doing that. And I highly suggest other aspiring

(33:50):
entrepreneurs start something on the side, mess around, see if
there's a fit before you're like, this is my thing, right,
because I think a lot of times people will be like,
this is my thing in my mind mind, and I'm
so committed to this thing in my mind, but in reality,
do people want that thing? Tbd? Right? And like if
some people don't want that thing, you should not do
that full time, right. But like if you can find

(34:11):
something where there really is traction and there's something there,
and even if you can't determine exactly what that is initially,
but you feel it, and it's like it's showing that
to you day in and day out, that people care,
go for it.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
We did having your first child, Like, yeah, it gets
you know, motivate you even more.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
I think ultimately, I was motivated to have a great
life for myself and for my family, and I think
that we wanted to, you know, I think Chris and
I both were keen to be successful in our careers,
make some money, you know, be able to be in
control of our own time ultimately, and you know. So, yeah,

(34:49):
having kids obviously will make you care a lot more
and also stress a lot more because they're not cheap.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah, especially on the East Coast. But was your wife
and support it when you went full time?

Speaker 2 (35:01):
And my wife has been amazing. I mean she's been
supportive of this journey the whole way. And I've been
an insane roller coaster of emotions and travel and just insanity.
So Shashana has been supportive and been around for this
whole ride.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
So yeah, seriously, no, the founder journey, the founder journey
really does come with so many highs and the lows.
How do you deal with the lows and you know,
not let the highs get too high?

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Yeah, the lows, I mean this thing will chew you
up and spit you out, like this stuff can you.
I've hit rock bottom multiple times in multiple experiences with
this company, and it's hard. The pandemic was really hard,
you know, like there's just there's a lot going on
and but you just just like in life, you've got

(35:49):
to be resilient across the board, you know. I think
that's anybody has to deal with that, whether you're an
entrepreneur or just a regular person who's doing their their
their regular job and in their life, you know, and
you got to figure out how to deal with knock
it too high on the highs and knock at too
lows on the lows and realize that it's all about
that equilibrium.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
So when you look back on infatuation, what were some
of the big turning points for you guys where you
were like, oh wow, we are now in a completely
We're pushing this company in a completely different direction.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
I think there's like little things in the beginning. I
remember in the beginning one of the biggest aha moments
was we had put tickets on sale to our first event.
We were doing this thing called Turkey Leg Ball. Our
logo was a turkey leg back in the day, and
so we were like, we got to get our people together,
and so we threw this party. We had no idea
what we were doing, but this was our first thing.
I remember we put tickets on sale. I think they
were like twenty five or fifty bucks, and we had

(36:40):
emailed it out to our email list, and I remember
going into a meeting at work, a marketing meeting at
Warner Music Group, and had sent the email out and
came out and we had sold out in an hour
of like three hundred tickets before we'd even send to
our friends and family or whatever. I remember looking at
the like manifest of people who bought tickets. I'm like,
I don't know any of these people is going on right,

(37:01):
And it's like we are selling out three hundred cap
rooms in an hour. That it was mind boggling. Right,
and she's just like those were the things. And then
you have that party and see all these people come together,
all excited to be a part of the brand, and
you're just like, Okay, there's something real here, you know.
And I think those types of things happened time and
time again, and you know, at different levels, but super

(37:26):
super exciting when those things, when those things happen.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Right, in twenty eighteen, you guys acquired Zagu, right, yeh,
and Zagg it was like a historic kind of like
infatuation before infatuation, right. And I don't know much about
Zagu because I only know kind of like what I
was seeing online today. I guess it was a pamphlet
that was handed out.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
During the hall. You're a young girl, okay, what was Zagu?

Speaker 2 (37:49):
The Gat? The gat, which we learned in the process
of acquiring it is how you pronounce it's a gat
like the cat. But Tim and ninas a Gat started
a It was always survey based they did. They they
printed a book every year that was that like maroon
little like you know, larger than a pocket sized, but

(38:09):
it was all done via survey. So they would go
out to their audience and the audience would fill out
surveys and send those surveys back and then they would
pull quotes and they would average out the ratings based
upon what the community said. It was honestly, it was
the first version of user generated content just physical right
like before Yelp, Like, the GAT was really the first thing.

(38:31):
And and they curated in a way that it was
extremely trustworthy because they went out to like people that
were unnamed, right like it was it was it was
random people. There wasn't like one the GAT reviewer, right,
it was everybody, and it was a it was it
was all done via survey. So GAT forever, like the
GAT was the Bible, like for my generation, my parents

(38:53):
they all had Zagat's right, the GAT that that was
how you figured out where to go was based upon
the GAT ratings and so for us that that was
always part of the pitch for us was like, we
want to be a GAT of this next generation. Right,
it's a GAT. They did an amazing job of building
the physical book and then they transitioned to the Internet,
but and it was a membership based thing and they

(39:14):
ultimately sold the Google and then Google, you know, ultimately
we acquired it from them. But you know, I think
that they it's hard to transition platforms like from from
physical to digital, right like, and you see this all
the time where it's hard, and so that left an
opportunity for somebody like us to take some of those
same ideals of like trust and you know, and make

(39:37):
it something that could evolve. And so that was always
part of our thought was, Hey, the GAT didn't necessarily
transition to the Internet the best way they possibly could have,
which leads an open door for somebody to go take that.
And so that was that was part of our vision initially.
And then when the opportunity arose to acquires a G,

(40:00):
we were like, oh my God, like yes please, And
so we're still figuring out. We had a bunch of
different plans for it, and now we've got some stuff
happening in stealth. So you will see that brand reappear
sooner than later.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Okay, Yeah, it's I feel like it's fun to like
with like an iconic nostalgic brand like that, to pay
a little bit of homage to their brand.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Voice building brands is really hard, Like zi Cat has
so much value, like they have they have been a
beacon of trust for over forty years, like that time.
You know, building brands takes time, so having the ability
to utilize that brand and do some fun stuff with it.
Moving forward, we're really excited about.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Did you guys do collaborations with celebrities where you would
have them give you their top restaurants?

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
Who were some of the biggest celebrities that you guys
had on infatuation in the early days?

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Like who was in early days? I mean, as I said,
Anthony Bourdain, I mean I mean we idolized. I mean
Boordain is amazing. I mean, I think anybody who came
up in our era about restaurants and food, I mean,
he's He's the goat. Nobody'll ever to.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
What was his go to spot?

Speaker 2 (41:01):
I remember Bourdain in his picks with us included Swan
Oyster Depot, which was this amazing dive oyster bar in
San Francisco, and he had done it was on it
was on his show too. But that that was one
of my first when I first when first started the
site in went to San Francisco. We went right to

(41:24):
Swan lined up because that there's no you know, you
just wait for your spot outside and like he led
us to the promised line there and like that he had,
he had his taste was just so impeccable. He just
liked all the cool stuff and he would go find
the diamonds and the rough and whatever loveboarding. But we had,
you know, we would go get Jerry, like Jerry Seinfeld.

(41:44):
Shout out, shout out to Jess Seinfeld who enabled that,
who was always a longtime fan and believer in the infatuation.
Really helped us get to some great celebrities back in
the day. But she she had Jerry do one, which
was was was amazing. We had some Knicks, we had
some Yankees. You know, we're huge sports fans, so that
was always that was always fun and honestly, the Top

(42:06):
Chef stuff did really well. And because we would get
the folks who were on Top Chef, whether it was
Gail Simmons or Richard Blaize or Padma and not only
would they share on their Facebook pages, which drove a
ton of eyeballs and traffic for us, but like the
Bravo Top Chef page would post. We became friends with
the with the people who ran a lot of the
marketing for Bravo and like, if we could get back

(42:28):
then wanted them to do it, and they would post
on the Bravo Top Chef page, so many new people
would come find us. It's the same stuff as doing
a collab post on Instagram for you know, with celebrities
these days, right, or like if.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
You have a brand, having a brand where you're hat
or whatever, it might exactly, yeah, no, that makes a
lot of sense.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
So celebrity endorsements were a big part.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
And it was we didn't pay anybody. It was just
it was organic, right. It was it was like, hey,
finding people who were really into food. So I would
constantly be on the lookout for people who were talking
about the pizza they ate or the ice cream they liked,
or you know, saw something in one of the like
you know people or US Weekly rags about like Brad
Pitt eating pizza, and you're like, all right, how do

(43:07):
I get to Brad Pitt? Never got that, it never
made that happen, But like, how do I get to
Derek Cheater? How do I get to people that? Like
our audience would also be like, oh, you guys got
this person to do something for you guys, because like
that helped us level up our credibility absolutely.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
I mean, and I know Infatuation was known for mainly
highlighting like the restaurants to go to.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
But you guys were very honest in your reviews. Yep,
did you ever?

Speaker 1 (43:42):
And restaurant tours in New York City get very protective of,
you know, their spots. Was there ever a situation where
you maybe gave a restaurant not the review that they
were looking for all the time? And how did you
manage those conversations?

Speaker 2 (43:56):
It's hard. Well, we didn't talk to anybody the restaurants,
but they would they would make they would come, they
would make sure or they would have heard after the fact.
You know, Listen, we paid for all our meals ourselves,
and that was sort of the differentiating factor here of
that we always went in. We never took free meals,
we never went to openings. We were never on the take.
So we never owed anybody anything. Right that being said,

(44:17):
we weren't out there trying to tear people down. You know,
I think that if you go out into the world
trying to do that, even though the low reviews are
the ones that are most shared, that our people want
to talk about the most and all of that. So
you know, every once in a while we would write
we would we would let it rip on. Yeah, we
would let it rip on a new restaurant, and those

(44:39):
people were not happy about it, you know. But in general,
we were more lovers than we were haters, and we
tried to be very you know, you have to there's
a responsibility. I mean the beginning, we had no idea
what we was, just kind of whatever, right like, but
we certainly were not like trying to just take people down.
And I think as we became a platform that had

(45:00):
scale and size, there's a responsibility that comes along with that, right,
And so these are people's livelihood, Like you don't want
to get too crazy, like you want to give people
a shot, and like a lot of times if we
go to places and you're just like, yeah, not great,
probably just skip it instead of like saying something super negative.
You know. But that being said, there's been plenty of

(45:22):
situations where people are unhappy with our coverage. And as
I have always been not necessarily the face, but the
more publicly out there person, a lot of people will
come to me and I get the phone calls that
with unhappy customers.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
When I think of evatuation, I think of it as
I'm going to it to find the best places to go,
so you're really not always see the negative. I had
to ask though, because of these restauranteurs in New York
are protective of their babies, of.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Course, you know.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
So what I think is like really cool about what
you guys did is the anonymous that going in in
an anonymous way, kind of like the way a Michelin
Star critic or reviewer.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Goes into a restaurant.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
You guys would go when basically undercover, right, nobody would
really know kind of that you were in there reviewing
the food. And I feel like that is such an
important factor. But was it ever hard to not be
tempted by a free meal? You know because probably in
the early days it gets expensive, right paying for your
food out Yea.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Honestly, it was never something we considered. I just think
it was always such a point of emphasis for us,
as like, yeah, we're not gonna you're not taking anything
from you, right, and so we always were really focused
on just you know, trying to be anonymous. It gets
hard these days, like everybody knows, like the infatuation New York.
Everybody knows the people who are the infatuation New York.

(46:37):
So like it's just now it's not about necessarily just
being anonymous, even though all their reviews are made with
fake names, and they like, you know, they're not wearing
costumes or anything though, but they do have fake names
that they rotate in and out of and listen people
that will recognize you and identify you, and it's just
like cool, like you can try to pay for the meal,
but I'm not going to allow you to.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Do you have a fake name back in the day, yeah,
tons of them.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
I never had any ones though. I just went I
just my fake name. I was just my wife's maiden name,
like that was that was my fake name. That's pretty simple.
But other people have more elaborate and hilarious schemes. I
forget some of the some of the good ones, but
you know, they'll know. They'll recognize you and be like
sometimes and try and send out free dishes or free

(47:20):
food and your sig please just we're paying for this.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Well, in twenty twenty one, you guys were acquired by
JP Morgan, and it's been fun kind of going down
just the rabbit hole of all these different eras of
infatuation and kind of the just how you guys built
over the years. What has this new chapter working with
JP Morgan been like for you? And you know, we
talked about this on the run a little bit, but
you know, music guy gets into the food world and
all of a sudden you're working at, you know, a

(47:45):
massive financial company, right, it's so unexpected.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I've had a lot of eras, Yeah, eras. It's been amazing.
I mean, honestly, the acquisition partnership could not couldn't have
gone any better. We got really lucky. JP Morgan Chase
has been an amazing landing spot for the infatuation. It's
been an amazing landing spot for a lot of our
employees who've gone on to have new opportunities within the

(48:10):
bank that they're doing. You know, there's not a lot
of companies like ours that get acquired into JP Morgan Chase, right,
so it actually creates you know, our people are unique
within within the landscape of the firm, and there's a
lot of opportunity and a lot of the things that
we do as it relates to like creating experiences, creating
content you know, endemic to social endemic to events and

(48:35):
taste makers and amplification and you know, like stuff they
could use some help with and that's been a really
good fit, you know. So I'm now leading talent partnerships
and culture partnerships for the bank. I work closely with
all of the credit cards, but also different parts of
the bank, the investment bank, the private bank, the consumer bank,
and helping them work with celebrities and talent but in

(48:58):
authentic ways, right, Like what are you know? Every a
lot of people use different parts of the Chase ecosystem
in their daily lives, so like how do we double
down on that and like make that an authentic connectivity
point so that we can do content and marketing with
people that make sense, you know, And so you know,
we're just talking to you about like you know, it
would be really interesting to think about. You know, we're

(49:19):
working there's a there's a new card, the Chase Saphire
Reserve for Business. You just did a whole new uh
all these new benefits on the Saphire Reserve card as
well as it's a brand new card for business. And
you know, we could have you host a running show
right where we funnel in a bunch of really cool
entrepreneurs who we want to work with and storyteller who
use the Sapphire for business card in their daily lives

(49:40):
who use Chase Business Banking, which I know you said.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
You know, guys, I'm a soul Chase user. It's the
only credit cards that I have are Chase.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Yeah. So like there's just like fun story storylines that
we could do and that and and think about ways
that we can integrate into culture in ways that feel
feel good and feel authentic and and so you know,
the position has gone really well. And for the infatuation,
which I don't work on that much anymore these days,
which is which is crazy but also amazing nice for you.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Right, because I feel like oftentimes we've had a lot
of founders on the show, and I think the biggest
thing that they talk about is like sometimes it's just
you want to It's like you're such a creative, entrepreneurial
person to work on one thing only for so many years,
can get a little stick, can get I mean, obviously
you guys do so much with infatuation, but it's nice
to it's like your baby, it's.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
A you know, we're doing a sweet sixteen party this week.
We've been you know, we've been around for sixteen years,
so like, you know, it's grown up, and it's different
than it was ten years ago or sixteen years ago,
you know, and so but it's amazing to still be
able to be totally adjacent to it, associated with it,
and to see it flourish and JP Morgan Chase have

(50:50):
given it opportunities to continue to grow and evolve and scale.
It's phenomenal so that the whole thing has worked out
really well.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because you're really at the
forefront of some major partnerships, right, Like did you just
work on the Haley Beber Sapphire partnership?

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Yep, for sure.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
What would you say, Like, there's so many like people
out there that are in the creator industry or you know,
work within it. Like what are some of the things
that you look for with talent and people that are
good fits to I.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Think people that are passionate about something other than like
especially like you know, we can pay anybody to just
be in a commercial, but like that doesn't take you
so far in this day and age, right, you want
to have a through line to some other stuff, Like
we've you know, the Haley thing as an entrepreneur. I mean,
what she did with road is unbelievable. That team. Like
what they were able to do in five years building

(51:35):
that brand and differentiating themselves from everything else in that
ecosystem and then selling it for a billion dollars to ELF,
It's unreal. And like JP Morgan was involved in that transaction, right,
And so like that thread was a great one to
pull on to think about Haley as an entrepreneur and
celebrity who would make a lot of sense for a
campaign that the Sapphire Reserve team was building out right,

(51:57):
And so that made a lot of sense. And you
know her celebrity and her moment right now, I mean
she's grown up and she's doing amazing things, right, And
like we've been working with Tom Holland a bunch on
He has a non alcoholic beer brand called Biro that
he's super leaned into and super passionate about because he
loves a pint but he doesn't drink alcohol anymore, and

(52:19):
so he started this business because he really wanted to
have a beer that he was into. And now we're
distributing his beer at the Sapphire Reserve Airport lounges. We
are working with him on some things around the Sapphire
for business card. We you know, underwrote his Padel tournament
in London as part of a Wimbledon thing that we
did together. So like we're integrating into his world, he's

(52:40):
integrating into our world. And it's just a really good,
serendipitous partnership that has value on both sides, right, So
just looking for opportunities like that with people who are
passionate and that have business endeavors that can, like you know,
add value that we can add value to in addition
to them adding value to the things that we're working on.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Yeah, you know, I asked you this on our run,
but just to elaborate a little further on it is,
could you imagine telling your twenty year old self that
you're working at Chase right now running partnerships?

Speaker 2 (53:08):
No, that would be me working at a bank. Was
never something that I envisioned in my life, but honestly,
I wouldn't. I wouldn't change anything. So it's working out.
It's working out really well, and this is this place
has been really good to us and excited about the future.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Is music still a big part of your life?

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Yeah, of course, I mean music is forever will forever
be a passion of mine, and so many relationships that
we built in music business. You know, we in the
field that we work on. We're still working closely with
booking bands and artists, and you know, we have a
big partnership with Apple Music right now through a Sapphire
Reserve partnership that we're doing a lot with and we
get to stay grounded and you know in a lot

(53:47):
of the music stuff that I grew up in, So
still have all those relationships and get to participate in
it without being fully in it.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
Yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
It seems like what you do now is really a
combination of all of the things that you're passionate about,
which you know sometimes you never think you get that
at a bank, but you really do.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Right Like somehow, somehow that has worked out.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
You have built your dream job.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
All right.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Well, I have some pop questions for you. Some of
them were submitted by our audience, some of them were
submitted by me.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
So here we go. What's one NYC restaurant that's worth
the hype?

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Via Cororoda everybody like everybody you know via Karota, just
one of the best restaurants in New York. Go to lunch,
move all the time, Get there early, Get there eleven
thirty see if you can see if you can squeeze
yourself into a table because you won't be able to
get a reservation for the most part. But I love
via Corona and like the people watching it via Corooda.

(54:40):
It doesn't get better.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Yeah, it's so good. Which city has the best food
scene outside of New York City?

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Los Angeles? I mean, there's just the La food scene.
On a jack tie. I mean, people are tired about
me talking about on a jack but like it's there's
just so much good stuff in La. La is so
vast there, and I think that over the last like
five or six years, it's really become an amazing place
to eat.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Well, we're going to be living in LA for the winter,
so I'm gonna need a list of good spots there.
When you're at a restaurant and the food is mid,
do you finish it?

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Probably? Yeah, I generally clean my plate. Yeah if it's
really mid though. If it's really mid then now yeah,
But it just depends on what kind of mid we're
talking about.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
I was at a restaurant last night, in an Italian restaurant,
and I really like truffle Noki, and the truffle Noki
was just not hitting and I finished it. But uh,
I was like, I'm paying for I need those carbs
for the best restaurant bathroom in New York City.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
I don't know my answer. I don't have a good
d We have a whole guide on that go to
the infatuation and check out the bathroom. There's definitely like
an infatuation guide to the best restaurants in New York City.
But I don't. I don't go to a lot of
restaurants anymore. Really, Yeah, like I'm kind of retired, Like
I'll go, what's.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
Your go to spot in Connecticut?

Speaker 2 (55:51):
I No, I don't. There's no place to go.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
And you're like, I'm cooking my meals at home.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
There's no place to go in Connecting.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Okay, well those are pop far.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
Actually I'm not sure. I went to Wait and See
Food this past weekend and that place is amazing. Okay,
lobster rolls oysters really good?

Speaker 3 (56:06):
All right, Well, Andrew, thank you so much for being
with me today.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Yep, thanks for having me. Good times. Keep on doing
your thing. This is amazing.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
If you enjoyed today's episode with Andrew, please make sure
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continue bringing you inspiring stories like this one. Thank you
guys so much for listening and I will see you
next week on Post run High