October 29, 2024 • 30 mins
As a first-generation Guyanese American, Randy Pulayya's journey from the vibrant streets of Richmond Hill, Queens, to over 60 countries, has uniquely shaped his entrepreneurial vision. In this episode, Randy shares his experiences living in Southeast Asia and the curiosity he encountered about Caribbean culture, drawing fascinating parallels between Caribbean and Asian culinary traditions.
Randy takes us behind the scenes of building West Indies Pepper Sauce, shedding light on the complexities of entering major retail markets like Walmart and Whole Foods. He talks about the financial challenges, such as slot-in fees and cash flow management, while discussing his motivation to share cultural heritage through this flavorful venture. His story is a testament to the power of community support and maintaining a strong Caribbean identity amid the hurdles of scaling a premium brand.
Celebrate with us as Randy and his wife, Shauna, launch an initiative to increase Caribbean brand representation in local stores. This venture not only showcases their dedication to cultural storytelling but also highlights the resilience and innovation required to thrive as entrepreneurs. Randy's admiration for the cultural narratives behind each brand is evident, and he encourages us all to embrace our heritage with pride and passion.
Connect with West Indies Peppa Sauce: Website | Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello everyone, Welcome back to another episode
of Carry On Friends theCaribbean American experience,
and I'm excited about youmeeting my guest today, Randy.
Randy, welcome to the podcast.
How are you feeling?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm feeling good, Carrie.
I'm very happy to be here today.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Awesome.
So why don't you tell thecommunity of friends a little
bit about who you are, caribbeancountry you represent and the
work you do?
Awesome?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So a little bit about me.
Randy Pelaya, born in RichmondHill, Queens, New York, so the
heart of the Caribbean community, right Little Guyana If you're
not from the New York area,that's what we call it.
A little bit about myself, isbeen around the world, been to
60 countries, six continent.
Proud first generation American, been around the world, worked
(00:49):
for a lot of Fortune 100organizations and today we're
here to talk about our company,West Indies Pepper Sauce, that
my wife and I recently launchedthis year, getting ready to do
some big things All right beforewe get into West Indian Pepper
Sauce, talk to me a little bitabout what it was like growing
up in Richmond Hill, littleGuyana, and your experience as a
(01:14):
first-generation GuyaneseAmerican.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Tell me about how that was for you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I love it.
This is a question that is nearand dear to my heart, right,
because you don't know whereyou're going unless you know
where you're coming from.
So I grew up in Queens RichmondHill.
In Richmond Hill, it used to bea very Italian neighborhood
back in the day.
My dad immigrated from Guyanato Brooklyn in the late 70s and
(01:41):
hopped over to Queens RichmondHill in the early 80s 70s and
hopped over to Queens RichmondHill in the early 80s, growing
up in New York City.
In Queens, everybody's fromeverywhere.
Right Between Queens andBrooklyn, 170 languages are
spoken.
All scents, all background, alltypes of cultures reside there.
I remember as a child I'm 40right now as a child, there
(02:06):
would always be the Labor Dayparade.
There would always be some typeof event celebrating our
communities, and our communitieswas not only Guyanese, it was
Trinidadians, jamaicans, stLucia, grenada, haiti, puerto
Rico.
It's representing everyone.
Haiti, puerto Rico it'srepresenting everyone.
(02:30):
So my representation in mychildhood of New York was very
much culture and it's verynostalgic to this day.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
You mentioned that you've traveled all over the
world.
You've been to most of thecontinents, most of the
continents.
Which country or countries youfelt like when you showed up and
you were representing Guyana,they were just like, oh wow,
Like they really loved not onlyyour Guyanese heritage but
(02:57):
Caribbean culture on a whole.
Which country did you say like,really leaned into, like, oh my
God, I'm so excited.
Tell me more.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, no, that's a solid question there.
So we spent, my wife and IShauna she's the co-founder of
West Indies Pepper Sauce as wellwe spent about five years
living in Asia, so one year inSouth Korea and four years in
Vietnam.
So the region that reallyconnects with me outside of the
Caribbean is Southeast Asia.
So I think Vietnam is in thatbucket, thailand is in that
(03:31):
bucket, singapore, malaysiathose are the big areas of
people were very curious.
Those are also a lot of theregions where people are really
curious Wow, guyana, where isthat from?
So there you got to, as we allknow, carry on right.
What is the Caribbean?
What is the West Indies?
You got to go back andeverybody you meet is a big
(03:52):
history lesson, right, butthey're very, very, very much
connected and intrigued aboutour people.
They know a little bit about us, right, they know a little bit
about the ingredients, but theydon't know the whole pepper pot.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's awesome.
Throughout your trip inSoutheast Asia, right?
Did you find similarities toyour?
You know Guyanese Caribbeanculture and was any of that like
a catalyst or a starting pointfor conversation?
You know, for many people whomay not be fortunate to travel
in those areas, sometimes it'snot easy to see commonalities.
(04:30):
So did you see any of thatwhile you were in Asia?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah, so we moved out there to teach English, right.
So Shauna was mom, she'sVietnamese American, she was
adopted.
That was kind of and we're bothproud first generation
Americans.
When we tell our family, hey,we're leaving the States to go
live overseas to teach English,people are like what, oh my gosh
, why?
And then, as we jumped into itto answer your question was on
(04:57):
the weekends we would go to themarkets, right, jump on our
motorbikes, go to the market.
And we went over to Vietnam tolearn, learn about the culture.
My wife's mother was adopted asa refugee so I told her like,
like, it's important for us tolearn about the culture and
learn about the language.
So we started speakingvietnamese, so we're basic
conversational vietnamese.
(05:17):
As we would go down the market,carry on, and I would go and get
my spinach right, or I'd get mypotatoes, or I'd get my fish
right, or chicken and get all ofthe herbs and coconut and all
that.
So I started to realize all ofthe ingredients that they have
out.
There is what we have in theCaribbean, the West Indies,
(05:39):
right, everything from soursop,mango, guineap, I mean starfruit
guava, it's just down to thebones or so.
But one of the things thatreally just set me off was you
know, we use a lot of coconutright in our curries and a part
of our cultures across theregion.
The way they had data isactually great.
(06:02):
The coconut reminded meculturally of my grandma, right,
and it's not only my grandma,it's all of our grandmas in the
Caribbean, the West Indies,right.
So it's very nostalgic thatsense of community around food.
And as you go to differentregion in Thailand, in Singapore
, malaysia, reggae is big right,people know reggae, they know
(06:27):
dancehall.
My nickname growing up wasReggae Randy.
It still is to this day, right.
So I would always be intriguedabout people and their music
selection and how they learnabout reggae and what was that
influence beyond, right.
So hopefully that answers thatquestion.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I'm happy to you know , dive in deeper yes, it
answered my question and I wantto know reggae Randy need to
pull a tune right now.
What's the tune reggae Randygoing for?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
now you're putting me on the spot.
So listen, I love chronics, youknow I love.
I love barris, I love dancehall, I love coffee from the west
indies.
So you know I'm not, I'm not asinger and all that so, but you
know, I me.
What was the impetus for that?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What was the reason that you've decided, shauna,
(07:32):
we're going to start thisbusiness.
And she's like, yes, babe,we're going to do it, so talk to
me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, this is Karianne.
This has been truthfullyspeaking.
This has been a long time inthe making.
This has been truthfullyspeaking.
This has been a long time inthe making.
So my background is e-commercelogistics.
I used to work for DHL ExpressUPS.
I used to bring brands tomarket and expand across the
domestic and global market andSean has very much background as
(08:04):
a marketing director leadingthat brand image in direction of
that.
So I used to make pepper sauce,you know, for my friends and
family in a regular jar and giveit out to my family and friends
and when they start tastingthat they're like, wow, this is
fantastic, can I get some more?
I used to grow it out of mygarden and I still do.
But, carrie Ann, it's such asmall yield of pepper sauce that
you can make right.
We started last year, last, uh,last summer, shauna and I
(08:29):
decided to create west indiespepper sauce.
Um, you know, got a lot ofinspiration from our family, my
brother-in-law and sister-in-law.
They're out of northwestarkansas.
They're the ones who reallyhelped push, push this and
pushed us to start this companywe launched in February of this
year and, truth be told is I'vebeen laid off from my job for
(08:53):
about four and a half months.
Sean has been laid off from herjob for the last month and a
half and Carriene, we haveworked at Fortune 100
organizations, working withdecision makers, working with
all types of brands.
And you know, I love peppersauce, I love food, we love to
(09:16):
cook.
We cook a very goodVietnamese-Chinese combination
type of food.
You know, in the space ofpepper sauce it's limited, right
.
You've got a few options.
You know Big Up to Grace, right?
Can't Disrespect.
You know Bertie's.
You know from Trinidad, can'tDisrespect.
You know Walker's from Jamaica,santa's all day, every day.
(09:37):
Right, but coming from the USmarket, this is where it really
hits the soul, right, becausewe've been around 60 countries,
six continents.
We pushed ourselves to go dothat.
We came from no money.
My dad was a constructionworker.
Shauna's mom, when she cameinto the States from Vietnam as
she grew up, she was working infactories.
(09:59):
We look at the products on theshelves, all the premium
products out there.
They have all different typesof cultures.
So when you get into the hotsauce section, carrie-anne, you
just see a lot of companies thattake a little bit of this, a
little bit of that, and I don'twant to use the word tiefen, but
(10:21):
I want to be very real.
They're taking a lot of ourculture.
So, first and foremost, westIndies pepper sauce.
We are premium brand in the hotsauce market.
In the industry people don'tlook like us.
They don't have our brand story.
(10:41):
They don't have our jars.
Our jars and the whole basis ofWest Indies pepper sauce is to
educate consumers of all walksin life about the Caribbean and
the West Indies, about all ofour people and the contributions
that we continue to do.
So.
We're six months old.
Out of Orlando, we're doingfarmer's markets.
We're getting ready to rock androll.
(11:01):
Things happen for a reason,carrie.
We got a four and six year old.
We're getting ready to rock androll.
Things happen for a reason,carrie.
We've got a 4 and 6 year old.
They're involved into this.
We get love vibes from peopleacross the board.
No-transcript.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
You know, randy, you said something and you know,
being in the entrepreneurshipspace, you know you'd see, like
how much pepper sauce you need,right, but if we go into the
supermarket and you walk theshelf, you see how many pepper
sauce in there that doesn'tnecessarily represent Caribbean
culture.
So the you know, the moreoptions, the better.
So I want to focus on thepepper sauce a little bit Now.
(11:39):
You said that you started withthe stuff from your garden and
you would, you know, bottle itand the yield so, talk to me
about scaling the differentfarmers markets.
(12:04):
And two, you know, you know ifyou are big cook, you know
cooking a small pot of rice andpeas is very different from
cooking a big pot.
So when you're dealing withbulk and volume, there's a
quality concern that most peoplehave.
So talk to me, how are youmanaging all these different
elements and changes that willinevitably happen as you expand
and grow?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, no, that's I like that question.
So, yeah, you know, started,you know, for the last 20 plus
years making it from our garden,right, just go to the store,
get some different types ofpepper and just make our pepper
sauce.
As we started for West Indiespepper sauce, our intention was
never to just be small, not onlyto be in a West Indian
(12:44):
Caribbean market and that's thatright.
We're selling it to some folks.
We wanted to bring it to scale,to market.
So the first things first was,I mean some Guyana, right?
So in Guyana there's two typesof pepper we're pepper which is
a unique pepper from Guyana, andthen in Guyana we call it
balafaya pepper, aka scotchbonnet big enough back to
(13:08):
Jamaica, right, scotch bonnetsfrom Jamaica, right?
So as we started this journey,we wanted to see who are the
players out here, right, whereare people sourcing the products
?
And our goal is to be inspecialties retailers, the
sprouts, the whole foods, theWegmans, the premium specialty
(13:29):
markets.
We have five ingredients scotchbonnet, cucumbers, turmeric,
salt and vinegar.
So our largest supplier is ourpepper supplier.
We source our scotch bonnetsfrom costa rica and, non-gmo, we
source our cucumbers locally.
So that's not going to be achallenge, right?
(13:51):
The biggest challenge isgetting getting those scotch
bonnet peppers right and havingthat brand consistency.
Whether it's jar number becausewe have it in a jar right,
whether it's jar number one tojar number 10,000, it all looks
the same.
We're vegan, non-gmo andgluten-free, and what a lot of
(14:12):
people tend to say is when theytaste it they say you know what?
I haven't had pepper sauce likethat in a long time.
It reminds me back to mychildhood.
It reminds me back from when mygranny used to make that or so.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Now, when we think of local, are you shipping?
Like, what does shelf life looklike?
Because, again, I know you'vedone logistics but, like when it
comes to food, the logisticsthing set up very differently.
So how are you managing, likeyou know, maintaining the shelf
life when you have to ship itand all of these things?
(14:47):
Talk to me a little bit aboutthat and maybe some of the
challenges, unforeseenchallenges that you've run into
so far.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, so the shelf life is one year, right?
So, from a productionperspective, as soon as our
products are made, we have thatone year shelf life, we tell
people to open up the containerand then put it in the
refrigerator.
Our average customer finishestheir bottle of pepper sauce in
32 days.
With regards to like unseenchallenges, I think where we are
(15:24):
right now as a brand, as we'regetting ready to scale, is
making sure that we have theright resources right.
So you just can't get into aWalmart or a Whole Foods or a
Wegmans just like that.
You have to kind of go througha food broker.
(15:45):
Once you go through those foodbroker, you have to pay X amount
of dollars in order to have anopportunity there, and that's
when they'll start pitchingthese brands.
So I think a challenge would bemaking sure know, making sure
that we have enough capital topay.
All of you know those foodbrokers.
This is an expensive game.
We don't come from it.
We jumped into it.
(16:06):
We are here and we're about tomake things happen, but I think
that's going to be a challengefrom a food broker perspective,
you know, making sure that wehave that capital to pay those
slot in fees.
And the slot-in fees are howyou get into these groceries and
then making sure that you'renot going to get paid then, and
there you might have 30, 60, 90day net terms.
(16:28):
I think the challenge would bemanaging finances as we scale.
Our eye is to be across the USand once we're finished across
the US, we already got a lot oflove and support from Canada and
the UK and you know there's alot of interest out there.
So it's about understanding howit all works together and we're
(16:50):
working with a lot of brandswho are going through this
journey outside of the peppersauce space.
So we have our resources.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
That was a question that I was going to ask because
on this entrepreneurial journeyso we have our resources,
because there's a lot there, andI've gone through layoffs
myself but was the layoff theimpetus for the scale, or were
you already in process and thelayoffs just accelerated the
scale, or scaling it to whereyou are now or what you're
(17:31):
trying to do now?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, things happen in life for a reason, right, and
if you have your eyes closedand you don't see what's
happening in front of you, youmissed that opportunity.
So, as we were building this outin the background, working off
full-time jobs and raising twokids under the age of seven,
started applying for jobs and,to be real, we would go out
(17:57):
through our referrals, ourcommunity, our networks, and you
know I wouldn't get called back, I wouldn't even have an
opportunity, with all of myexperience, as well as Sean's
experience, to have thatopportunity to interview or so.
And so I would allocate X amountof you know, maybe like two
hours a day working on WIPs andanother, you know, two hours
(18:19):
working on, you know applyingfor roles, and then then another
you know, two hours planningand you know, after a certain
time it's been four months forme.
I said we've had so muchsuccess, carry on from a local
farmer's market and shippingnationwide people resonating
with our brand and our brandidentity and our mission I
(18:44):
decided to take this full time,jump in head first.
Right now we're dotting our I's, crossing our T's, making sure
that we have everything in placeto start scaling, and we want
to scale not everywhere, we wantto be very intentional because
first things first is we're $15a jar for our pepper sauce.
(19:06):
We're in the premium space ofhot sauce and we're not just
selling pepper sauce.
We're selling our culture, notonly from Guyana, trinidad and
Jamaica, st Lucia, we representin all of our regions.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
What about your full-time roles For your wife,
shauna?
It's clear.
What are the skills there thatyou're leveraging for WIPS right
now to help you navigate thisnew venture?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, so in Vietnam.
While we lived in Vietnam, wetaught English and we also had a
sourcing business.
We were manufacturing dresses.
We have no background into thatright, and it goes to the life
saying right, those who live orlearn the most.
You have to be comfortablebeing uncomfortable.
That's how you live and learn,right.
So we know a little bit aboutproduction and source and input
(19:57):
and things together, making sureour price points are where
they're at Strategicrelationships, that strategic
perspective that you know, knowreally just having a roadmap of
where we want to be, having astrong sense of brand identity,
right.
So at wisteries pepper sauce,with my experience with sean and
(20:19):
myself, we want to focus onthree things we want to create a
great product, we want to havea great user experience and then
we also want to have a messagethat is compelling.
So, with my experience workingwith top brands, working with
decision makers, working withsome of the household brands
(20:40):
that we all use day in, day out,I understand some of their
challenges.
Right, we understand, you know,what are their challenges and
those are things that we're alsojust utilizing to our advantage
as we grow.
West East Pepper Sauce.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Again, not to harp on the layoff, but I think there's
some lessons there that you canhelp convey to the audience.
So someone's listening, theyhave a full-time job.
The audience so someone'slistening, they have a full-time
job.
What is one or two lessons thatyou've learned from this
transition of looking for a jobbeing laid off and you're like
(21:19):
you need to make a decision?
What's a lesson or two that youfeel like you can share with
the audience about navigatingthe space or preparing, you know
, because you never know anyonewho might be in this position at
any time.
So any lessons that you'velearned that you want to share.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, this is something that you know.
I kind of asked myself alongthe way, and it's great to
self-reflect.
The two lessons that I tend totake away, or I would offer,
would be it doesn't matter whoyou are, what you do, what you
believe in be authentic.
(21:59):
You got to be authentic.
People could smell it if you'renot.
So we're doing this as ourauthentic selves.
And the second thing would becelebrate the small wins, day in
and day out.
Right, you have to look andcelebrate those wins, right, and
(22:25):
if you fail, that's anopportunity to learn.
And if you're not learning fromyour failure, you're not going
anywhere, right?
So you have to be genuine andbe authentic and celebrate those
small wins.
With regards to, like thelayoffs, man Kerrian, it's so
tough for so many people outthere.
My heart goes out for everybody, right, and I don't pity
(22:49):
ourself with regards to what'shappening right now.
We are taking something as anegative, turning it into a
positive, and we are going tomove forward.
Carrie Ann, I refuse, I refuseto give up because, in our short
span of doing this, I want togo back to the pepper sauce
Brands.
(23:09):
Don't look like us.
They don't have our story, theydon't have our product and we
are all about representation,about jumping into this space.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Entrepreneurship is a viable option, but we also have
to make sure we're messaging itthat it's the reality of that
option.
It's not easy, right?
It requires a lot of things.
You have a spouse, that you'reworking together, you can
(23:43):
support each other.
That looks very different forother people, so I really
appreciate that you are sharingand you're vulnerable about that
and your experience.
So, um, when it comes to thepepper sauce, mega asked the the
very important question thatcaribbean people want to know
what's the scale of pepper like?
(24:03):
Is it or hi it hot?
Like, do you have differentjars that cover different levels
of heat, or is it like onespice for everybody?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, so we do have two jars, right.
So we have our six ounce jarWest Indies pepper sauce.
This is five ingredients scotchbonnet peppers, cucumbers,
turmeric, salt and vinegar.
So the red pepper sauce, whichwe're going to be giving a name
shortly.
It has a citrus undertone.
(24:38):
So on a scale from zero to 10,when we use a little spoon to
give out samples, I'd say it'sabout a six out of 10, based on
a little drop.
Servant size is a teaspoon.
So for me, I like a lot ofpepper sauce.
Right, our pepper sauce is notgoing to burn.
It's not going to burn yourbutt.
(24:58):
That's not what we're goingafter.
So it's flavorful.
It's flavorful.
It is going to help enhanceyour food.
But there's a lot of culture inhere, right, not only
gyneculture, but from the wholewest indies, in the caribbean
right, the red has a bit of acitrus undertone.
The the yellow, sameingredients.
It has a bit of a, a tangyundertone and from a spice level
(25:25):
it's still that six out of tenperspective, right, a A little
bit gives you that six.
And how it normally goes is,once you have a teaspoon or you
have a bit of a taste on it,whenever we do it at the
farmer's markets.
It kind of goes up a little bitand it's just hanging there and
then it's going down and it'sat the back of your tongue.
(25:45):
And our saying is based oncustomer feedback is we're
addictive without the additives,so we're vegan, we're non-GMO
and gluten-free.
This is five clean ingredientshere, so hopefully that kind of
answers that question.
If you want it hotter, all youdo is, instead of one teaspoon,
you just do two teaspoons.
And if you do more than twoteaspoons, man, wow, that's,
(26:09):
that's going to be some, that'sgoing to be some trouble, but
that's that's kind of like fromthe perspective.
This is, this is flavor, flavorfor your food.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Wonderful.
Before we wrap up, what?
What do you want people to knowabout you?
West Indian pepper sauce, wherethey can find it and where is
it available.
All of that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, so, first and foremost, our website is
shopwipscom.
So shopwipscom, we're onInstagram, tiktok, facebook.
Our handle is at shopwhips,where you can just search West
Indies Pepper Sauce.
So we're on those platforms andwe're also on Amazon.
(26:56):
So if you are in the CentralFlorida market, in the Orlando
market, we do a lot of farmer'smarkets right now.
We did this one big event inMiami Soka Food Wine Fet with
Vanessa James, who is very muchin our community, who is
celebrating so many of us andreally talking about the
(27:18):
Caribbean diaspora.
So we're doing a lot of eventsright now and we're online
selling nationwide.
But the next tier is we'reworking on to jump into,
especially retailers across theUS.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Wonderful.
Well, randy, congrats to youand Shauna for starting this
initiative, wishing you bothsuccess.
We need more Caribbean brandsand a variety of Caribbean
brands in our local stores and,like you said, it's representing
our culture.
(27:55):
Every brand, every brand that'sout there, has a different
story and each story just is,it's just additive to what our
culture represents.
Right, all the different ways.
So, thank you so much for beingon the podcast.
And any last words before wesign off.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Thank you for the kind words.
My last words would beKerri-Ann, I've learned about
your background, about who youare.
You know, being a Brooklynnative, representing, you know,
100% Jamaican.
I love what you do for ourcommunity At West Indies Pepper
Sauce.
It's not about me or you knowall the West Indies and
(28:37):
Caribbean people, or so.
It's about celebrating everyday people from the Caribbean
and West Indies making an impactday in and day out.
So thank you for what you dobecause you give us all a
platform and, at the end of theday, representation.
It will always be important, soyou'll big up yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Thank you, randy.
Let me tell you, randy, youknow this is real selector talk.
I'm just kidding, you see.
You see the way you're flowing.
Mr Yaman Yaman, I see it, I seeit.
Thank you so much for you know,coming on the podcast telling
your story.
I hope someone is encouraged, Ihope someone recognizes, if
(29:22):
they're in a layoff, that thereis opportunities that they could
try.
You know, like it's not the end, you know, and that's what I
got there's, there's alwayssomething to try, something to
do, and in the process of doingand trying that, we're bringing
our culture and our stories.
That's what I got, you know,from what you're saying.
Wherever you go, you know,whatever you're doing, your
(29:43):
culture all up in there, youcan't take it away.
So, and that is what we'reabout here on Carry, on Friends.
So thank you for coming onsharing your story, letting
everybody know a little bit moreabout who you are and, as I
love to say at the end of everyepisode, walk good.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I respect love.
Hello everyone, Welcome back to another episode
of Carry On Friends theCaribbean American experience,
and I'm excited about youmeeting my guest today, Randy.
Randy, welcome to the podcast.
How are you feeling?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm feeling good, Carrie.
I'm very happy to be here today.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Awesome.
So why don't you tell thecommunity of friends a little
bit about who you are, caribbeancountry you represent and the
work you do?
Awesome?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So a little bit about me.
Randy Pelaya, born in RichmondHill, Queens, New York, so the
heart of the Caribbean community, right Little Guyana If you're
not from the New York area,that's what we call it.
A little bit about myself, isbeen around the world, been to
60 countries, six continent.
Proud first generation American, been around the world, worked
(00:49):
for a lot of Fortune 100organizations and today we're
here to talk about our company,West Indies Pepper Sauce, that
my wife and I recently launchedthis year, getting ready to do
some big things All right beforewe get into West Indian Pepper
Sauce, talk to me a little bitabout what it was like growing
up in Richmond Hill, littleGuyana, and your experience as a
(01:14):
first-generation GuyaneseAmerican.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Tell me about how that was for you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I love it.
This is a question that is nearand dear to my heart, right,
because you don't know whereyou're going unless you know
where you're coming from.
So I grew up in Queens RichmondHill.
In Richmond Hill, it used to bea very Italian neighborhood
back in the day.
My dad immigrated from Guyanato Brooklyn in the late 70s and
(01:41):
hopped over to Queens RichmondHill in the early 80s 70s and
hopped over to Queens RichmondHill in the early 80s, growing
up in New York City.
In Queens, everybody's fromeverywhere.
Right Between Queens andBrooklyn, 170 languages are
spoken.
All scents, all background, alltypes of cultures reside there.
I remember as a child I'm 40right now as a child, there
(02:06):
would always be the Labor Dayparade.
There would always be some typeof event celebrating our
communities, and our communitieswas not only Guyanese, it was
Trinidadians, jamaicans, stLucia, grenada, haiti, puerto
Rico.
It's representing everyone.
Haiti, puerto Rico it'srepresenting everyone.
(02:30):
So my representation in mychildhood of New York was very
much culture and it's verynostalgic to this day.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
You mentioned that you've traveled all over the
world.
You've been to most of thecontinents, most of the
continents.
Which country or countries youfelt like when you showed up and
you were representing Guyana,they were just like, oh wow,
Like they really loved not onlyyour Guyanese heritage but
(02:57):
Caribbean culture on a whole.
Which country did you say like,really leaned into, like, oh my
God, I'm so excited.
Tell me more.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, no, that's a solid question there.
So we spent, my wife and IShauna she's the co-founder of
West Indies Pepper Sauce as wellwe spent about five years
living in Asia, so one year inSouth Korea and four years in
Vietnam.
So the region that reallyconnects with me outside of the
Caribbean is Southeast Asia.
So I think Vietnam is in thatbucket, thailand is in that
(03:31):
bucket, singapore, malaysiathose are the big areas of
people were very curious.
Those are also a lot of theregions where people are really
curious Wow, guyana, where isthat from?
So there you got to, as we allknow, carry on right.
What is the Caribbean?
What is the West Indies?
You got to go back andeverybody you meet is a big
(03:52):
history lesson, right, butthey're very, very, very much
connected and intrigued aboutour people.
They know a little bit about us, right, they know a little bit
about the ingredients, but theydon't know the whole pepper pot.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's awesome.
Throughout your trip inSoutheast Asia, right?
Did you find similarities toyour?
You know Guyanese Caribbeanculture and was any of that like
a catalyst or a starting pointfor conversation?
You know, for many people whomay not be fortunate to travel
in those areas, sometimes it'snot easy to see commonalities.
(04:30):
So did you see any of thatwhile you were in Asia?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah, so we moved out there to teach English, right.
So Shauna was mom, she'sVietnamese American, she was
adopted.
That was kind of and we're bothproud first generation
Americans.
When we tell our family, hey,we're leaving the States to go
live overseas to teach English,people are like what, oh my gosh
, why?
And then, as we jumped into itto answer your question was on
(04:57):
the weekends we would go to themarkets, right, jump on our
motorbikes, go to the market.
And we went over to Vietnam tolearn, learn about the culture.
My wife's mother was adopted asa refugee so I told her like,
like, it's important for us tolearn about the culture and
learn about the language.
So we started speakingvietnamese, so we're basic
conversational vietnamese.
(05:17):
As we would go down the market,carry on, and I would go and get
my spinach right, or I'd get mypotatoes, or I'd get my fish
right, or chicken and get all ofthe herbs and coconut and all
that.
So I started to realize all ofthe ingredients that they have
out.
There is what we have in theCaribbean, the West Indies,
(05:39):
right, everything from soursop,mango, guineap, I mean starfruit
guava, it's just down to thebones or so.
But one of the things thatreally just set me off was you
know, we use a lot of coconutright in our curries and a part
of our cultures across theregion.
The way they had data isactually great.
(06:02):
The coconut reminded meculturally of my grandma, right,
and it's not only my grandma,it's all of our grandmas in the
Caribbean, the West Indies,right.
So it's very nostalgic thatsense of community around food.
And as you go to differentregion in Thailand, in Singapore
, malaysia, reggae is big right,people know reggae, they know
(06:27):
dancehall.
My nickname growing up wasReggae Randy.
It still is to this day, right.
So I would always be intriguedabout people and their music
selection and how they learnabout reggae and what was that
influence beyond, right.
So hopefully that answers thatquestion.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I'm happy to you know , dive in deeper yes, it
answered my question and I wantto know reggae Randy need to
pull a tune right now.
What's the tune reggae Randygoing for?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
now you're putting me on the spot.
So listen, I love chronics, youknow I love.
I love barris, I love dancehall, I love coffee from the west
indies.
So you know I'm not, I'm not asinger and all that so, but you
know, I me.
What was the impetus for that?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What was the reason that you've decided, shauna,
(07:32):
we're going to start thisbusiness.
And she's like, yes, babe,we're going to do it, so talk to
me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, this is Karianne.
This has been truthfullyspeaking.
This has been a long time inthe making.
This has been truthfullyspeaking.
This has been a long time inthe making.
So my background is e-commercelogistics.
I used to work for DHL ExpressUPS.
I used to bring brands tomarket and expand across the
domestic and global market andSean has very much background as
(08:04):
a marketing director leadingthat brand image in direction of
that.
So I used to make pepper sauce,you know, for my friends and
family in a regular jar and giveit out to my family and friends
and when they start tastingthat they're like, wow, this is
fantastic, can I get some more?
I used to grow it out of mygarden and I still do.
But, carrie Ann, it's such asmall yield of pepper sauce that
you can make right.
We started last year, last, uh,last summer, shauna and I
(08:29):
decided to create west indiespepper sauce.
Um, you know, got a lot ofinspiration from our family, my
brother-in-law and sister-in-law.
They're out of northwestarkansas.
They're the ones who reallyhelped push, push this and
pushed us to start this companywe launched in February of this
year and, truth be told is I'vebeen laid off from my job for
(08:53):
about four and a half months.
Sean has been laid off from herjob for the last month and a
half and Carriene, we haveworked at Fortune 100
organizations, working withdecision makers, working with
all types of brands.
And you know, I love peppersauce, I love food, we love to
(09:16):
cook.
We cook a very goodVietnamese-Chinese combination
type of food.
You know, in the space ofpepper sauce it's limited, right
.
You've got a few options.
You know Big Up to Grace, right?
Can't Disrespect.
You know Bertie's.
You know from Trinidad, can'tDisrespect.
You know Walker's from Jamaica,santa's all day, every day.
(09:37):
Right, but coming from the USmarket, this is where it really
hits the soul, right, becausewe've been around 60 countries,
six continents.
We pushed ourselves to go dothat.
We came from no money.
My dad was a constructionworker.
Shauna's mom, when she cameinto the States from Vietnam as
she grew up, she was working infactories.
(09:59):
We look at the products on theshelves, all the premium
products out there.
They have all different typesof cultures.
So when you get into the hotsauce section, carrie-anne, you
just see a lot of companies thattake a little bit of this, a
little bit of that, and I don'twant to use the word tiefen, but
(10:21):
I want to be very real.
They're taking a lot of ourculture.
So, first and foremost, westIndies pepper sauce.
We are premium brand in the hotsauce market.
In the industry people don'tlook like us.
They don't have our brand story.
(10:41):
They don't have our jars.
Our jars and the whole basis ofWest Indies pepper sauce is to
educate consumers of all walksin life about the Caribbean and
the West Indies, about all ofour people and the contributions
that we continue to do.
So.
We're six months old.
Out of Orlando, we're doingfarmer's markets.
We're getting ready to rock androll.
(11:01):
Things happen for a reason,carrie.
We got a four and six year old.
We're getting ready to rock androll.
Things happen for a reason,carrie.
We've got a 4 and 6 year old.
They're involved into this.
We get love vibes from peopleacross the board.
No-transcript.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
You know, randy, you said something and you know,
being in the entrepreneurshipspace, you know you'd see, like
how much pepper sauce you need,right, but if we go into the
supermarket and you walk theshelf, you see how many pepper
sauce in there that doesn'tnecessarily represent Caribbean
culture.
So the you know, the moreoptions, the better.
So I want to focus on thepepper sauce a little bit Now.
(11:39):
You said that you started withthe stuff from your garden and
you would, you know, bottle itand the yield so, talk to me
about scaling the differentfarmers markets.
(12:04):
And two, you know, you know ifyou are big cook, you know
cooking a small pot of rice andpeas is very different from
cooking a big pot.
So when you're dealing withbulk and volume, there's a
quality concern that most peoplehave.
So talk to me, how are youmanaging all these different
elements and changes that willinevitably happen as you expand
and grow?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, no, that's I like that question.
So, yeah, you know, started,you know, for the last 20 plus
years making it from our garden,right, just go to the store,
get some different types ofpepper and just make our pepper
sauce.
As we started for West Indiespepper sauce, our intention was
never to just be small, not onlyto be in a West Indian
(12:44):
Caribbean market and that's thatright.
We're selling it to some folks.
We wanted to bring it to scale,to market.
So the first things first was,I mean some Guyana, right?
So in Guyana there's two typesof pepper we're pepper which is
a unique pepper from Guyana, andthen in Guyana we call it
balafaya pepper, aka scotchbonnet big enough back to
(13:08):
Jamaica, right, scotch bonnetsfrom Jamaica, right?
So as we started this journey,we wanted to see who are the
players out here, right, whereare people sourcing the products
?
And our goal is to be inspecialties retailers, the
sprouts, the whole foods, theWegmans, the premium specialty
(13:29):
markets.
We have five ingredients scotchbonnet, cucumbers, turmeric,
salt and vinegar.
So our largest supplier is ourpepper supplier.
We source our scotch bonnetsfrom costa rica and, non-gmo, we
source our cucumbers locally.
So that's not going to be achallenge, right?
(13:51):
The biggest challenge isgetting getting those scotch
bonnet peppers right and havingthat brand consistency.
Whether it's jar number becausewe have it in a jar right,
whether it's jar number one tojar number 10,000, it all looks
the same.
We're vegan, non-gmo andgluten-free, and what a lot of
(14:12):
people tend to say is when theytaste it they say you know what?
I haven't had pepper sauce likethat in a long time.
It reminds me back to mychildhood.
It reminds me back from when mygranny used to make that or so.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Now, when we think of local, are you shipping?
Like, what does shelf life looklike?
Because, again, I know you'vedone logistics but, like when it
comes to food, the logisticsthing set up very differently.
So how are you managing, likeyou know, maintaining the shelf
life when you have to ship itand all of these things?
(14:47):
Talk to me a little bit aboutthat and maybe some of the
challenges, unforeseenchallenges that you've run into
so far.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, so the shelf life is one year, right?
So, from a productionperspective, as soon as our
products are made, we have thatone year shelf life, we tell
people to open up the containerand then put it in the
refrigerator.
Our average customer finishestheir bottle of pepper sauce in
32 days.
With regards to like unseenchallenges, I think where we are
(15:24):
right now as a brand, as we'regetting ready to scale, is
making sure that we have theright resources right.
So you just can't get into aWalmart or a Whole Foods or a
Wegmans just like that.
You have to kind of go througha food broker.
(15:45):
Once you go through those foodbroker, you have to pay X amount
of dollars in order to have anopportunity there, and that's
when they'll start pitchingthese brands.
So I think a challenge would bemaking sure know, making sure
that we have enough capital topay.
All of you know those foodbrokers.
This is an expensive game.
We don't come from it.
We jumped into it.
(16:06):
We are here and we're about tomake things happen, but I think
that's going to be a challengefrom a food broker perspective,
you know, making sure that wehave that capital to pay those
slot in fees.
And the slot-in fees are howyou get into these groceries and
then making sure that you'renot going to get paid then, and
there you might have 30, 60, 90day net terms.
(16:28):
I think the challenge would bemanaging finances as we scale.
Our eye is to be across the USand once we're finished across
the US, we already got a lot oflove and support from Canada and
the UK and you know there's alot of interest out there.
So it's about understanding howit all works together and we're
(16:50):
working with a lot of brandswho are going through this
journey outside of the peppersauce space.
So we have our resources.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
That was a question that I was going to ask because
on this entrepreneurial journeyso we have our resources,
because there's a lot there, andI've gone through layoffs
myself but was the layoff theimpetus for the scale, or were
you already in process and thelayoffs just accelerated the
scale, or scaling it to whereyou are now or what you're
(17:31):
trying to do now?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, things happen in life for a reason, right, and
if you have your eyes closedand you don't see what's
happening in front of you, youmissed that opportunity.
So, as we were building this outin the background, working off
full-time jobs and raising twokids under the age of seven,
started applying for jobs and,to be real, we would go out
(17:57):
through our referrals, ourcommunity, our networks, and you
know I wouldn't get called back, I wouldn't even have an
opportunity, with all of myexperience, as well as Sean's
experience, to have thatopportunity to interview or so.
And so I would allocate X amountof you know, maybe like two
hours a day working on WIPs andanother, you know, two hours
(18:19):
working on, you know applyingfor roles, and then then another
you know, two hours planningand you know, after a certain
time it's been four months forme.
I said we've had so muchsuccess, carry on from a local
farmer's market and shippingnationwide people resonating
with our brand and our brandidentity and our mission I
(18:44):
decided to take this full time,jump in head first.
Right now we're dotting our I's, crossing our T's, making sure
that we have everything in placeto start scaling, and we want
to scale not everywhere, we wantto be very intentional because
first things first is we're $15a jar for our pepper sauce.
(19:06):
We're in the premium space ofhot sauce and we're not just
selling pepper sauce.
We're selling our culture, notonly from Guyana, trinidad and
Jamaica, st Lucia, we representin all of our regions.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
What about your full-time roles For your wife,
shauna?
It's clear.
What are the skills there thatyou're leveraging for WIPS right
now to help you navigate thisnew venture?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, so in Vietnam.
While we lived in Vietnam, wetaught English and we also had a
sourcing business.
We were manufacturing dresses.
We have no background into thatright, and it goes to the life
saying right, those who live orlearn the most.
You have to be comfortablebeing uncomfortable.
That's how you live and learn,right.
So we know a little bit aboutproduction and source and input
(19:57):
and things together, making sureour price points are where
they're at Strategicrelationships, that strategic
perspective that you know, knowreally just having a roadmap of
where we want to be, having astrong sense of brand identity,
right.
So at wisteries pepper sauce,with my experience with sean and
(20:19):
myself, we want to focus onthree things we want to create a
great product, we want to havea great user experience and then
we also want to have a messagethat is compelling.
So, with my experience workingwith top brands, working with
decision makers, working withsome of the household brands
(20:40):
that we all use day in, day out,I understand some of their
challenges.
Right, we understand, you know,what are their challenges and
those are things that we're alsojust utilizing to our advantage
as we grow.
West East Pepper Sauce.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Again, not to harp on the layoff, but I think there's
some lessons there that you canhelp convey to the audience.
So someone's listening, theyhave a full-time job.
The audience so someone'slistening, they have a full-time
job.
What is one or two lessons thatyou've learned from this
transition of looking for a jobbeing laid off and you're like
(21:19):
you need to make a decision?
What's a lesson or two that youfeel like you can share with
the audience about navigatingthe space or preparing, you know
, because you never know anyonewho might be in this position at
any time.
So any lessons that you'velearned that you want to share.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, this is something that you know.
I kind of asked myself alongthe way, and it's great to
self-reflect.
The two lessons that I tend totake away, or I would offer,
would be it doesn't matter whoyou are, what you do, what you
believe in be authentic.
(21:59):
You got to be authentic.
People could smell it if you'renot.
So we're doing this as ourauthentic selves.
And the second thing would becelebrate the small wins, day in
and day out.
Right, you have to look andcelebrate those wins, right, and
(22:25):
if you fail, that's anopportunity to learn.
And if you're not learning fromyour failure, you're not going
anywhere, right?
So you have to be genuine andbe authentic and celebrate those
small wins.
With regards to, like thelayoffs, man Kerrian, it's so
tough for so many people outthere.
My heart goes out for everybody, right, and I don't pity
(22:49):
ourself with regards to what'shappening right now.
We are taking something as anegative, turning it into a
positive, and we are going tomove forward.
Carrie Ann, I refuse, I refuseto give up because, in our short
span of doing this, I want togo back to the pepper sauce
Brands.
(23:09):
Don't look like us.
They don't have our story, theydon't have our product and we
are all about representation,about jumping into this space.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Entrepreneurship is a viable option, but we also have
to make sure we're messaging itthat it's the reality of that
option.
It's not easy, right?
It requires a lot of things.
You have a spouse, that you'reworking together, you can
(23:43):
support each other.
That looks very different forother people, so I really
appreciate that you are sharingand you're vulnerable about that
and your experience.
So, um, when it comes to thepepper sauce, mega asked the the
very important question thatcaribbean people want to know
what's the scale of pepper like?
(24:03):
Is it or hi it hot?
Like, do you have differentjars that cover different levels
of heat, or is it like onespice for everybody?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, so we do have two jars, right.
So we have our six ounce jarWest Indies pepper sauce.
This is five ingredients scotchbonnet peppers, cucumbers,
turmeric, salt and vinegar.
So the red pepper sauce, whichwe're going to be giving a name
shortly.
It has a citrus undertone.
(24:38):
So on a scale from zero to 10,when we use a little spoon to
give out samples, I'd say it'sabout a six out of 10, based on
a little drop.
Servant size is a teaspoon.
So for me, I like a lot ofpepper sauce.
Right, our pepper sauce is notgoing to burn.
It's not going to burn yourbutt.
(24:58):
That's not what we're goingafter.
So it's flavorful.
It's flavorful.
It is going to help enhanceyour food.
But there's a lot of culture inhere, right, not only
gyneculture, but from the wholewest indies, in the caribbean
right, the red has a bit of acitrus undertone.
The the yellow, sameingredients.
It has a bit of a, a tangyundertone and from a spice level
(25:25):
it's still that six out of tenperspective, right, a A little
bit gives you that six.
And how it normally goes is,once you have a teaspoon or you
have a bit of a taste on it,whenever we do it at the
farmer's markets.
It kind of goes up a little bitand it's just hanging there and
then it's going down and it'sat the back of your tongue.
(25:45):
And our saying is based oncustomer feedback is we're
addictive without the additives,so we're vegan, we're non-GMO
and gluten-free.
This is five clean ingredientshere, so hopefully that kind of
answers that question.
If you want it hotter, all youdo is, instead of one teaspoon,
you just do two teaspoons.
And if you do more than twoteaspoons, man, wow, that's,
(26:09):
that's going to be some, that'sgoing to be some trouble, but
that's that's kind of like fromthe perspective.
This is, this is flavor, flavorfor your food.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Wonderful.
Before we wrap up, what?
What do you want people to knowabout you?
West Indian pepper sauce, wherethey can find it and where is
it available.
All of that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, so, first and foremost, our website is
shopwipscom.
So shopwipscom, we're onInstagram, tiktok, facebook.
Our handle is at shopwhips,where you can just search West
Indies Pepper Sauce.
So we're on those platforms andwe're also on Amazon.
(26:56):
So if you are in the CentralFlorida market, in the Orlando
market, we do a lot of farmer'smarkets right now.
We did this one big event inMiami Soka Food Wine Fet with
Vanessa James, who is very muchin our community, who is
celebrating so many of us andreally talking about the
(27:18):
Caribbean diaspora.
So we're doing a lot of eventsright now and we're online
selling nationwide.
But the next tier is we'reworking on to jump into,
especially retailers across theUS.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Wonderful.
Well, randy, congrats to youand Shauna for starting this
initiative, wishing you bothsuccess.
We need more Caribbean brandsand a variety of Caribbean
brands in our local stores and,like you said, it's representing
our culture.
(27:55):
Every brand, every brand that'sout there, has a different
story and each story just is,it's just additive to what our
culture represents.
Right, all the different ways.
So, thank you so much for beingon the podcast.
And any last words before wesign off.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Thank you for the kind words.
My last words would beKerri-Ann, I've learned about
your background, about who youare.
You know, being a Brooklynnative, representing, you know,
100% Jamaican.
I love what you do for ourcommunity At West Indies Pepper
Sauce.
It's not about me or you knowall the West Indies and
(28:37):
Caribbean people, or so.
It's about celebrating everyday people from the Caribbean
and West Indies making an impactday in and day out.
So thank you for what you dobecause you give us all a
platform and, at the end of theday, representation.
It will always be important, soyou'll big up yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Thank you, randy.
Let me tell you, randy, youknow this is real selector talk.
I'm just kidding, you see.
You see the way you're flowing.
Mr Yaman Yaman, I see it, I seeit.
Thank you so much for you know,coming on the podcast telling
your story.
I hope someone is encouraged, Ihope someone recognizes, if
(29:22):
they're in a layoff, that thereis opportunities that they could
try.
You know, like it's not the end, you know, and that's what I
got there's, there's alwayssomething to try, something to
do, and in the process of doingand trying that, we're bringing
our culture and our stories.
That's what I got, you know,from what you're saying.
Wherever you go, you know,whatever you're doing, your
(29:43):
culture all up in there, youcan't take it away.
So, and that is what we'reabout here on Carry, on Friends.
So thank you for coming onsharing your story, letting
everybody know a little bit moreabout who you are and, as I
love to say at the end of everyepisode, walk good.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I respect love.
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