All right, we're back. Back to bring you another SLG meetup, which is going to be today about the luxury lifestyle experience, because when we talk about the real estate, it's not just about the property itself. We are talking about the lifestyle, and there is nothing more incredibly amazing than to combine all the elements that makes experience so unique. And for that today, we're going to have Petra Hakemi, she's the founder and CEO of the Caviar Company, which is a sister-founded business that provides unsurpassed Caviar collections.
Hi! How are you? Wow, look at you and your background. I love it.
Oh, I figured I'm in our tasting room right now. I figured it was the perfect thing. I figured it was the perfect place for your live with you. Wait, but that's a picture?
What is that? It's a whole wallpaper with our logo and branding on it. This is what our caviar tins look like. I need to step up my game with the background.
Really? Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm very excited about anything related to Caviar, I'm a big fan, and obviously you guys have been providing some of the most high-end Caviar and the experiences that come with it. So thank you.
Yeah, well, of course, no, we're really excited to be here today. Thank you for your interest and for having us. No, of course. I love the picture.
The reason that I wanted to bring you guys in here today is because when we talk about luxury, especially when it comes to real estate, a lot of people just emphasize on the product itself, on the property. But it's all about the experience. And I do believe that the whole lifestyle that brings to the table through something like Caviar elevates everything. So I want to know how you guys got started because it's a sister-founded business, your background is very unique, and how you are elevating this lifestyle for all these super high-end individuals.
Yeah, absolutely. So like you mentioned, my sister and I started the company together at the end of 2015. I was working for a caviar farm, but then, which I loved, I loved the background and history and science behind fish farming, but we loved to provide these experiences. We loved to do events.
We loved to be direct with consumers and be able to talk about the caviar. Basically, you're just caviar geeks that can talk about caviar for a really long time. So you'll probably have to cap me off even at some moment. But so we saw an opportunity and a void in the industry where we can make caviar really fun and light and throw it on the back of your hand and be serving it at outside lands, at music festivals, at weddings more in a more approachable way, because what we found in our past is when we were working with caviar, it was a little bit more dark and heavy and not as exciting as it could be.
Like it is really fun and it definitely elevates an event. It's very elegant. But there's a way to make it fun, right? It's kind of what our mission was and why we started our company.
So why would you say the secret sauce, since we were talking about food in here, what is the secret sauce to stand out in this industry? How do you penetrate the market? Because you started in 2015, there's companies that have been for many years. So how were you able to really position yourself on the top?
I think something that we were seeing a lot of before we got into the industry was caviar service. Like your traditional caviar service at a restaurant, which is caviar by the ounce with the accoutrement, the bleenita creme fraiche, the chai, the onion, the lemon. And all of that stuff is really great. But when we got involved here, Chef, let me give you this product and play with it.
Let's put it on tater tots. Let's put it on anything really great and start you with the potato. We work with a restaurant here now, with Fantastice in San Francisco. They do it on an eclair.
And it's amazing because it has a caramelized filling in it. And so it's that mix with sweet and savory is really amazing. We really encourage our partners to push the limits. We've done it with ice cream.
We went to work with ice cream. Yeah. It's like a local ice cream brand here out of San Francisco called Humphrey's Locom. And we called them.
We're like, can we just do play date? Let us just come over. We'll bring all of our caviar. You roll out your ice cream.
And let's just see what happens. And obviously, there's some, the chef was very skeptical. He's like, you want to do what now? Are you sure you're meaning to call me?
You know, we want to put a caviar on my ice cream. OK. And it was amazing. We worked.
Yeah. So something that a lot of people don't know is that like caviar and strawberries actually go really well together. And so we found a perfect pairing with Humphrey's Locom does a strawberry blondie ice cream that has a white chocolate ganache mixed into it. And it's amazing.
It's once you get more into the science of like the fat content of the caviar matching up to something like a white chocolate ganache, it really, really works. And it's exciting to see. Wow. So what's your favorite combination to eat caviar?
For me, I think it depends what I'm doing, what the event is. I'm a sweet person like that's how that got started. I say I know just as much about milkshakes as I do about caviar. But so I love that surprise of something that feels really strange.
And I love where you're like, oh my gosh. And I see one of the comments here from Elise Strauss is eggs. She always loves to put on like her scrambled eggs, just throwing out on scrambled eggs in the morning and we call that our breakfast of champions. All breakfast of caviar, I like that.
Yeah, and what's so healthy for you too. But like if I were having friends over for caviar in the afternoon, I would do it with like potato chips and champagne. I think that's the most casual fun way to do it with just hanging out or doing caviar bumps off the back of your hand. And of course, champagne.
Let me ask you about this because obviously we're talking about caviar, but I really want to bring it together with the lifestyle, right? Because a lot of people really feel elevated when they combine all these different experiences all together. I mean, it's not the same to being a property and just laying in there versus being there and experiencing something so unique, which is what you guys do. You're going to these places, you create an event and you do the whole experience about enjoying the taste of the caviar.
So walk me through like what will be something because what we do is we celebrate our friends. So we bring different experiences, different things that makes it unique and special to these homes. So if you will have the opportunity to go into one of the super high end properties, like what would you bring with the caviar? What kind of experience?
So for us, all part of the experience is the education too. And I feel like with the education is the opportunity to taste different caviar side by side. So if we were to go into one of your properties, we would do set up a caviar bar is what we call it, where we would have three different types of caviar side by side. One would be like a domestic from California.
One would be a wild from the Tennessee River. And then we would bring a big like a Russian a set up or a Caluga hybrid or Siberian search and something, you know that so you have the stair steps of caviar. And then allow people to taste side by side, just like a wine tasting, right? Because we compare caviar to wine in so many ways.
And the second that it's compared to wine, it's a lot more approachable and a lot more fun. And so that's a big experience that we like to offer is to try different caviar side by side so you can understand the different varieties. Got you. Would you have also that ice cream section on the side to mix it up?
I mean, that's very weird that random. I've never tasted, I need to care about it, but I'm willing to try it. Yeah, yeah. We'll have to get to you somehow to try some ice cream and caviar because it really is a fun and like macarons is also really fun.
And I think that could definitely elevate the experience when you're showing one of your homes. So how do you establish or what's the right method to get the right exposure so that you could partner up with all these chefs, restaurants, homeowners to do these type of experiences? What's your approach? Because social media has really changed our business in such a great way.
I think our main approach for so long has been organically through social media. Has my sister and I started, you know, just the two of us with not a huge budget, we had to go the organic approach and just be persistent, right? Like we right away, we got our Instagrams going up. We let people know who we are because obviously we're selling a luxury product.
We also want people to know that we're who we are as people behind the brand and try to establish a personal relationship with our customers or people who are interested in our product because we feel we're proud of who we are and what we bring to the caviar industry as a whole about making it like being trustworthy, being reputable, labeling correctly and things like that. I think with something like caviar, it's like homes and like diamonds. People want to, there's smart people that are buying your product and they do their research and they want to know that they can trust you. Whenever you're buying a home, they want to know that you have their interest in mind and that you're going to do the best that you can for them.
It's kind of even though we're selling a product, we're the same boat. And so from a marketing standpoint, that has been our mission from the get go. And then also to collaborate with people, right? To do things like this and get to connect with like minded people on Instagram, live or through an event and make it fun.
You know, if we can be in these mutually beneficial relationships and collaborate with people, then we feel that it's win for everyone and it just makes our job fun and it makes every day different. You know, it's like nothing at our day to day is the same. It's like, okay, we're talking to next. What do we have going on next?
What events are in the pipeline? So I like it. I like it. Listen, we're here to all have fun, to make something impactful and to really bring value to the table, right?
What you just put right there is the secret sauce, but I also want to ask throughout all these years in the business, which is not an easy business, what's been the biggest challenge and the lesson that you've learned from it? Gosh, there have been a lot of challenges, but I think obviously the growth has been a big challenge, which is funny because it's obviously blessing at the same time. But we started from just my sister and I, and then even before COVID, pre-COVID, there were just three of us, you know, and we were saying we're strong but mighty. And now we're growing, we have 13 employees, which has been really, really rewarding, but understanding that growth and organization, I want to say we're a typical, we don't run our business like a typical business might.
I would say we're a bit, like sometimes people say, well, what's your budget? I'm like, well, what does it cost? We're bigger. So we're not your typical business model.
I would say, and there's, I think I love that because that's our culture and that's who we are. But there are also with that, as we grow, we need to get that structure stronger together. And that's something that we're finding out, you know, we're maneuvering around and thankfully I have such an amazing team of people. Like they're so important.
They're so, so awesome. And they, we all work together to figure that out. But right now, like that's kind of our biggest challenge on board. I love it.
Now the word luxury, what does that mean to you? I mean, when you think luxury, you do think of really beautiful views, items, yachts, champagne flute or a coops, you know, and experiences. Like you think about, to me, luxury is sitting in the middle of the Mediterranean is what I would like to be doing, you know, looking at a view, enjoying an experience with good people, good food and on a beautiful setting. Sign me up.
I mean, yeah. Make sure you bring caviar though. Yeah, of course, you know, I have to always caviar in tow all the time. I like it, I like it.
Well, listen, I appreciate your time. I wanted to rub this up by asking if you have any big takeaways or anything else that you would like to share with the audience. Um, you know, I'm, thank you so much for having us. I think this is, this is really fun to be a part of.
And we really are someone we love what we do. We work our asses off, but we have a lot of fun. I think that's something with hospitality is that work hard play hard and, and more, more to come, you know, this is only the beginning really. Well, I wish you nothing but the best.
You know, we're here for you to support in any capacity. Definitely we need to talk about doing something in one of our properties. And aside from that, I want to encourage everybody that is watching and listening either now or later this SLG meetup to please go ahead and follow the caviar code because it's very delicious every time I see your posts and not only that, but it's also a really cool way of showcasing what you guys are doing, which is fantastic. So, best of luck.
Thank you again for everything. And I look forward to seeing each other soon. Yeah, thank you so much. Have a nice day.
And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. Remember, embrace each beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.