Do you consider yourself resilient and what does that mean to you? In this podcast, Resilient Entrepreneurs with Two Four One, we chat with business owners about what resilience means to them as they share their inspiring stories and life lessons.
What we've learned running our own business, is you're never alone even when it feels like it. So tune in anytime to this podcast. We're always here for you celebrating resilient entrepreneurs just like you. We're Laura and Vicki from Two Four One - a marketing company for early stage business owners who want to launch, grow and be resilient.
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Our guest today is Colin Rego, the founder and CEO of Bermuda’s fastest-growing technology-driven company - the Sargasso Group. Since its inception in January of 2019 as a restaurant delivery company, the brand has rather quickly grown into what is now a household name. In December 2021, the group launched Pronto - Bermuda’s first fully app-based supermarket which I’ve used several times and absolutely love it. Colin tells us the group is in aggressive growth mode and in strong financial health, despite the challenging global economic climate. And it’s now raising investment to help fund ambitious plans to become a market leader in Bermuda and the Caribbean region, we are definitely going to dive more into that in this conversation. We are so grateful for you joining us today Colin, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you Laura. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for the invite, it’s a pleasure to engage with the community and all the entrepreneurs here. One of the key mottos for me in my short journey especially at the beginning was ‘Collaboration is the key to innovation’. So it's a pleasure to be here to learn and engage and share with everyone today so thank you.
I love that, collaboration is the key to innovation. I love that thank you. But before we get too deep into the business side of things and your future ambitions, let's talk about values. So you say at the heart of Sargasso is its commitment to deliver a community impact through innovation and technology, focusing on the virtues of diversity, inclusivity and spirituality. Why is community impact so important to you?
So sustainability is key and many, business is often transactional and quantified but I think where people are missing the mark and we're seeing a shift in today's era is people. And if people are the essence of our community and a company is a group of people with one objective, then if we focus on the people, the most important resources, the human resources and driving impact through their lives and their ecosystem which is the community, then it becomes a much more sustainable situation. If you invest into that community, you're pouring into it, things are sustainable, people work together, people talk about things, people recognise that.. most people when they come for a job, for example, it's not, they're not there for themselves, they're usually there for somebody else, whether it's their child, their grandmother, their significant other, their fur babies, whatever it is, but there's usually a bigger picture. And so therefore, you can't run a business or run a government without community, without a group of people and culture and standards. And so, make an impact in a community organically gives back to any organisation or any efforts towards a project and stuff. So I think impact in the people, in the community, it has a natural organic return and makes things easier to flow that way in regards to business.
It sounds like spirituality is a part of that. And when you say spirituality, we don't always mean religion, we mean connection, energy, vibe.
Yeah, absolutely. And that all goes down to the human side of things and naturally, we're all loving creatures and I think the principles of stoicism and philosophy, it's what can bring us together. I grew up in Bermuda, very Portuguese Bermudian, Catholic upbringing and then my background and kind of my interests were in philosophy. I wanted to be a philosopher out of college, it didn't work that way, got a minor in it but understanding that we're all humans and we all have the same Maslow's hierarchy of needs. When people talk about vibes, good vibes all the time, or “pura vida” and recognise that we're all more aligned or all frequencies, a bunch of molecules put together and a lot of people refer to the body, as just a vessel, right? So if we can, the business is usually the easy side of things, it's quantifiable, you can plan for it. But if we can understand how to engage people whether it's a soccer team, whether it's a choir, whether it's your team at work, your family, how do you get a group of people to work together and have that buy in with one another and that's what community, is right.
Yeah, beautiful. So we should just jump into some business stuff, too. I mean, it is all business and that's the thing. I think if someone just jumped in on this midstream they’d think, Oh, what is this all about? But it's about business, right? Business and people and that's really how we succeed as entrepreneurs. But we've called Resilient Entrepreneurs for a reason on this podcast and we invited you on because we recognise there's been a lot of opportunities to build resilience in your life. What would you say is the one thing that stands out for you that's really helped you build resilience?
Resilience and adversity, I feel like they are very synonymous. The ability if you take it from a boxer example, it's a great boxer - it's not about how many punches can the boxer learn but how many punches can he continue to take and get back up and keep moving. And I guess if I bring it into another example, for my personal experience, when I was looking for jobs, applying for jobs, I moved to Portugal, I was backpacking at the time and I use this example, at one of the lowest points of my life before I started the Sargasso journey - was surfing, very similar to the boxing example. Surfing is about training, being prepared and getting up on time. You're waiting for the right wave, front to paddle out to the wave, get up on the board, ride that waves as long as you can and most times you don't get the wave, just kind of like life, it's constant but if you want to grow, you're constantly being put in uncomfortable positions. And it's that uncomfort that constant desire to be broken, the constant desire to want to grow and evolve, that's what for me is what resilience is about, is embracing adversity to make us stronger. And I give another example and I think examples are important to simplify concepts. Like a muscle, how do you build a muscle, there's no way to build a muscle unless you tear the fibres and only after you eat protein after your workout, can you actually build that? I think in life, it's very much the same way. We have to push ourselves, practice, practice, practice, push the limits, we don't even know a fraction of our potential of the mind, alright, of the world, it's very infinite. So adversity enables us to be resilient, embracing adversity allows us to be resilient and to keep on pushing through. And if it's easy, you're not trying hard enough, if you're not failing, you're not trying at all. And I think if we can apply this mindset of stoicism - is that certain things, 1) control your perceptions and 2) accept that, willingly accept that some things are just way out of your control. And using those two key pillars of philosophy through life then anything is possible. And you see that with some of the most amazing entrepreneurs around the world of today's age, I mean like Elon Musk and things like Open AI and Tesla and all the innovative space. And even Jeff Bezos is becoming a thing of the past, I mean, yes, they're doing cool things but every decade, every five years, there's something new and you recognise that it's the ability to keep on going and recognise that you control your perceptions on things, things are going to be hard often and it's just the willpower to continue trying to find a solution and justified by what one's purpose is. So I guess that’s what resilience means to me.
You've come upon some really big things there that a lot of people don't figure out and learn until much later in life. So what in your past has led you to have this type of mindset and even to think to study philosophy, to learn about these things and to go deeper into it.. so tell me about young Colin, what did young Colin.. How did you get to there? How did you get to this mindset at such a young stage of life?
Oh well, I think it all starts from our home, right? Two things that define who people are: the environment and genetic DNA. So nature versus nurture and so talking about nature, my father, I'm a son of an immigrant so that obviously was a huge driver too. You can have whatever you want, you’ve just got to work hard for it and working very young, as early as eight years old packing groceries and from there on out, had that financial freedom counting all the pennies, filling out the.. packing groceries and getting all the tips when you fill out your coins, take them to the bank and understanding numbers at such a young age and was crucial to it all. So that work ethic was ingrained in young and it was from a point of necessity and I think one of my favourite quotes from Plato is that necessity, the need for something is the mother of all innovation is the mother of all creation and invention. Without need, without hunger, one will not push themselves forward and we as humans are designed to get comfortable, right, and then conform. And I'm currently reading a book called The Molecule of More and it talks about how dopamine is the key driving element in our brain and it's a key thing why we do everything that we do and it's very instinctual, actually, so if we can understand the mind, we can understand a lot of other things.
But going back to young Colin, son of a pot washer, was kind of my story. I always remind people that my dad was a pot washer when he came to this little island of Bermuda from the Azores. I was a fat kid playing soccer, Portuguese background so I was kind of the minority in Bermuda, I was kind of destined to go be a landscaper and a construction worker and there's nothing wrong with that. But I saw the struggle of life of people working so hard from very young from that cultural side. I used to milk the goat after soccer practice and collect quail eggs, we were all eating from the farm and we ate whatever was on the table. If you didn't want to eat what was served for lunch, breakfast or dinner, you can go to bed on an empty stomach - I didn’t like my dad much growing up and coming from all that, really.. I wanted something different and I wanted to see something else in Bermuda. I wasn't the cool kid. I was kind of the heavyset funny kid, the class clown. I was likeable, always laughing, always a happy kid but I wanted more. I wanted to see the world, I was very inspired by that and being in Bermuda or any small town around the world, you can get stuck, stuck in the same pattern, stuck in the same ways.
Soccer changed my life. Soccer gave me the opportunity to leave Bermuda, explore different countries where I trained in Brazil in 2008-2009 and that was a big pivot - pivotable moment for me, where I was humbled, massively humbled by kids that we were training with who had never gone to school, who have never had jobs and were trying to train and kick a ball to find a way out of the favela which is the Brazilian ghetto. We went down and donated boots and shirts and clothes and it was really humbling when somebody you're training with comes to you at the end of a session, a soccer session and they're like, hey, trocar trocar, they can't afford to give gifts so the way they do that is an exchange of, Hey, I like your shirt. I like your pants, you want to trade? And that was mind blowing for me, kids younger than me, but some of the happiest kids I've ever seen on the field. And so that changed things for me and in 2009, after my second Brazilian soccer trip, thanks to North Village and Brazilian Football Academy that came down to do some programs with us, it was thanks to them for giving us the opportunity to choose and decide. And I went to their academy in South Florida after 2009 Brazil trip and stayed in that academy for two years. After a one-on-one training and three weeks of training, I called my parents up and said, Listen, I really want to move out here, I want to see this opportunity and so long story short.
How old were you at that point?
16, I’d just turned 16, just got my motorcycle licence. My mom said no, you're too young, not my child, blah, blah, blah. My dad said, we can't afford it but we'll find a way to put that extra work in and to make whatever your dreams are, come true. So long story short, high school in Florida, continued off to university, figured it all out myself. My parents have never gone to university, right. So it was that desire and those experiences that really started to open my world.
And then being in college, there was another pivotal moment. One being able to go get educated and seeing a whole different understanding of knowledge and in academia space, but yeah, another point was I spent a lot of time partying, working hard and then I’m coming back to Bermuda. So that was kind of young Colin and then there were some situations in row high school and university where I was falsely arrested or falsely accused of things and going to jail and prison in America I really saw that things were corrupted, not just from a small island perspective but I was facing 25 charges for ‘violently assaulting officers’ but in reality, I was the one that was assaulted. And through the courts and some help from a law professor, justice was served but there’s learning lessons. So again, the result, going back to resilience from coming from an immigrant family plus being able to be educated through hard work and real work, real world experience and academia and also just being out in the big world by yourself as a kid being exposed to this reality of the underground space and corruption and all of these things and you start to connect the dots and say, Wow, there are social constructs, this is really is a matrix and these institutions would have been no build on top of others, institutions over centuries and how far information gaps, financial gaps and it's quite bizarre once you start peeling the layers back. And it's these realisations and these experiences that have shaped my mindset personally and I think the last thing that I would add to that is music and arts and the underground space has kind of given me this wholesome experience that shapes my reality and that things aren't what they seem, and things are quite more complex than we imagine them to be. But we have to be bold and see through it and again, music, arts, and psychedelics hasn't been a whole part of that shaping of my mindset of the perspective, and you start to dig in and you start to really understand what's going on around there in the world and yeah, there's a lot more to it, right? So that's a little bit about my journey and where my lifestyle or my upbringing has shaped a lot of the decisions and a lot of my personal goals or purposes and what defines resilience in that sense. And there's never an arrival point, right? It's a constant journey so it's not like.. so many people have experienced so many worse things. So it's like, how do we continue to learn? How do we continue to surround ourselves with people and experiences that push us far beyond what we imagined as possible?
How do you find the time to continue that education for yourself? Because it sounds to me that education is really important, that constant seeking of understanding of the world is important to you.
You're absolutely right, Laura. And that's a personal, I guess obstacle or challenge that I've been going through especially since the launch of Pronto as now a second company to add to the journey, right? And with context, we're completely self-funded. Bootstrapping is our motto at Sargasso, we have no leverage, we have no debts and that's important because you need to know your numbers right? It's one of the questions that I think it's really important is that.. what is the most important concept for success, right. And I don't think there is one important one, I think wholesomeness and balance is really important and to kind of bring it back in, it's about how do you find balance to keep the mind going, learning around the world and not get caught up in the trenches of your work and no matter how hard you're working, separate those boundaries and if we recognise that the mind and the mindset is the most important piece then how do you find that balance? And I recently, after nine months of 6 - 12 hour work days, sometimes six or seven days straight, I’ll take a break for three weeks to completely disconnect - and disconnecting and reconnecting for me is getting out to the mountains, getting out to some music. I went out snowboarding for a bit and I got to see my significant others’ family, so I was in Canada, Montreal, Quebec for a bit. So for me, it's how do you balance protecting the integrity of the mind, finding time to read and understanding how you rejuvenate? And how do you set time intentionally for that because it's so easy to get lost in the sauce, whether it's you're progressing ahead or you're in the day to day operations and cycles. Finding that balance is something that's a personal challenge for me and being able to step away from everything and actually gain a bird's eye perspective and resetting the mind and being intentional how you do that, it means going to the spa, eating good, doing absolutely nothing with work, reading, doing some exercise that pushes you to the limits or, for example, next month I'm heading over to Costa Rica for a Music and Arts Festival. Seven days we're camping in the jungle, no technology, no sophisticated civilisation, but reconnecting with the roots, with breathing, with nature, with workshops with music and arts. And again, the other realms of the mind, right?
That sounds amazing. What do you do? What are your routines? How do you.. because you have to make time for all these things? What is your routine, like in order to fit these things into your life? Do you have a morning routine?
Yeah, I think I'm a little different, I have more of a night routine. Although I should be taking more time for more morning routines. As the role has evolved and requires my attention more in earlier times, or maybe earlier times is the only time that I get in peace and quiet. So initially, in the journey, when we were in startup mode and building and trading during the day, building at night and meetings in the morning and just in the cycle, you recognise that at nighttime, for me, it was at night time was the only time I got by myself. And that time just spending on the computer, making connections, building the tech, sourcing the right softwares, whatever it is, that time to just focus is prime time, it's invaluable. But now that we operate businesses with restaurant delivery and grocery delivery we’re open 8am to 11pm, sometimes midnight, seven days a week, right? So it's a mix between hospitality and enablement, logistics, you name it. So I no longer get that free time. Or if I am here, even if the operations back here, there's still distractions.
So waking up in the morning, making sure that you either get some exercise in or some reading in 20-30 minutes either, of each before you start your day is huge, not easy at all. It's something that I'm just getting back into because I was having a lot of late nights working till one or two in the morning and you don't really have that energy. So then you're kind of playing, you're getting ahead but you're in this late night routine. But an ideal morning routine is getting up 20-30 minutes, whether it's a HIIT exercise which is a quick jog, getting the mind and blood flowing, reading a book and like I said, right now I'm reading two books in sync, one's called The Molecule More and the other is a stoicism book, The Daily Stoic. I know we have readers in the audience who will enjoy it, I can always share them as well.
So a little bit of inspiration on how to tackle life for the day and a little bit of understanding about how people work, how the mind works and then applying those two refreshers to your day to day. And then making sure that you have a plan for the week, I thought that calendars, coming out of college, were just for old people, right? But I live and die by the calendar now. It's focused time for self, whether it's project work, whether it's meetings, everything is already set up for the day and before you start your day, you already know what you're doing. And then..
Hang on, I’ll stop you there. What tech do you use for your calendar? I'm curious, do you have any particular tech that you love that keeps you organised from your calendar?
Yeah, so just keep it simple. I use Google Calendar to start and now we use Microsoft Office for the company. But yeah, that's pretty much it. We use Calendly to make it easier for people to schedule meetings to make it much more available. But keeping it simple, just with a Google Calendar or Outlook is.. it's perfect.
Okay. Calendly, we're big fans of Calendly too. So yeah, it's good to share tech because people often get very confused by using lots of different platforms and technologies and it's good to know what people are using.
Oh I agree. I think one of the most useful pieces of technology that we use as a company is Slack just to make communication digital, to facilitate communication. WhatsApps is too personal, people need boundaries in their personal lives and professional. Slack kind of makes it a cool, fun way for modern day people to connect, share information and that communication is as important. An email, it's not as urgent. So yeah, that's been one of the coolest things that we've used in recent times.
Yeah, because you've got quite a big team now. How many people are working under the Sargasso group?
So at Sargasso office, we have about 15 - a team of 15. And at Pronto, we probably have a team of about 25, between managers and shoppers and a few other colleagues. And then we do enable about over 200 contractors between both companies, for the drivers side, that come and go, work independently. So from that side, so it's not a huge team but the team has grown from just one, myself and 10 drivers only four years ago. So I guess, relatively has grown vastly within those four years.
Just for people who are listening outside of Bermuda to provide some context, Sargasso Sea is, I guess, best described as the equivalent of UberEATS in this side of the world where I am.
Yeah so UberEATS, Skip the Dishes, GrubHub, Delivery Room, any of those around the world and Pronto, our new sister company that launched last year, we're pretty much the equivalent of Go Puff or Gorillas or Getir. So online restaurants, sorry, online grocery delivery. I think what's really cool to mention about Pronto, is that these other models are like Gorillas or Go Puff, are really based on Q-commerce and we're seeing this space kind of fallen off an edge on valuation, a lot of call a lot of companies like GoPuff are leaving Europe, or companies like Gorillas getting acquired by Getir and recent months, that they recognised that 10-15 minute delivery is not feasible. Some of these tech unicorns have spent over a billion dollars globally in the space, and we were forced in Bermuda, we knew that wasn't feasible from day one. Bermuda is a very expensive place, as we know, it has the fourth highest GDP in the world. So we have a high affluence in Bermuda but a low business literacy and tech literacy as a local population. So there's a huge opportunity here, a lot of potential obviously, that's why Bermuda is becoming a big hotspot for blockchain and a lot of these types of technologies. So digital assets being approved by the Monetary Authority and the government. So I think it's very interesting times that Pronto is not just Q-commerce but we're a hybrid model. And this year, we're looking at introducing some new pieces in phase two that may include a storefront and a few other pieces but we understand it's a small market. So how do you make these big concepts work that are usually based on scale and high volumes? How do you tweak things to make it fit for such a market as insulated like Bermuda?
And you have the experience in finding the answer because you were sharing with us earlier that you did try this Sargasso concept well before it really took off. Did you want to share a bit about how that went? Your first attempt.
So when I first finished university at the University of Tampa, I sold everything went to Thailand, came back to Bermuda, starting very fresh here. Been out of Bermuda for several years at this point and coming back, fresh out of college, full of energy, feel like we understand the world and got all the answers right. So we launched, so when I came back to Bermuda after university, I took a carpentry job to get cash flow in while I was building out two things. A marketing company called Chakra Marketing, our mantra was about connecting people and we tried Sargasso the first try around. Connected with the tech guy because my background at this point is marketing consumer behaviour and philosophy, very little understanding of tech. So connected with a tech guru in Bermuda, a restaurant guru in Bermuda, let's try this, we had five clients come on board, things didn't really work out, things fell through, I moved back to America. And then after giving it a shot and going through my journey and trying to find a job in places, you recognise that I didn't do it right the first time, I didn't have the proper knowledge, didn't have the proper cash to get started. So it was a learning journey and it was great reapproaching the same project, understanding the market and understanding those opportunities. And if there's still a gap, then clearly there's a solution for that gap. There's always a solution, right? And if we think that everything that we've invented something or come up with an idea in our mind, there's probably a chance, a high chance of probability that it's already created or designed elsewhere. So let's not waste time recreating the wheel. Let's focus on how do we add value and how do we create a solution? Also I believe, the business side of it, usually is easy, unless you're inventing something new, right? If something exists already and there's an opportunity, and you have that vision, you just got to figure out what is the equation to get to that result? And if you can understand people, or try to manage people and be better at that, then I think most people have a decent chance at succeeding in anything that they do if they actually try hard and put the effort in.
And did you have to learn what you were good at? Focus on that and then find the people to fill in the rest of the parts that maybe you weren't so strong yet?
It's an interesting question, because that question was a huge, huge question for me in college. What do I want to study? And that was only less than 10 years ago? What did I want to go to university for? What did I want to further my education in? I went in as undecided. And then I went into entrepreneurship, then I realised, that's not something that you can learn.
Then I posed the question, well, what is the most important tool or element that I could use for any business? And I was really good on numbers because I've been managing cash since packing groceries and counting my pennies, and my parents saying, hey, we'll give you everything you need, but anything you want, go and earn it yourself. So enabling me to go and figure that out, right? We can make money in any ways, right? If we want to, we can go pick up trash and make good money in Bermuda, we can go flip burgers, we can do a lot of different things in life to get a dollar, just got to do the work. So sorry, Laura, what was the question again?
I'm going along with you. No, it's about finding the team or building the team or finding the people to help you fill the gaps in your own abilities. But you were talking about how you went to school to learn what do you need to know, for any business? What did you focus on?
So then it was consumer behaviour and philosophy, I recognised that if you understand people and understand how to communicate something or sell something, then you could.. any business in any field, global market, underground market, it's how do you connect with people? How do you communicate? How do we engage and I can have the best service in the world, you can have the best marketing company but if we can't communicate that to to the right audience at the right time and the right channels, then it doesn't matter. Have the best Ferrari in the world, best vehicle, but if you have no idea where you want to go, how to get there, then that's gonna be a big challenge.
And Colin, did you have any mentors along the way on your journey?
Oh, absolutely. So first and foremost, my father and my mother, in terms of hard work pays off, coming from nothing, you can be absolutely anything you want. You choose the lifestyle that you want.
And we’re usually, the problems, we’re 99% of all our problems in life, right because of our perspective and how we want to see things, and so first and foremost, them. That's just to work hard and go and get whatever you want to be and see. Secondly, I think having great teachers along the journey of education, you always have one or two teachers at an institution that really changed your life. And I've had a Mrs. Abraham at MSA, who was huge on maths for me.
Shout out to Miss Ray. She was Miss Ray when I was at MSA!
She was great. And I think, moving into America, there was another German English teacher that I had, who was hard on me with my grammar coming from Bermuda, grammar wasn't always, generally it's not.. we're not known for that. Oh, at least my background I can speak for, coming from a Portuguese, non educated from an academic standpoint background. And her, and then in college, you had some really good professors that really just changed the way you look at business and education. Certainly them and more recently in my business journey and the past four years it's been a Sean Reel from Ignite, who is just amazing at what he does. And he can inspire people and individuals in a very unique way. And John Paul Doughty, who was a mentor through the program and naturally organically, we built a great relationship. And now he's actually a little bit more involved with the business than our advisor-mentor program, but I think networking is your biggest mentor, and, life experiences. So yeah, it was a couple of key players in my life.
Yeah, it's so important, right to have really strong mentors. So what's next.. what's next for Sargasso? Because I feel like you're that entrepreneur that's never going to just be satisfied to sit back and let everything just run. You’re a technology-driven company, technology is constantly evolving, changing, growing. What's next? What's the next big thing for you guys?
Both companies are in different spaces. For Sargasso, we're in an optimisation phase, we’re past the brand awareness, we are a verb in Bermuda. It's like, what's for dinner? We're having Sargasso for dinner..
Absolutely.
So it's how do we improve. How do we make sure the quality of our service and our product is adding more value, is still evolving?
With Pronto, which is our priority right now, it's how do we drive down food costs? Last year was our first year with Pronto, we launched on Sargasso, it's just a storefront. So a lot of vertical integrations there. But then we launched with state of the art technology, same technology as Gorillas. So we just relaunched with that in August as an official launch-launch. And it's like starting all over again, new processes, new procedures. And then in December, we just launched another layer of technology called an ERP system, Enterprise Resource Planning system that automates ordering from our vendors, to uploading into our real time inventory system and you need to have these pieces of technologies in place in order to scale. In order to have visibility on what your wastage, what's your cost structure, how are you managing pricing, all these different functions and resources. It's probably one of the most robust pieces of technologies that we've worked with, yes, the applications that we use for Sargasso and Pronto for our drivers, for our warehouse pickers, to the merchants, to customers and the back end managers and all these technology ecosystem, that's all cool and really fun stuff. But for Pronto without the ERP, you can’t scale, you have no controls in place to understand what your columns are, what's coming in, what's coming out.
So Pronto, at this point is our main focus, we are in acceleration mode, as you briefly mentioned, we are raising our first round of investment so we are talking to some players locally in Bermuda, we are talking to some international players and we are open to more interested strategic potential partners. Because we recognise that time is the biggest opportunity and threat for Pronto and the time is now.
We have great ambitions to roll out a few more locations, introduce a way to drive down costs even further than we have. So best prices on the island, fastest delivery on the island and free delivery when you spend over 100 bucks. So in these economic times, we believe that we offer Bermuda, unlike Sargasso which is a huge luxury, you can shop from any restaurant in Bermuda, any retailer, more and more retail stores in Bermuda. Pronto is really focused on creating more jobs and diversity with new jobs, training people for completely different out of the box jobs that Bermuda has never seen before, and lowering that food cost. So we have a 90 day plan right now, with a whole new marketing plan. We've got some professionals in place from other places, like Gorillas and Go Puff in other countries because although, we do a decent job in marketing, I would say, we know that there's way more to learn, way more strategic ways to go and grocery and the consumer behaviour around retail is very very different than Sargasso. It's a luxury, people are willing to pay more, unlike grocery where people want to get value and that's why people would rather shop on Amazon, even if it cost them $1 or less, or if they’re saving 10 bucks, because they trust it, it's convenient and it's cost effective most times. So we're looking to scale operations in Bermuda for Pronto, that's our main focus. And we can succeed at doing that within the next 12 to 24 months and really hit that out of the park that we do have huge aspirations of expanding into the Caribbean with Pronto.
We’re at the beginning of this decade, right, every business model lasts between or it’s on the hype for 5 to 10 years and then it's something else that's new and cool right? So Pronto, this is the time. And it's also more important than ever because of inflation and shortages in supply chain globally. So it becomes more and more valuable, but I will say it is like a shooting target. And Sargasso was quite a project but this is a whole new one. And yeah, you're right, when businesses are built and things are moving and you're past that growth phase. You’re right. That's what I like about being an entrepreneur because I recognise that I get bored easily. I need a challenge, a constant challenge, not just day to day work, but pushing the limits, pushing legislation, pushing government's, pushing humans to think differently. And I think when you create a team of people around you coming along that journey, it's fun. It's exciting. It's daunting at the same time, but it's kind of the same feeling that when you go into a casino, when you make a bet or something on something, or you try something new for the first time. And that's the entrepreneurship world. Every day is new. So if you like the thrill of new things, and uncharted territories then I think that's what keeps people going, it's grounding, it's humbling and this part of the journey is definitely our focus. We're excited about the next couple of months.
Yeah, I'm excited for you. And you've hit on so many things just there when you were saying that. We're big believers that economic downturns, recessions, this time is when entrepreneurs have the most opportunity to create new things. It's when innovation is going to be forced to happen because of need. And that's what entrepreneurs do. We find gaps, we fill needs, we help people, like you said, with the groceries, it's little things and it's simple things too. But out of these times is when the biggest businesses have come out - the Instagrams, the WhatsApps, the things that solve problems like connection, connectivity, and these things have grown during these times. So you're at the right time, you're at the absolute right time to be building this sort of business, to be growing. And in this phase, and you're probably actually a little ahead of most, so it's a really exciting space to be in. And I hear you on the newness, the changeability. That's what I love about entrepreneurship too, no two days are the same. And yeah, I just really want to thank you for coming on here and sharing your story. It was really good to hear it. I haven't heard a lot about your story so it really was great to know a little bit more about the man behind such a big brand in Bermuda. Sargasso is truly a household name, Pronto will be soon, I personally love it, use it. I think it's a fantastic service and I'm really excited to see what the future holds for you. We'll have to have you on again soon because this was not enough time to get through everything but thank you. Thank you so much and see you soon.
Thanks, Laura. Thanks Vicki. And thanks to the Two Four One community, I appreciate the opportunity to engage and wish everyone an awesome 2023 and be the best person you can be and keep entrepreneuring.
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