He believes the company’s approach has also given them an edge when it comes to attracting talent, although he acknowledges that working for a fast-growing start-up isn’t for everyone. “When you work at a start-up, you don’t have time to reach your goals because they are probably too high and the only way is to go to someone and say: ‘Tomorrow you need to make something impossible possible’,” he says. “We ask for next level commitment but people feel like they are having an impact every day.” Poke House’s ‘impossible’ goal is to be the worldwide leader in the poke market by 2024. “We don’t have a lot of time to focus on the goal – we just have to try and execute as much as possible,” Pichi smiles. One thing he is sure about is that poke is not going away. “Sometimes people ask me if I think it’s a trend but I think eating healthy in a bowl is not a trend; it’s the biggest category of food we’ll see in the next few years. Right now, we are focusing on our current markets. We need to win there.”
