So the next talk is a nearly linear unconditionally secure MPC with dishonest minority by Elie Ben-Sasson, Serge Fairlostowski, and Serge will give the talk. Thank you. Indeed, this is joint work with Elie Ben-Sasson and Raphael Ostrovsky. So we've already heard about multiparty computation, we have a group of players, everyone has a private input. They want to compute some function on these inputs so that every player learns the right function value, but all the private inputs remain private. This should hold even if there's an adversary that corrupts up to T of these players. Now the classical possibility results from the late 80s tell us this is possible. This is possible in different settings. It's possible in the computational and the unconditional setting if T is smaller than N over 2 and it is possible with perfect security if T is smaller than N over 3.  Now once that we have these very nice possibility results, it's natural to ask what is the complexity of multiparty computing functions in the different settings. And indeed a lot of work has been dedicated in reducing the complexity by the way one means complexity, I mean communication complexity, how many bits do the players have to exchange in order to securely compute a function. So a lot of work has been dedicated to that question and this table here summarizes the state of the art for the different settings. So the complexity here is expressed as the amortized communication complexity per multiplication. So how many bits do the players have to exchange per multiplication in the circuit representation of the function assuming that the circuit is big enough. And you can see in this table that for the computational and the perfect setting multiparty computation can be done with neo-linear communication complexity which is also what we can do in the much simpler passive case only in the unconditional setting with a dishonest minority. The best known scheme requires n squared times k bits of communication per multiplication gate where k is the security parameter. So our result is to show that actually also in the unconditional setting can do with essentially linear communication complexity. So you see we have this additional plus k here but this can actually be further reduced and probably can be removed altogether. So our new protocol makes use of a whole range of known tricks and techniques, make use of show me a secret sharing scheme, beaver circuit randomization that also Valerio briefly mentioned, make use of the dispute control framework by Berliova and here to make use of a linear type passively secure multiplication protocol by Dom Gordon-Dielsen and so on. And there's a lot of cumbersome fine tuning involved but crucially our protocol relies on two new techniques. So one of them is a batch verification scheme for a multiplication triples, it's a scheme that allows to verify a large list of shared multiplication triples in one go meaning with better efficiency than verifying them one by one and I want to point out that a similar technique was concurrently independently introduced by Dom Gordon-Dielsen in a paper that was presented last week at the ICITS conference. And the second technique is what I call here an efficient mini-multiparty computation for computing authentication tags and what exactly this is you're going to learn in the remainder of this presentation. So if you do a multi-party computation that at some point to get to the point where players have to reconstruct the shared secret but some of the shares are incorrect. And it turns out that in the setting that I consider here where t is smaller just below n over 2, this is actually not possible without additional redundancy on the shares. It was shown by Eurebin and Benog in 89 how to add additional redundancy to enable the reconstruction of a shared secret in the presence of full t-shares. Essentially this is done by pairwise authenticating the shares. So if we append to every share a list of authentication tags and the list of authentication keys or specifically for every pair of shares we append an authentication tag to the share si and the corresponding verification key to the share sk then this is going to work out. So you can think of this tag here as a signature on the share si that can be verified by this tag here except that this is non-conditionally secure signature and I mean actually it's I mean the tags are computed with this simple formula here. I mean it's sort of well-known if you work things out and you see that if we have this additional redundancy on the shares then the reconstruction of a shared secret in the presence of false is possible. If you want to make use of this approach then we run into two problems. First is that this additional redundancy is going to blow up the complexity. And the second problem is the question who computes these tags. I have to argue that if you have this additional redundancy on the shares then the reconstruction of a secret in the presence of false shares is possible but who produces this redundancy. I'm going to say more about that in a couple of minutes. First I want to briefly say how we address problem one. Actually I don't want to say too much about it. This can be solved with a standard batching and reusability techniques. So essentially what we do instead of authenticating each share of player PI individually we authenticate a whole batch of shares in one go and we observe the part of the verification keep can be reused so that in the end we only need a small number of keys and tags to authenticate a large number of shares so that in the end the efficiency loss due to dealing with the tags and the keys becomes negligible compared to the rest. By the way from now on I'm going to focus on one pair of players PI, P, K. Consider fixed pair players PI, P, K and I'm not going to write these double indices to the keys on the tags anymore. But I have to keep in mind that this in the end has to happen for all pairs of players. So more interesting is problem number two, who computes this tag? And the point is that the person, the party that performs this computation that computes this tag needs to know the share here, player PI's share and also needs to know the key alpha beta that is held by the player P, K. Now if you think about it, it's not going to be the player P, K who can perform this computation because P, K is not supposed to know the share of player PI during the sharing phase. Also it cannot be the player PI who computes this tag because player PI is not supposed to know the verification key. If he knows the verification key then it's easy for him to forge authentication tags, right? You might think that the dealer, the guy that performs, that produces these shares could also perform this computation, but also here if the dealer is dishonest and he knows the verification key then the whole authentication business is useless. Now the standard way to deal with this issue, the way all previous papers dealt with this issue is by not authenticating the shares, but by doing a second level of sharing and then authenticating the sub shares. So as sharing is done as follows, dealer shares secret, every player takes his share, reshares his share, and that player then computes the tags for the resulting sub shares. And if you work things out then you see that this does the job. The problem for us is that as soon as we start sharing shares, we get the quadratic number of sub shares so we get at least quadratic communication complexity, we want to do better. So this is one of the reasons why in previous work they didn't get below quadratic communication complexity, we want to do better. So we need to deal with this issue in a different way. So let's lean back for a few seconds and look again. What is the problem that we want to solve? We have a player PI that holds some private data, his share. We have another player PK that also holds some private data, his key. And we want now that player PI learns this function of this private data, but he doesn't learn anything beyond that. And then the other player should learn nothing at all. This is nothing else than an example multi-party computation problem, right? So in principle, we could solve this just by doing a multi-party computation. I mean this would work in principle. But if you want to improve efficiency, this seems like a crazy idea. How can we improve the efficiency of multi-party computation by using multi-party computation as a sub-routine? And I mean if you look a bit closer, every multi-party computation scheme starts by sharing the private inputs. One of the private inputs here is the share. So if we start sharing shares, we're back to having quadratic communication complexity. So this appears hopeless. I mean there's still some good news which I want to point out. Namely, the circuit to be multi-party compute is extremely simple, right? Also because of all this batching and reusability of the keys, which I haven't explained in that detail, you just have to believe me. Don't really have to worry about the other inputs, the alpha and beta and the efficiency we get by sharing those. Because I mean I've mentioned that in the end we only have to deal with a limited number of tags and keys for a large number of shares. And also because we make use of the dispute control framework, we only need passive security for this multi-party computation of the tag. We also need a way to verify the correctness of the tag once you've computed it in an optimistic way. What this can be done with a standard cut and choose technique. But still we're stuck with this problem here. That one of the inputs to the multi-party computation is a share. To do a multi-party computation we need shares of that share, but we cannot afford to share this share. Now comes sort of the cool trick, how we avoid this problem or how we overcome this problem. We don't share the share. Instead, we use the remaining shares of the secret of which the share si is a share as shares of the share si. Now I know that sounds very complicated. It's hard to say and it's even harder to understand. But that's why I have this picture here, so let me explain it once more. So the situation is that we have a secret here which is shared. We have this share si for which we want to multi-party compute an authentication tag. In order to do that, we need shares of this share, but we cannot afford to share that share. Now the crucial observation is that the remaining shares of the secret s have the following property. Any t of these shares not only give no information on the secret s, they also give no information on the share si. And also any t plus one of the remaining shares, not only uniquely determine the secret, they also uniquely determine the share si. So these remaining shares of the secret s, I can understand them and I can use them as shares of my share si. And they're already there. I mean, I don't have to communicate anything. So in some sense I'm making use of this symmetry. You show me a secret sharing scheme that it doesn't really matter in which slot I put the secret and in which slots I get the shares. So with this idea of the actual multi-party computation scheme for computing these tags, it's then going to look as follows. So if we have sharing of a secret s, and here is this share for which we want to multi-party compute the authentication tag, and we're going to use these remaining shares of the secret s as shares of the share si. Okay, so then what's going to happen is that the player PK who holds the keys, holds alpha and bit are the verification keys. First, he shares alpha using the same variant of Shamir's secret sharing scheme where the secret is at the evaluation at the point i. So I mean specifically chooses a random sharing polynomial that evaluates to alpha at the point i. Also it has to vanish at the point zero and the other evaluations are the shares that are then handed out to the players. Note that here, player i, he doesn't get a share of alpha because his slot is already taken over by the secret, so to speak. Player PK also shares the other part of the key beta in exactly the same way, except that he uses a sharing polynomial of degree 2t. But also the secret is at the evaluation point i and the polynomial has to vanish at the point zero. And then the players perform the computation of the tag on their shares and send the resulting share of the tag back to player pi. Player pi can then reconstruct this polynomial, which has the property, it's easy to verify. I mean, by performing this computation, the players essentially perform the computation on the polynomial. So it's easy to verify that the polynomial that the player pi can reconstructs down here at the point i evaluates to the correct tag for his share. So he gets the tag for his share and nothing beyond that. Note that, I mean the way I explain it here, again it looks like player pk has to share alpha and beta every time when you want to compute a tag for a share here, but again this is taken care of by doing batching and reusability. So actually these sharings only need to be done once and for all in order to authenticate a large number of shares. There are a couple of subtleties that I'm ignoring here. There's one subtlety though which I'd like to point out, which is the issue of fixing these sharing polynomials to 0 at the point 0, which we actually have to do so that the player pi has sufficient information down here in order to reconstruct these polynomials here. But this has the following subtle effect. If the adversary corrupts, if the adversary does not corrupt, player pi here, but he corrupts t of the other players here, then he gets to see t shares of alpha. Plus, he knows that the sharing polynomial evaluates to 0 at the point 0. So he knows t plus 1 evaluations of the polynomial, therefore he actually knows the secret alpha. But this only happens if the adversary corrupts, sorry, this only happens if the adversary does not corrupt player pi. And in that case it's useless for him to know the verification key alpha. Doesn't help him, it doesn't help the adversary to know the verification key that is used to verify the correct share of an honest player. It only helps him to know the verification key that is used to verify p8 player pi's share if he corrupts player pi. But if he corrupts player pi, because pi doesn't get a share here, he only gets to see t minus 1 shares plus the evaluation at 0. Then he only knows t evaluations of the polynomial, and then he has no information on the key alpha. So this works out nicely. Well, I'm doing well in time because I'm at the end of my presentation, essentially, conclusion to draw is there exists an unconditional secure multi-party computation with linear complexity also in this setting. Yeah, unconditional security and the dishonest minority. Another conclusion to draw from this talk is that in some cases, and I bet you didn't believe that before my presentation, but in some cases, multi-party computationally actually improves the efficiency. And you have some open problems. Let me just single out the very last one, which is about generalizing these results to the non-threshold adversary case. Because yeah, our technique relies on the symmetry property of some secret sharing scheme. And so it's not really clear what we can do in case we use another linear secret sharing scheme, which probably doesn't have such a nice symmetry property. And yeah, that's about what I wanted to tell you. So thanks a lot for your attention.


It wasn't about, you know, the commercial success. Of course, that's part of it. But it was about doing it in a way that was the right way, sustainable, true to the original vision. And Michelle's a question to herself. The challenge that she posed to herself that led her down this path was, why the heck can't my salad dressing be as healthy as my salad? As easy as that, right? And I mean, how many people say that? They don't do anything about it. This is Started to Storefront. Today's guest is Christy Knowles, CEO of the plant-based product line, Mother Raw. Christy initially joined the company in an advisory role. The founder, Michelle Cobman, had already shaped what was then known as Michelle's Raw Foods into a successful company with VC Backers. Christy's role was to help better define the company's business strategy and take their products to the next level of appeal and availability. Then tragedy struck. Michelle passed away at the two young age of 45, leaving Christy tasked with carrying out her vision. It is a task Christy has taken too hard as she strives to guide the company with the same care and passion as Michelle would have done. So listen in as we cover everything from why it's been easier to raise money since the COVID shutdown, the meaning behind giving her employees a thank you pay and why the dressing aisle at grocery stores was in desperate need of a disruption. Now, back to the episode. Welcome to the podcast, everyone. On today's show, we have Christy from Mother Raw. Christy, thanks for joining. Please tell everyone a little bit about the company. Oh, well, first off, thank you for having me. It's always such a delight to be able to share this story and the journey of Mother Raw. So for those of you who aren't aware of what we do and who we are, basically our mission is super simple but very powerful and we encourage everyone everywhere to just eat more plants, just eat more of them. Why? Because it's good for you, it's good for the planet, it's good for sustainability and that's it. So you're probably wondering how we encourage people to do that. Well, we may consciously craft actually a line, amazing, organic and real ingredient made from nature, not from the lab. Condiments, salad dressings, dips and casos and provide all kinds of versatile ways that you can use our products and just make eating plants that much more delicious. It's funny, so you guys had sent us some products and I have, I'm glad you showed everybody but I have the ranch here and this is amazing. Honestly, we, so my wife and I have this terrible habit of adding like a blue cheese or ranch to certain items and I'm always looking for something that's vegan or at least something that's more plant-based, less oils and it's always difficult, really difficult to find and especially for it to taste good, right? And so as you guys, I just wanna share with everyone, give everyone a sense of what types of products are you guys focused on? Obviously we have the dressings, the salads, you mentioned the queso, are there anything else that you guys are working on at present time into introducing to the market? So we have, as I said, the quesos and a line of dips, an onion dip and a ranch dip that like everything else we do, it's plant-based, it's allergen-free, they're not made with nuts. Those are available online but not widely available yet through retailers so our focus right now is in pushing those out to the retailers to make them more accessible and of course we have an innovation pipeline behind the curtain where we're working on some new things as well but it's all about just how can you dip, devour, drench plants to make them more delicious and encourage more people to eat them. More vegan sauce bosses. And you know what's interesting? We are absolutely vegan. At the same time, we like to describe ourselves more broadly as just being super clean. Again, all of our ingredients by nature, not by lab. Very premium ingredients so we're the only brand out there who does like you do at home in that we use only extra virgin olive oil and just the right amount of it in our dressings. Most, if not all and I will say other dressings use very processed oils. So it's all about for us the choice of ingredients and plant-based or vegan and we're allergen-free because we wanna make our products as accessible to everybody that we can. I think that's the challenge too. It's one, it's the education of these, right? And so there's a tremendous amount of wellness companies that we have on that'll have a product and it's one, how do they get the price point one to fit the masses but you don't wanna start taking shortcuts, you don't wanna start adding gums and then there's also another component where it's you need your product to last, right? Where you still need it to, the shelf life is super important. And so it's very challenging. I did wanna ask you a little bit about how COVID has impacted your business, if at all if there's certain things that you've pivoted or you've shifted into education, what are some of the things that COVID has made you focus on during this crazy time? Yeah, well, of course, it's a course, of course a question you have to ask because COVID has affected everybody on so many levels. I'm really happy to say that the team at Mother Raw has maintained their health and we haven't been directly hurt or hit from a health perspective, which is a number one priority. The first thing that we did though is we self-manufacture. And that's unusual for a startup company. And it has been such a benefit all along, but through COVID and enormous benefit in that we control everything that comes in and comes out of our facility. So immediately we stopped all interaction from the front office and our amazing production team because we wanted to keep our production team safe and healthy and away from our front office team. So immediately went to office team working from home like earlier than anybody else. That's amazing. Yeah. And then what we did is to protect our production staff, we were one of the first to move to a thank you pay and we're continuing to do that. A thank you pay. A thank you pay. So we raised their pay right away, continue to do that because they continue to take protocols that are necessary to keep themselves healthy. So we did that. We have their groceries being ordered and delivered from our facility and delivered to our facility so that they don't have to go into the grocery store that themselves or their families. Wow. We've arranged for them not to take public transportation. So all of these measures we took within the first week and we're continuing to do that. We have daily check-ins with them from a mental health perspective. How are you doing? How can we help? So I think in that case, those are measures that with our promise, which is to put good on good, it comes naturally, good on good. It penetrates that mission or that promise of ours, immediately translates and weaves itself through to our people and our products and our culture. So COVID in that way, maintaining the safety and recognizing the extraordinary efforts of the team was something that we had to do. And I'm really proud to say that we've not had to make any really tough decisions about letting anybody go. We've kept retaining 100% of our team. And then on the business side, it's been interesting. Of course, we had to re-forecast. Right. If you haven't re-forecasted now in the face of COVID, you probably not made some, you know, you probably made some not great decisions. So the first thing was, how is this going to impact our business and adjusting for that? The second thing was, how are we going to fill the orders from all the new distribution we actually gained through COVID, which was a unique, it's not a problem, but it was a unique challenge because we were not bringing in any temporary workers. So it was, how are we going to make sure that we're still delivering 100% service levels and on time with those new customers? And we did it. I just want to give you kudos. That's amazing.  And I think every time I walk away from one of these podcasts, I'm just wondering, why isn't this being told? Why aren't we being told about the CEOs that have been nothing but on it, immediately reactive to the moment of, we know this is bad, and we're going to make this the best case scenario. We're going to lean in. Instituting thank you pay, I think, is tremendous, keeping in line with the ethos of the company. And so one, thank you for doing that. Personally, for me, it's therapy because in these interviews I do, the world is actually quite amazing. And right now, more than anything, there's just so much negative, whatever, the narrative that it's like people think the world is ending. And I'm like, there are plenty of people doing a lot of good. And it's a shame that we're not sharing any of that stuff. So thank you. I love it. For me, it comes down to what's the culture, what's at the center, the ethos of the organization, as you said, and then all of the leaders in the business. So I don't take full responsibility. It was a management team, our head of operations, working with us and saying, OK, here's what I think we should do. And some of those things like thank you pay were just an immediate yes. Yes, of course, because that's where we come from. That's the place that we come from, but it certainly was. And it always is a full team effort. Yeah, and I think that my experience was COVID. I've been fortunate in that it would be close to me, has been touched and from a health perspective and such. But I do see a tremendous amount of humanity that is obviously, it's coming from the experience people are having with COVID and coming to the table, the boardroom table over Zoom that never existed before in just the way that I'm fundraising right now. And I think that fundraising right now has been a much better experience because of COVID than otherwise. And I know that sounds odd, potentially. Can you share more about that, or is it because? So let me just guess. So intuitively, I say it's probably easier to get meetings, right? Things are via Zoom, so there's less travel, especially with, I assume you might be raising capital from people all over the country. Well, OK, you're absolutely right. I mean, the coordination I've had over a dozen meetings, well, well over a dozen meetings. And to fly, you would have flown to each of those meetings so the time, the stress, the money involved. That's one part of it for sure. But the second part is, it's just more human because you're seeing into people's worlds, these VC partners or whomever I'm working with, they're humans too. I'm human. Their dog walks into the Zoom. My dog walks into the Zoom. And when you ask, I think the most poignant part of the meeting is when you say, hi, how are you? You actually get into a bit of a conversation about how you are because it's not a throwaway question in COVID world. It really isn't. So I don't know. I mean, it'll be hard. Maybe in the end, there'll be harder parts. Like it's going to be, you can't just come in, walk around the facility without a whole lot of planning. But this stage has been OK. I think too, as an investor, we invest in some companies and that if you can see a founder and you can see exactly when they've been tested, which is COVID, it's on display. And the numbers are what they are. And so as soon as you talk to somebody who's been able to pivot or a company that's been able to do a lot of the right things, it's actually an immediate litmus test of, this is someone I can rely on. It's instant. And you can't hide that, which is a beautiful. There's two ways of looking at COVID, but there's one of the pros I would say is that the business owners that have shifted, I would bet on for the long term because it shows that they have the staying power and the ability to rethink their business on the fly, which is valuable. Yeah. I think that's an excellent point because yes, of course, it's a litmus test for me too in terms of who I'm dealing with if I'm bringing on a new agency or how people are talking about it. And I just think it's going to expedite the conversation that we've been having collectively around doing the right thing. So it's not enough for a food company just to have a product that tastes good and is at an accessible price. Like that stopped being good enough a while ago, really. And I'm not saying there's not a place for that, but it became the story has become and what does the company do for others? And what is the mission of the company and how does it source things? And all of those things were becoming collectively more important than consumers' choices. But I think with COVID as the cloud over us right now, it's making those things so darn clear, right? I want to buy stuff that's going to feed my family and nourish my family as best as I can. I want to choose companies that are employing people that are at least local to whatever that means to them, right? They want to know that companies are doing more. And so I'm really excited for all the entrepreneurs out there, including ourselves, who are already on that path because I think it just expedites it. I totally agree. I wanted to touch on something that you mentioned before, just dive a little bit deeper. We just had someone on the podcast who talked about wellness. And so her whole company is dedicating to remote team wellness and setting up meditation centers and making mental health check-ins and doing this, that and the other. And you kind of mentioned it.  What has this been like in terms of transitioning? I assume to fully remote and aside from your production team, but what are some of the things that you're either innovating it on or you're doing things that you may have not done before that you can share with our listeners? Yeah, I think we're growing in that respect. So what, you know, what we're doing is we're doing weekly check-in, weekly meetings on Monday. How's everybody doing?  And getting to know each other on levels, I'm good, my weekend was great, you know, versus now it's, well, you know, what did you do? Who just, how did you feel going there? What was it like going, you know, to that park or just an exploring more deeply what, you know, what people are doing to feel, to help themselves, right?  I know you're getting your work done. And we're not a big, big group. So I don't have to be super structured about it. Sure. But I think that the empathy, the recognition that we all have different ways of destressing and being really honest about what I'm doing or how I'm feeling.  We talk, we share. And also, you know what, I need a boost right now, guys. You know, I need a boost.  I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna go take the dog for a walk between one and two. So I'm gonna, instead of doing that meeting between one and two, can we do that after? Given, you know, leading by example, I suppose, but also saying, you know, I'm gonna take a day off in, you know, next Friday or whatever it is, because I just, I need to, I need to go to my happy place with this, which for me is hiking out in nature by myself. Happy, happy, happy. And making it okay to put a name to, you know, I'm feeling not well. I'm not feeling myself off to, these are the types of things I'm doing. What are you guys doing? So there's that, and we're also right now investigating a meditation practice as well. The one thing, I think too, it's great. As leadership, it's so important to give permission, right? To, even though the employees necessarily aren't asking it, but just leading by example, such an important thing of just saying, hey, look, you know, I wake up at seven, if you wake up at seven, up to you, I'm going for a walk at nine though, and I'm doing my walk outside. You should do it, but up to you. And then at 11, I'm doing another walk up to you guys. And then at one o'clock I'm going for a hike, and I'm back on at three. I think that's so important.  So there's this thing that happens in the narrative of your head of, should I do it? Should I not do it? But I think at this point, especially during COVID, it sounds like at least you've taken the approach of, we're just going to admit to being human, and we're just going to lean into that, and it's honest, and it sounds like it's working, which is great. Yeah, I mean, I think the team is, well, I know the team is engaged. I know that some of them are struggling more than others. The ones with, you know, young kids. I mean, it's so difficult. I think we just have to be, you know, we're like patient and people who gave it their all before are still giving it their all in maybe, you know, a little bit of a different way. And that's gotta be okay.  And we're really, you know, managing that. We have protocols in places we talked about, but also if something happens, what's the next thing we're going to do? You know, what's the step that we'll take to make sure that we can continue to deliver? But all the other stuff, you know, if the strategy document isn't done on Monday and it's done on Tuesday, it seems to be less pressing, you know, than it was when you're in the office every day and you're like, where is it? Where is it? It's okay. Tomorrow's okay. As long as it's good and I know it's gonna be good. So that's okay. That's so true. I was laughing before because all of my friends that have kids and I'm like, hey, how's it going? The first thing, all of them almost, that they all say, are daycare centers open yet? And then they're like, check in with me after that. They've had it, you know, and it's hard. I mean, it's, they're both trying to work. They're in different rooms. They're both sharing the wifi and everybody's wifi isn't great anymore. And so it's, there's a whole host of issues. Switching back to the fundraising, how much are you raising? What, where are you guys on the funding? Are you like series A, series B? We're series B. We already have a partner and that partner is gonna come in with another commitment, which is fantastic. And we're looking for someone to lead the round and we're looking for about five to seven million Canadians. So you can do the math on that. It's a lot less U.S. than U.S. dollars. Yeah. In terms of the change these days. But yeah, and it's, I mean, it's, we've got some great interest and I'm really looking forward to being able to execute the plan that we have. And as part of your series B fundraising, what are some of the key pieces, key levers for growth that are in there? Is it distribution? Is it getting in more? I mean, you're in a ton of stores already, but just give us a window to some of the key pieces of that strategy. Yeah. Well, no, you nailed it. I mean, there is still a lot more distribution to be had. And in fact, I, you know, in terms of COVID, one of them, from a business perspective, going back to the need to be forecast, we had about a thousand customers that were, we were already, we've already been awarded. And what that means is we're either set up in their system or they said yes, right? Email exchange, yes, you're in, but that's the timing on all of that is up in the air. Sure. So we've had to shift out kind of the distribution assumption somewhat. So our growth is distribution, about half in distribution and the rest, a combination of velocity and some assortment, you know, increases of the number of products on the shelf. Right now we're sort of averaging four to five and we're projecting maybe seven out into the future years. And it's all very fact-based, you know, and we think it's achievable and it all comes down to, you know, our competitive advantage, which beyond our product and, you know, our larger brand, because product is, you know, part of brand, but is the management team who comes from a background of CPG plus really successful startups and it has to do with execution, right? And so we feel good about our plan. We're getting good, you know, we're getting positive feedback. I've been broken up with a few times, but no doors slammed, computers slammed on me. So that's good. That's great. I mean, look, that's positive. I think that's great advice. We have a lot of people that listen that are fundraising or probably in their head around, this is gonna be really difficult. And so just your story around how much easier it is, I think is smart. And in my head, I was thinking like, you could even do Zoom tastings or you could at least ship them the products they could taste it themselves on their own accord. Yeah. Yes, we've shipped them the products and the reality is that there's money out there looking to be invested in this space. And so I would encourage everybody to take it as an opportunity and to your point showing, you know, what kind of a leader are you during this period of time? What have you been able to achieve?   When you project into the future, do you think you and your team, you know, we're seeing a lot of these tech companies announced July 2021 as a time where they'll all go back to the office somewhere in September of next year. Do you have any idea crystal ball or at least something you're forecasting towards for getting everyone together? Or maybe it's, we're just gonna go remote. It's working. We like it. Yeah, we haven't figured it out. What we've said is the following. Because we're a food facility attached to the front office, we really have to separate those boundaries, right? And so what we've said is for the next month, we're going to see what happens as kids go back to school because there will be an impact on that. What that is depends on how everybody behaves, you know, depends on all those types of things. So for now, we're saying that the front office staff is not going back to the office for the next four weeks. That's like cutting stone. And then we'll see where we are. We want to get back together. Absolutely. You know, you miss so much, I believe, of just not being able to connect. So what we've said is we will find a way to connect whether it's like half a day, you know, twice a week in that office, but then we just won't have, you know, the production staff come into the front office, which would be a shame because we love when they come in and out. But, you know, we'll have some protocols that way. The other thing that I've been doing for the last few weeks is having a couple of team members to my house to do strategy planning sessions, ideation sessions. We can safely, you know, distance and be respectful following all the protocols. And so that's been good. That's been really nice. Like to have that contact. So one way or another, we'll figure out a routine, but we want to, before it includes in the office, we want to make sure that we understand what's happening with the, you know, kids going back to school. Totally agree. It's a tough one. Our podcast is a great example. It's like we used to do these all in person. And for sure, it's like really easy to do them online now. And, you know, it's kind of to your point, less travel, there's less coordination of schedules, semi less busy, but man, it's like having to do like body language pickup and audio. And there's so much more of sensing I have to do when I'm doing these interviews because it just makes it hard.  And it's so easy to miss when we're doing Zooms or phone calls, but I agree. There's no easy way to transition into this, but I did want to talk about how you became CEO of this wonderful company. It's quite a story. And so if you could just share a little bit about the founding of Mother Raw, how you got involved, and then ultimately how you're now leading the team. Absolutely. So when I started with this business, I had left behind the career in CPG of about 25 years. And I was really looking forward to going from big and bureaucratic to small and scrappy and fast. And I was brought in to help do a little bit of consulting work. So the company was actually called Raw Foods. So a different company name, different brand name. And it was founded by a woman named Michelle Cotman. And by the time I arrived on the scene, Michelle had already successfully had a VC invest in her company. And they had been invested for about a year. And hadn't quite had the traction that they were looking for, which is often the case, I think, but they kind of decided that what they needed was somebody who had my experience to come in and give them some perspective. So as I was in that process, about two and a half months in, Michelle, who had been very supportive of just figuring out how to take her vision to more eyeballs and more stomachs. She passed away at the very young age of 45. And it was like the lights went out in the company. You know, a founder, I mean, they lived, breathed, and she created this product in her kitchen and sold it at farmer's markets, like most founding stories start. And so it was at that time that I was able to mine and not able that I willingly and went for to CEO to really with the passion of taking what was and is an excellent proposition. And now we're, we've gone from what she had 300 stores which on her own was fantastic. And we're in 3,600 now. And I just think she's shining a light on what we're doing. It's amazing. And what, I mean, I can, I shared with you before where I knew of one company who lost a co-founder and how it was just really, you know, the DNA of that person still exists. And, you know, leadership tries to make sure that that person is remembered in everything that you do. And you had mentioned a story to me about how, I'm hoping you can share it about how her daughter came in, right? Her 19-year-old daughter while you guys were doing some sort of branding work. And what was that? What was that like? Yeah, that was really cool. Basically, so Michelle has two kids. Laurel, her oldest daughter and a younger son. And Laurel came to work with us after her mom passed as an intern that summer. And we were in the throes of really getting down to the fundamentals of this brand. What is the mission? What is the vision? Why do we exist? How could the world exist without us? Our why, right? And she was with us for that work. And she was able to impart, you know, her perspective from, she and her mom were very close. She used to taste test everything with her mom. So she was very, very clear on what her mom's ambitions were. And so she was part of the whole rebranding effort, which could have been seen as quite threatening. You know, you changed my mom's brand, but it literally, she was just so supportive and loved what we were doing because she saw why we were doing it, how we were doing it. We also redeveloped all the products. And we did that not because we needed to change the fundamental of the ingredients. That was so important and is important to us. It was important to Michelle. But just because Michelle wasn't a professional product developer, she made these recipes and came up with them herself. But I was able to, I have tons of experience in innovation and product development. So I was able to bring in the right person to work with our ingredients, to redo all the products that needed redoing.  So it made it very, it wasn't about, you know, the commercial success. Of course, that's, that's, you know, part of it. But it was about doing it in a way that was the right way, sustainable, true to the original vision. And Michelle's question to herself, the challenge that she posed to herself that led her down this path was, why the heck can't my salad dressing be as healthy as my salad? As easy as that, right? And I mean, how many people say that? They don't do anything about it. And I was one of those people, right? And so we stayed true. And when you think about the name Mother Raw and how it relates to the story, you know, Michelle, Mother Earth, Mother Raw, you can see how it all came together. I love that. I'm also one of those people actually, there was a long time in my life that I wouldn't eat salad.  And I would be like, but you're just loading this thing up with this, you know, 600 calorie dressing that doesn't make it taste like salad anymore, right? You're not really enjoying the trueness of the earth. You're just masking it with like, it might as well be chocolate at this point, right? Yes, exactly. And you know, there's so many categories like that that needed to be disrupted, that were dusty and we've been accepting the status quo. And now there's so many small, you know, emerging businesses like ours that are taking those things head on. And thank goodness, you know, retailers are paying attention.  And if retailers weren't being a little bit more progressive themselves and seeing that as a competitive advantage, we'd be where we are. But because there's all these scrappy brands like ourselves who are saying enough is enough. And because there's consumers willing to try new things, we find ourselves in a place where so many categories are being reimagined. Well, first of all, thank you for sharing that. I'm sure Michelle's looking down on this and obviously extremely satisfied, extremely overwhelmed probably with the work you've done. I mean, you've taken this to a great place. So thanks for sharing that. I know none of these conversations are that easy with regard to death, but it's certainly best case scenario to some extent. All right, let's switch some gears here. So it's hard to do. It's hard to do.  And keeps us all going and it's working. And it's working, things are working, which is, you know, it's so exciting. When we launched, we didn't launch Mother Raw until really January of 2019. That's when we switched the social handle from raw foods and had to bring those raw foods consumers and engage fans over to Mother Raw. That's when we were formally starting to be on shelf. And so when we launched, it was, you know, okay, let's hope this works. We just spent nine months reinventing the proposition to Mother Raw and all these products. And it was when we had our first two US customers that we were like, yay, we have something here. And it seems like a long time ago, but it was only January of 2019. When you thought about rebranding, and so this is for all the entrepreneurs out there who are rebranding or have rebranded, how do you think about branding as a whole, particularly in this situation where a lot of it has to be done remotely, right? And so is it going heavy into socials? Is it going into PR? Is it partnering with different influencers? What's the strategy that Mother Raw takes in relation to getting the brand and the education out there? Yeah, I think to answer the second part of your question about sort of what are the marketing tools that we are focusing on, you know, it's a combination. It really is a combination of all of those things. I wish I had the magic bolt that said it's one over the other. I think, you know, absolutely getting super smart with your digital media, your SEO, driving consumers, where you need them to be driven to A, B testing as much as possible. Don't hang your hat on one thing for too long because you want to always be in experimental mode in terms of, you know, what is pulling harder for you. We definitely, we started with a kick butt web environment. That was, you know, when we developed sort of our UX design, it was all around the website as a hub and making sure it was designed to do the things that we needed it to do. In our case, we needed it to also be an e-com site. So it was making sure the outset, it wasn't about all the bells and whistles because we're still building, you know, as we go and as you get bigger, but just making sure that that experience is amazing and that it's taking consumers on the journey you want to be taking them on and that it's fast, you know, speed. Don't have a bad first experience where on mobile it's, you know, terrible and slow experience, but you know, it was great, it was great on my laptop with crappy in on your mobile, you'll lose people right away. So do, you know, make sure the things that you do and build are done very well foundationally and then think about, you know, it depends on who your consumer is and where you think that they're going to be most likely to become aware and motivated and in some cases, influencers are super important in that respect. In other cases, they might not be as important. And I think there's a sexiness to certain channels like influencers and they are important in our business but they're not important enough yet to invest all of our money in that, you know. It's, we're a brand that's bought at retail. What do we have to do? We have to taste great. As a food product, you have to communicate taste as unsexy as it might seem. You have to start at the fundamentals as I guess my long-winded answer.  So not just taste great. It's what language are you going to create? And then what visuals, what's your visual style to create that top of the funnel message around taste? Without that, you've lost everything. That's smart. And in terms of product placement, I assume a big piece of this is getting next to maybe like the regular barbecue sauce. Is that a part of it too? So that people have the option of all things compared in the same row or on the same shelf? Oh, that's a good question. For, yes, it's always easier to start, to be distributed in a spot in the store that's already an embedded behavior for your consumer, right? And so for us, refrigerator dressing, that's a behavior and it's the growing behavior within salad dressings. The center store is declining. It's 24 feet of all kinds of brands and varieties. The refrigerated set is more manageable and it's growing. So that's where we want to be. For dips, the same thing, dips are growing like crazy and they're growing in the peripheral in the produce area or the deli area. So that's where we want to be. And so those two things, absolutely placement where the action is happening is where we want to be. One of our challenges is that we've developed some condiments. They're fresh, like our current products and that's trickier. That's gonna be trickier when we go to retail. So we're sort of pacing ourselves to grow Mother Raw to be this put good on good brand that stands for something and starting with dressings and dipped primarily for retail because that'll connect the consumer to the brand more easily. And then we can think about, okay, now when we launch condiments, they're thinking kind of Mother Raw before they're necessarily thinking shelf-stable condiment section, right? So Mother Raw's in the fridge. That's gonna be a tricky. We know that. But my hope is on that from one of my hopes is that, and we see it with one of the retailers in Canada, is that as plant-based protein alternatives continue to grow at such a rapid rate that retailers are creating sets just for those, right? So this is your plant-based protein section. And if we can, with our condiments, be associated there where they're already refrigerated, where those plant-based products are already refrigerated and be part of the overall plant-based protein solution, that's like a total win. So that's the hope. I feel like that's also accelerated during COVID, right? At least in my head. So we invest in a company that it's a four-ingredient almond milk, their biggest hurdle ever has been, the shelf life is like five days. And so you have to buy it frozen, and then you have to add water to it at home, which in a normal setting is extremely difficult, right? You're changing the behavior. But then COVID hit and all of a sudden, they were telling me that people are Googling frozen milk at an all-time high, like you can see it spikes. So I went to Google Trends and I said, let me take a look at this. And sure enough, it's like unbelievable because now people want to store, right? They want to... Yeah, wow. I love that example. And they've come out of this like thriving because now people can buy it. That's been the whole problem. The whole problem for them has been, how do we get this in consumers' hands? But get them to understand it doesn't last that long because it's fresh. And so they initially attacked the coffee market, right? And so you're an almond milk latte. The coffee, any coffee shop is running through almond milk all day. So it's way easier to introduce the product. And yeah, during this time, it's like all of a sudden the consumer has shifted, doesn't mind refrigerating things, doesn't mind freezing things, just really cares about the ingredients. You know, that's so interesting. And like, if I think about it for us, who knows? But one of the things that we've noticed is that our online sales of ketchup have gone up, right, significantly. And it's in our top five and it's not available widely in retail at this point. And so it's like, oh, how come that's happening? Anybody I can see it, healthy ketchup. Oh, we come up, right? And at the time, they don't care if it's refrigerated or not, they're looking for a healthy ketchup or a no refined sugar ketchup, what we offer. And so potentially, you know, that's a really interesting, I gotta go back and talk to the team about that in terms of maybe that's just it. And in fact, growing the condiment segment of ours online first, because you come on to Mother Raw, you don't come on because we're refrigerated.  And so it takes away that challenge, I guess, of teaching a new behavior. So that's super interesting. It is, yeah. And for me, it's like, there's a grocery store called Irwan here in Los Angeles, which is, yeah, I'm sure you're aware of it, but it's like super fresh. Everything's very natural.  So I'm like, no one can see this thing. But at this point, I'm realizing because of COVID, people know exactly what door it's in. And so to me, just doing, you know, doing the calculus that you're probably doing is like, it's only a matter of time before this becomes a freezer section, right? Just like ice cream. But now it becomes like, hey, look, these are all the products that you guys are looking for that are just supernatural and that the consumer is becoming educated. Yeah. And I mean, what's, I think like frozen as well, just building on your, you know, the business that you're invested in, frozen is seeing a huge renaissance, right? And frozen has always been a great option, right? Frozen veggies, frozen fruit, like always been a great option.  But now just frozen overall and now you're part of that wave, which is, you know, yeah. I just think about it like... Good luck with that. Yeah. We hope, I think it's cool. But at the end of the day, it's a leader much like you where they've just decided to lean into certain things and have taken what the world has given them and they've leaned into it. But the way I think about this is most 20 year old, so I have like four in-laws, they're all in their 20s. I go over to the house, I open the freezer. There's nothing in the freezer ever. It's usually ice. And there's like cups of beer that are just cooling, you know, for when they want to have a beer. And that's really it.  And so I get excited about the notion of repurposing because it means there's space, right? Mm-hmm. Uh-huh, I get it, I get it, good, good. Something to think about there. But look, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Please tell everyone where they can find you, where they can follow you, where they can order your goods. Yeah, so if you go on our website, www.motherraw.com, you will see the store locator there, as well as you can purchase online in terms of some of the retailers that we're at, just to give you a sense. We're at Sprouts nationally. We're at some Whole Foods and some Target stores. We're all over California. So hopefully you can find a retailer near you, but certainly online is the easiest way to just take a look at our whole line and what we do. Please give us a try. It's all about good on good and making eating plants exciting and easy and why not just eat more plants makes sense for everybody, guys. I'll just say this much. It tastes great, it tastes clean, which is a hard thing to describe, but you know it when you know it. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna have to get some ketchup because we run through that so quickly. Christy, thank you so much. It was great chatting with you. Thank you.


Hello everyone in this module I'm going to demonstrate how to use lightning component in visual force page. So let's first create a lightning component and then I will be creating a visual force page and then we'll show you how we can embed lighting component in VF page. So I'm creating a component named as time CMP inside this component first I'm going to create one attribute naming it as date value. This type is string then I'm creating one or a handler naming it as in it value equals to this and action C dot then inside the speed tag I'm going to show value of this date value attribute. I created this lightning component so on load of this component this init handler will be executed and this do init method will be executed. So I'm saving this code moving to controller part. So here I'm defining name of this controller method. So here I need to write component dot set V dot date value. And here I'm creating instance of date. So whenever you create instance of this date class so automatically current date and time will be available in this date value attribute. Right. So this way this component is ready. Now, I need to first test it whether this component is working or not. So I'm just opening demo application. And in this demo application I'm just using this component. So here you will see the output so it is showing today's date and time. So everything is available because of that date instance right now after this execution I'm going to create one new application. So whenever you want to use your lightning component and visual force page. So basically you need to create one app and enable this checkbox. So automatically this extent statements will be available in that application. So lightning colon out that right and here you need to specify the access. So I'm specifying it as global. Now here you need to write one statement or a column dependency resource equals to C colon time CMP. Right. So now with the help of this time app, I will be using time CMP lightning component in visual force page. Right. So this app is particularly created so that I can use lightning component VF page. So now next step will be to create visual force page. So naming it as time VF page inside this VF page. First of all, I need to write apex include lightning.  Right. So basically that lightning component output will be displayed in place of this diff. So I will be using ID of this diff. Further. So now I'm writing one more tag that is script inside this script tag. I'm going to write dollar lightning now dot use bracket. Then you need to write C dot that app name that I have created. So I created it as time app. So here you need to write that name then function then inside curly basis. You need to again write dollar lightning dot create component C dot. And now you need to use the name of that component. So we created component as time CMP. So I'm using that only then this is for parameters. So we don't need to pass anything here. Then where you want to like show the output of this lighting component. So I'm providing the ID, which is available here with div. And after comma, I need to write function CMP and opening the curly base. Now here I need to write one more statement. So I'm going to write console dot log and in double quotes component created. Right. So now I need to close one curly base and bracket. One more curly base and bracket. Right. And here I need to close this double code, which I forgot. So this way this page is implemented completely. And here I'm going to write one heading. So visual force page. So first visual force page will be displayed and inside dev that date and time will be displayed. So after implementation of all these things, I'm just clicking on preview. So now we have phase will be rendered. So at the top, you can see heading is available. But at bottom, it is showing some error. So we need to resolve that. So maybe I did something. Correct implementation. So basically here I need to use colon instead of dot. So I just saved this VF page and it is refreshing. Now here you can see heading is displayed as visual force page and then date and time is also displayed. So remember here you need to use colon instead of dot. So generally we use dot in lightning components. So that's why I mistakenly use dot, but you need to use colon in VF page. So friends this way, like I hope you understood how I used lightning component and visual force page. Thank you.


Hi, babe. Happy third anniversary. I hope you're having a lovely romantic meal and for... is what? Patriot Prime? Oh, well, in that case, happy third YouTube anniversary from Transformantel! Patriot Prime Reviews is a channel for adult collectors and may not be suitable for children under 13 years of age. Viewer discretion is advised. Hey, what's going on guys? Patriot Prime here once again and yes, this is my third anniversary on YouTube. I'm actually shocked I made it this far. I'm actually shocked I made it one year into YouTube, but here I am three years later getting ready to start my fourth and I am just thrilled to death to talk to you guys and share with you guys my last year, my third year on YouTube, which was a fantastic year. Take away the whole pandemic apocalypse thing. My last year on YouTube was great and when I refer to my last year, that was October 2019 to now. And man, without you guys, I wouldn't be doing this right here. So a quick recap of my year and first off, I want to apologize for my voice and probably the fluctuations that's going to happen during this video. It's full bore allergy season here in West Virginia. Our temperature dropped about 20 degrees. I've got leaves falling outside and it is playing havoc with my sinuses. So please bear with me throughout this video. Now, in October of 2019, I started my third year off in a fantastic way at TFCon in Reston, Virginia.  I got to meet so many fellow fans, fellow YouTubers, voice actors, subscribers, which was really cool yet kind of weird when people are coming up. Are you Patriot Prime and shaking my hand? That was just surreal to me. And I loved every minute of it. It was so cool actually meeting you guys and just hanging out and having a blast not to mention all of the wonderful toys that were everywhere. I can't wait to go back. That was my second transformer convention and I'm hooked. I need more. So hopefully after the apocalypse is all over and done with, we can go back to doing those type of things that we love and all hanging out in person. Now in November, that's when the whole COPPA thing came out. Remember COPPA, the doom of us YouTubers. We were all so paranoid that us Transformer YouTubers, toy reviewers, we're going to be just shot down thanks to COPPA and we'd all be kiddified more or less. All our channels will be marked for kids, no monetization, no comments, nothing like that.  I mean, we were all worried for nothing. So yeah, that was November. Doing so great. It gets better every day, man. I'm so happy to have met you and to be friends with you. You're doing a great job. Keep it up and talk to you soon buddy. Great. Keep it up. In December, I got to meet one of the best friends that I made doing this YouTube thing right here, Bert the Stormtrooper. We were messaging each other back and forth come to find out at Christmas. He was coming to Virginia to visit family. And when I researched where he was, he was only an hour drive from Princeton, West Virginia. I'm an hour drive from Princeton, West Virginia. So we decided to drive and meet up at a toy store in Princeton, West Virginia, 80s toys of Princeton, West Virginia. Take a shot when you rewatch this every time I say Princeton, West Virginia. Anyway, we got to meet up. We did a live show there at the shop and had an absolute blast. As I said, Bert has become one of my best friends thanks to YouTube. He and I met up. I believe or not met up. We met, I think, six months into me doing YouTube. And we just clicked. I mean, he's a fellow veteran like I am, though he jumped out of airplanes where I told how it's where to shoot. But still, we bonded. We became great friends, still talking message to this day, do live shows together. And I just had an absolute blast meeting him and his family in person. It was awesome. Can't wait to do it again. Bert, you're the man. Bert is the reason I'm going to give him credit for me being where I am right now. He helped me out so much when I first got started. So Bert, thank you so much. Now we move on to February. February was a big month for me because that's when Toy Hacks reached out to me and asked if they could sponsor my channel. I was through the roof. I'd been doing Toy Hacks reviews kind of for myself for something on my channel to do. They loved how I was representing their product. They approached me. And to this day, we still have a good repertoire, so to speak. And stay tuned because the end of this video, Toy Hacks has donated some giveaways for me to raffle off on my channel. So that was February. Teaming up with Toy Hacks was awesome. In March, of course, that's when the COVID hit. The pandemic shut everything down. We're trapped at home. And I reached 5000 subscribers, which was a huge moment for me because my big thing in October, October 2019, right before TFCon was trying to reach 2000. So I had 2000 in October and jumped right to 5000 in March. No idea how I did that. If I knew the secret of getting that many subscribers that fast, I would bottle it and sell it on YouTube. So that happened. And of course, like I said, we got locked down, we're trapped at home. And I was so bored that I reviewed toilet paper. Yes, I reviewed toilet paper and you can check that out right there. Hey, what's going on, everybody? It's Kato from Kato's Collection out doing some toy hunting. And I wanted to stop and say a huge congratulations to my buddy, Patriot Prime for three glorious years on YouTube. And here's to many, many more. It's been my great pleasure to get to know you and consider you a genuine friend. And I can't wait to see what you have in store for all of us many years to come. In April, my good friend Kato got to interview Stan Bush on his channel for the TFomers Stay at Home event, which was really cool. A lot of us YouTubers got together. We did different things to kind of entertain everybody during the lockdown. And Kato got Stan Bush, the Stan Bush from Transformers the Movie, the Touch, the Power, Dare. Kato interviewed him. And as a special surprise to me, Kato got Stan Bush to wish my son Dylan a happy birthday. So that was so cool. Hi, Dylan, Stan Bush here. Just want to wish you a happy birthday. You got the touch. And then in July, my big thing was I finally got new internet because I swear the internet I used before there was a gerbil in a wheel that powered my internet. It sucked. So now I got fiber optic internet. I've got better streaming. I could do live shows. And that was it. I pretty much July to now great figure reviews, great toy hacks, live shows, all that cool stuff like that. So that's my quick wrap up of my third year on YouTube. Now we're getting to the main meat of this show. I wanted to do something special for you guys. And I put a poll on my YouTube community page asking if you want me to do a special three year anniversary live show or three year anniversary top 10 list. And top 10 list blew up. That was the most voted thing. And that's what I'm going to do for you guys now. Hello there. This is Graham at the Collector 75. And I'd like to congratulate Patriot Prime on three years on YouTube. It's never easy starting up on YouTube, but he's made it look so easy. He's got a great channel, great content. And what more can you say really? Congratulations. Now picking the top 10 list for this video proved to be quite a challenge. It took me about a week before I finally decided on what I wanted to do because I really had no idea what you guys wanted to see. Did you want to see top 10 figures in my collection, top 10 generation one, top 10 Autobots, top 10 Decepticons, so on and so forth. Every top 10 I thought of, I thought, well, I can make a whole new video just on that. And I want to give you guys something special. And that was the key word special. So the box I'm going to show you in this top 10 list are figures that have a special meaning to me. They're important figures and they got a pretty neat, each one has a pretty neat story to tell. And starting off with number 10, it's actually two figures and I'll show you why. Number 10 for me, part one is GoBot screw head. See how I gave my little Decepticon logo right there. This figure is my top 10 because this was my first transforming toy that I ever own. I remember my grandfather buying him for me. We went to a department store, maybe in a Hills or Roses. There was these guys were all over the pegs. I'm all excited checking them out. I was like, I've never seen anything like these before. And this guy looked so cool. I mean, he transforms into a drill tank.  So that was just a really cool vehicle. And I had the having and I love this guy, my very first transforming figure.  It's a GoBot. Don't be hating. But that's the reason this my number 10 is a two-parter because this may be my first transforming figure. This is my first transformer. 1984 Gears. I got him at a gift exchange and I'm thinking it may have been a Sunday school gift exchange in Christmas of 84. And I was just thrilled to get this guy, my very first transformer. And what's cool is my first experience with the transformers was Marvel Comics issue number three. And if you're familiar with the old Marvel Comics stories, issue number three right there featured Spider-Man teaming up with Gears. So this was my first experience with the transformers. This was my first transformers figure. And I love it, especially I think it was last year. He was re-released at Walmart. So now I've got him hanging up the wall on the wall in his original packaging and that reissue. So number 10 for me, screw head, my first transforming figure and Gears, my first transformer. So I'm 84 here to congratulate Patriot Prime reviews on three successful years here on YouTube. I've seen your channel grow from the little bitty baby channel I once was to the great channel it is today. And here's to more years of continued success. Congratulations, man. Number nine is 1996's Beast Wars Megatron. And this figure right here is the one that brought me back into collecting transformers. I mean, I quit collecting when I got into high school. I still followed Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics was my generation one, but I quit collecting the toys. I was into girls now off to school, all this other stuff. There was more important things in my life. I mean, of course, look how it's all changed now. But I remember I was working as a loss prevention loss prevention specialist at a Kmart store in 1996. And to get back to my back office, I actually walked through the action figure aisle into the back room. And I'd always pass these Beast Wars characters or these Beast Wars figures. And I'm just looking at I'm picking up the boxes. They had great looking box art and checking out this Megatron figure. And I thought this thing looks awesome. Megatron was always one of my favorite figures. And it was so cool seeing him as this big T-Rex. And I mean, on the original box, this Megatron was actually the generation one Megatron who scanned a T-Rex in the museum. It was something weird. The bios on the box were way different than the television show. But anyway, as I walked by and I'm looking at this guy over and over again, one day I finally decided what the hell I'm going to buy him. I went to the register and I remember I was like embarrassed to buy this guy. And I told the girl at the register, I said, yeah, I'm buying it for my little brother. So there we go. This is the figure that got me into collecting again. So 1996 is Beast Wars Megatron. Bolly, Granite, Weep, Ninibong. I'm engineer Hoist here to say congratulations to Patriot Prime for three years on YouTube. You got a great channel and you're a great guy. And I wish you continued success in the future. Keep rolling, my friend. Number eight is a figure I really need to get in front of the camera to do a generation one review on. And that is six shot. This is an awesome generation one figure. And the reason he's so special to me, this is the very first figure that I totally restored. When I first got him, he was messed up. He stickers were all tore off. Somebody had drawn him with a Sharpie marker or something. He was just in bad shape.   So I took this guy apart. I cleaned him. That's when I discovered how good Gugon is getting all the marks off of him. And then I discovered a company online that made reproduction decals for generation one Transformers. So this right here is my first toy hacks purchase. And I couldn't be happier how this figure turned out. He's pretty much dead mint now. And I got creative because I actually reversed the decals right here on the original generation one toy. The Decepticon logos are supposed to be on this side of the wings, but I like to display mine like this. So I kind of tweaked it a little bit to have the Decepticon logos on the outside. I love this guy. This is a great figure. I'm really proud to have him in my collection. And this is the one that pretty much started me off on toy hacks and restoring vintage figures. I couldn't tell you how many I've restored over the years, but it's all thanks to this guy right here. So that is my number eight generation one six shot. Hey, Patrick Prem, Optimus Walpole here and congratulations on three years on YouTube. Did one of the best channels out there and it's fully deserved everything that's coming to you and your channel. And I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me. So thank you there. Then congratulations again. My number seven figure is one that I picked up at 2013 at my very first Transformers convention, the Land Shark from Shardicon. It was a Transformer convention held in Charlotte, North Carolina. And they called it Shardicon because of Charlotte. And they used Shark Decons as the mascot. And this one right here, the Land Shark is a repaint remold of, I believe it was Transformers prime beast hunter bulkhead. So a really cool looking figure. Now I've never transformed this guy because well, he's painted and he's got special parts and attachments. And I just really don't want to mess him up because I think there was only about 75 made and I had to get one. I got up extra early that day, drove all the way from my cousin's house, about five miles up the road, got there, maybe 5 36 in the morning to get in line so I could snag one. I think I was fourth or fourth or fifth in line. And I'm really happy to have this guy. He looks great. I love the collar scheme and the fact they made him with a Generation One style box. So that is really cool. So I've imposed looking like the box. The box even had tech specs on the back done up Generation One style. This is a great figure. And I know there's not many of them out there. There's not many people that have this guy. And I just love him. He's a really cool figure that has his own special little place up there on my actually has his own shelf, a little shelf right there, right above my desk. That was such a fun convention. I had a blast. That was the first, as I said, first Transformer convention I was ever at. It was so cool seeing people like me. I mean, I just, I heard about him right about guys like on the internet, but actually meeting fellow fans, shaking hands and actually shardicon is where I got the nickname Patriot Prime. I went to Charlotte a couple months prior. That's where I found out about shardicon because my wife and I, we turned 40, got tattoos and I got this Optimus Prime carrying the American flag. And during shardicon, I went around with the tank top on cause one it's hot as hell in those conventions and it was summertime. And so many people walked up, they saw the tattoo and they started calling me Patriot Prime. And when I was coming up with my YouTube channel name, that's the one that clicked and I was like, boom, there you go. So contrary what you may hear on the interwebs, Patriot Prime has nothing to do with current world situations. It's all thanks to a nickname. I got it shardicon. A great transformer convention with a pretty funny name. So that is my number seven, Land Shark. Hey Patriot Prime, congratulations for making three years on YouTube from Larkinslayer. Hope to see you many more years to come when you are old and gray. And we, all we have is arthritis in our hands. And the only thing we can review are one step changers. My number six is another generation one figure and a pretender, the mighty Thunder Wing. Now, as I said earlier, I stopped collecting the toys as I got older, but I continued to read Marvel Comics. And one of the characters that just absolutely fascinated me in Marvel Comics was Thunder Wing. Simon Furman wrote that figure, wrote that character so well into that story. I mean, this was the only Decepticon who was able to wield the matrix. He corrupted the matrix, but was still really cool that he was able to wield it. And as I got into collecting G1s again, I was like, I have to get a Thunder Wing. I just, this is before my goals of, you know, I had to get every figure as possible. This was one of those grail figures. I was determined to find one. And I lucked out a few years ago and got this one fairly dirt cheap on eBay because the guy having mistransformed, he transformed him. He had one foot folded in like so. And the way it looked on the picture, I asked the guys, I thought it was broke. And I asked him, it was actually his girlfriend was selling the figures for him. And she says, I don't know, he may be broke. And I made an offer on him. And I got this Thunder Wing complete. I was thrilled to find out he wasn't broke for a steal. And I think I got him about 70 bucks, maybe, but thrilled to have this guy. He's not as awesome looking as he was in the comics, but this is a fantastic figure. And I know it pretenders get a lot of hate, but check this out. I mean, not only does the little robot go inside the big robot, but this guy has a unique gimmick is the shell right here can transform. So we'll transform the shell first.   So the shell transforms into this supersonic fighter, very simple transformation. Fold the wings down, always got that nice, creaky old sound. Now, the jet really doesn't look like much now. And right there that is painted gold. That is not the gold plastic, the GPS. So you got the jet mode right here. And of course, you got the little bot. He transforms into a jet as well. Fold the arms in with the head down. Get these wings out. So right there, you've got the little jet mode. Alt mode of the mini, mini bot, inner bot. But what's really cool is you connect these two together. And when they are connected together, forms one of the coolest generation one jets. I love the looks of this. This thing is armed to the teeth. It's got weapons here. Of course, you can mount the guns under the wings. I think I reviewed Thunder Wing is my hundredth review, I think.  Unfortunately, the way this is designed, that gun just shoots into the canopy. But I love the looks of that jet. That is thing. That is awesome. It's a great toy, pretty expensive, unless you look out like I do. And I really, really hope that we get a proper Thunder Wing in the modern line. We got one a few years ago with the generations, but this guy, he needs the love. So this is my number six generation one ultra pretender Thunder Wing. Hey guys, I'm here from Transformers and Video Games. I'm just a bit to head out and do a little bit of garage sale hunting. But first I thought I'd pop by and congratulate my buddy Jason from Patriot Prime Reviews on his awesome three year anniversary on YouTube. I first had the opportunity to get to know Jason a couple of years ago when he had me as a guest on his YouTube show called The Sitrep. And I had an absolute blast speaking with him in real time. Jason's at around 6,700 subscribers right now, but he's quickly closing in on that highly coveted 10,000 subscriber milestone. And if he keeps doing what he's doing, he's going to get there before he knows it. Jason, thank you very much for entertaining us. Thanks for all your hard work on the platform, but more importantly, thank you for your friendship. Talk to you soon, buddy. Number five is generation one road buster. And this figure is special to me because this is the first gift I received from a subscriber. I mean, just completely out of the blue, I get an email asking if I would like to have a generation one road buster. And of course, I'm like, yes, what's the catch? And he says, I like what you do. I appreciate your service. And I want this figure to go somewhere where I know it'll be love. So he sent me a 100% complete road buster. It's got the little round sensor array. It's got the antenna. I mean, everything and it is in perfect shape. I mean, not only did he send me the road buster, I also got some vintage transformer books, some patches. I mean, it just blew me away. I mean, just out of nowhere, someone offered to give me something just for what I do here on YouTube. Now, since I've got this figure, I've got quite a few other gifts from subscribers and each one I'm eternally grateful for. And it just humbles me to receive them. I mean, it really gets me right in the heart, guys. I don't think it's something I take advantage of. It's just, it really means a lot to me. Each and every one that I've got from a subscriber has a special place in my heart. But this one right here, this is the first one I ever got. And man, I'm getting emotional just thinking about it. I mean, it's just awesome. The YouTuber, the YouTube Transformer communities, it's amazing. There's some great people in this community and it's stuff like this that really shows. So that is my number five. All right, Ghost Prime from Ghost Prime Transformers Reviews. I just want to congratulate Patriot Prime for three years of YouTube videos. It's been amazing watching your channel grow and become the channel it is now. It's awesome, awesome reviews. And I'm looking for it for more in the future. You're an awesome guy, man. My number four is the figure that started all of this YouTube stuff. Well, maybe it's not as much the figure as the accessories I bought for him. And that is Titan's Return Overlord with these shockwave lab accessories. When I decided I was going to be a YouTuber, I wanted to review something that I knew nobody else had reviewed. I wanted to stand out a little bit. And I had just got this Overlord figure and absolutely loved him. I discovered Overlord with Last Stand of the Wreckers. And I really, after discovering the Last Stand, I researched the Generation 1 figure, found all the, how he looked. And then when the Titan's Return version came out, he was just missing some things. And that's when I discovered Shockwave Labs. And they have the G1 inspired gun. They've got the G1 inspired chest plates, the shoulder, shoulder panels right here. He's got an extra double barrel cannon. So I bought that set and I just kept watching YouTube to see if anybody else had reviewed this Shockwave Labs upgrade set. And by the time I got it, no one had. And so that was my very first review Overlord with this upgrade set. And that's it. That's that's what started it all. I absolutely love how this figure looks with the set. You can actually utilize them in vehicle modes as well. Really adds to the look of the figure. And this, this is the guy you blame for all of this. So that is my number four Titan's Return Overlord with the Shockwave Lab upgrades. Hey, big shout out to PPR. Three years, man. Three years on YouTube. I remember the early days, baby, when you and I and so many others were, you know, those small YouTubers just starting to grow and trying to encourage everyone to do their best to keep at it, to stay with it, and look at you now, man. Three years later, the success just keeps flowing. Man, couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Here is to the next three years and your continued success, my friend. My number three is one of the original 1984 Transformers and that is Generation One Megatron. This is the figure that I show off every time I bring somebody up into my office who's never seen this before. I always show off Megatron because, well, let's face it, we're not going to get another Megatron. We're not going to get a Megatron that turns into a realistic looking gun. I mean, this guy, he's fantastic. He's die-cast. He looks great. He's just so 80s and heavy. I mean, this guy is just awesome. I just don't have enough good things to say about Generation One Megatron.  I mean, I used Megatron tons as a kid and I remember the day he broke. I was playing Transformers upstairs in my room and I was playing above the steps and I put Megatron up on the banister. He was up towering over the Autobots and he fell and he went down the steps and this section right here where that screws in, that broke right off and no amount of superglue would fix him. I was absolutely devastated because, you know, back then you broke a toy that wouldn't be in the stores anymore. That was it. You weren't going to find one and my God, I remember I was just devastated when I lost my Megatron. Now, I got this Megatron a very funny story. I bought him at a local flea market. He didn't have any of his accessories and he was actually transform him into gun mode here just to show how great this guy is. Transform him in a heartbeat, but man he's well over 30 years old. You want to be careful. Get him all locked together and tabbed in. Yeah, so right there they don't make him like that anymore. All that die cast makes him heavy, very realistic looking gun. So anyway, I found him just like this at a flea market. He's laying on the table and I'm looking down and it's just like, I can't believe what I found. And I asked the lady and I said, how much for that toy gun right there? And she just looks at says, I don't know, $5. So I just immediately handed that $5. She took it, I picked this guy up and I'm transforming him. I'm popping him apart just like so. Transforming. She's just watching me just as her eyes were looking like mine was when I first saw him. So I transform him into robot mode and she's looking at me and going, I didn't know he did that. I'm going to have to ask for more. And I said, man, we just made a deal. I gave you $5 for this figure and you accepted it. And that's it. I got this Generation 1 Megatron minus the accessories, of course, which I hunted down thanks to eBay and Facebook or maybe it's just eBay. I can't remember. But anyway, I think this Generation 1 Megatron may have just cost me $40 all together. And he is one of the crown jewels in my collection. Like I said, he's the one I always show off because, you know, you're not going to see a gun like this anymore. And it's just a great reminder of how awesome the 80s transformers were. So that is my number three Generation 1 Megatron. Congratulations, Patriot Prime, on your channel's three year anniversary. And I just want to say through you and your channel, you have been the main link in the Transformers community that without you, I would have met dozens of other great content creators and now they've become good friends. So keep up the good work. And for those of you who are watching this episode and are not subscribed, what do you wait and know? You're missing out on fantastic content. And this is Animated Matrix signing out and goodbye. My number two figure, or figure yours, is the awesome combiner menaceaur. This was my favorite combiner growing up. Actually, it's still my favorite combiner. I love the stunnacons. This was the only complete combiner I had as a child. I love these guys in the cartoon. I thought Motor Master was awesome. And I could not wait to get another one in my collection. Now, funny story about menaceaur. As far as my collection is concerned, when I first got into collecting again and I wanted to get a menaceaur, I had that horrible KO version. Remember, you got three stunnacons and I think you got two Technobots with it. It was just this horrible KO, but it stood in back there on the back until about five years ago, they came out with this new version. It was a much better KO where you got all of the stunnacons. The plastic was still a little heavy. So I got that one and had that in the collection for a while.  And I couldn't be happier. I have in my possession now, my favorite, absolute favorite combiner team, the authentic Generation 1 version. Now mine has a upgrade sword because that just looks so much better than the little dinky when it came with. Completely restored. It's got brand new toy hacks decals on it. And another great thing about this figure for me is this figure right here has my most, is my most viewed figure. My most viewed transformer is this guy right here at 28,000. Actually over 28,000 views on my stunnacons. So I just, I love this guy. I love having my collection. I love what he's done for my channel and I couldn't be happier. This, this is an awesome toy. And I love this guy. So that is my number two Generation 1 Manusaur. Hey everyone, Ian Utabi here. Just wanted to say congratulations to the Patriot Prime for three years on YouTube. One of the first guys I ever started watching and one of the best out there today. Congratulations buddy. And my number one figure, the figure that means the most to me out of my entire collection is my MP01 Optimus Prime. This thing is big. It's beefy. It's diecast. You don't want to drop it. This would shatter my glass desk right here. And if you're familiar with the channel, if you've been a viewer of mine for some time, this was my mascot for the longest time. I got this guy with a flag in it. I put him against a white background. I photoshopped the background out and he was Patriot Prime until I actually got my logo. My wife bought this figure for me in 2004 while I was in Iraq. And just think it back, you know, what she was probably going through while I was over there and she's still going out of her way to get stuff like this for me. And it means I'll get the flag out of my face. It really means a lot to me. This figure is a centerpiece in my collection.  It was also the very first figure I bought add-on kits for it because I used to have these little dinky smokestacks, but I bought these big longer ones that really improve his looks. And I love this guy. This one just every time I look at it, I think about 2004. I think about being over in the desert. My wife being home all by herself while I was gone for 14 months and she's still buying toys for me. So yeah, that's it. That is my number one, the figure that means the most to me. MP01, Optimus Prime. Patriot Prime Reviews. Hey, this is Dan from eBay4i and also the brand new channel, the No Wheat Geek. And listen, I just took a look at your channel stats. 750,000 views, 478 videos, and 6.7 thousand subs in only three years. Brother, congratulations. You've earned it. Love your channel. Here's to another three, 30, 50. Just keep it going forever. Best of luck to you again and congratulations. So that's it, guys. That is my top 10 figures that mean the most to me, the ones that are most special to me. I hope you enjoyed me showing them off to you. I hope you enjoyed the stories behind them. I enjoyed sharing them. There's a lot of stuff that I've never really talked about on camera before. So I do it for you guys. And you guys for sure are the reason I do this. I appreciate each and every one of you. I love making these videos for you guys. I love reading the comments. I may not comment on every comment, but I do read them. I try to give the heart symbol or little love, whatever, that shows that I read them and I appreciate each and every one of you. Now, to show my appreciation, as I teased earlier, I have a giveaway for you. And this giveaway is all thanks to toyhacks.com. I've been talking to them for a few weeks now, lining up, making sure that we're all on the same page as far as this giveaway is concerned. So how this is going to work, it's going to be comment based. I'm going to use YouTube random comment picker and pick three winners. This is my three year anniversary. I figure let's have three winners for this. And each prize is going to be a toy hack set donated, as I said, by toyhacks.com. If you watch my channel, you're familiar with me and toyhacks, I absolutely love toyhacks decals. They're a sponsor me for almost a year now. And I couldn't be happier with them. And I'm very grateful that they're donating to the channel. So here's the prizes. The third prize is a decal set for the Earthrise Seekers, Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp. Now, Toyhacks already has the Starscream set on their site, but the Skywarp and Thundercracker set have yet to be produced. So the third prize winner is going to get some unreleased decals. Second prize is a decal set for Earthrise Optimus Prime. This is a fantastic set that greatly improves Prime and his trailer. And if you have that Earthrise trailer, you know what I'm talking about. That thing is so plain and so gray. And this set really knocks that whole figure set right out of the park. Now the grand prize, the big one, the one I am so thankful that Toyhacks is donated to this giveaway. Y'all gonna love this. The grand prize is the Earthrise Scorponok and Xeric set. Both figure sets. And this is something else. I've already applied the Xeric decals. They look amazing. And I just got the Scorponok ones in the mail. Five decal sheets. So here's one, two, three, four, and five. So yes, the grand prize. It's this awesome, I think it's about 149 some decals. That's something else right there. You're gonna get all of these decals for Scorponok plus the decal set for Lord Xeric. And all you need to do to enter is comment on this video. Congratulations Patriot Prime, I'm stuck on Toyhacks. And that's it. One week from today, I'm going to do a live drawing for the three prizes. The Seeker set, the Optimus Prime set, and the Scorponok and Xeric set. And that's it. Comment below. Congratulations Patriot Prime. I'm stuck on Toyhacks and you're entered in the drawing. So good luck. And once again, thank you Toyhacks. And thank you guys. As I said before, I do this for you.  And I love every minute of it.  And this whole community, like I said, I have met great people through this YouTube thing. People I consider dear, dear friends now. And it just wouldn't be possible at all if it wasn't for this right here. So guys, as I say many, many times, if you enjoyed the video, don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribe, and don't forget to click that bell icon to get notified when I upload new reviews. Once again, this is Patriot Prime signing out. Now, on to year four. Hey, Mike from Firetox Designs here. I want to shout out to Patriot Prime on three years on YouTube. It's been awesome to work with you, man. And I cannot wait to see what else is coming. I can't wait to see what else you put out. And I hope for many, many more years. What's that? Hey, Patriot Prime, it's Rodimus Primal and Aerith. And we want to wish you a happy anniversary for three years on YouTube. And Aerith and I are going to sing you a little song, right, Aerith? Mm-hmm. All right, so the Transformers. More than meets the eye. I'd say. Are the bots waved their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons, the Transformers, robots in disguise, the Transformers. More than meets the eye. The Transformers.


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