CEO Global Network Podcast
🎙 Hosted by John Wilson, founder of CEO Global Network and author of GREAT CEOs and How They Are Made, this podcast delivers powerful insights for CEOs and executives looking to grow as leaders and drive lasting success.
Each episode features candid conversations with high-performing business leaders, expert speakers, and industry trailblazers—all focused on sharpening your leadership edge, building resilient companies, and improving your life, your team, and your impact.
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CEO Global Network Podcast
Jose Hadad, Founding Revolutionary at Mad Mexican – From Condo Kitchen to Cult Brand
Chef-founder Jose Hadad built Mad Mexican from a tiny condo kitchen into a beloved, handcrafted, chemical-free food brand - without compromising on freshness or integrity. In this quick-hit conversation with host John Wilson, Jose shares the “against all odds” decisions that shaped the company, why Viva la revolución is more than a tagline, how he engineered a just-in-time distribution model to protect quality, and the dish that tells his life story.
You’ll learn:
- The pivotal moment Jose refused preservatives and chose the hard path
- How to design operations backwards from the customer’s first bite
- Why “revolution” means returning food to your grandmother’s table
- The role of faith and grit when the nos outnumber the yeses
[00:00] John Wilson: Jose, thank you so much for being on the CEO Global Network podcast. I know you're an extremely busy guy, and we really appreciate you taking the time to be with us. So welcome—welcome to the podcast.
[00:11] Jose Hadad: It is an honor to be here, John. It's a great privilege that you have selected me, and I'm looking forward to the interview.
[00:19] John Wilson: You built Mad Mexican from the kitchen of your apartment into a highly successful brand. What’s the biggest “against all odds” moment that shaped the company?
[00:37] Jose Hadad: At the beginning, I didn’t know what I was doing. I just wanted to make something by hand and give it to people. Stores told me they’d only consider my products with two to three months of shelf life—ideally non-refrigerated and with preservatives. In 2005–2006 that was the standard. I chose the rocky road: no preservatives, handcrafted, refrigerated, short shelf life. That decision shaped everything we are today.
[01:53] John Wilson: You’ve stayed true to handcrafted, chemical-free food for nearly two decades. What’s been the hardest part of protecting that integrity as you scaled?
[02:02] Jose Hadad: The hardest part was realizing it wasn’t just about making food—it was engineering the experience for the customer and working backward. With a 15–20 day shelf life and the peak in the first week, we had to build our own distribution. No distributor would take it, so we created one: trucks, drivers, packaging, tight ordering windows, and timelines. I had to go from chef to builder of systems and people—find many “other Joses,” or grow them.
[04:16] John Wilson: “Viva la revolución” isn’t just your slogan—it’s a philosophy. What does the revolution mean to you today compared to when you started?
[04:30] Jose Hadad: It hasn’t changed much. I grew up eating at my grandmothers’ tables—food that made you feel satisfied, not just full. My revolution is bringing food back around to that origin: transmitting love through food, even in an industrial context. It’s the opposite of mass-produced, shelf-stable “Mexican” products. We aim to keep the soul while operating at scale.
[06:20] John Wilson: Entrepreneurship—and food in particular—can be brutal. In the early days when you heard more noes than yeses, what kept you going?
[06:28] Jose Hadad: Faith. I knew my life would revolve around food. By 25, after a decade in intense kitchens in Mexico and Toronto and training at George Brown, I felt there was nothing left to discover in restaurants except variations of the same thing. Building my own path was painful—I cried to my wife at times and she was right to ask why I didn’t just get a job—but I kept going. Sometimes there was no reason to keep going other than to keep going.
[07:35] John Wilson: If food communicates love for you, what one dish on your menu tells your personal story the loudest?
[08:03] Jose Hadad: Every dish reflects a facet of me. Mad Mexican salsas—Morita, Salsa Verde—take me back to late-night tacos with friends in my teens and early twenties. Our guacamole is my childhood: at eight or nine, I ate a warm tortilla with a scoop of guacamole at a cousin’s party and thought, “If I could eat this every day, I’d be happy.” That’s the feeling I try to serve.
[09:18] John Wilson: That’s wonderful. Jose, thanks for being on the CEO Global Network podcast. It’s been a great 10 minutes for me and our listeners—we appreciate your time.
[09:33] Jose Hadad: Thank you, John. Good to see you. Until the next one.
