#520 Chuck Alpuche, Insulet EVP, COO

August 6, 2021Scott Benner

Chuck Alpuche is the EVP and COO of Insulet. He oversaw the creation of the Omnipod manufacturing floor and he has a very deep voice.

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries g vo hypo pen. Find out more at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box. Hello friends and welcome to Episode 520 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Back in 2019, I was invited to speak at the Omni pod headquarters in Massachusetts, I gave a little talk to all the employees about why what they do is so important to people like me and my daughter and everyone like you. While he was there, I was given a tour. I didn't just get to see the offices. But I saw the actual place the production floor where on the pods are made. And let me tell you it is as futuristic and as amazing as you can imagine. Anyway, this tour was given to me by a man named Chuck and by how on assuming he was I had no idea of the important position that he held it insolent. He's just very humble. And I found his sincerity and his excitement about the production to be infectious. And I've wanted to talk to him since then, but he's not the kind of guy who gives interviews so it took me a little while but I'm really excited for you to hear Chuck story about how we got to Omni pod, how they designed the floor where the production happens and and so much more. Please remember while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. Just one ad today somebody get it out of the way for you right now so we can listen to chuck straight through. g vo hypo pan has no visible needle, and it's the first pre mixed autoinjector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is chivo hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G Volk glucagon.com forward slash juicebox g vo shouldn't be used in patients with insulin, Noma or pheochromocytoma. Visit g Vogue glucagon.com slash risk. Just a second here. Before we get started, I need to tell you that Chuck's voice is incredibly deep. It is so deep that his recording equipment has trouble capturing the the richness and timbre in his voice. If you put Chuck next to Sam Elliot, and gave him lines from The Big Lebowski, you'd think to yourself, hmm, Sam Elliott has a really high pitched voice,

Chuck Alpuche 2:50
Potter's and folk. So it's got you got to get back to do another plant tour.

Scott Benner 2:55
Oh, well. Alright, so we're recording now. So just I'll introduce, I'll introduce you. So

Unknown Speaker 2:59
you don't have to.

Scott Benner 3:00
That'll be easy. I'll do that later. Just let me tell you that the minute I left the plant tour that I took, which now I think might have been a couple of years ago, it feels like I thought I want to interview this person. Because I just wanted to, I wanted to understand how you get to a position in your life where you're the right choice to design a manufacturing floor. So I know that sounds like maybe not what you expected. But, Chuck, I want to know where you went to college and what you thought you were going to do with your life and what path you took.

Chuck Alpuche 3:34
So that's a great question. And I grew up in Philadelphia. My family's still down in the Philadelphia area. I went to school down there. I actually started studying food science because I grew up in the restaurant industry. And I thought that, you know, that's what I was going to do. And growing up, I started thinking to myself, you know, you're working all the holidays. And, you know, is this really what I want to do with my life the rest of my life. And so I changed majors I actually moved over to business with an emphasis on industrial engineering, organizational dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania, which sets it simply, too. So when I graduated, I had a brief stint with the Detroit Lions that didn't last long with injuries and then got a job with PepsiCo. Okay, hold

Scott Benner 4:26
on. So you just you just skipped right over the fact that you sounds like you played for the lions for half a second. So did you play? Did you fail? Do you play football at Penn? No, no, I

Chuck Alpuche 4:36
did in my undergrad Delaware Valley University. Okay. Yeah, so I did skip over it because it was such a long time ago. It was only a year right. Then I hooked up with Pepsi in Philadelphia and started off as a third shift sanitation supervisor which is critical in plant food processing plant and then moved around with Pepsi. To go different parts of the country back to headquarters in New York, I ran their international operations, I ran our concentrate operations, which was a GM assignment. And then I moved to and ran North American operations. And I retire after 30 years to the day, one of the last corporations with the full pension and benefits, which was excellent. So I retired. And there's wanted to spend more time with family with all the travel that was required in my role as a head of operations, especially internationally. It was a prime time to spend with my family, especially my kids are so important to me and everything to me. So I would wake up and make them breakfast, driving to school, go play some stuff, pick them up at school, was just a wonderful time of my life and the perfect time to be able to retire. But then I started getting calls for consulting. Pepsi folks are everywhere running businesses, and I was consulting starting operations and supply chains for a lot of companies, internationally and domestically. Some folks were asking me to come back full time, which I had said no, I was enjoying my balanced life, as I called it. And then I started consulting for excellence. I got the confirmation that and that was a real easy one to say yes to full time. So I've been full time for five years now. Yeah.

Scott Benner 6:29
The I guess it might sound odd to some people, you know, Pepsi, insulin pumps, but it's the process of setting up the floor and understanding materials and workflow. That kind of stuff is, I would imagine, excuse me, I would imagine runs over top of anything, you're manufacturing, right. It doesn't need to be food. It doesn't need to be a medical device. It's it's, I mean, like, why would they? I know you said there's Pepsi people everywhere. But do you know how they found you? Do you know why they were looking for you? In select?

Chuck Alpuche 7:03
Yeah, yeah. So the Chief Human Resource Officer was x PepsiCo. So he knew me at Pepsi. He actually called home I wasn't home. My wife that answered and said, Brad call and we'd like you to look this company up. And I'll be honest, I looked him up. And this was December 2015. I looked them up online. And I said buddy calls back I'm not here. I'm not gonna consulting. A lot of positive news. Online back then in 2015. With product recalls and warning letters from the FDA I saw nothing positive from our Potter's but then bad call it and I did answer. And he said, No, come and meet the new team and see the product and all the potential we have. So because of my relationship with Brad I did. I came up I met Pat and Shea see their commitment to turn this place around. I said, Yes, I look consultant and about six weeks into consulting. They had started talking to me to do full time. I commute from Connecticut every week. Stay up here. I just love what we're doing. I love our mission. I love our team. The potential the trajectory for growth and changing people's lives living with diabetes, is why I'm still here five years later, after retirement,

Scott Benner 8:23
do you have any personal connection to type one or type two diabetes?

Chuck Alpuche 8:27
I have family members and when I traveled internationally, I have very, very good friends I still keep in touch with especially when I travel overseas to visit my sights. Live with diabetes. My daughter's best friend I got to see firsthand as grown up she was our star athlete in school. And I got to see what she had to go through living with diabetes what her parents has carried me caregivers had to live through and I just said I want to change change that left I want to change it like for that individual and then more individuals. Yeah. To me it's it's personally why I'm here five years later, still don't want them doing it to me to Connecticut

Scott Benner 9:14
and not being a short order cook and a golf pro.

Chuck Alpuche 9:19
No, not at all. Not at all. Again, I that was fun while it lasted but you know to your question on why Pepsi they here it's and I always say to folks is PepsiCo taught you quality first. That was our focus in every single plant. I had dozens and dozens of plants reporting to me. When you're producing billions and billions of cans and bottles a year you better get it right as you get a lot of folks sick very quickly. So believe it or not because it's soda. As we said the focus on quality was job one and when I came here I expected the biggest In 2015, the warning wasn't quite there. So I just wanted to bring that mindset here. Why?

Scott Benner 10:07
I think you definitely have there's, my daughter's been using Omni pod since she was four. And she turned 17 the other day. And the company has clearly not just, like turned a corner that would that wouldn't be giving it enough credit. It's somebody inside said, we're going to do this differently. And it just changed direction. In my opinion. I i've always, I mean, if I'm being honest, Chuck Pryor, I always

Chuck Alpuche 10:34
thought it was a company set up to be sold. And now it feels to me like a group of people who want to make insulin pumps. That's exactly right. And that's the biggest compliment that me personally and my team that we can get is I tell folks and I did a call last week with with a potter was in the audience and said, It's been three and a half years since they had upon fail. That's the couple of minutes that we get, yes, you saw our plant. We built a world class manufacturing operation here. But the pride is the quality improvements that have come out of that plant and our plants in China.

Scott Benner 11:12
So when you got there in 2015, what was can you say what some of your first direction was? But what were your ideas?

Chuck Alpuche 11:23
Let's see what there was many of them. You know, it was interesting, we have single days of inventory. We didn't have very good relationships with suppliers. And to make quality starts with every single component. We have dozens and dozens of components in there. But we had to get those more reliable, more consistent. So my number one priority first was to work with our suppliers to improve quality and consistency and reliability. And I think we've we've been working out for five years and continue to work it. Secondly, you saw the act of manufacturing, as I said is one of the first things I was very, very surprising to chasing the team's credit. I was surprised that, you know, a device that people's lives depended on to monitor diabetes was single sourced out of China. Again, I ran an international operation, I've been to China 100 times plus, I knew the volatility. So as we build capacity to support our growth, it was also to build outside of China for risk mitigation, redundancy. And that's where that's where the idea of I came from. So that was our supplier quality, redundancy, risk mitigation and building capacity. And that's where actin various manufacturing facility came from. So that's what I focused on first when I got here, right?

Scott Benner 12:54
I have to admit, when I saw it, I didn't know what I was gonna see. And there's this giant, you know, it's a cleanroom, right? It's it's completely sealed. There's, there's people working in there, there are robots moving things around the machinery that's that's putting things together and producing things. It's it looks like it's out of a movie. Like if I took a camera in there and did some close up shots and intersperse them in a Marvel film, you'd think I was making Tony Stark's costume. You know what I mean? Like, it really is fascinating. And does that come? Like when you decide to do that? You just say hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stay here full time, you get you're in charge of that project. Is that right? That's correct, right? Do you then bring in a team? Or do you can you how do you build the team that's going to make this happen? We

Chuck Alpuche 13:41
brought in a team of very, very experienced automation engineers, upgraded the engineering department. I brought two other folks out of PepsiCo that used to run my operations out of retirement. And I say that because I think that says a lot about intellect and ambition that people come out of retirement to come and work here. But I knew I could depend on them to focus on quality first, they got the mindset, it starts with every single component. So one of them moved to China to fix the operation over there and improve the operation, while the other one manage the day to day building the active manufacturing and he had built plants for me at PepsiCo. So it's bringing in the right mindset, the right experience. And we wanted to build a world class manufacturing facility. So to your point on robotics and automation, it's funny folks up towards that it looks like a transformer movie. So it's funny cinema. It is but of all the robots. What we're really proud of that you don't say you may have remembered I pointed out the blue flashing that was taking place at the different cells as we call where we're building the sub assemblies, to eventually become a pod is the quality, the camera technology that we put in In each of the assemblies, there's 47, or seven camera technologies that are measuring every single quality attribute that wasn't measured before. And you know, a 10th of a second, we can decide, pass or fail. And by doing that, you're almost guaranteed if you will a perfect pot at the end

Scott Benner 15:20
of the production. Does the does the system learn? does it teach itself?

Chuck Alpuche 15:27
Well teaches us with the data collection, we're collecting so much data, as I said, over 2 billion quality metrics per year per line, we're gathering the data, then we take that data and we work back with our component suppliers, globally so that we can transfer those learnings to China manufacturing, which are distinct components. So they're teaching us, I don't know if I would say to robotics, or teaching or learning themselves, but we can adjust our automation and robotics based off of those learnings. Yeah.

Scott Benner 16:01
So the more pods you make, the more data you have back, the better decisions you can make in the future on things. Absolutely. What's the what is the rate of rejection does? Do you see a lot of part Yeah, I

Chuck Alpuche 16:14
don't want to get into specifics, I will say in the beginning, much higher than I would have ever anticipated. Again, but as I said, from the beginning, working with our suppliers to get more reliable, more consistent with quality. So we had a fairly high rejection rate from any manufacturing, best practice standards. But that has significantly significantly reduced the waste and scrap because, again, over the years, a couple of years just with those learnings, and all that data we've collected, we're able to go back with data to those suppliers and improve their systems and processes.

Scott Benner 16:51
Oh, I see. Oh, okay. So you have these better relationships. And I guess that even makes it easier for you to walk back and say, Hey, guys, look, this is coming like this. This is what we think will fix it, and then they work with you and get it together.

Chuck Alpuche 17:05
Absolutely. And it's all data driven. It's it's not emotions, it's no feelings. It's strictly the data coming off of that camera technology I talked about.

Scott Benner 17:14
It's amazing. You're making me for some reason, think about automated driving like Tesla, like they talk about all the time, they need more cars driving on the road to get into more situations so they can get more data and, and keep fine tuning. It's

Chuck Alpuche 17:29
really, really fascinating. It is powerful. Yeah, people always say it really is, especially on our pod when you're talking dozens and dozens of components and you know, 10s of millions of pounds a year that we're producing that many gather a lot of data. Absolutely.

Scott Benner 17:44
You got more than a couple days worth of back log made now. A couple months, maybe? Yes. So when when COVID happened, and and things are starting to not move around the world as quickly. You had a you had a couple of months to. But did it ever get in? Do you ever gotten to a place where you thought who would this is closer? Were you able to keep your your stuff flowing? No.

Chuck Alpuche 18:11
I guess the camera technology, the quality improvements we're making with our components are what we're most proud of. But I would say the unexpected. We talked about when we were building acting to support our growth, but also for risk mitigation, redundancy. It proved itself in the, you know, in the pandemic, we did not skip a beat. As we continue to grow double digits, we did not miss one shipment to one of our customers. And we're very proud of that. Because a lot of a lot of supply chains for going down scaling back. People don't realize we have plants in China and lost production capacity in China when COVID hit their first I had packed into continue to produce. And then when it came here, we got China back up and running. So we had both facilities running, we have lots of inventory that was never a risk to our partners, which we're most proud of. And that was the benefit of building an active and having a redundancy here closest to our largest customer.

Scott Benner 19:14
That's comforting. I mean, as a person who, you know, I watch my daughter put on a pot every three days. So it's got so much to do with her health and her the ease that she lives that you have to think of it just going away is frightening.

Chuck Alpuche 19:28
Ya know, it's we're not allowed to miss shipments to our partners as we always talk to our folks. And as you saw, the tour we have printed on the walls is every platter every time and it just simply means that we are able to ship the pod every single time and customer expects it. And it works every single time as intended.

Scott Benner 19:48
taxon so I have a question because I know people listening wonder all the time, like do you think the form factor of the pod will ever change?

Chuck Alpuche 19:58
We're always looking at improvement, the form factor, you know, we do hear from our customers, they would prefer a smaller pot. On the other hand, we also hear we would like a larger reservoir. So there's a lot of work on, you know, innovation form factor improvements. Do I think that someday? Yes, I mean, we are always going to look at improving the pod. And we have a lot of customer demands, but it's how do you make a smaller pot with a larger reservoir, but we have a lot of great folks in our innovation team in r&d that are working on those projects especially.

Scott Benner 20:35
That's excellent. That's now how, if you made a shift in I don't know, let's say it was narrower but wider. I'm just making something up. How do you how do you seamlessly transfer from what making one to the other in your act implant? You have to retool? And I mean, what kind of a kind of a process in your mind would that be?

Chuck Alpuche 20:59
Nobody some retooling? Obviously, but we knew that we had to be flexible, you will become less flexible with automation and robotics, obviously, than our China facilities, which are much more manual. But we knew that we would need the flexibility for change. You know, we also run the pod for Amgen, or Leicester, which is a different type requires a changeover. So there is some flexibility in automation and robotics. When you're up close, you will say that some are just basically rubber arms that can be transferred out. So

Scott Benner 21:43
yeah, that's interesting,

Chuck Alpuche 21:44
we'll be able to change for the innovation that should never stop or slow down or innovational

Scott Benner 21:49
attacks on what, um, how many pods? Can you get through there in a day?

Chuck Alpuche 21:57
We don't share exact numbers, but I don't think that's public. Okay. But very high speed that folks didn't think was imaginable. It is a amazing device. So complex with so many components, the speeds that we are running today, I have to say, Okay,

Scott Benner 22:19
alright, that's fair enough. It's is it making more today than it did when I was there?

Chuck Alpuche 22:25
Absolutely. I see. Yes, I mean, highly automated lives, highly technical, require some way of uptime. If we've been saying and show folks, the team has done a great job of ramping up and learnings. We put our second line in as you know, eventually we'll have our third line up and running by the second half of this year. And as you saw on the tour, we built capacity for fourth line. So as we learn, we improve and build into the next line and then make the improvements on the current line. So yes, we are running a lot more pods. And we did that a couple of years ago when you were here. That's that's really something.

Scott Benner 23:01
Alright, I have a question that I don't know if you can answer or not. If you are making new products that are coming out sometime, are you? I'm assuming that they run through the same line as the one you have now?

Chuck Alpuche 23:15
Yes, okay. Yes. So that's a good example, dashboard run inactive, just like arrows and eventually op five and Jen. Yes. Okay. So

Scott Benner 23:25
you run shifts, arrows, pods run for a while, and then dash pods run and on the pod five eventually will run through there as well. Absolutely. Very cool. I don't know how to ask this. Do you use? Do you start producing on the pod five pods before you have the okay from the FDA? Or do you wait for the moment and then start making them and then create a back a backlog of them and then make it go public? What's the way to do that?

Chuck Alpuche 23:58
It'll be our comfort zone based off our questions from the FDA is we may build a little bit ahead of time at risk, meaning there's very low risk based off the questions in a submission. Because we want to make sure that we have product available, that we're highly confident that the FDA will approve and so we will have some product that will today it's approved, we're ready to ship to our partners. That's right. That's the risk we take financially. And we did discuss that in our meeting is based off the FDA feedback and a comfort level. How are we? And how much do we want to produce ahead of time that the minute it's approved that we're available for shipment?

Scott Benner 24:39
How this is maybe a really like geeky question, but does the algorithm because the algorithm is going to live on the board? I'm right in Omnipod five, did that change the power that you have to like the batteries the same? I guess is the question. Well,

Chuck Alpuche 24:57
that's a very good question. I mean, because they are Rhythm is different, regardless whether it's on a pod or in a PDM. We're taking much more data collection, much more metrics on the on the pod five, yes, it does use more power. But, again, the benefit of building act and also, especially in Massachusetts building, our US manufacturing is we are right here on site with our r&d team. So we work very, very closely with them. No one that has more power, we're able to work with our battery suppliers to and we've significantly improved the performance of our batteries. Also,

Scott Benner 25:36
no kidding. Yes, I have to admit the the setup, there's kind of uncommon, it feels uncommon, like you're in an office that I was there to speak. So I'm you're in an office setting, then you go to a big room, you're speaking to somebody, and then you just walk down the hall and go through a couple of doors, and then suddenly, you're in a manufacturing place. It's, it's kind of, there's something I thought while I was there, this is kind of great, because everybody's in one spot. If and that does really bear out, I guess, like being all in one location is valuable for you.

Chuck Alpuche 26:07
It's very, very beneficial. A lot of folks ask, you know, how can you build manufacturing in Massachusetts, and be cost competitive, etc. But there's so many benefits of being on site with our r&d folks, our global engineering teams, our global purchasing team, you know, supplier engineering to work with our suppliers with real time data, especially if we have component concerns. So there's a lot of benefits of being on site right here, folks can you know, walk down the home and work with the manufacturing folks for immediate problem solving? Now?

Scott Benner 26:45
What's the, in your mind? What inside of the pod? is the most delicate? Is the Is it the injection process? Or like? What do you most amazed by this happening inside of that little thing? I guess is my question.

Chuck Alpuche 27:02
Well, I'll tell you, there's so many. I mean, when you next time you come we might have to go in the cleanroom. So you get up close and personal when you see the intricacy of the components. You know, our chassis I call, it's the transmission, it makes the pipe work. You know, the kanila forming the geometry required, and we automated that to make sure that we can be as consistent with the curves and forming your nail heads, etc. It's probably the kanila format is probably the most fascinating part of the process with inside the pod that amazes me. Okay. All right.

Scott Benner 27:51
So you're I'm gonna ask a question. I've been dying. This is such a strange question. But But Chuck, the people listening are going to be thrilled to ask, okay, great. So when you when you put the pot on, you start the process for insertion. There's this clicking that happens. And it's not Oh, and then the the insertion happens, the insertion doesn't always happen. On the same number of clicks, is that clicking tension building? Like, what is that whole process? What's happening when I'm hearing the clicking?

Chuck Alpuche 28:24
It's just the release of the Kenya. So I don't know why there be multiple clicks. It's something I'll take back to my team, but it's just the release of the Kenyan

Scott Benner 28:37
skin. Okay, so yeah, it's not it's not that the it's not that the candle is moving. There's this I always take it as a building of tension. But is that not right is the is the needle always at the correct tension?

Chuck Alpuche 28:51
Very, I will say, always at the specific tension levels that are supposed to be which are extremely tight tolerances.

Scott Benner 29:01
So when you push the button, and it goes, and it's just kind of goes, click, click, click, and then bang, and it goes, bangs the wrong word, but it goes, right sometimes, like, I watched my daughter, like, she counts them in her head. 1234 like she's trying to read it yourself. But sometimes, sometimes it'll go like six, and she'll be like, oh, six. And I just don't I guess I'm dying to understand what that is only because it is though. So while I'm giving you feedback, and not that I think you could change it, but I think that that click being audible is if you could make one thing different about the pod, I bet you making that click audible would be what most people would vote for.

Chuck Alpuche 29:46
Okay, I will definitely take that back to Archie.

Scott Benner 29:49
I have no idea if it's something you can do.

Chuck Alpuche 29:50
I don't know quite frankly, I will commit that we can do we can easily look at it. We have extremely tight tolerances for that one. emila discharge Yeah, we'll look at that. super interesting.

Scott Benner 30:04
I just I'm fascinated by the whole thing actually. Are you involved at all with the, with the adhesive process? Or is that just a part in your mind? I mean, obviously, it's because it's a components, political component. Because it's Here's to the skin of the planner, I'm involved in just as I am with the batteries in the canyon. So yes, I'm involved. So is the dance with adhesive always strong enough to hold the pot on, not so strong that it causes skin irritation is that the

Chuck Alpuche 30:40
is that kind of salutely. And I've learned more about adhesives since I've been here than I ever thought I would know about adhesives. But that's exactly the science behind it is, obviously we can make it much stronger. But you know, you don't want to irritate the skin, you know, so what's the right balance for three day wear waterproof, without irritating the skin. So we work very, very closely, as I said, with all our suppliers, but also with our adhesive suppliers. I'm always trying to prove that. And again, we learned a lot. We didn't only build manufacturing redundancy, but we built redundancy of all of our components also. So that even when some of our component suppliers went down for COVID, we always had a backup. It's the same with our adhesive. And that's why I learned a lot about adhesive. I thought it would just be as simple as calling a three amber so on and so give us an idea. So for the pilot, it isn't it wasn't but we we do have a second supplier. And that is the science behind the a piece of us. That's really interesting.

Scott Benner 31:45
Any any surprises? like learning about the medical, the medical world? Did anything really shock you? was it? Was it impactful meeting people that have diabetes? Because there's something that sticks with you Like if if you were out of this for 10 years, and I asked you, you know, What do you remember about this? Well, what do you think it is?

Chuck Alpuche 32:11
It's where Potter's come to talk in our town hall meetings, we had the ribbon cutting, we had a met the groundbreaking. The Potter stories, how this device has changed people's lives positively helping more simply manage diabetes. And I said I got I saw what my daughter's best friend went through. And her parents always remember the potter stories more than building an act and or survival for COVID. With supply, I mean, they're all great things. And a team deserves all the credit. But the potter stories and you know, folks laugh, you know, I'm a driver driver. Results focused. But when I heard a potter stock, I'm a big baby, I've got tears in my eyes, I'm crying. That's what it's about, you know, the ribbon cutting when our Potter smoke. I had to get up and talk afterwards. And I couldn't. It's that's what I will remember. And as I said the biggest compliment is not building a world class manufacturing as we did in folk setting. It's the quality improvements we made in hearing folks say that they haven't had a failure in three and a half years of upon failure. So that's that's what it's about. That's what I'll remember.

Scott Benner 33:29
Yeah, I really, I think she should get a ton of credit because I know you guys have people come in to talk to the employees all the time so that people who don't have a connection to type one diabetes can understand why the device is so important. And I've given that talk before at a national sales meeting, and I looked down at one point, I was like, I am making everyone cry.

Unknown Speaker 33:51
I didn't mean I was one of them. me Oh, it's okay. I thought oh, I didn't I didn't mean to make everyone cry like

Scott Benner 33:59
it but but it is really great too. I mean, because honestly, somebody has a, you know, they have a certain skill, they're looking for a job. They're not necessarily out in the workforce, saying to themselves, I want to impact the lives of people with diabetes, they they get a job. And it's I think it's really important for them to understand what this thing does. It's not just a it's not just a stapler, you know,

Chuck Alpuche 34:19
it isn't I can say that with all sincerity. As I said, as I was retired, I commute, you know, three hours every weekend, just about, you know, I live up here in an apartment by myself away from family. But it really is about positively changing people's lives living with diabetes. And that's why I'm still here. And that's why we're all here.

Scott Benner 34:41
Yeah, I have a couple more questions for you. And then I'll let you go. First of all, I want you to know I was a little nervous because you are giving me a run for my money with how deep my voices I'm gonna sound like a soprano in this episode of the of the podcast, but I'm also excited to be talking to someone who doesn't hear any of my Philly accent and thank you Strange so

Chuck Alpuche 35:02
well, it's cuz we're both from Philly. Finally, go here, both of us with our Philly accent water. Where's the,

Scott Benner 35:12
the emails about the word water that I get are just unrelenting. I know, I don't say it correctly, but I can't stop myself. When I say it correctly, it seems wrong to me. So I'm stuck. So I, if you can, I just want to ask you a question about on the pod five is significant impact on people's lives? You think?

Chuck Alpuche 35:39
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You know, you just look at all the pivotal data, the clinical data, I, that's, I can't wait for the launch of Omni pod five, I think it's significant. takes it to a whole nother level of improving people's lives living with diabetes, managing their diabetes, I've seen the videos, as I said, from partners and caregivers. We've shared them with our suppliers to make sure they understand the importance of their role in making sure that we always always have the best quality product, especially for this new launch. I think it's one of the most anticipated launches in the diabetes, med device industry in history. So I'm very, very excited. To be launched quickly,

Scott Benner 36:34
I am too I keep imagining people who have struggled for a long time, and have never been able to really figure out how how to use their insulin in a real, you know, in a in a well timed way. And just the idea of that being lifted off them, you know, somebody with an A one C in a in a in a high range that that could possibly within months see something significantly better. Is, is very exciting. Because I what I do, I think helps people but everything still reach and scale. If I if I can't, if you don't hear the podcast, you're not gonna know. And so and to put something on someone like this that would remove that from their life is I'm, I'm very, very excited. So I'm very excited. I'm very excited for what we've been able to do and the 30 days of freedom, the Omnipod promise to be able to offer to as many folks that want answers. There's no reason to wait. That's excellent. Now, I've been telling people for a couple weeks to just just get it and something new comes out. You can get that too. So

Chuck Alpuche 37:39
yeah, that's really why wouldn't you get this note, because it's the best platform out there. It will be the best quality, I'll continue to focus on that. I just can't wait. I'll Chuck

Scott Benner 37:50
I'd like to get one of those pods signed by you one day, I'm gonna hang it up on my wall. I really appreciate you doing this taking the time I I genuinely mean this when I tell you that since the day I left there, I thought about talking to you. So it's not it's Don't worry, it doesn't come into my head every day. But I have it up on a on a wish list that's hanging in my office and I'm gonna I'm gonna scratch your name off of it right now. I really appreciate you doing this.

Chuck Alpuche 38:16
Well, no, I'm honored. And I thank you is your welcome back for tour anytime it's changed significantly since we were here a couple of years ago, as I said, we put the second line in a third been installed ready for, you know, validation second half of the year. We're proud of it. But this is really a team effort. It's not just me. We have a great, great team here to truly focus on our mission.

Scott Benner 38:41
No, I I agree with you. I think that the people who have who came in and and were part of that restart, and that they're building on top of with it just gets more and more exciting as it goes along. So they talked me out of retirement. So it's a great team. I have to tell you, I think that that means a lot. I would imagine that people who are closer to retirement understand what you mean, maybe a little more than younger people. But that has to be a big leap to just it's it's not like you were sitting at home wondering how to pay your bills, right like you

Chuck Alpuche 39:13
were done with a pension and benefits. And it's not that at all. It's as I told folks at the national sales meeting, even referred to earlier is there's not many times folks in their career can really make a difference in people's lives. I mean, at Pepsi, it was fun. And I got to see the world I've toured you know, dozens and dozens of countries, etc visit. It's fun, right? But you're really impacted people's lives and it makes it a lot easier to wake up and come to work every day. Yeah,

Scott Benner 39:41
I agree. I don't think I am touching as many people as you do with that, but I am I feel very lucky to do a thing that I enjoy that also helps people I didn't even think I would get that in my life ever actually. So it's a great film. Yeah, it really is. Such like I'm gonna next time I meet you in person. I'm assuming now that I'm thinking about this Pepsi thing you've seen more than your share of Super Bowls in person.

Chuck Alpuche 40:06
I always had tickets but I never visit I always gave them to my team. I enjoyed having my own little Super Bowl party at home. I never went he never went oh no kidding. Well, we always had tickets. I just passed them on what are you trying to seem like a great guys this thing's

Scott Benner 40:22
over Chuck people already liked it. You didn't have to say that.

Chuck Alpuche 40:27
Well, I did it for my own reasons. Awesome. I enjoyed my place. The Superbowl was a lot of work for the Pepsi folks, you know, our customers there. So it wasn't the Super Bowl party that people think it was a lot of work also, so it was easier to do the Super Bowl party.

Scott Benner 40:47
Well, I really appreciate you doing this again. Thank you so much. Thank you, Scott. Yeah, thank you. Okay, take care you too.

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors. Je Vogue glucagon, find out more about chivo hypo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGL Uc ag o n.com. forward slash juicebox. Thanks so much to chuck for coming on the show. I'm super excited about what's coming from Omni pod. I hope you are too. I really want to thank him because I don't think this is the kind of thing he does usually. Can you imagine having a voice so deep that a microphone can't properly capture it. Chuck and Sam Elliot and Sam Elliott is a distant second. Real quick. If you don't get the Sam Elliott references, you really need to go watch The Big Lebowski. I'll be back soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast.