CEREAL ENTREPRENEUR a brand new Forbes interview collection with Eric Ryan

Say good morning to Cereal Entrepreneur, a brand new interview collection (over cereal) with CEOs, founders and thought leaders

It’s been almost 25 years since I co-founded Technique, an eco-friendly line of soaps, out of a small, pretty soiled condo in San Francisco. I’d dreamed of disrupting giants like SC
SC
Johnson and Proctor & Gamble. In 2007, Technique did greater than $100 million in income and, properly, we later exited to SC Johnson.

The sale was a giant deal each personally and professionally. However a deep unhappiness set in. I couldn’t determine why or worse the right way to shake it. Lastly, it hit me: Since promoting Technique, the danger—the fun!—was gone. I used to be an entrepreneur with no preneur. And I began to marvel: Might I do it once more? What if I’d simply gotten fortunate? It wasn’t till I dedicated myself to that subsequent enterprise, Olly Vitamin, that the darkish clouds parted.

Preventing Imposter Syndrome

In 2019, I offered that firm to Unilever. However I can let you know that imposter syndrome is actual. That’s one of many matters I’m excited to cowl in a brand new interview collection I’m doing right here for Forbes with journalist Mickey Rapkin, who’s written for Quick Firm, WSJ and GQ. (He additionally has perhaps one of the best cocktail social gathering anecdote: He wrote the e-book Pitch Good which impressed the film franchise.) We’re calling our present Cereal Entrepreneur and it’s a collection of informal conversations—over bowls of cereal—with CEOs, thought leaders and entrepreneurs about their journeys. We’ll go deep on their wins, losses, and private anxieties to reply the query: How do you make success repeatable?

Season One

We’ve lined up a assassin’s row of inspiring friends. Over the subsequent six weeks, we’ll break bread—or Cheerios or Fortunate Charms or some direct-to-consumer cereal—with Sweetgreen
SG
co-founder Nicolas Jammet, who helped construct that model from a single salad cease in Georgetown to an empire with greater than 200 areas nationwide and counting. (Sweetgreen almost folded in yr one, he tells us, and also you’ll need to hear why.)

We’ve additionally acquired an interview with Shea Moisture founder Richelieu Dennis, who offered Sundial Manufacturers to Unilever in 2017 for $1.6 billion {dollars} and purchased Essence Journal a number of days later. He’s acquired so much to say about closing the racial wealth hole. (Talking of nice cocktail social gathering anecdotes, he’s acquired one involving D-Good that we’re nonetheless laughing about weeks later.) Plus, we’ll sit down with Justin Kosmides, co-founder of the hip e-bike model Vela, who particulars why he simply moved his operations from China to Detroit (and the unlikely function Wal-Mart performed in that call). We additionally chatted with Jeff Raider (who helped launch each Warby Parker and Harry’s) and the founders of Clean Avenue Espresso, Vinay Menda and Issam Freiha.

There’s way more to come back. New installments of Cereal Entrepreneur will drop each Tuesday for the subsequent six weeks. However you will get a primary look by clicking on our trailer above.

A Name To Motion

I launched Technique, Olly and Welly Well being—which collectively have an enterprise valuation of greater than $1 billion {dollars}. I’m now engaged on two new startups: Solid Jewellery (a luxurious jewellery model) and Will Carry out, a ache aid and muscle care enterprise with Serena Williams. However in some ways I’m nonetheless studying each single day. My co-host, Mickey, is equally curious. And our friends responded with a grasp class in entrepreneurship. We’d love so that you can seize a bowl of cereal and be part of us on this trip.