Brooklyn, Brews, and Botanical Breakthroughs
About this episode
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In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
• [01:54] What it was like growing up in New York, at the epicenter of so many industries, within a household dominated by women.
• [06:43] Hudson’s ADHD diagnosis in middle school, the many different interests he pursued, and the benefits and drawbacks of having ADHD when you’re an entrepreneur.
• [10:23] His experience working at Gilt Groupe from its early stages as a small startup to having over two thousand employees.
• [14:13] Why he decided to leave Gilt Groupe and take on a role at Aloha as part of the founding team, and his top takeaways from the experience.
• [18:25] What made Hudson shift to co-founding his first company, RISE Brewing Company, key lessons he learned, and how he met his partners.
• [25:32] Fundraising for RISE, and how it led to him starting his branding and business strategy firm, CROSBY.
• [27:29] The drastic spinal surgery that Hudson had to get, how it led to the founding of Plant People, and what it was like entering into the CBD and cannabis space.
• [30:22] How they stepped up their business, educated consumers, and the innovations they were doing with regards to ingredients and formulations.
• [32:42] Their decision to scale up, why they decided not to take on more funding, the dramatic impact that COVID-19 had on their revenue, and how they recovered.
• [35:27] Hudson’s insights on partnering with retailers and distributors, advice for aspiring and up-and-coming entrepreneurs, and what’s next for Plant People.
To Find Out More:
Quotes:
“I always hope to, at some point in my life, write a book on having ADHD and being an entrepreneur, because I think there's a lot of pluses and minuses – mostly pluses.” [0:07:19]
“If you have [a] really big vision, and momentum with other investors, people will invest. It really is a hype game. And so I learned a lot around fundraising [at Aloha].” [0:17:12]
“[To be] the Apple of anything – takes decades. You can't just do that [in a] matter of a year or two. But that's what we pitched [to] a lot of the investors. And so I think there was a bit of a disconnect there.” [0:18:43]
“The main reason I started this business, [Plant People] is I had spinal surgery, [I had to] learn how to walk again.” [0:27:31]
“My now co-founder also had a spinal surgery and was exploring plant-based modalities himself. And so we started together.” [0:28:01]
“I had more passion for making an impact in people's lives.” [0:28:12]
“We had so much pushback in the beginning because people didn't understand CBD. They thought it was weed. They thought it was THC, they were like, ‘Will I get high from this?’ That was the biggest education point.” [0:30:59]
“Tap into what customers want [and] are already [buying], [but do] it better.” [0:36:09]
“In general, you just got to hustle. You have to go with momentum, you have to have a lot of boutiques [and] a lot of independents. And when you have that momentum, then you can get the attention of distributors.” [0:36:27]
“The secret sauce is to be an entrepreneur – is to use the resources you don't have, to achieve what you believe in.” [0:37:56]
“You can hire sales managers who have been in sales, and they have rolodexes. And that does help. But I think no one sells better than the founder or the CEO.” [0:39:39]
“One of the things that is key to success is showing your team, or showing your initial hires, that you're all in.” [0:41:06]
“If you're doing it, the team can do it. And if you're passionate about it, the team gets passionate about it, they see the value.” [0:43:09]
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