Orgain: Andrew Abraham

Hey, before we start the show, you know, we talk a lot about hustle here on how I built this, and recently I spoke to the music producer Diplo, who told me about starting out as a DJ in Philadelphia. He was obsessed with turntable culture, and to afford the equipment, he worked at a lot of different jobs, like at Subway and even at the zoo. Now he's DJing massive music festivals around the world and producing with artists like Justin Bieber. Check out my conversation with Diplo on my other podcast, The Great Creators. Just search for The Great Creators with Guy Raz wherever you listen to podcasts or go to thegreatcreators.com. And now on to today's show. because I was a one-man show, I was the customer service guy. So anyone that would call me, they would ask me a question, I would answer very thoroughly, give them a wonderful answer, and they would ask me, you know, what's your name? And I would say, Andrew.

And they would say, Okay, well thank you so much, Andrew, but are you You're not the Andrew on the back of the package, are you? And I would say Yes, I I am, actually. And you know, many people thought that was great.

But others didn't think it was that great because you're not a big company anymore. Right? Are you you know th are you running this from your you know, garage? Yes, you were. And the truth is I was.

Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements. they built. Guy Roz, and on the show today, how a life-threatening illness inspired Andrew Abraham to launch Orgame. A top selling brand of nutritional drinks and powder.

Okay, this is gonna start a little grim, but If you've ever been around someone dying or trying to recover from a physical trauma, You've probably been around and sure. It's a brand that makes high-calorie shakes designed to help people get fast nutrition into their bodies. And almost every hospital, hospice center, and assisted living facility stocks pallets of these drinks.

Insurance been around since nineteen seventy three and it dominates the category. But in 2009, Andrew Abraham decided to enter that same category. And he did it. because of a bad experience he had as a teenager when he was fighting for his life.

And had a hard time keeping down solid food. So Andrew started organe thinking it could be an alternative for people recovering from surgery or cancer. But it took off in an entirely different direction. and became a lifestyle drink for people on the go. And Andrew didn't plan for any of this. His intention was to become a doctor. He actually completed his medical residency.

But as Organe grew, it became clear that he needed to ditch medicine. And focus on business. Today, Organ is on track to hit around$700 million in sales this year. and it makes one of the best selling protein powders in the United States. Andrew was born and raised in Long Beach, California, to Egyptian Coptic Christian parents.

In the 70s, his parents emigrated to the United States from Egypt. And when Inger's family moved to California, his dad opened a medical practice as a pediatrician. He came here with nothing. and opened a a very small practice uh with what little funds he had. And

So he treated everybody. So even though he was a pediatrician, there was adults that would go to him, uh, and and he was just the the community doctor. Анхівас і хардистворкинг, мост Хубл гай. and would treat people for free, uh, all of the time. Uh and and and he treated people for free. when he didn't have really a penny to his name and and it stuck with me in in such a big way.

Hm. It's k quite remarkable to hear. You talk about looking up to your dad as a kid'cause a lot of Kids, you know.

Of course they they look up to their dads and I hope my kids do, yeah, who knows. But but but you know, right, I mean the the way you and and I wonder when when you were a kid Did you Think about him that way. Do you if you sort of go back to your Your mindset back then, would you thought um I I like I worship my dad, he's amazing.

Yes, for sure. And I think it goes back to that just kind of unconditional love that he gave me. Uh he was very busy. He worked extremely hard. He always made time for me, though. Uh in particular, you know, my parents wanted me to be a doctor. My uncles were doctors, cousins were doctors, my dad was a doctor, he was building a practice. So At a very young age, basically, I was told look You could

Be anything you want, choose any career you want, as long as you become a doctor and follow in your father's footsteps. Um, but you know, I don't even know if it was really being the doctor part that really attracted me. It was I just wanted to be him. I wanted to emulate him. I loved everything about what this guy did on a daily basis. So for sure, like I I saw him as a superhero, if I'm being honest. Alright, so The plan for you was eventually to gr was to graduate high school and to go to medical school and and and you would actually pursue that. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But In high school.

Just a uh a massively sort of both scary and life changing and pivotal moment in your life. took place. Um You Uh and it was health.

It was it was more than a health scare. It was a It was a diagnosis. Tell me what what happened. Yeah, it was right January nineteen ninety nine, uh, right in the middle of my senior year of high school. So I'm the the captain of the tennis team, I'm playing varsity tennis. uh applying to colleges, my grades are good. I'm you know I'm feeling the best I've ever felt in my life, really.

Uh come January nineteen ninety nine, I was taking a shower and I feel this little lump in my abdomen. Um and I didn't think anything of it, but I thought maybe I should just mention it to my father. Yeah. Told my dad about it, he took a look and said, You know, if if it doesn't go away by tomorrow Let's get it checked out. Uh it doesn't seem like anything, but let's just be sure.

Uh sure enough, it it didn't go away and Next day we went to a doctor to get an opinion and and he said, Well, we should take a biopsy. Just to be sure. Um and that biopsy, you know, they they took the biopsy, we waited a few days. I got called back into the doctor's office.

And the doctor tells me, uh, you know, that we took this biopsy a few days ago. Unfortunately uh you have a rapidly aggressive cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma. Well. And uh at the age of seventeen, I felt like kind of the world stopped when he said that, because I didn't believe him.

Uh, but I again I didn't know what that meant. And I thought, Okay, let's just remove this and can I can I move on. Uh and the answer ended up being much more complicated, unfortunately. What was the prognosis? I mean, is that a I mean you were seventeen. So

It's different'cause you're younger and And and healthier, but still. I mean what do they tell you about? Survival rates. I will tell you that this is a interesting thing. My my father, I'd always ask him like Dad, you know, what are what are my chances? You know, uh and he would say it's ninety nine percent.

He'd always say it's 99%. You're gonna be just fine. And then um when I turned eighteen, I turned eighteen midway through my treatment. They had to by law uh come in and tell me Um you know, a answer any questions that I had. Um and I asked the nurse, you know, uh

C can you give me an idea of my prognosis? Uh and it was in the high twenties. Um So I like my dad's answer a lot better and what he would tell me. So I stuck with that in my mind. But the prognosis was very poor. I had to undergo chemotherapy, radiation, additional surgery. Um, and it was a year long of just the most intensive chemotherapy uh one can imagine.

So you I mean, You were This is the second half of your senior year of high school.

Did you have to stop school? I stopped school, yes. I was in the hospital getting IV infusions for seventy two hours. I would stay in the hospital. I was nauseous, I was vomiting, I had no energy, I was in bed. So and that went on for twelve months.

Well, you know, as you can imagine, it was a a very trying time on my family and I. You know, I I'm praying not that God takes away this cancer. I'm just praying that he gives it to me. And You know, on on the first day.

of my chemotherapy treatment. Um, you know, I woke up and I heard my dad like in pain. And It turns out that my dad on the first day of chemotherapy that I had He was rushed to the hospital.

was severe flank pain back pain. And was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Yeah. Which is a very, very Difficult cancer to

Extremely difficult. Absolutely. Absolutely. So While I was getting hooked up to an Ivy infusion uh on one floor. My dad was being wheeled in to the OR above me to have his kidney removed.

And uh my poor mom, of course, was between upstairs and downstairs between the two of us. Uh so You know, I would say to say that year was extremely difficult would be an understatement. Yeah. So You're in a year of chemo.

Treatment. being diagnosed with kidney cancer, he begins treatment. Tell me how you How you got to do it.

Through I mean You know. It's it was a cycle of like Treatment Feeling.

Violently ill for a week. Feeling really lethargic for another week. starting to recover and then starting the cycle again for a year. Um, presumably you lost weight, you lost your hair. Yes, that's exactly right. I mean it really takes a toll

Um in every way. You know, my weight kept dropping cycle after cycle, my weight would drop, you know, five pounds, three pounds. Um, you know, so I was a hundred and forty pounds or so, and then I got down to one thirty, then one ten. Then about a hundred pounds. And it was that point where my doctor said, We need to get calories in you. They were hooking me up to IVs that had nutrition in them, but he said, I need you To

Consume your calories through liquid. And he handed me a bottle of the conventional shake in shore uh with a stack of coupons. And uh said, I need you to drink as many of these as you can per day. Yeah, just to gain weight. And and of course my mom heard this and she went out and bought every flavor imaginable, flavors I didn't even know existed, and came home. And

I can't tell you how happy she'd be when I would consume one of these because it would give her a little bit of joy knowing that her son was at least getting some nutrition. So That's good. And it probably was working, right? It probably probably were starting to put some weight on. You know, I I put very little weight on with them, um, but I I I was maintaining my weight with them, but I felt horrible. I I didn't feel well. Um and

And that's what set me on this journey. Mm. Um so You know, one day I Picked up a book.

Um and and this book was about nutrition. This book was called um It was uh something along the lines of pr prescription for nutritional healing or prescriptions for nutritional healing. I didn't know what it was about. But I picked up this book and I started reading You know the first ten pages. And I was hooked, you know, integrative medicine, um, nutrition, but not just fats, carbs, uh, and protein, more like metabolic health.

And it probably felt him. When when you are dealing with a health crisis, you you are feeling very disempowered. And and because you don't always have control over what's happening. But I guess reading these books kinda gave you sense of okay, well maybe I can

Take control over some part of this. Exactly right. It gave me it gave me some control and it gave me a lot of hope. Um and between those two things, that's why I ended up reading a hundred fifty books that year. Because I I wanted as much I needed as much hope. And I wanted as much control as possible.

And and I'm assuming like You know, I I I I read a bunch of books on nutrition too. I'm a you know, I and I You know, I don't know if all of them are Accurate or true. But but I mean basically like the message is eat whole foods, you know. try to avoid uh

You know. too much meat and um Uh and sugar, you know. Um and and was that sort of Whole foods, fresh vegetables, leafy greens.

Yeah, that that's exactly right. As I was reading these books and reading these ingredients that I should put in my body, uh these foods that I should be consuming, I was also reading about ingredients that I shouldn't be consuming. And the more I read, uh the more it opened up my eyes, and the more I realized that these conventional shakes that I were drinking We're actually full of all of the ingredients they're telling me not to put in your body when you're healthy. Let alone when you're sick. It was referring to high fructose corn syrup, sugar, um you know, uh genetically modified melted dextrin from corn, uh genetically modified soy protein. uh artificial flavors, preservatives. Uh and I saw these shakes, everyone had them.

You know, all the kids around me on the pediatric floor had them. I saw them all throughout the hospital. So I was under the impression that it was good for you. But the more I read, the more I realized uh that even though it said nutrition shake on the front. It was anything but nutritious. Interesting about this is that you came from a family

Of Health care providers, people who know How the body functions and even Even you, even your family wasn't. Fully kind of

You know, clued into to this stuff. And you guys were on the front lines of medical care as a family. Yeah, and that's the irony of all of this, actually, is uh not only my family, but I would say medicine in general puts very little emphasis on nutrition versus medication. Um and And I think for me, like We have this full medicine cabinet in our kitchen.

And and Even during my residency. Before I took out a prescription and wrote a script. We would talk about diet. and exercise but in a different way where it was really tangible.

All right, so going back to you to you you and kind of this discovery as a seventeen, eighteen year old kid. Yeah. W you realize that that maybe if you start to But different things into your body you could have an impact on how you felt at at the very least. Obviously we were still gonna

have to go through the chemotherapy. But what did you I mean, you were having a hard time eating foo, right? So I I have to assume you were still focused on liquid a liquid diet. Yes, it would have to be liquid. Uh I had a very tough time with food. Even the foods that I loved before, I couldn't even tolerate the smell of them. So um my mom and I went out, we purchased a blender. And every day uh you know, we'd go to the market buy organic fruits, organic veggies, um, you know, organic protein sources. Mix them all together and blend them together five to six a day.

And I would drink these. I can't tell you that they tasted delicious. But The one thing that I noticed is that I started to feel a little bit better. And then I started to gain a little bit of weight and I gained some more energy.

Mm. So you You get through it. And you You you

Go to go on to pursue. your bachelor's degree with the intention of becoming N M D, so you go to U C R Vine and and I'm assuming you did premed, you were a pre med student there. I was pre med student there. I arrived late. So I was uh a couple semesters behind, but I started there, yes. Yeah. Uh and then I ended up finishing college early.

Uh because I didn't want Cancer to be the reason why I would be set back in life. But I was certainly uh watching my diet very, very closely and applying all of the learnings that I had. But but your intention was to go to medical school. Um

And and to become an M D. And you did. You went you you continued right out right after you graduated, went right into medical school. Went right into medical school with the intent still, of course, to take over my dad's practice. Um and and really make sure that I was going to uh you know, live up to his dream and my dream that I would be taking over his big practice that he had built for in Long Beach. The intention.

of taking over the practice, I imagine you were thinking, I'll become a pediatrician like my dad, but I really want to understand nutrition and wellness as well. That's right. And and during medical school I remember we had about two weeks of nutrition. Um

You know, and it was very high level and we went through it and then it was done. And I remember going up to one of my professors afterwards and said, You know, do we get nutrition again? Do we go through that again in a little bit more depth? And he looked at me and he said, Nope, that's it. And I was

I was completely floored. I thought that nutrition was going to be one of the cornerstones of medical school, one of the things that we talk about the most for prevention. But it ended up being something that they just had to check the box and move on to the next thing. You end up. getting your res doing your residency with Kaiser. And was it in California? Yes, Kaiser in Riverside, California.

Tell me. how you started to I mean, you pr I have to imagine you've you've been thinking about these shakes That you'd been drinking. That you've been making. in your Vitamix like six years earlier.

For a while. But I there must have been a point where you thought maybe I could try to turn this into business. I mean d uh Did you start to think about that during medical school?

I didn't not not in medical school. It was really during that first year of residency. Um, and I never thought of it as a business. I thought of it as a need. Um, you know, so I had patients asking me for more protein. Hey, I'm on the go all the time, I'm looking for more nutrition. Is there something I could just grab? Right, and ensure was the option, basically. Yeah, conventional nutritional shakes and sure. And I said, you know, I would tell them, No, please, you know, this shake changed my life. And I would give them this long list of ingredients. Go buy a blender, blend all of these together. It's gonna change your life the same way it changed mine. Um the issue was compliance.

You know, a out of twenty people Maybe one would do it. Um so I knew that Giving them this list of ingredients and having them blend them was not the answer. It wasn't going to be a sustainable solution for my patients. You were in your late twenties at the time, maybe twenty nine.

And when and you when you thought to yourself, okay, let me m start a company That makes a drink. You're thinking Uh this could be like a sort of a a whole foods or natural version of of what was available like a a better version of of Insure.

That's correct. So my wife has her master's in holistic nutrition, and we basically took out a plate and we asked ourselves, what would we want in a perfect meal? Let's work backwards. And I wanted to take that concept and put it in a ready to drink shake for patients. So we wanted to have organic protein, organic complex carbs. vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and we laid it all out. Um and developed uh organ.

He developed a um a an idea of what you want in there, but that's it's one thing to make it in a Vitamix, right? It's another thing to to to manufacture it and put it in in a box and then try and and sell it. So there's gonna be a long road ahead for you, but l let me sort of

Take me back to This Is Run 2009. And Uh, and you decide I'm going to Start a company. making these. Still, by the way, still thinking that you would

Also be a doctor? Yes, this was going to be a little side business. I would sell it online. Um, you know, I thought how hard could it possibly be? I would do this on the side and then I would practice medicine during the day. Yeah, I got you. So the idea was it was a ready you were gonna make a ready to make make drink in a In a bottle or a TetraPack or something like that.

That's right. I actually had no idea what would it go in. You know, I wasn't sure is it is is it a Tetra pack, is it a bottle, I didn't even know the difference, but Іно, а контакты фут сюєнст аліве стається. Uh got a lot of uh r rejections, of course, you know, and I got a lot of crazy quotes on how much it would cost and what was involved. And uh there was one food scientist that clicked with me, um, and we became very good friends. And he said, You know, why don't you meet me in Texas? Let's run a trial together and with these different options and see what happens. How did you by the way, how'd you find how did you find him?

Just I just searched and searched online and was calling random food scientists and I didn't know who was good or who was bad. Um But this was the one guy that was willing to talk to me. So in my mind he was great. And he ended up being Excellent.

So you go out there, he's based in Texas. He's based in New Jersey. In New Jersey. But the place where you trial these is in Texas, and he met me out there and we developed some concepts and prototypes before. We tried a bunch of them, uh, you know, they all tasted absolutely horrible in the beginning. And then

one formula that came off the machine I take a sip and I said it's This is delicious. And Uh

I was so happy that we were able to finally get all of these ingredients in. And and have it. Be enjoyable. So let me let me understand how this this worked. I mean this is around two thousand nine, right? Like it's it's sort of If you want to start a cosmetics brand, right, you would find a white label

Copacker and you would go there and you would uh thousands and thousands of different ingredient options to choose from. And that that would be the basis for your your brand and many cosmetics brands do this. Um Was it was this facility like that? They had like

twenty five thousand powdered versions of, you know, powdered banana, powdered kale, powdered you know, vitamin E absorp I mean and you just kind of Say, let's put some of that in there and some of that in there and some of that in there. Not at all. I wish it was like that. Uh so we had to ship all of our ingredients in. We had like dehydrated, freeze dried fruits and vegetables, we had organic proteins, we had

Everything just shipped and we would experiment. And the other thing is no one had made an organic ready to drink shake it. It had never been done before. So it was uncharted territory. So when you when you came up when you finally landed on uh the flavor that you wanted.

Was it and was'cause I know you start out with vanilla and chocolate. Was it a vanilla flavor drink? It was chocolate to start and then we made a vanilla, that's correct. And the idea was this is gonna be a great option for patients who are recovering from or who need it for health reasons, like who need to gain weight, who need more protein. Like that was the market you were looking at. It was like people in hospitals. Because I think Anybody who's been to a hospital you will see like Pallets of ensure. You will see them all over hospitals.

Yeah, and I thought that was going to be our demographic. It was going to be people in the hospital, uh people that had GI issues, uh maybe someone that had their wisdom teeth removed and couldn't eat for a few days. That's what I initially thought would be the demographic and where this product would go. But then what? I mean Then it was what? I mean, this was a food scientist and and e I mean, for one thing, you had to make something that was not gonna spoil or go bad. You had to package it and you had to market it. So I mean that's a lot. to do from there. So

I mean at this point once you landed on a flavor you liked Great, but Then what do you do? I didn't know. And to be honest, I I flew home, uh, you know, I asked my food scientist and he's like you said, he's a food scientist. He makes the product and you're on your own after that. Um so I th first thing I'd need to do is come up with a name.

And um the name came to me while I was driving one day. I wanted it to have the word organic in it, and I thought about what people would benefit from this. People would gain health, they would gain energy, they would gain life. And I combined organic and gain into this word or gain that would stick. So I had a name. And I had a formula, and that's all I had. So when I came back to California I was talking to people researching online And someone told me, you know, there's this trade show that just so happens to be in three weeks.

In Anaheim, California called Expo West. Fuchs Tray Show, one of the biggest f natural food shows. And US and not the world. That's that's right. It's one of the biggest natural food shows in the world, and it just so happened to be a few weeks after we came back from Texas, and it just so happened to be fifteen minutes from my home. So

I called them and you know, I don't even know what this I thought it was like a farmer's market. I don't know anything about it. And I sign up uh to to register and it's five thousand dollars for a booth. And it was you know, for me that was a lot of money at the time. But I thought look. And I gotta get this out there. I'll just sign up and go. really not knowing what to expect.

So I sign up for Expo West three weeks later, uh they have a load in day where you're loading in. And I didn't know what that meant'cause I'm walking in with two chair and a folding table. Did you even have a did you have like a logo or or anything at that point? I had nothing other than a formula in blank packaging and a name.

And I see these massive booths being put together. Some of them some of them look like small homes. Yeah. Oh yeah. And you know, I'm with my wife and she looks at me and she goes, We gotta go.

This is not what we expected. And I said, I know, but we paid five thousand dollars. It's non refundable. And we're gonna set up right there. And we're gonna talk to people about this. So you've got this little booth and so sometimes people would stop, but probably ninety five percent of people just walked by'cause there was no

Like what is like did it it said or gain protein drink or organe nutrition drink? Like what what was the description on the sign? Yeah, or gain organic nutrition drink. Great. Okay. And that was it.

Yeah, it it's funny because uh as you say that I remember a moment where there was a guy that I spoke with on the side. He didn't know I was presenting at the at the show. Uh and he had been there for ten years and he was telling me about it and I was listening in earnest Uh, and he said, You know, you have this guy over here that's selling this iced tea that wants to take on these big ice tea companies. He goes, Over here there's this other guy that has some organic nutrition drink that wants to take on these big pharmaceutical companies. He goes, These guys aren't gonna be here next year. Is what he said. Yeah.

Yeah. And and he was talking about me. And um I remember that moment sticking in my head that now my new goal was that I was gonna come back next year. To be honest, we looked a bit foolish and we weren't buttoned up. I mean, people are wearing matching uniforms. Some of these booths have like two or three floors, right? It's just so I'm sitting here, like with my blank packaging looking up and wondering, okay, what am I doing?

But Just continued anyone that would give me just a couple minutes, I would tell them about the product, try to tell them a little bit about the story and the genesis of it. And the show went on and one guy came up to me. Uh and spent five minutes with me. And I told him the story, what we're doing, the plan

Uh and he said, Can you come uh share it with me? And I said, Absolutely, I'd love to. And and I thought he was maybe A physical therapist uh in the Anaheim area. And and he turned his badge. And he ended up being the global buyer for whole foods.

Uh Well. His badge was turned around because I think a lot of times they do that. They don't want you to know who they are when they're coming to your booth. That's right. I mean, given and and he tried did he try the drink? He tried the drink, he liked the flavor profile, and said, Can you come out to Austin?

And Six weeks later, I was on a flight to Austin, Texas. And and by the way In in a show in two thousand nine at the Expo West with thousands of booths. There were no other

I mean Protein powders were out there, um, you know. extra s like p post work out powder companies were out there, there was nobody Out there. Doing sort of a

And I keep s by shorthand saying a better for you version of ensure. I shouldn't really say that, but but just the shorthand version. No nobody's doing sort of an organic version of what was already on the market at the time. Not at all. No, not only was it not there in Expo West, but I remember when I was sick and beyond there, I would call All of these random companies in the United States and beyond in the world to see if anyone was doing it. Hard to Mm imagine now. I mean of course today there's

hundreds of protein powders and things on on the market, but Thousand nine, you were the only one there, so It makes sense. I mean I I can understand why this Whole Foods buyer stopped because They're always looking for things that just Art nobody else is doing.

Yeah, you know, I he probably thought that obviously the the packaging and the design, uh, you know, was completely underwhelming, which I which I agree with. Um, but I think he was intrigued by the story, uh the fact that I had, you know, developed this formula that tasted good, that all of these ingredients were in there. And he gave me a chance. But you had to prepare Uh For presentation.

I mean that's kind of a big I mean when he said come come present Did you know what that meant?'Cause you had up until that point, I guess, been thinking This is going to be really primarily purchased by hospitals. Not not grocery stores. That's what I thought. You know, and I thought maybe some grocery stores could entertain it, but I really thought it would be in hospitals and we'd be selling online. And

I prepared in every way that I possibly could. I remember very specifically getting there, I had a a s uh like a suit I was I was extremely prepared in every way, except when I woke up that morning. Uh the one thing that I didn't have were my shoes, my dress shoes. So I got there, I'm waiting in the in the lobby and out comes um

Heather Mills, who's had just divorced uh. Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney. Yeah. Uh she had a full team with her and they presented a vegan line of frozen foods there. Uh you know, they had all kinds of paperwork. It looked like they had given a laser light show presentation. Wow. And I was up next and I have uh my sneak on and I have uh ten pages that I had printed in kinko's in color. And I was just completely honest. I said, You know, the truth is Uh I don't have anyone here with me. I don't have a fancy PowerPoint presentation prepared.

uh but what I do have is a product that I firmly believe is going to transform a category. And change people's lives for the better. And they tried the product. They didn't give me that much feedback. Uh I think someone said I like the taste. I didn't hear anything else from anybody else in that room. And I went home. And um, you know, four or five weeks later I I got a phone call.

And an email that said You know, can you handle a national launch? I didn't know what that meant, of course, and I said uh Absolutely. When we come back in just a moment.

Andrew runs into a problem that could upend the business. When his nutritional shakes. start to solidify. Stay with us, I'm Guy Roz, and you're listening to How I Built This. One more thing before we get back to the show, please make sure to click the follow button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of the show, and it's totally free. Mm-hmm.

Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Roz. So it's 2009 and Andrew has just hung up the phone with Whole Foods and is kind of in shock because not only do they want to order his nutritional shakes, they want to do a national launch. And suddenly he has a lot to do. I knew it had to be shelf stable, but I didn't know what that meant at the time. And so as soon as I got that phone call prior to this, I had been working uh with a small agency to design the package to make sure that it looked nice. Yeah and I just was gathering as much information as I could. I was taking all of these notes every day. And then when I got the go ahead from Whole Foods, I contacted a Uh manufacturer.

Um, you know, and and I got rejected and it was very hard to get capacity, especially as a small brand. Yeah. Somehow, some way I was able to convince a manufacturer to take us on. And Where was the manufacturer? What what part of the country? Savannah, Georgia. Mm-hmm.

And they they were a uh But they've made Uh they Made all kinds of beverages there. Yes, they made everything from chicken broths to other protein shakes and so forth. Yeah.

And and so they would be able to not just uh make the product according to your specifications but also to package it. That's right. So I would send in every single ingredient to them. give them a formula, how to mix it, how to process it, what to do. And their job was to essentially blend the ingredients and put it in the package that I sent and charge me a tolling fee. I gotcha. Okay, now the question is, when Whole Food said

We want to rule this out nationally. How many Uh, how many cases of this stuff were they ordering? You know, it was Tens of thousands and um I didn't know what I was doing at all, but I I just started placing orders.

Um and and really trying to make sure that I could deliver for them. And I I place the orders on ingredients. Some of them had longer lead times. The organic cocoa was going to take six weeks. You know, the organic protein was going to take three. And I was trying to merge them all together, and then you always have one lagging ingredient that's gonna take ten weeks. I'll tell you, yeah, I didn't even know how to arrange trucks, right? So I'm on like freightquote.com trying to manage trucks and get trucks to different places. It felt like every step there was an obstacle. B before we get to to to how was sort of received at Whole Foods Let's go back for a moment to to the time between the order and then getting it made.

How did you finance that? I mean, Whole Foods is not gonna pay you Up front, they're gonna pay you thirty, sixty, ninety days later. finance this. So where did you go? It was over a hundred thousand for the initial run. But interestingly enough, you know, I think that's a good uh I had started a business in college where I uh was really into cars. I loved cars and I

built and designed custom cars for trade shows. Wait, wait, sorry, what? This is the this is new story. You built cars? So I had a car. I had a small car that I would take to trade shows that I really enjoyed and I would fix it up, you know, and you would put rims on it and what kind of car was it? It was a Mitsubishi Eclipse spider. Okay. And what happened was at these trade shows I would get these companies that would come up to me and say, We really like what you're doing. Can you feature our TVs in it? For example, uh Panasonic or Extelevision or one of these companies. And what I would do is I would feature their T Vs, they'd give it to me for free.

And then they would pay me. To go to these trade shows. to display it. And wait, in the car you would have like a television monitor integrated Into the

Exterior of the car? into the interior, it would it would come out. So before sh like the shows on TV uh I was very early on in integrating T Vs and custom interiors into cars. And I would build uh and tr and exhibit these cars and they would pay me for it.

You would go to like Junkyards and buy parts or what like how would you I m a million questions. First of all, how did you even learn how to work on cars and do this? So I wasn't the guy actually working on the cars or sanding down the fiberglas. I was the guy drawing the concepts. Uh the the uh so I was really more the creative behind it and I found guys that this was their specialty. This is what they do. They could take a uh twenty seven inch TV and mold it into fiberglass in the middle of the dash.

Wow. This is like a this is a wild side hustle. I've never heard anything like this. Yeah, and it was n again, not intended to be a side hustle. It was just a personal hobby that turned into this business that ended up funding a good portion of Oregon, and my father also provided a loan for me in the beginning. Alright, so with the This money from this totally different part of your life. I'm learning all these new things all the time.

Um You Uh, you were able to finance and then and w with a l a loan from your dad, you were able to finance the you know, this production run, which as you say was over a hundred thousand dollars. That's right.

And and uh over a hundred thousand dollars and that was gonna make Thousands of cases of of orgain. That's correct. And and I would ship it to Whole Foods and hope for the best. I you know, and I knew it was a big risk. I didn't know, you know, I I I spent this much money. I really didn't know how much would come back. I just made it and went forward.

Okay, at this point were you still planning to become A doctor to take over your dad's practice. Absolutely. How were you doing the residency and pre planning to provide whole foods with a national rollout of your product. I mean residency you don't you're working like crazy already. That's a that's a grind. That's like ten, twelve hour days already.

Yeah, and every third day we work something called a Q three shift. So every third day you worked a thirty hour shift with little to no sleep. You know, w whether there's a code blue and you're running a code blue or managing all of the patients on the floors, you are the doctor. at that hospital and it was extremely exhausting and the ongoing joke, you know, with my uh residents and even my superiors was, you know, uh Doctor Abraham is the guy that will see a patient step out of the room, order twenty thousand pounds of organic cocoa, and go back and see the patient again. Mm-hmm. And how much time b did Whole Foods give you? They said You know, they after you went there, they

Six weeks later they said we're You know, we're ready. Mm-hmm. The clock started ticking, how much time did you have to to deliver? I had about ninety days, and to be honest, I failed in in reaching that timeline. Uh I was a couple weeks late.

Uh they were very upset. But The product made it on shelf. I I had zero dollars for promotions, zero dollars for marketing. And it just went on shelf.

And they didn't even know where to put it on shelf'cause it's it was a whole new category. But that's still crazy. You had to make Yeah. Thousands of these boxes. In ninety days and get'em distributed. How did you manage that? I mean, you yourself admit you didn't know anything about

About the food business let alone. How to run how to Run a business. I didn't, and it was really just sheer willpower and I dedicated and my whole life and was consumed by making sure that I was going to deliver this. So every waking hour where I wasn't working. А та хоспітал.

or seeing a patient, I would dedicate every minute, every second to making sure that I was going to make this happen. How did you deal with the the logistic the bureaucracy and logistics of working with Whole foods not to say they're bureaucratic, but once you work with a big organization, there's a bunch of forms to fill out and there are

Um you know, there are different uh units that you have to talk to and there's and and and you needed people To do that with you, I imagine. Typically you do. Um and I filled out those forms and you know, I would write my m my mom's name as uh one unit, uh my wife's name as another unit, but all the numbers would be

Pointed back to me. Unit meaning like accounts payable or accounts payable, accounts receivable, operations, uh, you know, food safety. So you just basically put your you just put your relatives' names. Relatives' names and my number and kind of went with it. Yes. And um And did Whole Foods ask you any questions? Did they say like how big is your operation?

They didn't. They knew that I was starting off. They knew that um I was able to produce it, but they didn't initially ask how big was the operation. Because you didn't have an office. I didn't have an office, I didn't have I didn't have anything. I mean I ran

orgained by myself uh for almost four years as a one man show. All right, so you had to get get this to Whole Foods in ninety days and you f you managed to convince this Copacker to make the product. For you. Reason why.

Was it the ingredients coming in? Was it the production process was slow? Wha what was it? It was a learning process every step of the way that further delayed things by one or two days. How were you managing the residency and doing and getting this to whole foods, that's what I'm trying to figure out. How did you

Find the time. It was very little sleep, honestly. Um, you know, I look back and I think about the sacrifices I made, and that year was the biggest sacrifice in terms of Just getting it out the door. Um We had our first child that year. My son Isaac was born in April, two tausend nine. Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, residency was the your internship year is your toughest year. Um, and that was the the most hours I've ever worked. And then launching Orgain and getting it into stores. Um, so it was extremely difficult, but There was just a conviction that I needed to do this and I wanted to see it succeed. So I really dedicated every waking minute I had to it. All right, so you got a lot going you got a lot going on in two thousand nine. By the way

What did the your colleagues at the hospital say? They were like, Wait. You you're launching a product at Whole Foods, d did that register with any of them, or did they just think this was like a weird like side gig you were you were working on, like a side hustle? They all thought I was crazy, uh, really. I mean, they were barely hanging on with what they were doing, uh, with our residency and and to see that, you know, my office was full of papers and and packaging and like displays and things, they thought I was out of my mind. Yeah. And I mean you kinda were. Right? Probably was. It probably was. Yeah. All right, so the product gets to Whole Foods in what the fall of two thousand nine?

Yes. And this is a national roll out. It's not just like Whole Foods. In Southern California. Every single whole foods in the United States. Okay.

You had no budget to market this. Right. Right. And they presumably wanted you wanted the price point to be fairly aggressive, so I have to assume that maybe on that first That this first order you aren't going to make a whole lot of money, is that right?

I didn't know. I had no idea. Um, and you know, I knew the retail price point was gonna be two ninety nine. I knew that uh the check that I would get from Whole Foods may likely offset the amount of money that I was going to spend, but I just went for it. But The the really amazing part is this product went on shelf with really no marketing, uh no know-how from my perspective. And It started to sell and and the velocities uh you know, and all of a sudden I'm sitting at my desk and I get this email that has a purchase order and it's you know a replenishment order for whole foods.

And that at that time, it happened much, much sooner than I thought. And quite frankly, much sooner than what Whole Foods told me. And and the interesting part, you know, I know you and I talked about I thought this was going to be for sick patients or people dealing with cancer. That ended up not being the case at all.

Um right now if you see a bot if you see a pack of organe, right, the the Grab and go drink. It says, you know, organic nutrition on it, right? On the label. It says sixteen grams of protein, twenty one grams of carbs, whatever it is, you know. Um

Did it was the label like that? Did you were you very clear about what was in it on the label. It just said organ and it said our you know, gain health, gain energy, gain life, and it said uh organic meal replacement when we first started. And it said high protein on the front. That was it. And we were very fortunate to start at Whole Foods because that customer picks up every product and reads the ingredients. And we wanted that. Yeah. We we really wanted people to pick it up and read the back. Yeah.

Alright, so this starts to Sell at Whole Foods. But you're still not. in it 100%. I mean you are, but you're still doing

Your residency and and were you committed to finishing the residency? Yes, I was. I was committed to finishing the residency. As a matter of fact, my last year of residency, I became the chief resident, so I had seventeen residents under me. So I very much enjoyed what I was doing. I was very good at what I was doing, and I had every intent to continue practicing medicine and My dad was super happy. You know, my wife is a physician's assistant, she's a PA. And both of us, upon the completion of my residency, Went and worked with my father in his practice in Long Beach, California. This is in two thousand eleven. Right.

So you started this in two thousand nine. As a resident, you had three years of residency. and wh and you're launching this product. So That was that was three years of craziness.

Three years. Two sons. and uh Organe uh being launched was Yes, it was the most difficult three years, I would say, of my life. Okay, so once

Whole foods. made that second purchase order. You knew that you you were on to something. And How quickly you actually started to turn a profit. I mean you had no expenses. It was you and you and you and and and you had some, you know

freelance designers and But That was it. I mean you have to obviously you have to make the product, but I have to imagine you were profitable pretty quickly.

Yeah, we had no essentially no overhead. Right, I was working from home. I would also work from a coffee shop. I would work at Pete's coffee. So we actually became profitable very early on. Um and it was in the first twelve months where Organ uh shifted to profitability. And it was all I mean, and and it you could do this by yourself because Whole Foods would make more orders and then you would do the same thing. You would just Have that Copker.

make more product and then you would kind of I don't know. With duct tape and and glue. Pat and patchwork together like uh a uh some freight trucks to distribute them? That's right. And deal with problems all along the way. Um and and I'll tell you at at Whole Foods

About uh eight months into being on shelf. I remember very clearly they called me and they said, We have a problem. And I said, What is that? And they said you're We're getting some complaints of your about your product that it's uh a little bit clumpy and we're not sure what's going on. And I remember getting into my car, rushing to Whole Foods. buying two chocolate, two vanilla.

Going outside. Opening it. Turning it upside down so I could take a sip. And nothing came out. It had solidified

On shelf. Mm. And This goes back to this idea of kind of not knowing what I was doing. Like when you Make a product that's shelf stable.

Um and it's twenty six organic ingredients. No one had done it. So if you're not using organic ingredients, it's much easier to use like, you know, uh artificial gums and and different things to make sure that the product stays a liquid. When you're certified organic, you're very limited on what you can use. And what happened was the product solidified on shelf, and I remember almost collapsing to the ground. Realising That that was it.

I had to iss a voluntary withdrawal. Which is, you know, it's not a safety issue, but you are withdrawing product. From stores. How much did that cost you? That was a major hit. That was a um about a fifty thousand dollar

withdrawal at the time, which for me was catastrophic. You just have to destroy all those products. You just throw it away. And how did you solve the problem? I mean you you had the ingredients

But now you had to make something that was gonna blast beyond six or seven months on the shelf. So I had to make a very tough decision. We went with my food scientist, made some adjustments, and I said, Like, how sure are we that this is going to work? And he said, I'm not sure. And I said, Well you know, what's the risk? And he said, I don't know. It's it's it's a it's a risk.

So I made the decision to Proceed. And say like just put faith in that look the second time we've got it figured out. And it went back onto Whole Foods Shelves. Taking the risk, and every day I was worried for that phone call.

And thankfully. It didn't come. And it was just a slight adjustment, but the flavor profile remained the same. Slight adjustment, flavor profile remained the same, and we were able to we adjusted the protein a little bit. Um and it worked perfectly fine. But that year

You know, my worst nightmare was waking up to have that problem happen again because You know, one you're forgiven, two, you're permanently blocked. Right, that's right. Right, Whole Foods is like They give you a couple of chan chances and that's it. And then you're done. That's it.

Yeah. And quite frankly, I wouldn't have been able to afford another issue. But I took a major, major risk. When we come back in just a moment. Andrew takes yet another risk when he decides to pursue Orgain full time. and walk away from a much more stable career.

Stay with us. listening to how I built this. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Roz. So it's around two thousand ten, and Organ has just come through from its first big crisis.

And Andrew has hit about a million dollars in sales. but he's still doing his medical residency and still doing almost everything. Himself. And one thing that happened was because I was a one man show I I was the customer service guy.

So anyone that would call me, uh they would ask me a question, I would answer very thoroughly, give'em a you know a wonderful answer, and would they would ask me, you know, what's your name? And I would say, Andrew. And they would say, Okay, well thank you so much, Andrew, but are you You're not the Andrew on the back of the package, are you? And I would say. Yes, I I am actually.

And you know, many people thought that was great. But others didn't think it was that great because you're not a big company anymore. Right? Are you you know th are you running this from your you know, garage? Yes, you were. And the truth is I was. Yes, I was. So when you were um I guess my question is like once you hit a million dollars in revenue Why didn't you hire somebody to

Run operation so you could continue focusing on your m medical work. I thought I couldn't afford them. And you know, I thought again that this was going to be a side business. I would manage it accordingly. I wouldn't even know how to hire someone. So I just kept doing it thinking like this is going to be something you do on the side, you could manage it, you'll be fine.

So You're running this, you're bootstrapping this. And and by by year two, I mean it's the the cash is flow is is is financing the the business. And It's just growing steadily purely through Just

People going to Whole Foods and seeing it on the shelves? It was at Whole Foods, uh going on shelf, and then I started to take the story to others. So I would take the story to Sprouts, uh here on the West Coast, to Wegmans on the East Coast. Um, you know, I I made a listing on Amazon. I was one of the first protein companies to put an Amazon up uh Amazon listing up. And slowly but surely it got out there and people would ask quite more questions and there would be more purchase orders and it started coming from different directions. Um and the business grew pretty rapidly.

Did you you you finish your residency? You know Did you Realize that maybe you need to not

Pursue Medicine. I finished my residency and Two thousand eleven immediately started working with my father in his clinic in Long Beach. uh along with my wife, and he could not have been happier. He was just

over the moon happy that I was seeing his patients. His patients were happy. The nurses were happy. um you know, that he had achieved his lifelong dream of his son and his daughter in law uh taking over his practice. And I would see the patients uh you know, work really hard and then go home and work on orgain until two or three in the morning. Wake up at six and get ready and

go back to work and and it got to the point where it just wasn't sustainable. I was I was barely functioning and I had to sit my dad down and tell him that, you know. I really want to take this leap of faith. I you know, I started this company. I truly thought it was going to be a side business. But it's overtaken my life and I want to focus on it full time. What do you say?

It it was beyond comprehension for him. He you know, he looked at me and said, You know, Andrew, I don't I don't understand. Like you literally just spent Seven years after college. Uh and and you're gonna go and sell milkshakes for a living? Like you're a doctor. This is for you. I built all of this for you.

Um, and I told him that I know and I totally understand, but I I feel like I could help more people this way. I told them, you know, you and I on a very busy day, if we see thirty patients each, if we see sixty patients together, Dad. Like that's the most we can do, right? And he said, Yeah. And I said, I think, I think with this organ thing. I think I could reach hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people. And and he didn't get it, but he

he was supportive and he said, Look, you know, it's it's your life, but understand this I'm slowing down, I have to sell the practice. There's no going back here. And um with that I decided to focus on organ full time and I and I left the family business uh to focus

completely on organ. And and he he understood. He accepted it. He accepted it. He didn't understand. But I will tell you, like I started sharing with him the the letters that were coming in. Uh some of the cancer patients that couldn't tolerate the conventional shakes that were now relying on organ as their sole source of nutrition. uh how people were using Oregon and how it changed their lives. I'd say six months after that discussion.

He became our our number one fan. And it was less so about the success or the revenue or anything like that. He never talked about that, didn't care about that. But he loved the impact we were making. And He passed about uh six and a half years ago and he couldn't eat his last eighteen months of life. At all.

And he sustained solely on orgain. uh those last eighteen plus months of his life. He would drink five to six shakes a day and it sustained him. Well. D did you w I mean initially in the first year or two

When you had Two products on the shelf, you'd vanilla and chocolate. And they were meal the Advertises meal replacements. Did you have anyone saying to you, Hey, you've got a

You gotta have like seven, ten, fifteen Skews, you gotta have a bunch of different but you have a bigger product line. You can't survive with two two products. Two two two different flavors. That's it. You gotta you gotta expand now. They did. I initially I hired a consultant and he said, Look, you need to have four, five, six flavors to get that shelf presence. You know, it's not going you're not going to win with just chocolate and vanilla. You're gonna be you're gonna look really small on shelf. You're not gonna succeed. People are gonna get flavor fatigue. But really I just

I I went with my gut. I told him, Well, don't you think we should truly succeed with chocolate and vanilla first before we get into other flavors or before we get into other products. But I just went with my gut and I said, look, if I wanna succeed with chocolate and vanilla and If more comes from there, great, but I'm not gonna do that now. I just don't even have the resources for it. Alright, so for the first four years it was you Y you really this at this point you're no you're focused full time on orgain.

Um so w who was your first hire? My first hire was a guy named Todd. And Todd was a uh you know doing demos at Whole Foods. He was demoing this chicken pot pie. uh and he was the strong, very fit guy and I asked him, I said, you know, shouldn't you be demoing like protein? And he I took him over to Organe. I told him about it. He was our first hire and he helped me in um kind of a lot of the day to day stuff, but also in getting the word out there for trade shows and getting the product out there. Uh from there it was ops. I hired someone on operations to help me and then um sales.

Um How did you as as I think today you've got about a hundred and twenty We're almost about a hundred sixty today. At what point did you get an office? I mean, you were working out of your house for for for the first few years. When did you

Like in a separate space. It was about seven years in that I got an office. Wow. So we were working remotely, uh working from my house, working from coffee shops. So it was about six or seven years in that I got an office here in Irvine, California. At what point six or seven years in, I mean

What kind of revenue were you doing by that point? We were probably at that point at least fifty million in in revenue. You got a really significant business with a tiny number of people. Yes. Uh you know, I think I think we had made the inks you know five hundred fastest growing company list and we had uh

Two or three people or I wrote two or three people. We really had one. This is in twenty thirteen you made that list with with three employees. Including yourself. Including myself. And and and was At this point by twenty thirteen, you're five years in.

Still the the bulk of your revenue coming through whole f whole foods purchases? Through Whole Foods, the natural channel, and it was ready to drink at that time. And I was trying a lot of plant based powders at the time and they all tasted horrible to me. I remember I'd I'd have to mix them up. Uh they they looked like cement, they tasted like you know, cement. And I would just you know plug my nose and hope for the best. And I thought Someone can do this better.

And I worked very, very hard with our food scientists. And around that two thousand thirteen time period uh launched a plant based protein powder. That was completely innovative and disruptive. It was new to the space. Innovative in which way?

It tasted delicious. It it bridged the gap between like dairy protein and plant protein. And you know, I brought this product straight to Costco. But I brought it to them and I said, look. I have something here.

That I think is completely disruptive to the space. And they said, look, we appreciate it, but we have these dairy powders, they taste much better. And I said, I just want you to try it and give us a chance. And and they tried it and they said, Look, it tastes much better than other plant powders, but We have these dairy powders, they do very well for us. And I said, Yeah, but that's like the the muscle crowd. That's the guy that wants to bench press three hundred fifty pounds.

I want to bring in an incremental audience to this aisle, like parents on the go, uh business professionals, people that are actually reading their labels. And she said, Look, this is what I'll do for you. I'm gonna give you twenty stores as a test. And it went into these twenty Costco clubs.

And the numbers came back. And it exceeded expectations in every way. And a few weeks after that they said Can you bring this into all clubs at Costco? So

That happens in twenty uh twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen time frame. And Um And and I'm curious about I mean obviously you've got now team being formed, right? But I'm curious about

The decisions that you made that That you know. Certainly in the first five years. When people probably came up to you and said, You should do this, or you should do that, or you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that

What what were some decisions that you were the result of those kinds of suggestions that you Regret or you wouldn't have done. So you know, a lot of people told me not to go to h Costco. You know, they said you have to really wait. Uh Costco is you know, can put a uh a company out of business, you have to be very careful.

And I felt the opposite. And that was one of the the best decisions uh that I made. But I will tell you that I think generally speaking, I have a completely unfair advantage in life. Uh in that I thought That I was

going to truly die. Right. There's one day that's seared in my mind, uh that I'll never forget as I'm thinking about it now, where I had I had just finished radiation treatment. I remember that day I got so dizzy that I passed out. Uh and they called nine one one.

And and I'm in this ambulance, uh they pull out these pads. And I feel like I'm almost watching this in the third person. And I remember asking the EMT I asked him, am I going to die? Uh a and he just you know, he just looked at me and he said, Hang hang with us here, bud.

And in that moment I was almost sure. That I was going to die. Um you know, and thankfully of course I was stabilizing the ER and obviously made it. But I gained this completely unfair advantage from that experience and and cancer in general.

That I would always go for it. You know, life is short. You know, in in my mind I've already won the game in my mind, so I'll I'll never take the safe option to the game.

I'm always gonna go for the win. And Costco for me was going for the win. Yeah. And you weren't going after the muscle building crowd. You were going after

A different crowd of people who were not using protein powders. I wanted the everyday person that would wake up and instead of bacon and uh you know and and sausage and whatever they'd have for breakfast. that they would wake up and have an organic protein smoothie. And that would set the tone for the day.

Andrew, I you know, one of the things that I and I I s I struggle with this a little bit, I I I Use uh protein. powders including orgain. I've used I use a bunch of different ones. I try'em. I l I like experimenting with them with the plant based ones. Um but I also really To try to eat. A very good diet.

But I I kinda struggle with this idea of like Powder. You know, being Real foods or whole foods. And I guess I guess maybe it's just look, most people

Don't have the time. They they need to just Yeah. you know, nutrition in them and and and um This is a convenient way to do it. But um

But part of me still kind of conflicted over this idea that we can see a powdered beverage as A healthy meal. Yeah, and I I think it's a great point. I would say that it really depends on kind of What's in that powder? Right.

If you could consume whole organic foods and have a perfect diet uh on a consistent basis That's ideal. The next best thing is to make sure that what you consume in your body are ingredients that are food based, that are organic, that are clean, and that are companies that are reputable.

And what we do is we make sure that we are a convenient solution to your health journey. Protein is top of mind now more than anything. So getting products that have clean protein, organic protein sources that you could supplement and push up that grams of protein per day. It goes a very long way. to ensuring that you're achieving your highest health. Yeah.

So you bootstrap this company basically until For the first ten years. until twenty nineteen when you did um sell a a majority stake to uh a private equity firm in LA that focuses on food.

Called butterfly. Um And and I have to assume, because you'd been doing this for ten years and Now is a chance to you know, to t to take some money off the table, you'd been working really hard.

And i I guess it was a chance for you to just Just kind of put some money aside. You know, I it had gotten to the point where if uh something went wrong with the company, um, everything was on me. I was highly leveraged, uh, you know, against my home, uh at the bank Any kind of leverage that I could get. I had.

Um, and it got to the point where the business had just grown dramatically and it was at scale. And I was looking for a partner that would allow me to kind of continue with what was most important to me. I mean there was a list of non negotiables. These are the things that I would need you to stay away from. These are the things that we need help on. And uh, you know, butterfly equity uh proved to be wonderful partners in in honoring that.

and allowing us to grow in a way that I wanted to carry out. Um I think in I think in twenty twenty two, early twenty twenty two Uh Nestle, uh Division of Nestle. purchased a majority stake from you and from the private equity group and now they are the majority. Shareholders, um

uh of of organ. Um what does that mean? I mean that's a huge multinational company. That can really Dominant.

Product line. Yes, I mean they're the the largest food and beverage company in the world, and Organ had reached a point where you know, I had taken it to a certain level and we wanted to truly go global, right? And we wanted We we don't have the resources for that or to get in the medical channel.

Now the thing that's most important to me is making sure that there's a mutual respect. A lot of times you hear companies uh you know that get acquired by big Companies like Nestle or others. And they get lost in the shuffle. I I made it very clear from the beginning that products Our products cannot be compromised ever.

And and they recognized and appreciated and said this is what makes Orgain special. Um and one of the things that was interesting that they really respected is that Anyone that needed product or needs product today that can't afford it. We give it to them for free. No questions asked. So if you're a cancer patient and

can't tolerate other products and organ is working for you, but you can't afford it for any reason. We ship it to you, no questions asked, and that was something that was extremely important to me. Andrew, um You are still the CEO. You run the company. Um And you have a minority.

uh stake still. Um, you're forty two right now, I think, uh the time of this recording. Um, so you're still y very young. Um, what what do you think? I mean, uh at some point Nestle can, if they want to, just you know, they're they're the boss. I mean they can They can get rid of you and they can name their own CEO. I'm sure they're happy with you and your your stories on the you know, part of the company's

But Um how long do you want to Keep doing this. Run run running the business. I mean, this is something that I love, right? Um, you know, Simon Sinek says something along the lines of uh you know, when when you work and it's just something that you don't love, it's call stress. Um and but when you work for something that you care about or something that you love, it's called passion.

This is still very much my passion. uh I'd love to continue to lead and shepherd the company into what it can become, which I think we're just scratching the surface. So um, you know, and and I'm immersed in this industry. I I love the space. I started a А приват екві ферс он Uh. better for you brands that I could work alongside other founders and help them realize their full potential. So I'm in this industry, I'm immersed in it, and this is what I'll be doing uh for the future.

Obviously your Your battle with Cancer Was Um

Mm probably I I think still the most trying Mm period in your life. But And I even hesitate to ask us, but I I mean

Imagine without that experience this Company wouldn't exist. No, this company absolutely wouldn't exist. I wouldn't be the person that I am today. And You know, anyone that's dealing with cancer, I have a a huge soft spot in my heart. I want to do anything and everything to help them because I've been there and I'm not supposed to be here.

But I wouldn't have I wouldn't do anything, uh, or or realise my full potential if it wasn't for cancer, which is crazy to say now, but it's absolutely true. Andrew, if you when you look back on on the journey that you've had so far, I mean I you know, I know that the the The acquisition is a is an undisclosed amount, but but based on on, you know, revenue for twenty twenty two, which I think is about seven hundred million dollars reportedly. Uh you can imagine what

the companies value that. It's it's a hu You know, you've you've made a lot of money. You've been very financially successful and you know, you're doing what you Yeah.

Um How much of of of where you are do you tribute to Do you think it has to do with luck? Well if I was to sit here and tell you that um

Everything that I've become and everything that Organe has become was was just all a result of hard work. I'd I'd be lying to you. I mean I I launched Orgain at the height of the recession. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what I was getting into, really.

And I had no idea how difficult the hardships would would truly be. So You know, don't get me wrong, I can tell you with confidence that I I couldn't have worked harder. I made sacrifices that I never imagined making, even I would say to my detriment at times. But there was certainly just like you know, you think about that one basketball player that that runs the hardest down the court and and jumps the highest and finds this perfectly placed lob in his hands every once in a while and all he has to do is throw it in the net.

And every time I found myself with an opportunity, you know, I seized it with every part of me, uh but with a lot of purpose and a lot of gratefulness. So I would say definitely both, um hard work and a few of those uh lucky lobs along the way. That's Andrew Abraham. Founder and CEO of Orgames. Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. Please make sure to click the follow button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of the show, and as always, it's Totally free.

This episode was produced by Liz Metzger with music composed by Ramteen Arablui. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Sam Paulson. Our audio engineer was Ko Takasugi Thernovin. Our production staff also includes JC Howard, Casey Herman, Carrie Thompson, Alex Chung, Elaine Coates, John Isabella, Chris Massini, and Carla Esteves. I'm Guy Raz and you've been listening.

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