Eric Ryan
Partner, Greycroft. On 2 shows, 6 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderinvestorexecutive
Eric Ryan is an entrepreneur and investor who co-founded consumer brands including Method, Olly, and Welly. He is currently a Partner at Greycroft, where he co-leads consumer investment strategy.
2shows
6appearances
49statements
6resolved
6supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
20said about them ↓ Everything Eric Ryan said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Ryan: Method created the first inverted dish soap dispenser
“The dish soap that we did, which was the first ever inverted dispenser, so it comes out of the bottom.”
Eric Ryan: Successful founders need business partners with opposite mindsets
“As a founder, you often look to partner with businesses with people who are similar to you, but what you need is someone who's the complete opposite of you to make a business successful.”
Eric Ryan: Method was the first 'Eco Chic' high-design sustainable brand
“We're going to take credit for it, because we haven't found anybody who did it first, but really the first Eco Chic, a product that was high design and deep sustainability, which is really hard to do, and we were both insistent that it would have these qualiti…”
Ryan: There Are No Low-Interest Product Categories, Only Low-Interest Brands
“There's no such thing as low-interest categories, just low-interest brands.”
Method Hid Its Eco-Friendly Credentials to Overcome Mainstream Consumer Skepticism
“We were really big believers that the packaging would have to be the primary marketing vehicle, and you would see it on shelf because of the design. You would buy it because of unique fragrances. You would get home, find out it works, turn the bottle over, and…”
Ryan: Method created the first-ever inverted dispenser dish soap
“The dish soap that we did, which was the first ever inverted dispenser, so it comes out of the bottom.”
Ryan: I drank Method toilet bowl cleaner to prove its safety
“Yeah, so I was in London, you know, I love the British press, they're so skeptical, and she said, is it, you know, safe enough to drink? I was like, sure. So we both took a shot at the toilet bowl cleaner.”
Eric Ryan drank Method toilet cleaner to prove it was non-toxic
“I was in London, you know, I love the British press, they're so skeptical, and she said, is it, you know, safe enough to drink? I was like, sure. So we both took a shot at the toilet bowl cleaner.”
Ryan: Method secured designer Karim Rashid using equity and reduced fees
“We were able to convince him to do it for a lower fee, because he really believed in the project, but also with equity. And he gave, you know, got him to have skin in the game with us.”
Ryan: Target granted Method an initial 90-store test run
“Target gave us a ninety-store test to basically prove ourself out.”
Ryan: Manufacturers must fund retail clearance discounts for discontinued products
“And it's expensive to launch a new product. It's really expensive to discontinue. Because when you see something on shelf that's being discounted for the store to get rid of it, the manufacturer is funding it.”
Eric Ryan: Co-founder partnerships are like marriages without makeup sex
“And you're doing this as a partnership, and I always tell people it's a lot like a marriage, but it's even harder because you can't have makeup sex. So you've got to find alternative ways through it.”
Ryan: Method modeled its first bottle on a Norwegian camping bottle
“We didn't have a lot of, you know, money to do custom tooling, and so I started looking for stock bottles, couldn't find anything I really liked. So I had this camping water bottle from Norway that I had found. Just a really simple kind of bullet design with t…”
Pitching Busy Store Managers Is Excellent Startup Sales Training
“And it was the best training, because we didn't know how to sell, and you had 30 seconds to pitch. And so it really helped you learn how to sell the product.”
Method Printed Co-Founder Eric Ryan's Personal Cell Phone on Every Bottle
“We didn't have a customer service number, so my cell phone was on the back of every bottle”
Ryan: Method recruited designer Karim Rashid with equity and lower fees
“We were able to convince him to do it for a lower fee, because he really believed in the project, but also with equity.”
Target granted Method an initial 90-store retail test
“And so Target gave us a 90 store test to basically prove ourself out.”
Method Co-Founder Drank Toilet Bowl Cleaner to Prove Non-Toxicity to Press
“And it was a toilet bowl cleaner. And so we both took a shot at the toilet bowl cleaner”
Product Manufacturers Must Cover the Cost of Retail Shelf Clearance Markdowns
“And it's expensive to launch a new product. It's really expensive to discontinue. Because when you see something on shelf that's being discounted for the store to get rid of it, the manufacturer is funding it.”
Ryan: The cleaning category was a massive "sea of sameness"
“We saw a really big category, which was a sea of sameness, and we started looking at the category and started to see some opportunities.”
Ryan: Method divided co-founder roles between inside and outside the bottle
“Very simply, Adam's inside the bottle. He understood that the chemistry, the chemical engineering the sustainability behind it, and I was outside of the bottle, which was the design and the branding of it.”
Ryan: 1990s Cleaning Aisle Was a Large 'Sea of Sameness'
“I just started looking at the cleaning aisle and saw that it was such a big category, but a sea of sameness. Like, everything looked and smelled the same. The brands were pretty dated, and so that was kind of the clue of, dig here.”
Eric Ryan: Dot-Com Startups Raised $40M on 40-Page Business Plans
“We had friends who are raising forty million dollars on forty-page business plans and bragging about a million dollar per page for a raise or doing these lavish launch parties, which seems so ridiculous now to spend funds on a launch party.”
The other half of the tape: Eric Ryan's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 14 times in 8 episodes across the shows. 6 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 11Tim Brown 3
Statements about Eric Ryan, by other people (6)
Brown: Consumers do not buy sustainable products; they buy great products
“People don't buy sustainable products. They buy great products.”
Lowry: Co-Founder Therapy Helps Navigate Divergent Stress Responses
“I'm a big proponent of that because it's what helps you understand this, like this situation that we just talked about, where when things get stressful, Eric talks a lot, and Adam shuts up. Right. And that's two different people responding in different ways th…”
Lowry: Method co-founders each invested $45,000 to start the company
“We each put in 45,000 dollars.”
Lowry: Constructive co-founder relations matter more than getting your way
“The key for us was recognizing that it was way more important for the business That we have a constructive relationship than to get our own individual way”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 14
2023 2 mentions in 1 episode
2022 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
2019 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2018 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Eric's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Partner, Greycroft | 5 | 39 | 100% 5/5 | full record on How I Built This → |
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Partner, Greycroft | 1 | 10 | 100% 1/1 | full record on Masters of Scale → |