Joey Zwillinger
Co-Founder & CEO, Biologica. On 2 shows, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestorengineerLinkedIn ↗biologica.com ↗
Joey Zwillinger co-founded sustainable footwear brand Allbirds alongside Tim Brown in 2015, serving as CEO and taking the company public in 2021 before stepping down in 2024. He subsequently launched women's hormonal health company Biologica with his wife Liz and serves as a founding general partner of venture fund Good Friends.
2shows
3appearances
54statements
17resolved
11supported
1contradicted
65%fully supported
12said about them ↓ Everything Joey Zwillinger said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Allbirds Co-Founder: Amazon Profits Off Knockoffs Targeting Allbirds Search Terms
“If you look at how Amazon does, even when you're not selling on their channel, enough people have typed in all birds on amazon.com such that there is a lot of knockoffs and other, perhaps you would call it similar looking products. That are now sold through Am…”
Joey Zwillinger: Allbirds will refocus on its core active lifestyle category
“And so that is the core of where we started the brand. And that's where we're going to bring everything back to with a really sharp clarity for the consumer. And the potential when we do that is going to be pretty significant. So I think in, in, in part, you'r…”
Zwillinger: Allbirds will consider going private if market valuation gap persists
“If along that journey the public markets don't see the value that we're creating, and there's a big gap between the value that we are creating and what the enterprise value is of the company, then I think it's prudent to consider all options. And we have a boa…”
Zwillinger: Allbirds will be cash flow and EBITDA profitable in 2025
“What we've said to the market, we've got to be pretty consistent with that on your podcast as well. Is, is that will be cashflow and EBITDA profitable in 20, 25.”
Zwillinger: Remote Work Is Impossible for Physical Product Companies
“The conception of what productivity means is far too narrow. And particularly in an industry like mine, where Creativity and physical products are central to what we do that not being together is is impossible.”
Zwillinger: Almost 100% of new shoe brand discovery happens in physical stores
“For the 83% and for any of the discovery, almost a hundred percent of the discovery of new brands, you really want to go try things on people.”
Zwillinger: Nike selling on Amazon is a canary in the coal mine for footwear brands
“I think Nike just announced that they're going to start to sell on Amazon as well, which I think is quite a bellwether for the industry and a bit of a, if you want to use the other analogy, a canary in the coal mine for what is to come.”
Zwillinger: Physical consumer brands cannot rely on minimum viable product strategy
“I just think it's a little less extreme than with a web product and the way that, that Reed might say, put your minimum viable product out there, get feedback and build it with a consumer product and a brand. Particularly one, you know, if you look at the grow…”
Zwillinger: Stock market moves are largely driven by trading algorithms
“A large part of it is just algorithms.”
Zwillinger: Less than 15% of Americans know Allbirds exists
“We still have less than 15% aided brand awareness, meaning only 15% of the US population knows that all birds exist.”
Zwillinger: Allbirds is a product company first, not tech or fashion
“We are a product company first and foremost, and we need to tell amazing stories around those products. That, that is what we are. And we happen to exist In a category where style and fashion is incredibly important. That, that is how I think about the company…”
Zwillinger: Allbirds leads multi-billion-dollar competitors in tech infrastructure
“Something that we have in spades relative to our competition, no matter what their size, even if they're many, many billion dollars in size, we have we are leading in terms of the infrastructure and the tech enablement that we've been able to bring into the bu…”
Zwillinger: Allbirds was not structured to capitalize on pandemic demand
“And I think we were in the unfortunate position of not being structured in a way that, that could capitalize exactly on the dramatic change that had happened in that world.”
Joey Zwillinger predicts drop in consumer spending over next six months
“The consumer is in a more delicate and fragile situation than people understand and that it's going to be more difficult and there's going to be less spending than people think in the coming six months.”
Zwillinger: Major footwear brands only pay lip service to sustainability
“I just realized through this super frustrating experience that the brands, big brands, they said they cared about sustainability, but in reality they were just paying lip service to the idea.”
Zwillinger: No inherent tension exists between financial returns and sustainability
“We don't believe that there needs to be the tension between financial success and success for other purpose-driven aspects of our business, and namely the environment for us. And I think that's true for a lot of businesses.”
Zwillinger: Corporate charter legally binds Allbirds management to environmental responsibility
“Our charter says we have a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders, and we have a equal responsibility to the environment. And so if Tim or I are no longer in the business, and some other person takes over, ah, they still have a responsibility to do what …”
Zwillinger: Big Brands Cannot Effectively Market Sustainable Material Innovations B2B
“When you're trying to sell from a business to business perspective, even if it's a great product, it's a good price. And it has this overwhelmingly positive message around sustainability. The big brands just don't understand how to take that and market it effe…”
Zwillinger: Incumbent brands couldn't effectively position green technology products
“And so it was a Sisyphean exercise for me where I realized that while the technology existed, the consumers wanted it. It was, there's no compromise offering was there for the taking and brands could not position it correctly.”
Zwillinger: Quiet luxury trend will be a tailwind for Allbirds
“And I think if you think about what's happened from over the last couple of years with this, like maximal build in the trends of how shoe companies have been coming to the consumer marketplace and the fact that now quiet luxury is really coming back and people…”
Zwillinger: Domain expertise should be a reference book, not a playbook
“I often talk about with our leaders that what they bring in, Is deeply needed and deeply respected, but we need to think about it as a reference book, not a playbook.”
Zwillinger: Business cycles do not align with public quarterly reporting
“Businesses don't happen on quarterly cycles, but financial reporting and public markets do.”
Joey Zwillinger: Direct-to-consumer is a distribution channel, not a brand identity
“DTC is a way to do business. There's been great retailers who started this in our industry. If you broaden it beyond footwear into apparel, like the gap in the nineties and Lululemon has done a really wonderful job of being a great DTC company. But they're a p…”
Joey Zwillinger: Allbirds' wholesale expansion will drive consumer awareness and adoption
“As we brought in now into the wholesale marketplace in the U S and eventually in, in the international geos that we serve, we're going to grow awareness. We're going to reach a lot more consumers and They're going to fall in love just like the early, early gro…”
The other half of the tape: Joey Zwillinger's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 11 times in 6 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 5Guy Raz 3Will Quist 2Davis Smith 1
Statements about Joey Zwillinger, by other people (1)
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 8
How I Built This 3
2023 6 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode
2020 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Joey's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-Founder & CEO, Biologica | 2 | 43 | 64% 7/11 | full record on 20VC → |
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Co-Founder & CEO, Biologica | 1 | 11 | 67% 4/6 | full record on How I Built This → |