Oct 8, 2018 · 55m · how-i-built-this
method: Adam Lowry & Eric Ryan
Eric Ryan · 16m spoken Guy Raz · 15m spoken Adam Lowry · 15m spoken Loren Poncia · 58s spoken Lisa Poncia · 39s spoken
0:00 / 0:00
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of NPR's 'How I Built This,' Guy Raz interviews Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan, co-founders of Method, chronicling how they challenged consumer goods giants by combining non-toxic chemical formulations with high-end industrial design to build an iconic, eco-friendly household cleaning brand.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 32.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.0 Guest teaching 2.2 Guest disagreement 0.3 Guy pushing back 0.5
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 38:40 Adam Lowry rejects niche green branding
Lowry vigorously challenges the conventional strategy of catering solely to eco-conscious shoppers, insisting that selling to the existing 5% green niche is pointless compared to converting the mass market.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 7:21 Guy Raz presses why they chose cleaning suppliesRaz refuses to accept that two twenty-somethings naturally gravitated to household cleaners, pushing them on why they didn't pursue conventional consumer categories like chewing gum instead.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 35:57 Target buyer recognizes guest demographic valueLowry educates Raz on retail dynamics, explaining that raw unit sales were secondary to Target because Method successfully pulled in younger, higher-value urban millennial shoppers.
Guy holds their own ▶ 37:57 Guy Raz contrasts Target launch with Whole Foods playbookRaz displays deep industry knowledge of natural CPG paths by contrasting Method's mass retail trajectory with John Mackey's Whole Foods organic ecosystem.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Childhood Sailing Roots and a Chance SF Reunion | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz sets the stage with biographical context regarding the founders' Michigan sailing background and Detroit auto roots. Lowry and Ryan comfortably recount their college paths and chance encounter on a flight to San Francisco. | |
| Differing Paths to Entrepreneurship | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Raz probes why two twenty-somethings chose the mundane cleaning category over flashier consumer goods. Ryan and Lowry explain how Colgate ad work and chemical insight revealed an uninspired, toxic market ripe for disruption. | |
| Reimagining Cleaning Products as Home Decor | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Raz asks for a snapshot of supermarket cleaning aisles in 1999. Lowry and Ryan explain the aesthetic and toxicity problems of existing brands, noting the rise of home decor culture as inspiration. | |
| Developing the Concept Book in the Dot-Com Era | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raz highlights the contrast between the dot-com gold rush and pitching basic soap. Lowry and Ryan recount circulating their concept book among experts who found no structural flaws beyond incumbent scale. | |
| Formulating Non-Toxic Cleaners in Beer Pitchers | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks about the kitchen-sink chemistry process. Lowry details formulating surface cleaners from vinegar, baking soda, and essential oils in beer pitchers. | |
| Naming Method and Bootstrapping the First Packaging | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz inquires about the initial $90,000 bootstrap budget, branding, and bottle molds. The founders describe hand-filling custom bottles and staging guerilla product photography. | |
| The 6 A.M. Hustle and the Molly Stone's Breakthrough | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Raz explores the emotional toll of direct retail cold-calling. Lowry and Ryan share how pitching grumpy grocery managers at dawn at Molly Stone's became their ultimate sales school. | |
| Mid-Roll Teaser: Target and Industrial Design | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | The founders describe running in-store demos and formulating their philosophy that mainstream consumers would only adopt eco-products if aesthetic and performance came first. | |
| Friends and Family Funding and Closing the First Million | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz tracks the fundraising trajectory from friends-and-family cash to closing a $1M institutional round amid the post-9/11 downturn. Ryan describes the motivation of taking money from loved ones. | |
| Enlisting Designer Karim Rashid to Pitch Target | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Raz asks how two unknown founders secured star industrial designer Karim Rashid. Ryan recounts cold-emailing Rashid with equity incentives to use his reputation to secure a Target meeting. | |
| A High-Stakes Target Pitch and Manufacturing Scramble | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks about the stakes of the Target pitch. Lowry explains the high-pressure manufacturing scramble to deliver 25,000 units in eight weeks while sleeping on factory floors. | |
| Overcoming Store Hurdles to Establish Eco-Chic | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Raz asks why Target kept the brand despite missing initial unit targets and dealing with leaky inverted soap caps. Lowry explains that Target valued the lucrative demographic Method attracted. | |
| Targeting Mainstream Shoppers and Extreme Product Demos | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Raz contrasts Method's retail path with natural grocers like Whole Foods. Lowry forcefully argues that tailoring eco-products strictly to the 5% niche is pointless, followed by Eric recounting drinking cleaner for the British press. | |
| Achieving Profitability and Fending Off Industry Giants | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Raz discusses reaching profitability after five years and fending off copycat launches from P&G and Clorox. The founders also candidly unpack the costly multi-million-dollar failure of their Block personal care line. | |
| Navigating Co-Founder Conflict and Building Strong Partnership | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks how the co-founders navigated internal friction without destroying their partnership. Lowry and Ryan describe learning to reconcile introverted versus extroverted problem-solving styles. | |
| Selling to Ecover and Long-Term Entrepreneurial Reflections | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Raz questions the decision to sell to Ecover in 2013 and probes the role of luck versus skill. Lowry and Ryan emphasize long-term mission preservation and emotional connection to their creations. | |
| Method Postscript: Ripple Foods, OLLY, and Lasting Friendship | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz summarizes the founders' new ventures (Ripple Foods and OLLY) before transitioning into a community segment featuring Loren and Lisa Poncia's sustainable cattle ranching at Stemple Creek. |
Statements from this episode (27)
Lowry paid $600 monthly rent in San Francisco during the late 1990s
“I paid 600 dollars a month in rent.”
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.”
Lowry: Legacy Cleaning Products Were Both Ugly and Super Toxic
“Not only are these products really ugly, but did you know they're super toxic as well, right?”
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.”
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.”
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…”
Lowry: Method was funded out of pocket for two years
“We paid, we ran the business out of pocket for about two years.”
Lowry: Custom bottle molds consumed most of Method's initial investment
“And then build the bottle molds, which ate up most of the investment.”
Lowry: Method secured its first retail shelf space at Molly Stone's in 2001
“Yeah, it was actually February 28th, 2001. So we had bothered this store manager enough that he said, fine, guys, I'm gonna give you space, but you have to get the product here today. This was in Burlingame in sort of the mid-peninsula of San Francisco Bay Are…”
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 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 Founders Personally Hand-Delivered to 30 Bay Area Stores
“What we did, we built up these 30 stores, and we called it our paper route, so every morning we'd take turns driving to each store, counting how many you sold, replenishing it, writing up an invoice”
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”
Entrepreneurs Should Raise Family Money to Ensure Maximum Motivation, Says Ryan
“I always encourage entrepreneurs to Take money from family, because I think it's the best motivation to ensure that no matter how hard things get, you're going to find a path forward.”
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.”
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.”
Making Green Products Solely for Eco-Conscious Shoppers Is Pointless, Says Lowry
“I think it's totally pointless to make a green product for green people, right? They're only about five percent of products in the U.S. Market that are sold are green products. And so if all you're doing is preaching to the converted and the five percent, like…”
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”
Lowry: Method reached profitability five years after launch
“It was about five years in. So – In five, we became profitable.”
Method Raised Approximately $25 Million Before Reaching Self-Sustaining Profitability
“About twenty-five million.”
Lowry: Legacy CPG copycat green products failed on repeat purchases
“In the short term, it did. But because, you know, they weren't authentic products, they weren't Interesting products. They were just sort of, you know, people would try them once, and they got promoted, so they'd, they'd capture shoppers that way, but then the…”
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.”
Lowry: Method lost low millions on failed Bloq personal care line
“You know, I don't remember exactly in dollar terms, but it was, you know, it was in the low millions of, you know, an investment that basically an amount of money we lit on fire.”
Lowry: Method built world's most sustainable factory in Chicago post-sale
“And in this case of selling the business to Ecovair, actually the greatest example of that is we were able to build What's probably the most sustainable manufacturing facility in the whole world in the inner city of Chicago immediately after we sold the busine…”