Scott Norton
1 appearance on the record.
computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →
21statements → 8claims → 0claims resolved → 4.1/5average certainty → 1.57/5average debate potential → 10said about them ↓
1 not yet assessed 7 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
8 assertions · 3 opinions · 3 insights · 6 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 7 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Scott argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Scott Norton on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Scott Norton said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Norton: Heinz's ketchup dominance will eventually be broken by future entrepreneurs
“My official on the record statement is that it just hasn't been sufficiently challenged yet. So I await the next generation of ketchup entrepreneurs to fulfill the mission that we could not fully fulfill.”
Norton: There had been no innovation in ketchup in 70 years
“There had been no innovation in ketchup in 70 years, and every other category of culture and of food had change, and so really it was, we saw this open space as an invitation to create something.”
Norton: Previous Heinz rivals failed by copying its packaging and positioning
“But every other ketchup out there would copy Heinz, the market leader, on the packaging, the materials, the brand positioning. It looked like a copycat, right? It was Heinz, but less so.”
Scott Norton Forged a Skadden Arps Legal Letter for Campus PR
“We used fake letterhead for the law firm Skadden Arps, and we wrote a letter to the Brown Daily Herald, the campus newspaper, accusing them of stealing Sir Kensington's recipe as a way to get the newspaper's attention”
Norton: Once you give equity to someone, you cannot take it away
“Once you give someone something, you cannot take it away. The experience of having it being taken away is a very difficult emotional experience at that point.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's created the first successful flavored grocery mayonnaises
“And because mayonnaise carries flavors so well, all of a sudden, we were making a sriracha mayo, and we were making a chipotle mayo, and so we really created, in Whole Foods and in grocery stores, the first successful flavored mayonnaises.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's ketchup sold better when matching category conventions
“The Closer that we got to category convention and ketchup, the more it would sell.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's spent zero dollars on Facebook ads from $8.5M raise
“Unlike so many of our peers, you know, Facebook didn't see a cent from that eight million dollar raise.”
Scott Norton: French Fry Pop-Up Delivered Sir Kensington's Best Marketing ROI
“Which was still definitely the best marketing money alongside the demo funds that we've ever spent.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's set seed valuation at $2.5 million
“We were going to raise at one million a valuation, and then I met with someone who said you should raise at ten million, and I said ten million seems crazy, and so Mark and I agreed on two and a half.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's Sharpied out kosher logos on first Williams-Sonoma run
“So we sat there with a Sharpie and we put a dot over every single kosher logo on every single label for that first run that we had for William Snow.”
Norton: Premium condiments increase grocery profits but squeeze restaurant margins
“The fundamental difference of the business of a retailer and a restaurant is that for a retailer, when they buy a product, if it's more expensive, then that actually means that there's more profit for them when they sell it. The opposite is really true with a …”
Norton: Mayonnaise quickly grew to 60% of Sir Kensington's sales
“And we did that and launching the mayonnaise transformed our business nearly overnight. Now, 50% of our sales are mayonnaise. Now, 60% of our sales are mayonnaise.”
Scott Norton: Ad Agency Mother New York Took Discounted Equity for Services
“With a really fantastic award-winning ad agency called Mother New York, where they would invest and they would get shares in the company, but they would get a discount because they would deliver for us also an advertising campaign.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's conducted employee terminations at an off-site restaurant
“We had this restaurant that was two blocks from our office that we would fire people at. So we wouldn't fire people in the office. We'd fire people at this restaurant.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's board would have advised against Unilever meeting
“Our board would have told us not to take the meeting.”
Norton: Unilever's 400-person sales force tripled Sir Kensington's business post-acquisition
“We went from having a retail sales team of four people to Unilever's sales team of 400 people spread across these 50 states, and so together with the team and with Unilever's fantastic team, the size of Sir Kensington's tripled.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's rejected founder-led naming to build an immersive world
“We were totally sure we were not going to call it Scott and Mark's ketchup. Like, to us, that was totally boring. We wanted to come up with something that was so radically interesting and different, and was a world that people could inhabit.”
Norton: Sir Kensington's founders initially thought physical products weren't viable startups
“We never thought this would be a viable business because Everybody starting companies around us, if they were starting companies, it was like Facebook and social networks, right? Like we didn't think that a physical products business was like a viable startup …”
The other half of the tape: Scott Norton's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 1 episode on How I Built This. 7 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 2Mark Ramadan 1
Statements about Scott Norton, by other people (7)
Advisors almost universally told Ramadan to oust co-founder Scott Norton
“The advice I mostly got was, number one, this happens to every co-founder set.
[4357] Mark Ramadan: It always happens.
[4358] Mark Ramadan: Co-founders have falling outs or fights.
[4360] Mark Ramadan: And then number two, the only solution is to remove Scott …”
Ramadan refused to fire co-founder Norton, opting for temporary step-away
“I ended up, I wouldn't say fighting with the board, but informing the board that that wasn't the path I was going to take, but that we would go down a slightly different path, which is that I would ask Scott to step away from the business for a little bit.
[44…”
Ramadan: Sir Kensington's CEO and CMO simultaneously stepped away for months
“So on Wednesday, the company has both a CEO and a CMO, and by Monday, we're both gone for months.”
Guy Raz: Heinz Sold $10.5 Billion of Ketchup in 2010
“Anyway, in 2010, the year Mark Ramadan and Scott Norton decided to start a ketchup brand, Heinz sold 10 and a half billion dollars of the stuff.”
Sir Kensington's originally split equity equally at 25% across four founders
“When we first incorporated the business, none of us were full-time. I believe it was 2009, and so I say it was easy in the sense that there were four of us, so it was You know, 25% all around.”
Every mention by year
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2024 3 mentions in 1 episode
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Sir Kensington's: Scott Norton and Mark Ramadan | Oct 23, 2023 | 33m |