The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 39 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Ryan: Take family money to ensure the ultimate motivation to survive
“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.”
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: Most Product Innovation Originates From Serving Extreme Users
“And look, most innovation comes from like really serving the needs of an extreme user that then you apply that to a general population.”
Eric Ryan: A Target endcap is America's most valuable retail real estate
“I still think there's no more valuable real estate in America than an end cap. At a target.”
Ryan: Advertising is a tax on unremarkable products
“I still think of advertising as a tax on an unremarkable product. And the better you get the product, the packaging, and something that creates that immediate connection, then marketing is really just gravy and jet fuel to be able to accelerate that.”
Eric Ryan joins Greycroft to launch $150M consumer fund
“I've moved much more into the venture investing space. And I joined Graycroft. We are launching a new one hundred fifty million dollar dedicated Consumer Fund. We just made our first two investments. So I've officially made the move from entrepreneur to invest…”
Eric Ryan: Winning on product iteration is harder than building a brand
“Really trying to win on a product iteration is tough because it almost becomes more of an invention than building a brand.”
Eric Ryan: Character licensing offers early brands a shortcut to scale
“Licensing, especially with retailers, is a great quick shortcut to really build, even though you're borrowing someone else's brand equity, but particularly for kids, bringing in kids' characters and being able to custom on top of that, I think would really get…”
Eric Ryan: Digital jewelry will become a real category
“Yeah, you know, I think a big idea of digital jewelry is going to become a real thing, because it allows you to enhance the appearance of it.”
Ryan: Informal Advisory Boards Create Rhythms Needed for Scaling
“If you don't take outside capital, you don't need a true board, but having a group of people function as a board is It kind of creates these, like, tentpole moments and puts structure around the business to help you create a really clear rhythm to help you sca…”
Eric Ryan: Founders must choose between keeping control and maximizing scale
“You can either go for control or financial win. Meaning if you want to just continue to have full control and really build this yourself, it's going to be a slower, longer build, but you can have control. If you want to really scale up, you're going to have to…”
Eric Ryan: Building a long-term brand around one product is very difficult
“I think it's really, really hard long-term to build one product. I think you'd be in one category really well.”
Ryan: No low-interest categories exist, only low-interest brands
“There's no such thing as low interest categories, just low interest brands.”
Ryan: Eco-brands must use design as a Trojan horse for mainstream adoption
“The only way we're going to make this work is we had to get the mainstream into a green product, and we thought a lot of it as it's a Trojan horse for good. We had to put our green credentials on the back of the bottle and almost kind of hide them.”
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.”