Making Better Products and Bigger Smiles with Craig Dubitsky

Craig Dubitsky started his entrepreneurial career as an investor and was fortunate to be involved in the beginnings of both companies Method and eos. Today, he still looks back at the networking opportunities that he had and the steps that have brought him to his successes with gratitude. He began Hello with a great idea and a group of really motivated people that wanted to provide honest products for everyone. Now, their charcoal toothpaste in available in everyday retail stores including Walmart and Fred Meyer. Craig credits these successes not only to a great product that is easy to sell, but also to the powerful team he has and the working environment they have created together. Hello ensures that all employees are not limited to one position, so that they have opportunities to contribute in all areas of the company. With rapidly growing technology and chemistry, we are better able to make green and natural products available to wider audiences. The processes are getting cheaper and scientists are discovering ways to harness benefits from sources were weren’t capable of before. Hello is utilizing these new capabilities and a society of people who are interested in having better products surrounding them in their lives. This market environment has made it easier for Hello products to pave its way into the consumer environment than it would have been years ago. People are finally demanding better stuff that is more affordable and accessible, and Hello has begun to make this dream into a reality.   What you'll get out of tuning in: What is different about Hello How to make products more widely available What you can do better as an entrepreneur   Links Mentioned in the Episode: Craig Dubitsky's website Body Thrive Book  The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures Book     Show Highlights: 1:40 At Hello, the goal is to make their products available for everyone. Craig not only wants these products to be natural but he also wants them to be truly effective for consumers. 6:35 - As an entrepreneur, having a good product with results that were easily proven and honest ingredients really aided in getting Hello products into common retailers. These retailers, just like any consumer, want better stuff to offer! 17:00 - When it comes to the fluoride debate, Hello chose not to a pick a side. They offer cavity-fighting fluoride and fluoride-free products so that they can support the consumer’s right to choose what they use. 32:05 - “Green” products used to mean to people that things that were natural, but that their efficacy was in question, and that the price point was prohibitive. With the growth in technological and chemical development, the ability to make natural products easier is leading to decreasing the price of natural “green” products. 34:10 - People these are day are actually interested in looking at the ingredients in their toothpaste products - and Hello tells you what each ingredient does. In the past, these were not conversations that we would have been capable of having. 36.33 - Green used to mean making compromises in your products. Now, entrepreneurs have helped bridge the gap by making “hybrid” options where people can have the best of both worlds. These options are becoming more accessible and more reliable for everyone.   Your Favorite Quotes: “I wanted to make products for the 100%, not the 1%.” - Craig Dubitsky “The dentist is going to drill, fill and bill you.” - Craig Dubitsky “There’s better stuff to put in bodies, your body matters.” - Cate Stillman “It’s not just save yourself, save the world, its have more fun.” - Cate Stillman “Whole body health and oral health are inextricably linked.” - Craig Dubitsky “And if you love what you’re doing, you've already won.” - Craig Dubitsky   Guest BIO: Jello’s friendly founder, Craig, is obsessed with design, checked shirts, transformational brands, and making stuff that elevates the every day. If you’ve read something from us that made you smile, there’s a pretty good chance Craig wrote it. That last sentence wasn’t very funny, so maybe he didn’t write it. Craig started hello because he was tired of oral care brands that preyed on fear and shame, that were filled with unfriendly ingredients, that tasted yucky, and because he thought crinkly toothpaste tubes were fugly af. The range recently received two of the most prestigious and highly recognized design awards in the world, the Good Design Award and the Red Dot Award, and achieved Leaping Bunny status, the highest certification of friendliness with respect to animal testing. In addition, hello was named to Inc. Magazine’s annual Most Audacious list as one of The 25 Companies That Are Changing the World. He was an early investor and board member in Method, the co-founder and creative lead at eos, Dubitsky was named one of Brand Packaging Magazine’s 2014 Brand Innovators, and to The Internationalist 100 as one of Most Inspirational Marketers in the World. In January of 2015, Advertising Age named him to The Creativity 50, their annual list of the most influential and innovative creative thinkers. Craig’s ongoing involvement with revolutionary consumer packaged goods spans category lines: strategizing with green home care brand Seventh Generation on innovation and design, serving as CMO of Popcorn, Indiana, one of the fastest growing salty snacks brands in the US, and advising OTC brand Help Remedies from his role on its Board of Directors. He’s an Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson, and a founding advisory board member at the University of Rochester’s Ain Center for Entrepreneurship at the Simon School of Business. Skype him now, he’s psyched to say hello, and to show you one of his plaid shirts or play guitar for you (have your earplugs ready). Connect with Craig Dubitsky on his Linkedin, Facebook  and  Hello Products Website.