Commerce is a change agent. As such, we must help and support mission-driven entrepreneurs, especially during difficult times, so they can continue to make an impact for their business and the world. Join Elliot Begoun as he talks to the Co-Founder and Chief Organic Optimist at Stonyfield Organic, Gary Hirshberg, about his mission to help mission-driven entrepreneurs find success. Learn how Gary is creating a community for entrepreneurs to get together and ask questions. After all, learning from each other is the most important thing when it comes take creating your own business.

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Helping Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs Find Success With Gary Hirshberg

We’re doing something a little different in this episode. This is going to be a fast-hitting, somewhat abbreviated conversation with the one and only Gary Hirshberg. What we wanted to talk a bit about with all of you is how Gary, TIG, and HEI saw an opportunity to communicate and share a bit more about how we can help and support entrepreneurs during these difficult times. It’s not easy. It never has been, but it isn’t getting any easier.

Both of us are on a mission to try to give entrepreneurs who are out trying to change the world for the better, trying to do things for climate, social justice, and human health. The opportunity to affect that change both big believers, that commerce is the change agent. I thought what we would do first, Gary, is maybe give the folks a bit of background on how you started the Hirshberg Entrepreneurship Institute, its mission, and what it is. Let folks know so they can participate.

Thanks for having me, Elliot. Thanks to you all for tuning in. The short version of a long story, because this is now going on 24 years that I’ve been doing this, is that in around ‘98, Stonyfield was about 15 years old. Of course, when companies and you talk about navigating the valley of death, we didn’t even know that there was a valley when we started. The way I describe our company in the early ‘80s is we had a wonderful business idea, but there was no supply and no demand. The world did not know what organic meant and not a lot of people were eating yogurt. This whole idea of green and sustainable business was talking about stuff that most people didn’t get.

By ‘98, we were hitting our stride after a long startup, which you know about nine years until we made money. In ‘98, we were growing at around 40% annually and quickly closing in on $100 million in sales. I was getting calls left and right from investors and other entrepreneurs who were discovering this space. The natural products industry was starting to mature, and everybody wanted a little piece of my time. How did we do this? How did we deal with that? I had three insights. One was I didn’t have the time to take doing this one off even if I wanted to. Second, I felt strongly that people didn’t need to make my mistakes. They could make their own mistakes, but I could at least save them if I could figure out a way to bundle them together into a learning experience.

Third is that if we built it, they would come. In other words, if I could create some workshops, then these companies could have a place where not only could they gather for learning, but they could meet each other. They could network and find out that they’re not alone. I guess probably the currency, the central theme, that has always been a part of HEI is that we learned best through storytelling and anecdote.

By getting companies together to share their stories and having people talk about the real challenges, whether it’s finance, organizational, marketing, branding, or even just finding personal balance as an entrepreneur, we could create a safe environment for people to talk about the real stuff. As I said, it’s been going on for 24 years. You’ve been an important partner of mine now for the last 4 or 5 in this. We run 2 per year, 1 in Boulder. I say in because we nowadays do everything hybrid. Some in-person and some virtual, but in the spring, we do one in Boulder, usually in May, and then in the fall, we do one in New Zealand, and that is coming right up soon.

One of the reasons I love being involved with it and think it’s so important is the format difference. Often, what we do in the industry, and we do it with the best of intention, but we talk at our entrepreneurs. What HEI allows these entrepreneurs to do is to be, one, be heard those entrepreneurs presenting case studies to the panels, but also for entrepreneurs who are in the audience to see themselves and others in a way that’s different.

When you get to present a real business challenger or opportunity to a panel of experts with collective wisdom and who then start asking those clarifying somewhat penetrating questions, you automatically start to foam ideas in your own mind. You start seeing the parallels in your business, learning how you would think or present a similar case if given the opportunity. The advice that you’re hearing is likely applicable to you, but it’s delivered in a way that doesn’t feel the same as if somebody is presenting it in a PowerPoint.

It’s all figured out. Lily Tomlin, my favorite philosopher, has this great line, “We’re all in it alone.” I think a lot of this is not, to your point, a friendly and welcoming format. That’s grounded, not in speech making, but in real, like, “What do I do about this?” Also, you said something else that’s important. I know you understand this because TIG is built around this, which is often the question that we, the panelists or the investors, are asking the entrepreneur. The clarifying questions portion before we get to the advice-giving is more valuable in the questions to help the entrepreneur think, “I hadn’t thought of it that way. That’s how the rest of the world sees this.”

They’re both seeing themselves as not alone and getting new modes of inquiry and different ways of thinking about the problem that they’re in. Many times, as you know perfectly well, somebody thinks they’ve got a marketing problem or a finance problem, but it’s really a personal problem. That gets revealed in the questions through the tough love advice that you get.

The tough love is the other part that I like about it. It isn’t fluffed, and especially on the pitch day, it’s the most interesting of the pitch events of the year. Pitch slams are great, but in a way, they’re often beauty contests. When you come to the Hirshberg and you pitch, you’re pitching in front of serious investors who are true check writers.

At the end of your pitch and all the questions that you’ve been grilled and asked, which is hard and it takes guts to do that in front of all the other peers and so forth, then it’s the moment of truth. How many of you would give this entrepreneur another meeting? I’ve been through enough of these now to see a room full or a Brady Bunch square full of hands go up, and an entrepreneur feels great about it.

I’ve also seen no hands go up and entrepreneurs have to confront reality. I think that’s so important in the learning. We talk about this a lot with the founders. We work with that. One of the things that is the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs is they allow too much ambiguity. They talk to investors and they don’t get a no or yes. They get something in between and then they don’t know what to do with that. It’s so much better when you get a real clear yes or a real clear no.

Honestly, for the investors and the entrepreneurs, it honors the real process, which is a process of peeling right. It’s taking layers off. You’re not going to do it in one pitch slam or one pitch event. The opportunity to get another meeting is exactly what the entrepreneur and the investor need is, “I’m willing to put some one-on-one time into this.” That’s a real validation.

The other thing I want to say is when we structured the pitch. As you know, we began pitching a couple of years ago because of the demand from both the investors and the entrepreneurs. I thought it was going to be a practice session or a great place for people to try out their stuff. You’re right. I think some of it.

You’ve also observed, and we should comment that there have been quite a few of those people who got crickets the first time who then had a much healthier and more positive response the next time. You can come back and sure enough, they took the lessons to heart and improved it. They probably weren’t ready for investment that first time.

The thing that you see too is at least I think it’s because of this. The number and the quality of the applications for the pitch day have continually improved. It’s not because it’s fun or fluffy. It’s because they get real results, good or bad. You’re right. The good is certainly more fun if you’re an entrepreneur, but the bad could be more instructive and helpful because it allows you to rethink how you’re talking about your business opportunity and what you’re doing. Many of them have come back and had tremendous results the next time.

We’ve had one, who will go unnamed, who has pitched three times. Her last pitch was heads and shoulders above anything she had shown us before.

One of the reasons we’re doing this is because Gary and I have been talking and our teams about we serve the founders and the entrepreneurs in this space with a similar mindset. Hirshberg Entrepreneurship Institute is about advisory and strategic support, providing education, community, and access.

That’s exactly what we talk about in TIG brands, it’s the same thing. Those are the four pillars that we provide advisory and strategic support. We provide education through our online learning, workshops, mastermind groups, and so forth that we have this great community of founders and champions. We’re doing retreats and all of those things. We have access to capital, retailers, and so forth.

That’s what HEI does in a very deep way twice a year. It’s what we try to do with the brands in our community on a daily basis. Again, the goal of us both is that these entrepreneurs are change agents. These are the people that are going to actually lead us, hopefully, in a direction that gives us some belief in some future state that’s better than the state that we’re in right now, whether that’s, again, for climate, human health, social justice, or all of the above. What we talked about is the informal way because we’re both informal in our approaches anyways, how do we make sure entrepreneurs understand that we’re both here to help and we wanted to talk about it jointly?

I would say a couple of things to help folks understand exactly practically what we’re talking about. First of all, my focus has always been mission-driven entrepreneurs, not necessarily just CPG. You said it beautifully. It’s because having started my adult life on the science side of the ledger, I do believe business is the most powerful force in the world that must be harnessed if there’s going to be a future for our grandchildren. By the way we meant to say this earlier, whether or not you get to pitch or present a case, the learning of watching others go through it.

Of course, it’s a bonus if you get to present yourself. Probably for many folks, they’re sensing the opportunity of a community. It’s a safe place. We don’t have all the answers, but we have better and better questions to help you ask better questions. Our vision is that while we are offering these three-day opportunities, the intensive boot camps twice a year, TIG is offering opportunities year-round ongoing. If people want to go a deeper step up and is also the new venture fund.

Folks might have an opportunity to apply for support. It’s almost an on-ramp I would say. The way I look at it. HEI is a chance to recruit people to become part of the TIG community and also to bring TIG community people into HEI to share the knowledge, learning, experience, and exposure that you’re getting.

The interesting thing about it is that it’s happening despite the fact that you and I were slow on the uptake of even talking about it. If you look at the brands that are part of our community, whether it’s Manukora, Peak State Coffee, or Spinster Sisters, almost everyone that I can name is HEI past participant or current participant. I don’t know it’s a chicken and egg. Sometimes, they started with HEI and came to us. Sometimes, they start with us and then add on HEI. We always encourage all of our brands to be taking advantage of HEI. I always like to see them present, but even if you want to be an observer for the first time through, it’s great.

Part of our evolution is the two newest things. We started with that one-to-one program. We added our membership program a few years ago, the eTardigrade Program, where brands can come in and spend an entire year and have access to our learning center, weekly workshops, mastermind classes, online community, retreats, and all of those things.

The next two steps for us in terms of trying to find out other ways to help are where we started our TIG collective and the advisory collective, which is another carry forward to what is offered at HEI. That’s where a brand decides I could use advisors around me, but rather than executing an advisor agreement with a single advisor. They’re executing that agreement with the collective and getting access to 40 advisors who all share the aggregate upside of what goes into the collective in terms of advisor shares.

It’s a great way for us to build new crops of advisors and future board members. A big passion of mine is to see more women in BIPOC and LGBTQ+ representation on boards. We’re trying to do that through here and educate. Gary, you can attest to this. You’ve seen a lot of first-time board members have that dare in the headlight. It’s a craft. You have to understand things like governance and fiduciary responsibility.

To give people that confidence and get them ready to be board members while also helping brands understand how to use advisors and not collect them vanity plates on a deck. That was the next evolution and then the newest is the TIG Venture Community, which is a totally different approach to how we’re trying to fund these early-stage brands. As you said to me, the littles. Instead of trying to build funds that make entrepreneurs immediately make the commitment to be the next grand slam or huge exit, let’s start first getting them the money that they need to build a business that is sustainable, can be a going concern, and has a path to EBITDA and cashflow positivity.

One of the things that we talked about too, was let’s put some money into that pitch and put a deal in front of one of the brands that show up in pitch competition. Not as a contest or a grand prize, but one that’s aligned that the team at HEI and TIG team is ready and can be a benefit of some dollars put against it. Have that come directly out of HEI. That’s one of the things that we’re adding as well.

I’ll say one last thing I think that we haven’t covered, and that is I get an enormous amount of learning myself out of every one of these institutes. I wanted to say that because while you reference board members and then the menu of opportunities through TIG, learning is never done. The cool thing with both of our entities, but I’ll speak for HEI is that we go from startup pre-revenue to very successful, very so-called established brands.

In this chair dynamic economy that you referenced at the outset, it’s important that you be constantly open to new ways of thinking, obviously using technology and so forth. I’ve been doing these now. As I mentioned, this institute is for 24 years. I’ve been in business for 40 years. I leave with notebooks full of every one of these things. That’s what I want people to understand about both of our entities. We’re learning organizations and nobody has the answers. We’re not arrogant about that, but we learn right along.

I heard this and I love it. I’ve been using it because it’s true for both of us. That is we’re learning out loud and then we’re learning together. I’m not nearly as old as you are. We’re both grandparents, but I’ve been doing this for many years, and I love that every day. I’m way more a student than I’m a teacher.

I would describe myself more as a cross-pollinator than anything because I’m learning out loud. What I would hope everybody understands is that there’s some degree of vulnerability to admitting not knowing, but I think it’s the best part. Being willing to say, “I don’t know,” learn, and walk away. That’s one of the things I love about participating in HEI. It is the same thing.

Not only do I learn something, but it also reinvigorates me. There have been times admittedly where I’ve walked in limping in and, by the end of the three days, you think you’re exhausted. In fact, it’s the other way. You’re like, “This is why I do this. This is so cool.” The other thing I want to call out is that it’s not just HEI and TIG. I look at the other people in the ecosystem, like Bob Burke and Betsy McGinn. They’re part of both TIG and HEI. Also, Andy Whitman and so many others. It’s that community, and that’s what we’re trying to do. It is to figure out how we envelop entrepreneurs with that sense of community.

Well said.

I practiced that one. We’ll keep it short. I know you have a river to go raft down. Damn you. Gary is about to embark on a great trip that I should have been on, but I talked myself out of, and I’m regretting it having FOMO.

One hopes it will be there.

Thanks for doing this. I appreciate it.

It’s good to be with you.

I’m excited about what comes next.

Elliot, many thanks. Take care.

Important Links

• Hirshberg Entrepreneurship Institute

• eTardigrade Program

• eTardigrade Program

About Gary Hirshberg

Gary Hirshberg is Co-Founder and Chief Organic Optimist at Stonyfield Organic, the country’s leading organic yogurt producer. He is also the Chairman and Founding Partner of Just Label It!, the national campaign to label genetically engineered foods. Gary is the author of Stirring It Up; How to Make Money and Save the World and co-author of Label It Now – What You Need to Know About Genetically Engineered Foods.

He has received 12 honorary doctorates and numerous awards for corporate and environmental leadership including a 2015 Champion for Children Award from Mount Sinai Hospital’s Children’s Environmental Health Center and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the US EPA. Among his current projects, he is establishing an Organic Entrepreneurship Centre in Motueka, NZ.

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