Eric Prum and Josh Williams, Very Great: Building Genuine Brands – Well Made E107

There are dozens of tools out there to build and launch products, but Very Great has set out to launch brands — companies creating products that improve lives and keep people coming back. They're doing it with a platform that centralizes the functions of any consumer brand. From research and development, through launch and logistics, Very Great is an infrastructure to build a brand that lasts.

So far, co-founders Eric Prum and Josh Williams have helped to launch three brands in the Very Great family — W&P Design in the housewares space, Wild One in the pet space, and Courant in the tech space. Hear how Very Great ideates to create products that inspire loyal customers, their approach to building genuine brands, and their strategy to make a bullet proof supply chain.

On this episode, Eric and Josh start at the top by sharing their first memory of each other and how their friendship led them into launching the Kickstarter that started it all — The Mason Jar Cocktail Shaker. They share how they spread the word to crowdfund over $74,000 and the advice they give companies crowdfunding in 2020 (4:51).

Josh and Eric explain exactly how Very Great works and what it means to be an entrepreneur in residence with their team (15:43). They explore the common tools that they use across each of their three consumer verticals (22:13). Looking forward in time, they envision what success looks like for Very Great in five years (27:30).

Very Great launches each of its brands with omni channel in mind. Josh and Eric share why Nordstrom is a great retail partner (32:42). Finally, they talk a bit about R&D and how they see their roles changing as the company grows.

Also mentioned in this episode:

You can find this and all future episodes on iTunes, Google Play, and here on the Lumi blog. This episode was edited by Evan Goodchild.