Ep. 182 - Brendan Synnott, Cofounder of Bear Naked, Evol Foods, and Pact

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, Brian Ardinger, IO Founder, sat down with Brendan Synnott, a serial entrepreneur, having cofounded companies like Bear Naked, which he sold to Kellogg, Evol Foods, and now Pact, an e-commerce organic fashion brand.  In this interview we talked about Brendan's opportunity to become an entrepreneur early on in his life, how he grew his company from zero to sell to a major corporation, and how he thinks about creating new innovations and new spaces.   

Interview Transcript (To read the entire interview transcript, go to http://insideoutside.io.)

Brian Ardinger: On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sat down with Brendan Synnott. Brendan is a serial entrepreneur, having cofounded companies like Bear Naked, which he sold to Kellogg. He's found companies like Evol Foods, and he's now working at Pact, a brand-new e-commerce fashion brand.  In this interview we talked about Brendan's opportunity to become an entrepreneur early on in his life.  How he grew his company from zero to sell it to a major corporation. And how he thinks about creating new innovations and new spaces.   

Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast that brings you the best and the brightest in the world of startups and innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger, founder of Inside Outside.IO, a provider of research events and consulting services that help innovators and entrepreneurs build better products, launch new ideas, and compete in a world of change and disruption. Each week we'll give you a front row seat to the latest thinking tools, tactics, and trends in collaborative innovation. Let's get started. 

Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host Brian Ardinger, and as always, we have another amazing guest.  Today with me is Brendan Synnott. He is a serial entrepreneur having cofounded the companies like Bear Naked Granola, which he sold to Kellogg. He started companies with Evol Foods, pet companies, candy businesses, and now he's in the fashion space with a company called Pact. Welcome to the show Brendan. 

Brendan Synnott: Thanks so much for having me. Looking forward to talking about innovation. It's my favorite subject in business. 

Brian Ardinger: You have got a lot to talk about and you've had a very eclectic career over the course of the last decade or so, starting and forming businesses that have gone from nothing to something.  Have you always been an entrepreneur and what led you to the path of entrepreneurship? 

Brendan Synnott: I think I've always had that spirit in me. I was blessed by having two grandfathers that both had started their own businesses. One was a printing brokerage and one was a engineering firm. Both small businesses, but I grew up with that culture within my family about saying, you can do what you want. You can see it go after it. And then that led me to always starting little businesses growing up. I remember going to the Costco when I was a kid and buying 150 lemon heads or you know, for $8 and then go sell them on the street. Or go sell them in school or whatever it may be. And I had a number of businesses before I hit my first big one.  But it was something that I was always just like, ah, let's go try it, let's go get after it. let's go see what happens. 

Brian Ardinger: I think you got your big break when you've cofounded Bear Naked in the granola space and you eventually sold that to Kellogg. What were some of the early lessons of entrepreneurship that you can share with our audience? 

To read the entire interview transcript, go to http://insideoutside.io.