YouSaid · the spoken record

Andrew Abraham

lines on the record: 93
first: 2023-08-07
most recent: 2023-08-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, if I was to sit here and tell you that everything that I've become and everything that Oregain has become was just all a result of hard work, I'd be lying to you, right? I mean, I launched Oregain at the height of the recession. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what I was getting into, really. And I had no idea how difficult the hardships would truly be. So, you know, don't get me wrong, I can tell you with confidence that I couldn't have worked harder. I made sacrifices that I never imagined making. Even I would say to my detriment at times. But there was certainly, just like, you know, you think about that one basketball player that runs the hardest down the court and jumps the highest and finds this perfectly placed lob in his hands every once in a while. And all he has to do is throw it in the net. And every time I found myself with an opportunity, you know, I seized it with every part of me, but with a lot of purpose and a lot of gratefulness.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, this company absolutely wouldn't exist. I wouldn't be the person that I am today. And anyone that's dealing with cancer, I have a huge soft spot in my heart. I want to do anything and everything to help them because I've been there and I'm not supposed to be here, but I wouldn't do anything or realize my full potential if it wasn't for cancer, which is crazy to say now, but it's absolutely true.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, this is something that I love, right? You know, Simon Cynic says something along the lines of when you work and it's just something that you don't love. It's called stress. But when you work for something that you care about or something that you love, it's called passion. This is still very much my passion. I'd love to continue to lead and shepherd the company into what it can become, which I think we're just scratching the surface. So, you know, and I'm immersed in this industry. I love the space. I started a private equity firm focused on better for you brands that I could work alongside other founders and help them realize their full potential. So I'm in this industry. I'm immersed in it. And this is what I'll be doing for the future.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Cancer patient and can't tolerate other products, and Organ is working for you, but you can't afford it for any reason. We ship it to you, no questions asked. And that was something that was extremely important to me.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I mean, they're the largest food and beverage company in the world. And Oregon had reached a point where I had taken it to a certain level and we wanted to truly go global, right? And we wanted, we don't have the resources for that or to get in the medical channel. Now, the thing that's most important to me is making sure that there's a mutual respect. A lot of times you hear companies that get acquired by big companies like Nestle or others and they get lost in the shuffle. I made it very clear from the beginning that products are products cannot be compromised ever. And they recognize and appreciate it and said, this is what makes organ special. And one of the things that was interesting that they really respected is that anyone that needed product or needs product today that can afford it, we give it to them for free. No questions asked. So if you're a”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I had gotten to the point where if something went wrong with the company, everything was on me. I was highly leveraged against my home, the bank, any kind of leverage that I could get I had. And it got to the point where the business had just grown dramatically and it was at scale. And I was looking for a partner that would allow me to kind of continue with what was most important to me. I mean, there was a list of non-negotiables. These are the things that I would need you to stay away from. These are the things that we need help on. And, you know, butterfly equity proved to be wonderful partners. in honoring that and allowing us to grow in a way that I wanted to carry out.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think it's a great point. I would say that it really depends on kind of what's in that powder, right? If you could consume whole organic foods and have a perfect diet on a consistent basis, that's ideal. The next best thing is to make sure that what you consume in your body are ingredients that are food-based, that are organic, that are clean, and that are companies that are reputable. And what we do is we make sure that we are a convenient solution to your health journey. Protein is top of mind now more than anything, so getting products that have clean protein, organic protein sources that you could supplement and push up that grams of protein per day, it goes a very long way to ensuring that you're achieving your highest health.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wanted the everyday person that would wake up and instead of bacon and sausage and whatever they'd have for breakfast that they would wake up and have an organic protein smoothie and that would set the tone for the day.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And he just, you know, he just looked at me and he said, hang with us here, bud. And in that moment, I was almost sure that I was going to die. And thankfully, of course, I was stabilized in the ER and obviously made it. But I gained this completely unfair advantage from that experience. And cancer in general, that I would always go for it. Life is short. In my mind, I've already won the game in my mind, so I'll never take the safe option to tie the game. I'm always going to go for the win. And Costco for me was going for the win.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So a lot of people told me not to go to Costco. They said, you have to really wait. Costco can put a company out of business. You have to be very careful. And I felt the opposite. And that was one of the best decisions that I made. But I will tell you that I think generally speaking, I have a completely unfair advantage in life in that I thought that I was going to truly die, right? There's one day that seared in my mind that I'll never forget as I'm thinking about it now where I had just finished radiation treatment. I remember that day I got so dizzy that I passed out and they called 911. And I'm in this ambulance. They pull out these pads. And I feel like I'm almost watching this in the third person. And I remember asking the EMT, I asked him, am I going to die?”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have these dairy powders. They do very well for us. And I said, Yeah, but that's like the muscle crowd. That's the guy that wants to bench press 350 pounds. I want to bring in an incremental audience to this aisle, like parents on the go, business professionals, people that are actually reading their labels. And she said, look, this is what I'll do for you. I'm going to give you 20 stores as a test. And it went into these 20 Costco clubs, and the numbers came back, and it exceeded expectations in every way. And a few weeks after that, they said, You bring this into all clubs at Cost”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It tasted delicious. It bridged the gap between dairy protein and plant protein. And I brought this product straight to Costco. And I brought it to them and I said, look, I have something here that I think is completely disruptive to the space. And they said, look, we appreciate it, but we have these dairy powders. They taste much better. And I said, I just want you to try it and give us a chance. And they tried it and they said, look, it tastes much better than other plant powders.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Whole Foods, the Natural Channel, and it was ready to drink at that time, and I was trying a lot of plant based powders at the time, and they all tasted horrible to me. I remember I'd have to mix them up. They looked like cement. They tasted like, you know, cement. And I would just plug my nose and hope for the best. And I thought someone can do this better. And I worked very, very hard with our food scientist. And around that 2013 time period launched a plant-based protein powder that was completely innovative and disruptive. It was new to the space.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I think we had made the inks 500 fastest growing company list and we had two or three people, or I wrote two or three people. We really had one.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was about seven years in that I got in office. So we were working remotely, working from my house, working from coffee shops. So it was about six or seven years in that I got an office here in Irvine, California.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My first hire was a guy named Todd, and Todd was doing demos at Whole Foods. He was demoing this chicken pot pie. And he was the strong, very fit guy. And I asked him, I said, you know, shouldn't you be demoing protein? And I took him over to Oregain. I told him about it. He was our first hire, and he helped me in kind of a lot of the day-to-day stuff, but also in getting the word out there for trade shows and getting the product out there. From there, it was ops. I hired someone on operations to help me. And then sales.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Did initially, I hired a consultant and he said, Look, you need to have four or five six flavors to get that shelf presence. You're not going to win with just chocolate and vanilla. You're going to be. You're going to look really small on shelf. You're not going to succeed. People are going to get flavor fatigue. But really, I just, I went with my gut. I told them, don't you think we should truly succeed with chocolate and vanilla first before we get into other flavors or before we get into other products? But I just went with my gut and I said, look, if I want to succeed with chocolate and vanilla, and if more comes from there, great, but I'm not going to do that now. I just don't even have the resources for it.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He accepted it. He didn't understand. But I will tell you, I started sharing with him the letters that were coming in, some of the cancer patients that couldn't tolerate the conventional sheikhs that were now relying on Organ as their sole source of nutrition, how people were using Organ and how it changed their lives. I'd say six months after that discussion, he became our number one fan. And it was less so about the success or the revenue or anything like that. He never talked about that, didn't care about that. But he loved the impact we were making. He passed about six and a half years ago, and he couldn't eat his last 18 months of life at all. And he sustained solely on organ those last 18 plus months of his life. He would drink five to six shakes a day and it sustained him.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I told him, Dad, I know, and I totally understand, but I feel like I can help more people this way. I told them, you know, you and I on a very busy day, if we see 30 patients each, if we see 60 patients together dead, like that's the most we can do, right? And he said, yeah. And I said, I think with this organ thing, I think I could reach hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people. And he didn't get it, but he was supportive. And he said, look, you know, it's your life. But understand this. I'm slowing down. I have to sell the practice. There's no going back here. And with that, I decided to focus on Orgain full-time. And I left the family business to focus completely on Orgain.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was beyond comprehension for him. He looked at me and said, you know, Andrew, I don't understand like you literally just spent seven years after college. And you're going to go and sell milkshakes for a living. Like you're a doctor. This is for you. I built all of this for you.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wake up at six and get ready and go back to work. And it got to the point where it just wasn't sustainable. I was barely functioning and I had to sit my dad down and tell him that, you know, I really want to take this leap of faith. I started this company. I truly thought it was going to be a side business, but it's overtaken my life and I want to focus on it full time.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Finished my residency in 2011 immediately started working with my father in his clinic. Long Beach, along with my wife, and he could not have been happier. He was just over the moon happy that I was seeing his patients. His patients were happy. The nurses were happy, that he had achieved his lifelong dream of his son and his daughter-in-law taking over his practice. And I would see the patients work really hard and then go home and work on organ until two or three in the morning.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I made a listing on Amazon. I was one of the first protein companies to put an Amazon listing up. And slowly but surely, it got out there. And people would ask quite more questions and there would be more purchase orders. And it started coming from different directions. And the business grew pretty rapidly.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was at Whole Foods going on shelf, and then I started to take this story to others. So I would take the story to sprouts here on the West Coast, to Wegman's on the East Coast.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I thought I couldn't afford them. And I thought again that this was going to be a side business. I would manage it accordingly. I wouldn't even know how to hire someone. So I just kept doing it, thinking like, this is going to be something you do on the side. You could manage it. You'll be fine”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And one thing that happened was because I was a one man show, I was the customer service guy. So anyone that would call me, they would ask me a question. I would answer very thoroughly, give them a wonderful answer, and they would ask me, you know, what's your name? And I would say Andrew. And they would say, okay, well, thank you so much, Andrew. But you're not the Andrew on the back of the package, are you? And I would say, yes, I am, actually. And many people thought that was great, but others didn't think it was that great because you're not a big company anymore, right? Are you, you know. Are you running this from your garage?”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Slight adjustment flavor profile remained the same, and we were able to, we adjusted the protein a little bit, and it worked perfectly fine. But that year, my worst nightmare was waking up to have that problem happen again because one, you're forgiven, two, you're permanently blocked.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I had to make a very tough decision. We went with my food scientist, made some adjustments, and I said, how sure are we that this is going to work? And he said, I'm not sure. I said, Well, what's the risk? And he said, I don't know. It's a risk. So I made the decision to proceed and just put faith in that, look, this second time we've got it figured out. And it went back onto Whole Foods shelves, taking the risk. And every day I was worried for that phone call. And thankfully, it didn't come.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And this goes back to this idea of kind of not knowing what I was doing when you make a product that's shelf stable and it's 26 organic ingredients, no one had done it. So if you're not using organic ingredients, it's much easier to use artificial gums and different things to make sure that the product stays a liquid. When you're certified organic, you're very limited on what you can use. And what happened was the product solidified on shelf, and I remember almost collapsing to the ground, realizing that that was it. I had to issue a voluntary withdrawal, which is, you know, it's not a safety issue, but you are withdrawing product from stores.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right, and deal with problems all along the way. And I'll tell you at Whole Foods, about eight months into being on shelf. I remember very clearly they called me and they said, we have a problem. And I said, what is that? And they said, we're getting some complaints of your product that it's a little bit clumpy and we're not sure what's going on. And I remember getting into my car, rushing to Whole Foods, buying two chocolate, two vanilla, going outside. opening it, turning it upside down so I could take a sip and nothing came out. It had solidified on shelf.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we had essentially no overhead, right? I was working from home. I would also work from a coffee shop. I would work at Pete's coffee. So we actually became profitable very early on. And it was in the first 12 months where Oregain shifted to profitability.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I was. I was committed to finishing the residency. As a matter of fact, my last year of residency, I became the chief resident, so I had 17 residents under me. So I very much enjoyed what I was doing. I was very good at what I was doing, and I had every intent to continue practicing medicine. And my dad was super happy. You know, my wife is a physician's assistant. She's a PA. And both of us, upon the completion of my residency, went and worked with my father in his practice in Long Beach, California.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just said Orgain, and it said, you know, gain health, gain energy, gain life. And it said organic meal replacement when we first started. And it said high protein on the front. That was it. And we were very fortunate to start at Whole Foods because that customer picks up every product and breeds the ingredients. And we wanted that. We really wanted people to pick it up and read the back.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't know. I had no idea. And I knew the retail price point was going to be $2.99. I knew that the check that I would get from Whole Foods may likely offset the amount of money that I was going to spend, but I just went for it But the really amazing part is this product went on shelf with really no marketing, no know-how from my perspective. And it started to sell and the velocities, you know, and all of a sudden I'm sitting at my desk and I get this email that has a purchase order. And it's a replenishment order for Whole Foods. And at that time, it happened much, much sooner than I thought. And quite frankly, much sooner than what And the interesting part, you know, I know you and I talked about I thought this was going to be for sick patients or people dealing with cancer. Ended up not being the case at all.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They all thought I was crazy, really. I mean, they were barely hanging on with what they were doing with our residency. And to see that, you know, my office was full of papers and packaging and displays and things. They thought I was out of my mind.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was very little sleep, honestly. You know, I look back and I think about the sacrifices I made. And that year was the biggest sacrifice in terms of just getting it out the door. We had our first child that year. My son Isaac was born in April 2009. Residency was your internship year is your toughest year. And that was the most hours I've ever worked. And then launching Oregon and getting it into stores. So it was extremely difficult, but there was just a conviction that I needed to do this and I wanted to see it succeed. So I really dedicated every waking minute I had to it.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Didn't they knew that I was starting off, they knew that I was able to produce it, but they didn't initially ask how big was the operation?”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Typically, you do. And I filled out those forms, and I would write my mom's name as one unit, my wife's name as another unit, but all the numbers would be pointed back to me.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“didn't and it was really just sheer willpower and I dedicated and my whole life and was consumed by making sure that I was going to deliver this. So every waking hour where I wasn't working at the hospital or seeing a patient, I would dedicate every minute, every second to making sure that I was going to make this happen.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had about 90 days, and to be honest, I failed in reaching that timeline. It was a couple weeks late. They were very upset, but the product made it on shelf. I had zero dollars for promotions, zero dollars for marketing, and it just went on shelf. And they didn't even know where to put it on shelf because it was a whole new category.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and every third day we work something called a Q3 shift. So every third day you worked a 30 hour shift with little to no sleep, whether there's a code blue and you're running a code blue or managing all of the patients on the floors, you are the doctor at that hospital. And it was extremely exhausting. And the ongoing joke with my residence and even my superiors was, you know, Dr. Abraham is the guy that will see a patient step out of the room, order 20,000 pounds of organic cocoa, and go back and see the patient again.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's correct. And I would ship it to Whole Foods and hope for the best. And I knew it was a big risk. I didn't know I spent this much money. I really didn't know how much would come back. I just made it and went forward”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and it was again not intended to be a side hustle. It was just a personal hobby that turned into this business that ended up funding a good portion of Oregon. And my father also provided a loan for me in the beginning.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I wasn't the guy actually working on the cars or standing down the fiberglass. I was the guy drawing the concepts. So I was really more the creative behind it. And I found guys that this was their specialty. This is what they do. They could take a 27-inch TV.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Into the interior, it would come out. So before the shows on TV, I was very early on in integrating TVs and custom interiors into cars. And I would build and exhibit these cars, and they would pay me for it.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was a Mitsubishi eclipsed spid And what happened was that these trade shows, I would get these companies that would come up to me and say, we really like what you're doing. Can you feature our TVs in it? For example, Panasonic or Acelevision or one of these companies. And what I would do is I would feature their TVs, they'd give it to me for free, and then they would pay me to go to these trade shows to display it.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I had a car. I had a small car that I would take to trade shows that I really enjoyed, and I would fix it up, you know, and you would put rims on it and... What kind of”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was over 100,000 for the initial run, but interestingly enough, I had started a business in college where I was really into cars. I loved cars and I built and designed custom cars for trade shows. Wait.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was tens of thousands, and I didn't know what I was doing at all, but I just started placing orders and really trying to make sure that I could deliver for them. And I placed the orders on ingredients. Some of them had longer lead times. The organic cocoa was going to take six weeks. You know, the organic protein was going to take three. And I was trying to merge them all together. And then you always have one lagging ingredient that's going to take 10 weeks. I'll tell you, I didn't even know how to arrange trucks, right? So I'm on like freightquote.com trying to manage trucks and get trucks to different places. It felt like every step there was an obstacle.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. So I would send in every single ingredient to them, give them a formula, how to mix it, how to process it, what to do, and their job was to essentially blend the ingredients and put it in the package that I sent and charge me a tolling fee.”
2023-08-07 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Orgain: Andrew Abraham · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT