#169 - "How to Take Advice" with Nikhil Arora

The Startup CPG Podcast

Startup CPG

Startup, Food, Business, Beverage, Cpg, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2024

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Startup CPG podcast, host Daniel Scharff engages with Nikhil Arora, co-founder of Back to the Roots, an innovative organic gardening company now selling $100M at retail. Nikhil shares the inspiring journey of how he and his co-founder, Alejandro Velez, transformed their initial idea of growing mushrooms from coffee grounds into a successful urban farming business.

Nikhil opens up about the various kinds of advice he has received along his startup journey - the good, the bad, and with an overall focus on the perspective founders should have when hearing or giving advice, acknowledging that companies have very different paths, and what works for one person may not work for another. They delve into the essential qualities of resilience, focus, and adaptability in entrepreneurship, emphasizing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to building a brand.

Nikhil and Daniel explore the complexities of decision-making in the startup world, referencing Jeff Bezos’ "one-way" and "two-way" doors framework and contrasting it with Steve Jobs’ focus on product innovation. Nikhil opens up about the emotional challenges of entrepreneurship, including the pressures of comparison and the importance of a strong co-founder relationship in sharing the burdens of startup life.

Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion filled with valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business owners alike.

Listen in as they share about:

Background and Origin of Back to the Roots
Key Growth Stages
Challenges
Networking and Serendipity
The Nature of Advice
Finding Value in Experiences
The Role of Trust and Collaboration
Susceptibility to Bad Advice
The Importance of Having a Co-Founder
Organizational Structure and Financial Insights

Episode Links:

Website: https://backtotheroots.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aroranikhil/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

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Join the Startup CPG Slack community (20K+ members and growing!)
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Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
Episode music by Super Fantastics

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey folks, are you ready to boost your e-commerce sales and profitability?
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0:43.9	To see if you qualify, head over to Pennock.co slash startup CPG.
0:50.1	That's P-E-N-N-O-C-K dot co-slash startup CPG.
0:59.4	Every single journey is unique, just like everyone's life journey, everyone's name it,
1:18.6	health journey, relationship journeys, everything is unique.
1:20.6	And so there's a reason why a lot of times businesses don't work, because if there's one playbook,
1:24.6	everyone would use it.
1:25.6	There isn't, unfortunately.
1:26.6	You've got to figure out for your path, your category, your industry, your experience level, what's going to be like for you. And so you got to absorb and take it in, but also know that you're on your own journey. That is the challenge. Hello, everybody. We are going back today. Back to the Roots. Recently, my friend Nickill Aurora wrote on LinkedIn about the topic of taking advice,
1:46.2	and it really resonated with me.
1:48.0	Nick Hill is co-founder and co-CEO of Back to the Roots, which is an organic gardening brand.
1:54.0	They launched it from a $5,000 grant they got in college to now becoming a hundred million dollar retail brand.
2:01.6	And for him, it was always about really focusing on the North Star and there's just no unique one right way to grow a brand.
2:09.6	There are so many different paths and he feels like anyone who tells you with certainty, there is just one right way to do this, has their own journeys blinders
2:18.3	on.
2:19.3	I see this a lot in our startup CBG Slack.
	...

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