Thrive Market

There'll be a bunch more that sign on as well.

Thrive Market I know is coming.

From a VC perspective, I'm just going to read a bunch of names here.

And these are just the ones that have already confirmed for this year.

I'm your host, Matt Klein, co-founder and CTO of BitRift, as well as the founder of Envoy Proxy.

each episode we'll talk with engineers founders and technical leaders who transformed the way their companies build and understand what's happening inside their systems we'll dig into the challenges the breakthroughs the lessons learned and wrap it all up with their hottest take so let's dive in today i am thrilled to have with us randy schaup who is a 30-year silicon valley veteran most recently svp of engineering at thrive market He has also been VP of Engineering and Chief Architect at eBay, VP of Engineering at Stitch Fix, and a Director of Engineering at Google Cloud.

He talks a lot, sometimes at conferences and sometimes in software podcasts.

Welcome, Randy.

they're doing a lot of technology-based.

Thrive Market does it.

When you go in, they basically say, this is what's shipping.

This is what you ordered.

So Michael Pierce is a film producer, serial investor, entrepreneur, and CEO and father.

His producing and financing credits include The Cooler, Running Scared, Flawless, and He was also an early investor in companies including Thrive Market, Cameo, and Cargomatic.

That sounds like it should be like an inventing machine, and you'll have to tell me about that.

Today, Michael is the founder and CEO of American Gun Owners, where he is working to simplify and rebuild experience for first-time firearm buyers.

Today we have a great guest.

We have the co-founder and CEO of Thrive Market, Nick Green.

For those of you who are not familiar with Thrive Market, it is a membership-based online grocery retailer that...

It really aims to try to make more healthier options more accessible for more people.

It's online only.

It's just been in the DNA of the company.

Yes, it has been challenging in all sorts of ways and also deeply rewarding because we've had an opportunity to bring a very disruptive model to a space where there hasn't been a ton of innovation.

And I think when we started Thrive Market in 2014, 60% of Americans didn't live within driving distance of a health food retailer.

I, I, I know it was one of o- the options.

The other option was to pass to the back, uh, out of the back field.

Uh, but th- the fact that that option was presented was so frustrating because it also relied on one of the weaker links of this offense, and that's the center.

They were relying on Nick Allegretti to make a play, a guy who missed t- time in training camp, who, who was a little shaky, uh, on Sunday, uh, and is far from your best offensive lineman, and you needed him to make a play.

And, you know, he wasn't up to the task.

And that is probably one of our weakest areas right now as an organization.

We do sell online and we do sell through Amazon and some online platforms, Thrive Market.

But I knew retail and I knew what it took to get to retail.

So for me, it just felt like a no brainer.

I'm your host, Mike Alden.

I'm absolutely thrilled to introduce Ty Bryant-Gibbons, founder of CX Collective and the operational mastermind who's been called into companies like Thrive Market, Shoe Dazzle, and See's Candies when their systems are completely broken and their teams are drowning.

Ty has this incredible superpower.

She can walk into operational chaos and transform it into a well-oiled machine that actually works for humans before any AI touches it.

Let's unpack this.

Let's see what's working.

But from your perspective, like I said at the outset, you've worked with some really major brands, Thrive Market, See's Candies.

What do you think is an operational mistake that they're making that businesses can learn from?

You know what, Melissa? I bought this stuff because I used to stress about that.

I bought this stuff from that Thrive Market.

Oh yeah.

And it's cast iron skillet cleaner.