103: Growing a Unicorn Company 57,000% in three years with Tom Bilyeu of Quest Nutrition

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

The term "unicorn company" describes a startup valued at over $1 billion that managed to get there in a relatively short period of time. Usually when we talk about unicorn companies, we're dealing with Silicon Valley and the cutting edge of the tech scene. Companies that are disruptive in the sense that they've created something totally new.

Rarely, however, do we find a unicorn company that started out in an overcrowded and declining market. Yet somehow, despite the odds, Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of Quest Nutrition, turned a fledgling startup into a powerhouse in just six years.

When Quest Nutrition first hit the scene with their protein bars, they were told by almost every expert in the space that it was insane and that it was guaranteed to fail. Yet Bilyeu and his co-founders persevered and tackled the problem in a way that no one else had thought of before.

First they focused on their customers, to empower them and actually help them make healthy and positive changes in their lives. In short, they treated their customers differently than their competitors.

The result was explosive, growing by 57,000% in their first three years and cracking the $1 billion mark three years later.

We were lucky to sit down with Bilyeu and have him give us the breakdown and strategy behind Quest Nutrition and how they became the unicorn company they are today.

In this interview you will learn:

• The challenges of managing a hyper-growth company and how to overcome them
• How to navigate the classic entrepreneurial debate of profit vs. growth
• Why you need to evangelize to your customer whenever you can
• How to build brand loyalty and have your audience believe in your vision
• How to crack the notoriously difficult and crowded health and nutrition market
• & much more!