Meet Our New Hires — Joshua and Joel!
About Joshua: I am married to my beautiful wife, Shaina, and we have a son named Connor. I love to cook, fish, and hunt, and I enjoy watching movies and playing games with my wife and son. I also enjoy spending quality time with people and helping them when they need help. I have worked mostly in the trucking industry my whole life, including being a diesel mechanic and a dispatcher for a trucking company. My favorite thing to do is to smoke ribs and brisket on my Pit Boss smoker!
About Joel: My previous experience is in the areas of education, IT, business administration, and retail sales. I have three children and am glad to be back in my hometown. My hobbies include following sports, enjoying time with friends, doing projects around my house, and spending time with my children, especially taking them to movies. I began working for C.H. Brown Company in November 2021, and my title is Insurance Coordinator. I am enjoying my job and the people I work with.
GO BRANDLESS! IT’S BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER
Companies like Warby Parker have built a powerful customer following for creating direct-to-consumer products that slash prices. Now, Brandless is doing the same thing for small, everyday purchases. When you buy peanut butter, you’re not just buying the product — you’re also buying the brand attached to it, along with its costs of distributing and warehousing, plus retail space. By eliminating what co-founder and CEO Tina Sharkey calls a “brand tax,” she realized Brandless could significantly cut down the costs for small products that people bought every day. When Sharkey and veteran entrepreneur Ido Leffler came up with the concept of Brandless, it immediately caught fire. They raised over $16 million in November 2016, and at launch,
received over $50 million in venture capital from New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures, and others. However, their business model didn’t sustain itself forever — Sharkey stepped down as CEO in May 2019 after friction between her and lead investor SoftBank Vision Fund. By February 2020, Brandless had shut down and laid off 90% of its workforce, leaving only a few to manage open orders.
That’s when Utah-based digital marketing exec Ryan Treft entered the picture. He’s the new CEO, and his vision has, thus far, helped make the consumer’s “quality to price valued product” daydream a reality. “It’s not about racing other brands to the bottom of being the cheapest, because that’s where people compromise on the quality, the ingredients,” Treft said. His new leadership promises to uphold Brandless’ previous commitments to keep all its products free from 400 potentially harmful ingredients, including parabens, sulfates, and synthetic dyes. For a new “brand” that attracted a lot of attention back when it was in its early stages, Brandless is certainly back to the top with its newer product lines in personal care. They’ve received great reviews and attention across platforms. Congrats for fighting your way back, Brandless!
Brandless is thriving again, nevertheless.
When Brandless shut down, they cited their struggle with fierce competition and business model inviability in the direct-to-consumer market. Part of the problem was that Brandless simply wasn’t sustainable in the way Sharkey and Leffler originally hoped.
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