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cover of episode 662 Michael Pollak: Co-Founder & CEO of Great Many

662 Michael Pollak: Co-Founder & CEO of Great Many

2025/3/17
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Michael Pollak: 我创立Great Many的初衷是希望为人们提供一个全面的、科学的头发护理解决方案。市场上缺乏一个整合的平台,能够提供从PRP治疗到处方药再到专属产品的个性化服务。我们希望成为人们头发护理的‘家’,提供临床支持和教育,帮助人们更好地了解和应对脱发问题。脱发并非单一因素导致,需要一个全面的方案来解决,就像种植植物一样,需要水、土壤、阳光和病虫害防治等多种因素的共同作用。我们工作室的顾客群体男女比例大致相当,年龄范围从20多岁到60多岁不等,他们对头发健康和生长有不同的需求和目标。我们希望创造一种更注重待客之道的医疗体验,让顾客在舒适的环境中获得专业的护理。筹集资金和获得许可证是开设实体店的挑战,需要找到理解实体店运营模式的投资者。向投资者解释脱发没有单一解决方案,以及我们提供的治疗方法的有效性,是一个挑战。从最初的想法到正式启动,大约花了九个月的时间。头发再生需要耐心,效果可能需要6到9个月才能显现;处方药的副作用被夸大了;达到目标后,需要持续维护才能保持效果。顾客首先进行咨询,然后根据自身情况选择合适的治疗方案(PRP、处方药、补充剂等)。我们使用毛发显微镜观察毛囊健康状况,帮助顾客更好地了解自身情况。我们计划扩展工作室,并引进其他非手术性毛发生长技术。 Kara Goldin: 我对Great Many的创新模式和客户至上的理念印象深刻。你们为脱发护理行业带来了急需的变革,为顾客提供了科学的、个性化的解决方案。

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I am unwilling to give up, that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Golden Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders,

We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Let's go.

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Kara Golden Show. Super, super excited to have my next guest here. We have Michael Pollack, who is the co-founder and CEO of GreatMany. And if you have not heard of GreatMany, it is a brand new or fairly new brand, launched eight months ago.

months ago, but you're going to be so excited to hear all about it. Michael is actually a serial entrepreneur, co-founded another company that I had on the show a while back called Hay Day, and they're at great many. They're on a mission to revolutionize hair health, creating a dedicated space for personalized hair growth solutions.

A little bit different than maybe some of the other hair growth solutions out there. Great Many offers treatments that range from PRP and prescription solutions to proprietary products designed to support hair growth in a holistic science-backed way. I cannot wait to hear from Michael how this all came about and everything that they're doing. It's very, very exciting. So Michael, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Thanks.

Super excited. So what inspired you to create Great Many? And I guess if you want to even highlight, what is maybe the 30-second-ish elevator pitch on what is Great Many? Yeah, well, you did it really well. So I could just compliment what you already started with. But we are a hair growth company. We are a hair growth studio. And specifically, we opened our first location here in NoHo in New York.

And really, we call ourselves a home for hair growth. It's a place you can come actually meet with a clinician and understand hair loss and all of the treatment options that are available, non-surgical services, prescriptions, supplements, products. I think one of the challenges with hair growth, and I'm sure we'll get into this, is you

when it hits you, it's something that most people don't research if it doesn't hit you. And then suddenly you wake up one day and you realize maybe you saw a photo on your iPhone that, you know, is from 10 years ago, or you notice something in the mirror and suddenly you're like, my hair has shifted. What do I do? And most people hop on the internet and they start searching and there's a million products and solutions out there. And it's very difficult to make sense of it. And so what we wanted to do is create a space that is, you know, clinically backed and

staffed with medical clinicians who can really kind of guide you through that process, educate you and ultimately give you the solutions and, you know, products that you need to get the growth that you're looking for. So was this a personal need that you had? I mean, what is the backstory on why did you decide I've got to go and do this?

Yeah, I think, I mean, there's always, there's always has to be, I think some personal story with a, with a founder. I think there's a, for this one, there's a personal and professional one on the personal side. I I'm half Chinese. I'm Jewish. I was like, I'm going to have this thick head of hair forever. My grandfather was like in his nineties and still had great hair. So, uh,

I didn't think it was an issue I was going to face. My partner has always dealt with hair loss and it's always been something that has sort of knocked his confidence and he's focused on. So I saw it from, you know, that distance. And then it was probably a couple of years ago when he said, you know, hey, you're thinning on the crown and, you know, you don't typically get to see your own crown. Today's episode of The Kara Golden Show is sponsored by Acorns.

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And I sure enough, I held up a mirror and I was like, oh, that is not that is not part of the plan. I don't know what's happening here. And even though I watched him kind of go through the process and explore treatments and, you know, transplants and prescriptions and all that, I hadn't done so myself.

And so as I started to research that, I kind of realized how difficult it was to navigate and how difficult it was to make decisions and understand, should I do this drug? Should I try this supplement? Should I do this service? What happens if I don't do anything? There are so many, almost more questions than there are answers. And that was a big aha moment for me was that it was really hard to put it together. And because I'm a little bit of a nerd, I started to get really deep in the research on it.

And I think one of the things I realized with hair, which is something that we almost teach every client who walks in, is that there are multiple things that impact your hair health and your hair growth. We all want like a magic pill. We all want one solution that we're going to take that's going to solve all the problems. But hair is usually impacted by multiple things. And all of the solutions out there kind of tackle it from a different angle. And I like to think a little bit about it like a plant. Like if you're trying to grow a healthy plant, you know you need

you know, you need water, you need good soil, you need sunlight, you might need pest control. There's a whole bunch of things that you might do. They don't all have to be perfect, but you know, if you optimize those, you give it the best chance to thrive. And if you take on the houseplant, you would never say, you know what, I'm just going to, it's in soil. I'm not going to give it water for six weeks. Let me just try the soil and see how that goes. We all know that that sort of won't work. And that's kind of the aha I had with hair and that no one was really out there teaching you how to put together a more holistic plan to actually get where you want to go.

So, so interesting. So the average consumer that's coming in to your location in Soho is what demographic? Tell me a little bit about them. Yeah, that's actually one of the things I'm loving about this business.

I think Hay Day was primarily a younger female demographic. It was kind of, you know, you could probably paint that picture more clearly, even though we saw plenty of men and kind of opened men into that, into the facial and skincare category. But with great many, I think as I started researching it on my own, I think, you know, even talking to a lot of investors, they're like, oh, it's just going to be a bunch of like balding men coming in your studio. And I was like, I don't think so. My co-founder and I both agreed.

realized the minute we started talking about this, even on LinkedIn and asking to just hear about people's hair growth stories,

tons of people and especially women who said, I have not had a place to talk about this, but this is something I've dealt with and I'm either dismissed about it or there's just, it's always been kind of a men's territory and hasn't been a place for that. So we kind of knew the hype, our strong hypothesis was that we were going to see about half men and half women. And that's been true in the eight months that we have kind of come to life in the studio. We see people as young as their twenties, as well as people through their sixties who are dealing with different stages of hair loss and

And I think one of the most fascinating things for me is people's idea of progress is very much to their own. I think we're trained to see is very dramatic before and afters on websites for aesthetics or for anything kind of in this world. But somebody who maybe has been dealing with hair loss for 15 years, progress to them might be, you know, I'm seeing I tried something and I got a little growth and I feel really good about.

it. So it's been really wonderful to see a vast array of people kind of walk in our studio and kind of have maybe different needs and different goals. But ultimately, they're drawn to kind of a really hospitality and clinically driven experience that we were delivering. In terms of staffing this business as compared to maybe heyday, how does it differ?

Yeah, I mean, that's a big learning for me. That's very different. Hay Day was all staffed by estheticians. So here they're medical clinicians. So, you know, similar model in terms of, you know, shifts and scheduling and all the facets of running a four wall business. But, you know, it's a they're everyone's medical. There are nurse practitioners, their physicians, associates, doctors.

We have a board of medical advisors who we tap to kind of write protocols and decide on things like prescriptions, et cetera, a medical director. So it's a much more medical business, obviously. And, you know, we really want to balance, I think, creating a new kind of more hospitality forward experience within medicine.

i kind of call them modern medical brands but i think you're starting to see a new crop of those come out where you know clients or patients are demanding like not only great clinical care but in a setting that feels good looks good and it kind of fits with their brand and i think

What we've heard from a lot of clients with great many in specifically is there is there is a lot of stigma around hair loss. And so feeling comfortable and vulnerable enough to walk in a ground floor studio like ours. I think you have to be hospitality for the space has to be comfortable. The setting has to be fantastic. The people have to be warm because someone's already kind of stepping out of their comfort zone to kind of face this issue. And that's something that we really wanted to change in the category.

So Great Many seems very unique as compared to some of the other businesses that are helping with hair loss.

Sometimes that is actually more difficult because not only do you need to go out and raise money to start the business, but also licensing. And what kind of challenges did you have actually, in addition to sharing with the consumer how different you are? So a lot of education in a lot of different camps. How different was that for you and how difficult was it? Can you share any type of stories at all?

Absolutely. I think, you know, even in the fundraising of this, I mean, luckily I had sort of the history with Hay Day. So I had seen the roadshow of how difficult four wall businesses can be sometimes to raise money. I'm a big believer in that. I started my career in architecture and interiors and hospitality. So like,

for whatever reason i've always been drawn towards these experiences you can literally kind of walk in and feel and understand so you know i love the i love the scale of software but i always worked in these sort of like uh four wall spaces so i knew that there would be challenges there there are folks that just don't uh

don't appreciate that process and the growth that's required. I think you have to grow really thoughtfully, you know, your business, if it's a service business is a, is a people business. So it's all about hiring. It's all about culture. And I think if you move too quickly and break things on that front, you know, you kind of ruin the experience for the, for the end consumer. So I think that was a, that was a big learning is just like,

or a reminder that sometimes the, the, the four wall investments can take a really special partner who understands, you know, what, what you're setting out to do. And I think you, you nailed the other one. I think hair growth is, there is no one magic solution for it. I mean, if that was, if it was that easy, we wouldn't have to start this company. So I think, um,

uh, talking to specifically investors who maybe haven't sat in the seat and felt hair loss themselves or weren't able to put themselves in the shoes of the, of the customer can be hard to understand, you know, okay, this modality that we are doing maybe has, you know, clinicals that show 70 to 80% efficacy. Some people are like, well, that's not enough. And then you talk to a client and they're like, I'll take those odds all day, especially if you're going to make it more affordable for me to kind of try it. So I think that balance, um,

that that balance was a tricky one to educate on.

Yeah, definitely. So did you, when you went out, did you raise capital or before actually launching and how difficult was that? Cause you only launched eight months ago. So it's a pretty crazy time out there to, for I think many entrepreneurs to many founders to go and launch a business. So congratulations. I mean, it's amazing that you were able to get it done. Well, I think, you know, the genesis of this company, I think is in a, in a, in a

a modern way, sort of a, you know, venture kind of studio model. So we actually met an investor who was interested in this space. And I sort of, at the time I had left Hay Day, I was kind of consulting and figuring out, well, okay, what am I going to do when I grow up? I was consulting with other four wall businesses and kind of figuring out what was next. And I was put in touch with them and we really hit it off.

And they understood kind of my background with Hay Day, what I had experienced, what I had created. And I had told myself personally, I was like, I think I have one more of these in me. And we had a COO at Hay Day who's become like a really dear friend. And she was like, you need to do this one more time. You need to apply what you learned in the last decade at least one more time. So-

You know, as I'm talking to this group and they're interested in the hair growth space from, you know, from obviously they've seen it, they've paid attention to it, they're big into 4Wall. They said, we have this idea. We'd love to bring this to life. And we spent a couple of months kind of working together and workshopping it, kind of me as a consultant, understanding how we might work together. And so I found that was a very natural genesis.

of how this kind of came about in sort of them seeing the opportunity and what we mentioned a little bit earlier. I love sort of seeing ideas on paper and then thinking like, okay, I know how I want this to look and sound and feel and smell and all those things and actually bring it to life.

So through that process and through some networking, everything with this has been very serendipitous. We met my co-founder, Steve, who's amazing. And he was at Estee Lauder for 10 years. And then oddly enough, on the side, he owns a high-end barber shop in the West Village here in New York that he started with his barber because he couldn't get appointments with him. So he said, let's open up our own thing. And he had been hearing about

So many guys in the barbershop ask about hair loss, asking their barber, like, should I do finasteride? Should I do a transplant? What do you think about neutrophil? And he's starting to think, okay, there's something here. These, you know, the clients are asking somebody who's clearly not an expert in that, but that is their hair person. That's their trusted hair, you know, hair guy.

how do people not have the answers to this? There's, there's, you know, there's hymns, there's keeps, there's all these telehealth players, but there's still something missing for, for a lot of people in terms of getting the education they need. So he was kind of on his own as wheels were turning about hair growth and what to do in this category in the four wall space. So when we kind of all got together, it was just very, very, very easy to see what we could, what we could build.

So from the moment that you had this idea to actually launching, how long did that process take? It was nine months. It was like, it was a baby, literally. I love it. I love it. That's pretty fast.

It was fast. It was fast, but I think it was fast because we are, you know, we're experienced and I feel like having, I think that's been one of the saving graces of this is doing this a second time. There are so many new learnings. And obviously we said this is a medical category. There's new things compared to my heyday experience, but yeah,

One of the things I've absolutely loved about this process is just like leaning into the intuition and the knowing and being able to see, you know, the road ahead a little bit more because I've seen it has been really, really wonderful. And I think that allowed us to move with a lot of speed. So, I mean, we got together in September of 23, um,

I had, I spend a lot of time upstate. I had Steve up there. So we spent a couple of days like just talking about values and culture and what we want to build and potential. And then quickly kind of dove into all the work streams that we needed to bring it alive from, you know, the value proposition and pricing and strategy, hiring the actual physical space, the architecture interiors, the website. So, I mean, I love that. That's always the phase that I love where it's just like this one giant Gantt, you know, Gantt chart of a project that you have to bring to life.

So yeah, it was about nine months from when we first got together to when we kind of figuratively cut the ribbon. So what are some of the biggest misconceptions about hair loss and I guess hair regrowth that you've heard? We could do a whole podcast on this. I think there's... Where do I even begin? I think when it comes to...

hair growth requires a lot of patience, right? No one has figured out yet how to speed up hair growth per se. And so results in this phase can take, you know, six to nine months. If you're a great responder to any modality, it can happen faster, but it requires a lot of patience. And I think that's one of the things that we've been able to deliver is when you're working with a clinician at GreatMany, you kind of have a partner, you're seeing them once a month for treatments. And so you have someone to say, hey, you're doing well, like keep up the routine and some of that kind of

personal training is I think really helpful in this category. I think that another big, a lot of misconceptions come around the prescriptions, particularly around side effects. And like any drug, there are side effects, I think, but they've been so kind of like pop cultureized and fear driven around them that it can be hard for people to sift through and understand that. So again, that's a lot of the education that we do. I think probably my, the top, top,

thing that people say is when I fix this, when I get to the growth that I want, do I have to keep doing this for the rest of my life? And that is a, that is a tricky one, but you have to educate and also say, yeah. And it's the same. We try to talk about it in the analogy to like fitness. If I have a goal of a body that I want to get to, um,

I'm going to combine multiple therapies to get there or treatments that might be cardio, strength, training, mobility, you know, diet and all that. When I get there and I get to that happy place, I might sort of taper into a more kind of maintenance phase, but you're never going to completely stop.

otherwise you'll revert to where you are. And so that's, again, another one of these education points that we have to tell people is like, this is how it kind of looks down the line in terms of what you have to do. And again, I think the internet can be a really tough place to kind of get the facts totally straight on what works for people. And that's what's been so magical about what we're able to do is really kind of get personal with people on what their results and their road could look like.

So can you walk us through the process when people enter your studio? So you're meeting with a physician or a medical physician and then or clinician, sorry, medical clinician. And then what happens at that point?

Yeah. So somebody who's interested comes in for an appointment. We always start with a consultation and that's about half an hour. So we spend a really good amount of time doing kind of what we were just talking about, kind of educating. We listen to your history, what you've tried, talking about learnings. There's probably zero customers who come in and say, I'm facing this problem and I've never researched it before. People come in having tried things, having researched a ton. This is a category where people really go deep and start to try to form ideas

know strong knowledge for themselves so we want to hear about what they know want to hear about what you've tried we want to hear about your goals kind of what what brought you here in terms of how long this has been going on etc so really spending a lot of time in that conversation and if you come and actually see our space in the rooms we start sort of sitting side by side so it's literally just a conversation between the client and the clinician

And then we educate a little bit. We talk about the different options out there. PRP is platelet rich plasma. That's our primary service that we do today. And then we have the prescriptions and supplements that, and products that we offer. So we spend some time talking through what an ideal plan would be for you, depending on your goals and your preferences. Are you a prescription person? Are you a topical person? Yeah.

you know, it's, it's similar to my skincare world. It's like, you want a plan that someone can actually adopt and, and, and, and almost comply with as opposed to giving something, someone where they, you know, that they're not going to, you know, execute on it to actually see the results.

And then I think one of the important parts of our consultations is we actually look at your follicles up close. And that typically doesn't happen. We don't see that day to day. And so we use a trichoscope, which is kind of a little camera and an iPad. And you can see the healthy areas of your scalp in terms of your follicle health. And you can see some of the areas where you might have more concerns and what the physical differences look like and see where you might be able to get some growth back with some of these modalities and treatments.

That's often one of those, again, eye-opening moments where a lot of people are actually reassured by what they see because you're looking at photos from far away or whatever, but this is actually giving you that kind of up-close view. And then if someone's proceeding with their actual PRP treatment that day, we can do it the same day, which is very convenient for people. You don't have to come in for a consult and then leave and come back. So a lot of people opt to kind of get going with their first session of PRP

that day. And if you do that, everything happens right in the room. We draw the blood, we spin it in a centrifuge. There's a short injection process into the scalp for areas of concern. And we have plenty of ways to keep you comfortable through that. It's only about five minutes, that part. And then you're kind of on your merry way. And with us, you come back about four to six weeks and

uh, three times over that three month period to get started. And then we wait a little bit because hair takes time to grow and you come back and you start your kind of maintenance and booster sessions, which is about two to three times a year from there.

That's amazing. I mean, you've just started about eight months ago, but is there any stories of incredible success that you can share with us? Probably the hardest part about this is like you can't open with before and after photos when you've just opened. So it's been great now that we're at that eight month mark and starting to see really happy clients, both in the dramatic sort of before and after photos, but sometimes it's just hearing from people that,

you know, came in for a consultation and they said, I've never had this much. I've never had anybody spend this much time with me talking about this. And it's been such a concern of mine. I've learned so much. I just like deeply appreciate that portion of it alone. Um, and we do those complimentary right now. So that that's a huge, I think service that we're able to offer. Um, but yeah, I think hearing and seeing the results and again, how different people, um,

express those results is so rewarding. I mean, we had a client who said, I went to a wedding recently and I wore my hair down for the first time in as long as I can remember. So it's just those little things that kind of, you know, are really touching when you hear that you can really impact how someone shows up in the world. That's incredible.

So you're a serial entrepreneur. And as we mentioned before, you co-founded an incredible brand called Hay Day. Major success in launching. You're still involved in the company. What key lessons from Hay Day are you applying to this venture?

I mean, like everything. Everything. So many. Yeah. Serial entrepreneur, I don't know, accidentally did this twice is kind of, I think, how I'd refer to it. I mean, there's so, so many. I think that is probably the thing that,

and I mentioned this, that I've enjoyed the most about this process is just having seen the road ahead. And I know better how to spend my time. I know better how to juggle all the plates that you're, you know, obviously juggling as an entrepreneur and a founder. And I think that has made it, you

you know, just more rewarding knowing, knowing where the, I can, I can sort of hone the impact and find those moments a lot easier than the first time when you're kind of just along for the ride and taking things as they come here. I think you've got, I feel like I have a much greater picture of, of, of what's ahead. And so that I would say, I mean, there's so many, so many lessons from heyday, uh,

that I apply every day here. Yeah, definitely. I think when you're doing things for the second time and you can go back and look at that experience and often I think it's about trusting your gut, but it's also great to have that experience of where you should have trusted your gut on something and you're not going there again for the newest experience.

adventure. So really, really powerful, powerful lessons. Intuition is huge. I mean, I feel like as I've grown to, I've learned to listen to that more. I think I've in the past almost devalued the gut in favor of the data. And I feel now I'm much more, I, my first response has always got, I will check data next, but I will always come back to gut to actually make the final sort of decision. And I think that's,

And trusting that and knowing it has value, even though it might not show up in a spreadsheet in the same way, I think is a really important thing as an entrepreneur.

So you chose to not just do a service business and a four-wall standalone business, but also you launched products with it. I'm always very interested in ingredients and so many different industries that we have on the show. But what is kind of the ingredient that you just really don't like that is in many people's hair care products that is...

Maybe you won't go as far as to say it's causing hair loss, but it's not helpful. And you tell people to get rid of it. Yeah, that's a great question. There are, I mean, and this comes from my skincare world too. There are so many formulas out there that are, I would say either very old and kind of old school. And there's so much new technology and new knowledge about hair.

What is healthy for us, what is healthy for the environment. So that movement towards cleaner, I think beauty and self-care and care products is fantastic. And so the opportunity to build that from scratch was important and fantastic for us.

I also think that there's overly fragranced things that is just not, it's just sensitizing and your shampoo shouldn't like walk out of the shower with you. It should be an enjoyable experience. I think sometimes scent in a product is important 'cause it gives you that ritual that gets you to adopt something.

But I also one of my pet peeves has always been the marketing in this category. There's so much of, you know, oh, if I put a drop of this in here, I can make this claim that this ingredient does this. And I think, you know, that sells, but it ultimately does a disservice to the to the customer on the end who isn't going to get maybe the results that are promised from something because it is, you know, a marketing claim versus something truly kind of efficacious. So that's always a, you know, a bone I've had to pick with the category, whether it's skin care or hair care.

So educating the consumer, I mean, it's great if they walk in and you can talk to them, but I would guess that social media is such a massive channel for you to educate the consumer. Word of mouth as well, but can you talk a little bit about how consumers are finding out about what you're doing now?

Social is huge. I think influencer has been a really important driver for growth for us. And I think it's specific. I love it. And for two reasons, I think when we find influencers who want to partner with us, they're doing it authentically. I mean, you're not choosing to get, you know, PRP injected into your scalp for fun. So it's something if they're really dedicated to the journey and their own hair growth, they're going to be an authentic storyteller of it. And so that has been wonderful. And I think the other really rewarding part about that channel for us is it shows the diversity of clientele.

that can come in here. And we can literally see if somebody is of a certain demographic or a certain hair type might post about their journey or their experience with us, we will see phone calls literally come in for someone who kind of looks like them and says, hey, I saw this and it feels like it might apply to me. So I love that that can help kind of widen our reach into different communities or different people who are facing hair loss.

social for sure. I mean, there's plenty of myths about products and the ad world is like a whole, you know, landscape and minefield of that. But it's also a place where people are listening and people are getting information, you know, hair loss on TikTok, on Reddit, there's all these places where people are going to kind of get the power of comments and numbers from, you know, people's experiences. So you kind of have to show up there and be there to be a part of the conversation, or at least understand where the conversation is happening.

Do you feel like one channel is working for you better than another right now? Instagram's been our probably strongest channel. I think it's probably the one we've, as a startup, been focused on the most. I'm a little old for TikTok. I got to get into that a little more. It's so funny. It seems like they sort of... I mean, Instagram continues to do really well for brands in every category. But I think especially when...

when there's something like hair loss where people don't necessarily go and tell their colleagues at work or, you know, their family, it's just something that they're going to really talk about maybe to their friends

close family. Maybe they're close friends, but it's amazing when you can actually launch information on these channels for people to actually spend their own time, their private time. It seems to be really powerful. And I mean, that...

really does seem to be happening on Instagram for sure. So many founders talk about kind of the emotional highs and lows. You're a serial entrepreneur building your second company. When you think about building a company and sort of launching, you've got a co-founder. How do you think about that

Um, in comparison, I guess your own skill sets, you and I were talking briefly about it, that you're not necessarily coming up with ideas all the time. You're actually figuring out, okay, what is the look and feel and how do I execute on it if I have that right? But I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that, especially to somebody who's thinking, um,

Maybe, you know, I don't get ideas. I don't have an idea. But can I still be an entrepreneur? Can I support entrepreneurs? All of those kind of questions that go around for people that, you know, are inspired by you and what you've done.

Yeah, I think, I mean, for me, the co-founder relationship is so important. I think it, you know, it can be a lonely road entrepreneurship. So being able to do it side by side with someone is really important. And then I think within that, just finding those complimentary skills, I think you have to know where your strengths are and kind of really, really lean in and double down on those and where you might be a little bit weaker. It's like, how do I neutralize that? Or how do I compliment that with somebody else? So I think a great example that

my co-founder and Steve and I always talk about is he loves the like zero to 80 of an idea. And I love the, like, I want to be a part of that, but I love the 80 to a hundred. Like, let me make the checklist to actually like operationalize this thing and bring it fully to life and get it across the line and the launch and all that. So finding ways where we, you know, speak the same language and we're deeply connected on things like strategy and direction and all that. But when we come to execute, we can play really complimentary roles in, in how we bring something to life. So I think that's a great example of,

of kind of how to find that right partnership. But I think partnership is just important to me across the board. And that comes down to how I interact with investors and even my spouse or my family members or community. When you're starting something, it becomes a huge part of your life. And I think you need to have the people around you to kind of support you through that process.

Definitely. So what's next for Great Many? You guys are off to a very, very good start, but I'd love for you to let us know what you're most excited about coming up.

Yeah, I think we're excited just about growth. I think this the the non surgical hair space is huge. And it reminds me of where skincare was, you know, 1215 years ago, facials were not popular, there were no facial shops at that point, Botox was happening, you know, in derms offices on the Upper East Side, you know, now everybody's got a skincare routine, people have tried these things, these things have been much more democratized. And I have that gut feeling that hair growth is

is at that phase. You're starting to hear women talk about hair loss more openly. You hear about men flying to Turkey for transplants and doing like guys trips to do that. It's just at this moment where it's being something where people are approaching much more openly. So I think there's an opportunity for this market to just continue to grow. And so we really wanna just double down on that. We plan on growing our studios. We're gonna continue to grow here in New York and then take our idea to other cities.

But then on the innovation front, you know, there are other non-surgical hair growth modalities out there that we want to bring in and offer to people to complement their results or the things that they're doing now. Or if you're kind of hit a hit a fork in the road where you need to try something new, there are other things coming out there. So I think it's a really fascinating space. It's a consumer issue that's been around for decades.

you know, since the beginning of time. And it's something that people, people care about finding, you know, really trusted solutions for. So we're going to continue to grow, grow on that front.

That's awesome. Michael, this has been such a great conversation and great many. Best of luck with everything. You guys are doing incredible work that's really helping change the game and help so many people. And I love how you're bringing science expertise and customer first approach to an industry that's been lost.

long overdue for innovation. So we'll have all the info in the show notes, but appreciate you coming on and just sharing all of your insights. And thank you everybody too for listening. So if you love this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a review. And like I said, we'll have everything in the show notes, but thank you again, Michael. Thanks, Cara.

Thanks again for listening to The Kara Golden Show. If you would, please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of our podcast.

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