Visionary Entrepreneurs Succeed By Uncovering One Major Market Need

A decade back I was interviewing Jay Walker who has 650 patents one of which is Priceline.com (for context Thomas Edison had 1093 patents). When I asked Jay the secret to creating a great company he shared, “you must identify a ubiquitous need and solve it.” As I thought about over 1,000 CEOs I have interviewed for The CEO Show, three visionary entrepreneurs who embody Jay Walker’s principle came to mind – Ron Shaich, Scott Cohen and Larry Connor — and I hope that their stories inspire you to come up with the next big idea.

KNOW YOUR MOAT

Ron Shaich founded one of not only the world’s most beloved companies, Panera Bread, but also one of the best performing stocks outperforming Berkshire Hathaway, 2x Starbucks and 4x Chipotle; at a 25% annualized shareholder return – a $10,000 investment in Panera stock would two decades later be be worth over $1 million. While Ron had numerous strategies and infact four specific unique phases of growth which he outlines in his book, Know What Matters, one of the secrets Ron told me was his moat was actually bread, “We knew that no one could make fresh bread and deliver it to hundreds of locations.”

Shaich continued on his strategy, “Winning companies find a point of differentiation that makes buyers of services – consumer or businesses – cross the street to choose them above all others. For Panera, that started with bread and would evolve over time as we gained the trust of our customer. The key to success is staying true to your final destination, but not being fixed on how you get there. There are many roads that will take you there and many unforeseen turns on a journey, staying flexible is key.”

SOLVE A MAJOR MARKET NEED

Scott Cohen built Alter with co-founder Blake Johnson, the world’s first at-home fitness system to harness the potential of a customer’s DNA, biometrics, and AI to generate a highly personalized, individualized fitness program – something that has previously been accessible and affordable only to the one-percenters. And Cohen knows the secret to dramatic growth as the duo’s most recent enterprise Byte, a clear aligner dental company, in less than two years from start up sold for more than $1 billion – and without any outside funding!

Cohen co-founded Alter to be the transformational approach that revolutionizes personalized fitness by bringing together multiple fitness and stress management products into one. Cohen explains his strategy in launching any business, “Ford, Target, McDonalds – these brands have succeeded by including a customer universe that was previously excluded. Take something that was previously only accessible and affordable to the one-percent and make it available and affordable to everyone. That’s what we did with Byte and that’s what we are doing with Alter.“ Also, when I asked Scott about how generative AI and advanced technologies fit in to entrepreneurship he shared, “No matter how predictive or accurate technology becomes, at our core humans still thrive on personal interactions, live feedback and collaboration.”

UNCOVER A DEFINED MARKET RIPE FOR REINVENTION

Larry Connor went into a specific segment of real estate – luxury apartment buildings – and brought in a new mindset. Instead of the standard of simply scaling assets he created a unique transactional model focused instead in delivering exceptional returns to its investors by buying underperforming apartment communities and improving the physical facilities and decreasing costs.

This model grew from zero to $5 billion with 15,000 luxury units in 51 buildings in 12 states – with annual return since founding of 30.4%! When I asked Larry about his philosophy of success he shared, “If you’re not failing, you’re not pushing your limits, and if you’re not pushing your limits, you’re not maximizing your potential. And almost nothing can stop you from succeeding if you have flexibility and self-accountability.”

And the success of The Connor Group has been adding two more components: culture and community. On culture Larry expanded, “The strongest organizations have the strongest cultures. They win on purpose with purpose.” And on community they created Connor Kids and Community Partners, which has dedicated $152 million since 2016 towards pulling kids out of generational poverty. Over the next decade it will devote $800 million toward this work.

To sum up the secrets of entrepreneurship I asked the entrepreneur guru Len Green, who is author of best selling, The Entrepreneurs Play Book and top-rated Babson College professor of entrepreneurship … Green enlightened and reinforced the message of these three visionary entrepreneurs, “All entrepreneurs should tape to their office walls: True failure is not losing money, it is not learning from it and not pushing yourself beyond the normal limits.”

To listen to these and other CEO interviews go to The CEO Show