Chris Orzechowski on Building 100+ Year Brands

1. What is your company in 2–5 words?

We build 100+ Year Brands.

2. Why is now the time for your company to exist?

It seems like every article you read is about some “sexy” startup that’s trying to blitzscale so they can go public… many of which, like Icarus, come crashing back down to Earth in a fiery blaze. We exist for the founders who want to build a long-lasting, valuable piece of Americana. A brand that will outlive them. A brand that people will be benefiting from a century from now. We’re building brands that help mankind ascend to a higher level.

3. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

I love that we’re building brands that will one day influence the culture. Think about the impact Brooks Brothers or Yuengling Brewery has had. There are iconic brands that are being founded right now, and we want to help them get to that level one day.

4. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

Probably building another agency.

5. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics?

Success is the number of clients we’ve had and the numerical growth we’ve helped them achieve. We like to track their revenue before/after working with us. We know if their sales are growing, we’re doing our job.

6. In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom?

We have an incubator (The Foundry) where we help e-commerce Founders run ads, grow their email lists, monetize their databases, and recruit armies of affiliates and influencers.

7. What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

We’re just getting started - but we’ve already helped a few brands 4-5x their revenue in under a year.

8. Where do you think your growth will be next year?

I want to have 100 brands inside of our incubator.

9. Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year.

One of the first brands I worked with had a 525% increase in revenue in 8 months. They should be able to double or triple their current revenue in the next twelve months if they keep executing the game plan we created.

10. What’s your biggest threat?

Boredom. The most successful long-term brands have a simple playbook that they execute year after year after year, without getting distracted. Sometimes staying the course is the hardest thing.

This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke’s ten questions for startup founders.