We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Parker Olson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Parker below.

Parker, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a fun one – what’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

Here is a hot take –

First time founders should spend time on a side project / business that isn’t their “baby”. Nothing crazy, maybe, say 5-10 hours MAX.

I believe there is a serious value unlock for one’s own business when a founder dilutes away from their own biz.

How can taking away precious minutes from one’s own business make sense?

It sounds a bit wonky at first – how can I believe this? How does this make sense?

What I’m essentially saying is that x – 1 = x + 2. … let me explain:

A first time founder has a single viewpoint, a single understanding of the world & is likely not always being honest about the business with themselves.

It’s easy to hide from the things you don’t want to do & focus on the things you’re good at.

By inserting yourself into a different project & seeing how things are done “under the hood” you learn valuable systems or skills that are different from the ones you know in your own business.

You are then able to apply the ones that you see as valuable to your own business, inherently improving your own chances of survival and thiving.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Howdy!

My name is Parker & I’m a Management Consultant (think Type-A problem solves / optimizer) turned Founder.

My background is in Neuroscience & I’m oddly obsessed with the fringe – where no one is looking or things that no one is doing.

I find value & self-pride in beating my drum to my own beat.

My business, FORIJ, is all about mushrooms & infusing mushrooms info foods to work for you & your health goals.

In 2018 I spent 18 months trying different diets for 30 days at a time. One of those months (and the month where I felt truly the best) was spent supplementing with “functional” or “medicinal” mushrooms (nothing illegal!)

Sleep was better. More energy. Better focus at work. More time spent exercising. Better recovery. Clearer thinking.

It was fascinating & I dove into the research, finding that there is a category of mushrooms (yes, all of these mushrooms are “Adaptogens” if you’ve heard that term thrown around) that have incredible health benefits.

Like benefits that can solve MASSIVE health concerns.

Inflammation, cognitive decline, physical degradation. Really incredible stuff.

I went on to join the largest Mycological society (“official” mushroom club) in the US & sat on the Board for close to 2 years.

FORIJ leverages a few of these mushrooms – Lion’s Mane & Vitamin-D Brown Button Mushrooms to help provide an all-natural cognitive supplement that slows down / reverses cognitive decline.

FORIJ doesn’t just give these mushroom in a pill or supplement format, but actually puts them in delicious recipes – a granola & a meal bar, for a seamless way to get these nutrients every day.

We make food – cool, but who cares if no one know about it?

We agree and that’s why we are also one of the top educators on the internet for several of these mushrooms. Our educational blog informs 60,000 unique users a month on the benefits of mushrooms.

Curious? Check us out —> www.forij.co

How’d you meet your business partner?

We met online & I was immediately impressed.

We “chopped it up” really naturally & it just felt right to keep talking.

I had so much respect for this person that I was telling others about them & admired their work & how they carried themselves.

The best part was that our skillsets couldn’t have been more opposite.

What both of understood as “valuable skill set I don’t have” was what we saw in the other person – and we both openly admitted that we really wanted to work together.

We didn’t force it – didn’t rush things. Just put it into the ethos that we enjoyed hanging out, respected each other & would love an opportunity to work together.

One day that opportunity came to me – it was an offer to come on as a growth consultant for a PE firm’s portfolio company.

I immediately knew I wanted this person involved so I picked up the phone, called and asked if they wanted to partner on this.

They did & now we are “co-founders”

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

Selling food products to in-demand, over-capacity grocery buyers is not fun.

They get BOMBARDED with emails / phone calls / texts / letters & meeting requests from vendors & are constantly being pitched.

All the while, they have to manage their existing portfolio, make sure it is making their company enough money at a high enough margin, all while staying “on trend” and determining what is next.

Simply put, they don’t care & can be hard to reach.

Instead of sending thousands of emails, I bought a van I could live out of and drove around the country, showing up, in-person, where the buyer couldn’t hide from me (and would respect the efforts & lengths I went through to reach them).

I would usually send an email with nothing in the body and the following as the subject line: “I’M DRIVING 1,500 MILES FOR A CHANCE TO MEET YOU – CAN YOU SPARE 15 MINUTES?”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.forij.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forij.co/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parker-olson-forij/