On used cars, soapless cleansers, and the things that actually matter. Real-time dispatches from building Sans Savon — and the lessons from everything that came before it.
Also on Substack →A practical guide for navigating today's post-corporate world — and why becoming an entrepreneur is the most reliable path to a meaningful career.
What the Zara model teaches about building a business in a post-corporate world — and why there has never been a better time to take control of your work life.
A story from a dinner table in Minneapolis that changed everything about how I thought a career could go. On finding the open space, learning from experts, and seizing the moment.
The product science behind soapless cleansing — what soap actually does to your hair and skin, why the beauty industry hasn't told you, and what the latest innovations make possible.
What switching from shampoo taught me about the thing I'd resigned myself to losing.
On genetics, microbiomes, amphiphilic molecules, and why second-day hair is almost always better than day-one hair.
Anti-dandruff shampoos don't fix the problem. They are the problem.
We have 5,489 customer reviews about scalp health. What they say is something the makers of Head & Shoulders do not want you to read.
Why the "customized haircare" companies got it wrong — and what 25,000 reviews prove about getting it right.
Function of Beauty and Prose raised a hundred million dollars on the promise of customization. We had something that actually worked differently for every person who used it. Without any customization at all.
A real-time account of building Sans Savon from idea to business — the inspiration, the assumptions, the lucky breaks, and the frustrating setbacks of a life lived without a conventional safety net.
Thigh-high snow in a boreal forest, a private equity deal gone bad, and the moment I knew I would start one more business.
On communes in Vermont, the entrepreneurial drive for independence, a 71% sensitive skin statistic — and the pitch that convinced my wife to do it all over again.
From a CEO job in Australia where the ingredients didn't match the label to formulating soapless cleansers with a chemist in Montreal. How Sans Savon became real.