Podcast appearances and mentions of zachary quinn

Having started and sold a successful business, Zachary Quinn knows how to bring a product to life smoothly. Discover the strategy he used to create his latest brand, Oceanfoam, offering foam rollers made with algae.To read more about Oceanfoam and show notes click here. 

Anticipating that face masks are going to be a necessary accessory for the foreseeable future, Love Your Melon is ramping up its collection and returning to the buy one, give one model that made the beanie brand famous: for every mask purchased, the company will donate one to someone in the medical community. “Seeing how people are being instructed now to wear them whenever they’re out in public, I don’t think there’s any chance that this production goes away for the next 6 to 12 months at least. They need to keep being improved,” says Zachary Quinn, LYM co-founder and president. Quinn appeared on this podcast in 2019 to share the LYM founder’s story, which started as a classroom project at the University of St. Thomas. To date, LYM has given more than $7 million to the fight against pediatric cancer and 191,000 hats to children battling cancer. Now, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, LYM is making face masks for hospitalized children and their families, who are at high risk of contracting Covid-19. The company committed to donating 50,000 masks and is now making masks available for purchase to support the cause. A few styles and colors are being made in both cotton and surgical wrap material. Quinn talks about the process of quickly jumping into production, while also responding to increased online demand for Love Your Melon's core products. “People are coming out to support brands that are working hard to make a difference,” Quinn says. But the fate of LYM's flagship showroom in the North Loop of Minneapolis is up in the air, he says. The lease is up at the end of the year. As for leading his team, which is now working remotely, Quinn says he is “making myself available – no matter whether the request is large or small. Everyone is trying to help, everyone has something to offer. I’m trying to focus on being inclusive.” The added pressure is actually helpful, Quinn says. “Under pressure you find a lot of peace and calmness. I’m excited to be hands on and have a purpose. That’s what I’m feeling good about: having a purpose and a unified mission.” After our conversation with Quinn, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business. Digital Marketing Professor Gino Giovanelli says LYM is well positioned to succeed in these unusual times. “They have the ability to reach customers through social media, which is very powerful. And they’re not dependent on bricks and mortar retail.”

Creating a mission-driven company is much more than giving money away. Mission-driven has become a buzzword in today's business. The ones that do it right have seen benefits that go beyond philanthropy. Creating a mission-driven company will help you gain customers and even align employees in a way that drives the business forward. Today's guest is Zachary Quinn, Co-founder of Love Your Melon. Zachary shares with me how the company became mission-driven and the cycle of mission-driven. He shares how you can look at mission-driven strategies. Get the show notes for Creating a Mission-Driven Company with Zachary Quinn at Love Your Melon Click to Tweet: Listening to an amazing episode on Growth Think Tank featuring Zachary Quinn with me your host @GeneHammett http://bit.ly/ZacharyQuinn # LoveYourMelon #CreatingaMisisonDrivenCompany #GHepisode469 #GTTepisodes #Podcasts Give Growth Think Tank a review on iTunes!

His story has become legendary at the University of St. Thomas—and beyond. Zachary Quinn was a sophomore when he enrolled in an entrepreneurship class. There, he met Brian Keller, and together, they turned an assignment to create a business into Love Your Melon, the $40 million hat company that donates half its profits to fighting pediatric cancer. “We wanted to start something that would make a difference,” Quinn says. On this episode of By All Means, he outlines the key moments and decisions that set Love Your Melon up for success, including its college ambassador program, a hockey bus tour that garnered national press, and brand building through social media. Quinn talks about Love Your Melon’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing and its first brick and mortar store, which the company is using for special events designed to tell the brand story and build engagement. What’s next? “I never look more than six months out,” Quinn says. But he does have “more crazy stuff” in the works, including a concert series and e-gaming competition. After our conversation with Quinn, we go Back to the Classroom with his entrepreneurship professor at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business Jay Ebben. “We really push students to build their career or a business around their own values, their own sense of purpose and mission,” Ebben says. He describes what it was like to have the Love Your Melon founders in class, and why he gave them an A- for the semester—a grading decision he’s never quite been able to live down.

Love Your Melon started as a university class project in Minnesota. Six years later, the brand is selling beanies, headgear, and apparel, and giving fifty percent of net profits to nonprofit charities in the fight against pediatric cancer. To date, they've given nearly $5 million dollars and over 156,000 hats to children battling cancer. Chief Operations Officer, Charlie Carlisle says the key to their growth is the mission behind their brand and the fostering key partnerships. On this episode, Charlie talks about the rapid growth of the company (10:51) and vetting third-party collaborators early (11:50). He illuminates the three things he looks for in a good partner (12:05). Charlie talks about upcycling the billboards from their nationwide campaign (19:12) and making calculated decisions on their digital ad spend (20:27). He shares how Love Your Melon is balancing their for-profit business with philanthropy (22:02). Charlie explains how his team uses Zapier (28:50) and Google Sheets (32:39) to power their operations, and the decision to transition to an outside enterprise resource planning system (33:35). Finally, he shares what Love Your Melon is tinkering with for 2019 (37:25). Links and images from this post are on the Lumi Blog.

Zachary Quinn started Love Your Melon for an entrepreneur class at St. Thomas with the idea of starting a company that can do some good. He has given every pediatric cancer patient in the country a Love Your Melon beanie and started an amazingly successful companySupport the showFollow the Makers of Minnesota on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @MakersofMN. Send story ideas to Stephanie@stephaniesdish.com If you appreciate the work we do here, please subscribe on Patreon Please subscribe to My newsletter at https://stephaniehansen.substack.com/ so you don't miss an epiosde of the Makers of Minnesota This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe

Zachary Quinn started Love Your Melon for an entrepreneur class at St. Thomas with the idea of starting a company that can do some good. He has given every pediatric cancer patient in the country a Love Your Melon beanie and started an amazingly successful companySupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/StephanieHansen)

Zachary Quinn started Love Your Melon for an entrepreneur class at St. Thomas with the idea of starting a company that can do some good. He has given every pediatric cancer patient in the country a Love Your Melon beanie and started an amazingly successful companySupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/StephanieHansen)

Hear how entrepreneur, Zachary Quinn, co-created a business idea in college, dropped out, and led the astonishing growth of Love Your Melon headwear.  Learn how he and his business partner chose to regularly give 50 percent of their profits to support children with cancer, and provide opportunities for thousands of young adults to make a true difference in their communities. Leave a Rating & Review in iTunes for the Product Launch Rebel Podcast (http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1136273740)