Neil Grimmer
FOUNDER OF PLUM ORGANICS & HABIT
EXCERPT
NEIL GRIMMER TALKS a lot about how values-driven businesses will be at the center of the new economy, specifically because of how motivating that core purpose is for the people who work there. And he hopes to prove this again in his new business, Habit, which offers personalized health testing and nutrition planning to people looking to have a healthier lifestyle. Echoing Plum’s [Neil’s first business] origin story, Neil started Habit when no other companies existed to meet his personal needs. Although he had been a triathlete in his earlier days, Neil told me that after eight years of running Plum, he had succumbed to what his doctor called “CEO coping mechanisms”— too much bad food, booze, and coffee, and not enough sleep. He had gained fifty pounds, and after finally going to see doctors he found out he was prediabetic and had a high risk of heart attack.
“The more good you do that aligns with the values of your core consumers, the healthier your business is going to be.”
- Neil on how doing good can lead to good business.
Instead of just stopping with the doctor visits, Neil started bio-hacking and meeting with amazing scientists around the country and around the world; he even had his DNA tested through whole genome sequencing. Through this process he gathered an enormous amount of insight into what was going on with his body. Neil realized that what he was going through was not unique to him and that his personal discovery could be valuable to others. As he told me, “I realized that the insights I was getting about myself, through thousands of dollars and some world travel to visit different specialists, needed to be accessible to everybody at affordable price points, democratized in a way that empowered people to take control of their lives through food.”