Co-Founders Joshua Church and Rob Church were honored to be nominated for EY's Entrepreneur of the Year, Pacific Southwest. Read more about the experience at Rob's post below; https://lnkd.in/gWVpTryD
Last Friday was a night to remember! Joshua Church and I are proud to have been honored as finalists for EY's Entrepreneur Of The Year, Pacific Southwest. On Friday evening we attended the EoY reception in Dana Point with our team and family by our side. It was a special evening and really made me reflect on the last several years building Edge Theory Labs, and the journey to getting on stage, shoulder to shoulder, with some of the most impressive and successful entrepreneurs on the west coast. As we stepped onto the stage, it dawned on me that less than two years ago, we didn't even have product in market yet. And yet in that time, we were now being honored among the best. We didn't have the highest revenue (the largest had $4B+), the most impactful (one is solving bladder cancer), or even the best mission (another uses AI for drones to protect our armed forces). Yet here we stood among these elite entrepreneurs. Why? How? I believe it is because of the palpable sense of passion that our team has put in each and every day towards changing lives for the better. One of our mottos is "more than just a tub" - and we mean it literally. We believe that our relationship with the customer doesn't end when their tub is delivered; it is only beginning. We have had an endless number of conversations on how to best support our customers and have become obsessed with how to best support their cold immersion journey. This hasn't been easy (or cheap) but through this obsession we have built a product that is changing people's health and happiness for the better and built a community that reinforces these healthy habits, whether or not they are an Edge customer. To say building a business is challenging is an understatement of the grossest kind. We hear stories of how entrepreneurs had to persevere through hard times to ultimately come out the other side successful and prosperous. What rarely comes across fully, is just how dark the tunnel can get when you are going through it, and the sacrifices that get made to (hopefully) make it to the other side. After beginning to feel like our business was somehow "harder" than the rest, I was relieved to hear so many of these battle tested leaders all echo the same words when asked, "What one word defines an entrepreneur?". We did not hear "leadership" or "innovator." We heard "grit", "determination", and "perseverance". I felt silly when I used the latter word as my answer, and yet so many others repeated similar sentiments. Ultimately, we did not win one of the 13 awards given out that evening for EoY, and yet I had only the most fleeting feeling of disappointment. To even be on stage with these elite entrepreneurs felt like all the recognition I needed for the last two years. Now I have even more motivation to bring an award home, some day in the future, after countless more people have been impacted for the better. So many thanks to our entire team at Edge for turning the dream into reality! Keep Going!