He Left Harvard to Help His Mom and Built a $25 Million Nutrition Business

Since he was “a weird little kid,” Sam Faycurry aspired to attend Harvard Business Faculty. So, when he received accepted to the celebrated program, he and his household had been thrilled.

However life had different plans. Whereas serving to his mom and sister, each registered dietitians, begin their enterprise, Faycurry stumbled into an untapped enterprise alternative. He and his associate Mark Stefanski based Fay, a digital platform that connects folks with registered dietitians (RDs) who supply customized diet counseling and settle for insurance coverage.

Quickly, Faycurry realized he could not attend Harvard and run the enterprise on the similar time. So, he dropped one dream to pursue one other.

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In the present day, at 31, he’s the co-founder and CEO of Fay, which has raised $25 million in funding and is quickly altering the panorama and accessibility of diet counseling. He talked with me about his journey from serving to members of the family to main a venture-backed startup on the newest episode of the One Day with Jon Bier podcast. Listed below are 5 key entrepreneurial classes Faycurry discovered alongside the way in which.

Get down and soiled

Faycurry believes expertise is the perfect trainer. Reasonably than merely learning how to begin a enterprise, he says it is equally vital to get your fingers soiled and simply do it.

“You read these books and they’re always talking about, ‘Don’t do things that don’t scale.’ What the f— does that mean?” he says. “But then you’re sitting there and you’re doing things that don’t scale, and you’re like, ‘Oh, shit. That’s what they mean.'” This hands-on strategy allowed Faycurry to deeply perceive the issues within the diet business and develop tailor-made options.

Swallow your pleasure

Constructing a profitable startup means checking your ego on the door, and setting apart your pleasure to do menial jobs which may really feel like they need to be another person’s drawback.

For instance, Faycurry recollects his mouth being bone dry from having to lick his fingers to separate mounds of paperwork. “It’s not until you’re doing that that you’re realizing, ‘Oh, this is what it means to be low ego.'”

However he says a willingness to sort out unglamorous duties head-on was essential in understanding the intricacies of the business.

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Remedy actual issues, not mental workouts

Earlier than constructing Fay, he admits to beginning corporations that had been “more like intellectual masturbation.” He describes these early makes an attempt as “horrible ideas” that nobody actually wanted. It wasn’t till he targeted on fixing a actual, tangible drawback for his members of the family that he discovered success.

“When you’re in this intellectual state, one could be thinking about a lot of problems to solve,” he says. “However, when I found myself helping my mom and my sister start their dietetics private practice, I started to just uncover things that people maybe never saw before.”

Be prepared to pivot out of your unique plan

Regardless of his lifelong dream of attending Harvard Business Faculty, Faycurry made the troublesome choice to drop out when Fay began gaining traction. “It was the most challenging decision because it meant so much to be offered to my family,” he explains. “No one in my family had ever gone there and it was a big source of pride.” This capability to adapt and prioritize the enterprise over private objectives was essential for Fay’s development.

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Keep hungry

Regardless of being a market chief, Faycurry and his workforce are continuously conscious of the hazards of complacency. “It’s actually one of our great weaknesses,” he admits, pointing to the necessity to preserve climbing even after they’re on the high of the mountain.

He refers to to a variety of cases within the psychological healthcare house the place the businesses that rested on their laurels had to drop out of the race, whereas these with one thing to show stayed within the recreation.

For that reason, Faycurry says he is at all times difficult his workforce to ask themselves, “How do we maintain that hunger and that drive?”

All through his entrepreneurial journey, Faycurry has discovered that success typically comes from essentially the most unlikely locations. He by no means dreamed his household’s dietician enterprise would derail his Harvard Business Faculty observe—however that is precisely what occurred. By specializing in actual points and being prepared to do the grunt work, Faycurry has positioned Fay to make a vital influence within the healthcare business.

Reflecting on his journey from serving to his mom and sister with paperwork to main a venture-backed startup, Faycurry stays assured Fay will make an influence. “This feels like the one,” he says. “Whether it’s successful, I don’t know. I’m not here to say that. But for some reason, in my bones, this feels like it.”

Faycurry’s story reminds us that generally essentially the most promising enterprise concepts come from essentially the most surprising locations—even from licking stuck-together papers in a suburban workplace.