An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
You can’t solve big problems alone. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of connecting with the right people both within your team and outside your organization. Diverse perspectives and areas of expertise are vital for startups. Broaden your network and prioritize connection and collaboration across backgrounds and industries.
Startups have such a glamorous reputation. Companies like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Uber, and Airbnb once started as scrappy startups with huge dreams and huge obstacles. Yet we of course know that most startups don’t end up as success stories. What does a founder or a founding team need to know to create a highly successful startup? In this series, called “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup” we are talking to experienced and successful founders and business leaders who can share stories from their experiences about what it takes to create a highly successful startup. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Synergy Life Science CEO Chris Gerlach.
Chris has worked successfully in the creation, distribution and supply of high-purity, quality ingredients for the last 25 years. Chris served in the US Army for 10 years prior to co-founding Essential Ingredients, Inc. (EI), where he held various positions for the accomplished personal care/cosmetic company, including President and Director of Business Development, before also managing Essential Innovations®: a unique product line exclusively offered through EI and its intellectual property portfolio, which consists of patented raw materials and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), including Curoxyl®, Meristant®, Curcylic®, and Vitacon®. Most recently, Chris’ attention has turned to breakthrough technology in the rapidly emerging hemp CBD market as the CEO of Synergy Life Sciences, Inc., which offers high-purity formulations, extraction and the manufacturing of ingredients while keeping a laser focus on safety and efficacy.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
After serving in the United States Army, my career has been focused on making commonly-used ingredients better. I spent 25 years developing and commercializing innovative, new ingredients for the personal care and pharmaceutical markets, and I now focus on the cannabis/hemp industry. Currently, I am the CEO of Synergy Life Science. We create safe, effective cannabinoid ingredients to supercharge our clients’ products.
What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?
I first became interested in the cannabis/hemp space when I saw an urgent need for innovation and safety standards. This industry is just beginning to take shape, and the potential to help people is vast. I saw an opportunity to improve upon outdated, inefficient technologies by developing breakthrough specialty cannabinoid ingredients for various conditions and applications.
Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?
In 2011 my wife developed an acute, airborne, anaphylactic allergy to cinnamon. After many exposures, emergency calls, 14 ICU stays and a year in a wheelchair, I became her first responder, carrying her anaphylaxis kit (backpack) with us everywhere we went. Life changed drastically for our family, as every place we went needed to be contacted in advance to check for potential cinnamon exposure risk. I recall a time when we were house-hunting in a remote location when a cinnamon candle triggered a severe reaction. We immediately headed home, hoping that we could keep the reaction under control, but as her throat closed and her ability to breathe stopped, we fortunately found a small gas station with an ice machine out front. We quickly unplugged the ice machine and plugged in her nebulizer and were finally able to get her breathing again.
After all that time and so many exposures, she had become “EpiPen resistant,” meaning an injection of epinephrine would only keep her airways open for two to three minutes max. Today, my wife is completely recovered, and Synergy Life Science is thrilled to announce the launch of the patent-pending Nebi™️ device, which is the first pen-sized, acute respiratory nebulizer. Her struggles directly influenced the creation of this product, as the need for a portable, battery-operated nebulizing device became clear.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
When I worked in the personal care industry, I was inspired to take action with my sphere of influence. Over 2 billion people don’t have access to soap and water to wash their hands at home. It’s humbling to realize that even the most basic personal care products I worked with every day in my career are inaccessible to a staggering proportion of the global population. I was honored to make a positive impact when I worked with a nonprofit organization that shipped tons of soap to countries worldwide.
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?
“Never take risks” is awful advice. Risks have always been fundamental to my professional success, especially in a new industry like cannabis. Avoiding risks would stifle the bold innovation we need to set ourselves apart from the crowd.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
When I started my regulated market journey, I quickly realized that short-term sacrifices were necessary for long-term success. A clear vision is critical. However, I also learned to stay flexible and adaptable while maintaining solid personal relationships. When new evidence comes to the forefront, a focused and flexible decision-making framework allows us to pivot and see challenges as opportunities.
Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard? What strategies or techniques did you use to help overcome those challenges?
Defining and leaning into a niche is key to overcoming challenges. If you’ve created a product or service that solves a problem or meets a demand for a specific group of people, you can become the top in your area. Continue to dominate your niche while growing slowly outward to diversify products and services. That strategy has helped me overcome unexpected challenges and use them as opportunities to pivot.
The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?
A key strategy for me has been to grow in phases. That allows testing at each stage to determine how well each venture performs. It also gives time to determine if there is potential for long-term success and to allocate resources. Phased growth as a strategy helps put risks and opportunities into perspective for decision-making.
Let’s imagine that a young founder comes to you and asks for your advice about whether venture capital or bootstrapping is best for them? What would you advise them? Can you kindly share a few things a founder should look at to determine if fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice?
I think the most important thing for young founders is to consider what they truly need from investors. Common mistakes include asking for too much money or wanting too much control over its use. Make sure you understand all the factors so you have realistic expectations. Become comfortable with communicating articulately and concisely what you need from investors and what you will do with the investment.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Many startups are not successful, and some are very successful. From your experience or perspective, what are the main factors that distinguish successful startups from unsuccessful ones? What are your “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup”?
- Develop a niche product or service that solves a specific problem.
At Synergy Life Sciences, it was immediately apparent that there was a huge need for better tools for product formulators. We set out to develop effective, functional ingredients that they could use to create the next generation of cannabis products. CannaSorb CB Active is our flagship product and the ingredient foundation for a handful of specialty ingredients that give formulators the tools they need to develop advanced products that can modernize this industry and truly unlock the potential of this amazing plant!
- Grow in phases toward your long-term vision.
Focus on solving big problems you see in the world, but plan your growth in phases. That will help you collect real-world validation of your ideas and be able to pivot when situations change while continuing steadily toward your long-term vision.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment.
In my 25-year career in the regulated consumer product space, my job was to minimize risk. However, innovation requires some amount of experimentation. Learn how to experiment in phases and apply the information you gain to the subsequent stages of your business.
- Constantly inspect and adapt.
In a future-focused industry like cannabinoid technology, we adapt to rapid change constantly. Look for ways to improve your offering and make changes as needed.
- Build long-term relationships.
You can’t solve big problems alone. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of connecting with the right people both within your team and outside your organization. Diverse perspectives and areas of expertise are vital for startups. Broaden your network and prioritize connection and collaboration across backgrounds and industries.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Especially in science and technology innovation, inflexibility is a serious pitfall. In the rapidly evolving cannabis space, CEOs and founders must adapt daily to the market and regulatory changes in an industry in its infancy. Always encourage your team to think creatively to develop new ideas and solutions.
Startup founders often work extremely long hours and it’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. What would you recommend to founders about how to best take care of their physical and mental wellness when starting a company?
I can’t think of a single day-to-day priority that is more important than health. I’m in the ingredient innovation business because I want to contribute substantially to people’s wellness, so it would be contradictory not to prioritize my own health. Think of health as an investment. It can be tempting to neglect my physical and mental self-care to save time in the short term. Still, entrepreneurs must recognize the long-term importance of investing in the wellness of themselves and their team.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can connect with me on LinkedIn and sign up for the Synergy Life Science email list.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
Chris Gerlach Of Synergy Life Science On Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
