Take Control of Your Mind - Thesis

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Dan Freed, Founder of Thesis, located in New York, NY, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Thesis is the World’s first personalized nootropics company. We employ a science and data-driven approach to empower customers to reach their cognitive potential. Most other nootropics brands take a “one size fits all” approach, combining many ingredients in one pill to broadly increase things like focus. Thesis is the first brand to create targeted nootropics for specific outcomes, like improving energy, focus, motivation, creativity, and even confidence. I started Thesis to help customers similar to me, who struggled to focus and maintain attention and whose needs were not satisfied by the pharmaceuticals on the market. As Thesis has grown, we’ve seen our customer base expand from people like me who are in desperate need of a solution to an inability to focus on all people striving to achieve ambitious goals. This includes new parents struggling with sleep deprivation, students preparing for exams in college, busy professionals who just got a promotion, and more. Our customer is anyone who is ambitious and is looking to achieve something.

Tell us about yourself

For as long as I can remember, I have had difficulty focusing. It affected my life from a young age, from being expelled from preschool to dropping out of high school after failing all my classes. I was always intelligent, but I couldn’t figure out how to apply myself. I couldn’t figure out how to access my potential. I found nootropics in my late 20s after working my way up through the ranks to become a saucier at a Michelin three-star restaurant in France. I worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and survived on cigarettes, coffee, and energy drinks. I got burnt out. I tried everything to get my life back on track, from meditation to ice baths and microdosing, but nothing worked. I did deep online research and discovered nootropics, a class of natural supplements that help cognitive performance. Learning about nootropics helped me realize that my problem focusing resulted from an imbalance of my neurotransmitters, not my work ethic. Nootropics finally gave me the energy to focus for long periods. I could finally retain information without relying on unhealthy habits. I scored 99% on the GMAT and earned degrees from Yale and INSEAD without going to college. I launched Thesis as the first personalized and high-quality approach to nootropics to help people be the best version of themselves every day. Each day, what motivates me to continue doing what I do is reading our tens of thousands of customer reviews. The stories our customers share are incredible. Thesis has helped people achieve their goals in many ways, from getting into the college of their dreams to passing big exams, getting promotions, starting businesses, and more. We help people truly feel like they’re no longer being crippled by their inability to focus.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I’ve always been deeply passionate about my work. One of my biggest frustrations, when I worked for larger companies was that I’d have all these great ideas. Still, people always said, “No, you can’t do it that way because we’ve always done it this way.” I felt like no one listened to me. My biggest accomplishment as a business owner is the environment that we’ve created at Thesis, where everyone acts like an owner and has a voice, no matter what position you’re in. This is shown by the fact that all of our full-time employees are actual owners of our company, and we expect them to approach each day with that owner’s mindset. The environment we’ve created solves one of the main pain points I saw when working at other companies, and I’m incredibly proud of the culture we’ve built.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Building the culture at Thesis, where everyone acts like an owner, is incredible, but the drawback is that it’s not for everyone. Most people want a job where they can check the boxes, and we’re not that type of company. It’s rare, but sometimes we’ll get people who don’t want the kind of environment we’ve created or appreciate it. It isn’t easy to recognize that, to preserve our unique culture, we need to be very selective about who is on our team. Suppose we all don’t have the same mindset where we’re constantly thinking about how to improve the company. In that case, our company will become just like any other company.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. Get advisors. Find people at different levels of seniority who have experience in areas related to your business. The easiest way to grow a business and avoid mistakes is to listen to people who have done it before. When you start a business, everything is new to you, and a great way to increase your learning curve is to have advisors.
2. Keep moving forward. A lot of people get into analysis paralysis. People want everything to be perfect before launching or making a decision. When you launch and grow a business, you need to act fast, make mistakes, and learn from them quickly. Ensure you are constantly learning and improving - moving slowly in the right direction is better than not moving at all.
3. Prioritize thoughtful hiring. Make sure that everyone you bring onto your team aligns with your company’s mission and values. Hiring people that aren’t the right fit for your team will take a lot of time, effort, and energy away from running your business. Hiring will be the most important part of growing your business.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://takethesis.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TakeThesis/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/takethesis/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/takethesis/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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