3 Quick Lessons for Startup Founders from Scott Weiss’ Corporate Career

He looked about as comfortable in front of a crowd of people as you might expect a CEO to look. In his blue jeans and button down shirt, Scott Weiss adjusted his microphone as he prepared to tell a room of young entrepreneurs about the journey of his corporate career and how it helps him as the CEO of Ocean Accelerator, a nationally-recognized program designed to help startups grow.

“After graduating from Indiana University and getting a Masters at the University of Michigan, I worked for a little company called Procter and Gamble for many years,” Weiss told the room.

Have the humility to listen and the boldness to learn.

The reason Weiss started working at P&G? Well, it all goes back to one evening in the early days of his marriage. He and his wife were struggling for direction in their careers and to find the money to pay rent. This particular evening she found an envelope that he had thrown in the garbage. The return address was from Procter and Gamble, a company neither of them were familiar with. After opening the envelope, Weiss’ wife found that he was being offered a Marketing internship, an industry he had no prior experience with. The offer was left-field enough to prompt him to throw it back in the garbage.

With some strong encouragement from his wife, Weiss stepped into the internship opportunity at P&G. The internship would lead to a full-time offer and eventually many successful years of working alongside major brands like Tide and Brita.

Show what better looks like.

“Brita is an amazing story,” Weiss told us.

Weiss and his team celebrated tremendous success from the introduction of Brita’s personal water-filtration system. The celebration was short-lived, however. They noticed that first-time Brita users came in droves but didn’t seem to return. In other words, many people were excited to try the product but unconvinced to purchase replacement filters for future use.

“I searched everywhere for the problem. I spent months traveling and interviewing people asking why they didn’t feel compelled to continue filtering their water after their initial experiences with the product.”

The resounding answer became, “Scott, the water goes in clear and comes out clear. How the heck am I supposed to believe it’s working?”

“That was it,” he thought. “Even if it’s nasty to look at, customers want to see the product working.”

Realize your relationships.

Fortunately, Weiss remembered building a relationship with a Japanese company that specialized in non-fibrous kidney dialysis filters earlier in his career.

Though years had passed and the connection seemed like a stretch, Weiss was able to approach them, and the result was the implementation of something similar to their design on the Brita. This allowed water-drinkers to see a collection of dirt and deposits at the top of their Brita while water continued through the filtration process. With the new feature, first-time Brita buyers started returning enthusiastically, and sales regained their strength.