By Kendall Fisher (opens in new tab), executive producer
We took our three-part series of the The Grow Wire Show (opens in new tab) and turned them into one, full-length episode to better tell the Hello Products story. Moving forward, we will continue creating one, longform-style video for each Grow Wire Show episode.
If I could give Craig Dubitsky one title, I would call him The (Friendly) Seeker of the Elephant in the Room.
What I mean is, Craig’s the person who finds the seemingly obvious answers to questions we’ve all asked but maybe never sought the answers to—questions like: Why do chapsticks only come in tiny, cylindrical tubes that always get lost? Why do cleaning products have so many unclean chemicals and unpolished packaging, forcing us to hide them under our sinks? Why is the oral care aisle in every store so unwelcoming and unfriendly, and why are toothpaste tubes so annoying to squeeze the goop out of?
Craig asked these questions, too…and then went out to get the answer.
He was one of the co-founders of Eos, those dome-shaped chapsticks that come in a variety of fun and funky colors with a rubber texture to ensure they never get lost in a bag, between your car seats and couch cushions, or wherever else chapsticks tend to run away (I hope they’re co-living happily with all of my missing bobby pins, hair ties and unpaired socks). He also led the original investment of Method, bringing eco-friendly and safe solutions with appealing packaging to household cleaning supplies, no longer forcing people to hide their dish soap and glass cleaner under the sink.
As for Craig’s most recent venture? Founding Hello Products, the “most friendly” (as he describes it) oral care brand dedicated to sparking joy with effective and natural products that look good and taste good, too.
Just like his other businesses, Craig’s idea for Hello seems obvious. He was walking through the oral care aisle of a drug store and wondered why everything looked the same, why all marketing was based around generating fear and shame through extracted teeth and cheesy slogans (If you’re not whitening, you’re frightening! and The dentist is going to drill, fill and bill you!). Not to mention, these products—you know, the ones we use to clean our mouths—were filled with unclean ingredients, some of which had been banned by the FDA.
Once again, Craig found the big, hairy elephant.
He gathered a small group of teammates and set out to fix it, but breaking into a very serious industry that had been dominated by the same three behemoths for decades isn’t an easy thing to do (as they’d come to find out).
Watch this Grow Wire Show episode to see how Craig Dubitsky and a team of loyal believers created natural and effective formulas, got into major retailers and, after some big bumps in the road, grew Hello Products into a major competitor in the oral care industry today.
