Thrive Market's Nick Green On Building Better Access to Low-Cost Health & Wellness Goods

This episode features Nick Green, co-founder of Los Angeles-based e-commerce startup Thrive Market in conversation with Spencer. Nick speaks about selling his first company, a college test prep startup that was purchased by Revolution Prep, in his early twenties after graduating from Harvard. From there, his involvement with Launchpad LA helped him connect with Thrive co-founder Gunnar Lovelace. Nick saw firsthand the challenges of eating healthy while growing up in the Midwest. He says sticking with the core mission of solving America’s food access problem and mitigating "lifestyle diseases" has helped Thrive stay on track to scale their online marketplace concept.

Thrive Market is an online health foods shop that offers its products at a lower cost than other retailers due to its "Costco-styled" membership model. Thrive offers its own lineup of products, in addition to the many health and wellness brands that are found at other stores. Since its launch in 2014, Thrive Market has grown to more than 1 million paying members and become a case study of how mission-driven companies can scale through approaches that include carbon-neutral shipping, a focus on "zero waste" practices and getting certified as a B Corp.