In this episode, I sit down with Lauryn Menard, founder of GOB, a company rethinking single-use personal care products starting with earplugs made from mycelium.
We talk about how GOB came to focus on a category most people overlook, and what it actually takes to commercialize a new biomaterial in a space dominated by low-cost, petroleum-based incumbents. Lauryn walks through the early research process, the tradeoffs involved in material selection, and the realities of working with suppliers and manufacturing partners when you’re building on top of emerging technologies rather than established supply chains.
We also get into pricing and positioning in a highly price-sensitive category, how GOB thinks about margins and cost reduction over time, and why subscription has become the core business model as the company shifts toward daily-use, health-driven customers. Lauryn shares how GOB is approaching distribution across DTC, music venues, and retail, and how those channels serve different roles at different stages.
This was a thoughtful, grounded conversation about building a premium physical product in a commoditized category, the real constraints of scaling physical products that don’t rely on petrochemicals, and what it actually means to design products with end-of-life in mind. I learned so much during our conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
