I have played lacrosse since I was eleven and can proudly say that it is my favorite sport on two feet. Not only did I love the sport from a technical perspective (i.e. the physicality, the agility, the strategy, the speed, etc.), but I also fell in love with the broader aspects of the sport. Things like the history, the equipment, and especially the stick. Each lacrosse players stick is completely personalized to his style of play. No stick is the same. It was this love that led me to East Coast Dyes Lacrosse. In 2011, Greg Keneally decided he had enough of the stagnant, underdeveloped market of lacrosse heads and mesh and decided to do something about it. They started manufacturing and dying their own mesh in their basement and selling to it local lacrosse players around them. Their website explains, “In May of 2012, the business was starting to pick up and the ECD fan base was rapidly growing. Due to the increase in demand Greg formed a partnership with his twin brother Mike. Greg would ship the orders and Mike would make the mesh. They thought this would be a great hobby while they finished earning their master’s degree in accounting.” Little did they know that they would become. In a 2017 CNBC article, author Darla Mercado writes “…Mike and Greg attribute their company’s success to their financial know-how and willingness to keep costs low. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t be afraid to jump into a small business without any investors, Mike said… “Staying in our house, having low costs, and boot-strapping the company was a really smart decision instead of getting investors right away…” Now, with only around 30 employees, ECD is worth ~$8.1 million dollars and is one of, if not the, most recognizable brands in the lacrosse world. I am a loyal customer’s of theirs, having bought almost all of my gear from them, and would highly recommend them to any other lacrosse player

When people talk about quickly changing markets, they always mention the EV market, the world of technology and AI, scientific advances, etc. But when was the last time you heard about a change in the grocery shopping market? We all need and buy food, and yet we always do it the same way: drive to the store, wander around the store “looking” for the commodity we came for but, in reality, hoping something else will catch our eye that we might snack on later, and then we drive home. A small trip for some eggs could quickly become a 45 minute long adventure which ends with you leaving the store with four bags full of everything you could dream of, except the one thing you went for… eggs. I forget what I am shopping for all of the time. Well, thankfully that all changed around a decade ago with Instacart.

In 2012, Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, and Brandon Leonardo, recognized this problem and figured out an incredible solution. In a September 2023 Contrary Research article, journalists Cory Anderson and Sachin Maini write, “Born in India and raised in Canada, Mehta graduated from the University of Waterloo with an engineering degree and worked for Blackberry and Qualcomm. He then moved to Amazon, where he was a supply chain engineer for Amazon’s ecommerce fulfillment system. Mehta left Amazon in 2010 to become an entrepreneur. He came up with 20 failed startup ideas before landing on Instacart.” They then set the blueprint for this app: “Instacart’s product serves four stakeholders: consumers who use the app to purchase goods, shoppers who purchase and deliver goods, retailers who stock the goods, and brand partners who use Instacart to serve ads for high-intent shoppers.” In other words, Instacart gives the consumer the ability to always get exactly what they want on the day they want it. No longer do we have to waste extra money going to the grocery store and walking around like a chicken with our heads cut off. With just a few clicks, those eggs you need will be at your door.