Eddie Cohen is the founder of Walden, a brand that designs, engineers, and manufactures products for meditation. Eddie’s founder journey started after a 10-day meditation retreat. As a product designer who worked at Apple, he discovered that the products at the retreat lacked inspiring aesthetics. With Walden, Eddie wants it to become Nike for the mind, providing customers with beautiful and thoughtfully designed products that promote a mindful lifestyle.
Eddie and I discuss his founder journey, why he decided to manufacture products in the US, the post-COVID health and wellness boom and how he manages to finance inventory for his growing product assortment. He also provides insights for how entrepreneurs can use meditation for dealing with the inevitable stresses of building a company.
If you love a good founder story from someone who is truly living their passion, then I think you will enjoy this episode.
Discussion Topics:
(1:20) Icebreaker: Instagram handles and burning man.
(5:28) Meditation & mental health in a post-COVID world.
(12:12) Designing a better cold plunge.
(17:39) 10 days of silence.
(22:44) Japanese Zen influence.
(29:00) Using meditation to become a better entrepreneur.
(38:50) Inventory financing and launching new products.
(47:59) Giving up a dream job to become an entrepreneur.
(52:43) The future of Walden.
(55:50) Rapid fire questions.