Forbes_USA_June_13_2017

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ENTREPRENEURS SMALL GIANTS Lightbulb Moment It took a trip to China for the founders of Green Creative to spot an LED-bulb niche in the U.S. BY JEFF KAUFLIN Haute lighting: Guillaume Vidal (left) and Cole Zucker design their own lights, comparing the process of adding components to that of a chef mixing ingredients. As Cole Zucker drives through San Francisco’s Mission District in his white BMW M4, he uses one hand to steer through busy intersections and the other to flip through women’s profiles on a dating app. It’s a big change from the weekday evenings in the spring of 2011, when Zucker would drive his Mazda 3 the roughly 40 miles from San Francisco to San Jose and park on a residential street around midnight. He’d get into the backseat, hang clothes over the windows for privacy and go to sleep. Four hours later, knowing it was the best time to catch them, he’d walk into one office building after an- other, looking for building engineers who might want to buy his startup’s lighting products. Nearly every one of them turned him away. Six years later, Zucker, 33, and his 35-year-old cofounder, Guillaume Vidal, are co-CEOs of Green Creative, a profitable lighting manufacturer with 70 employees and $52 million in revenue. Their bulbs illuminate the aisles of many Walmart, Whole Foods and J. Crew stores. In a market dominated by Philips, GE and Osram Sylvania, Vidal and Zucker saw an opening when LED technology started to take off. They bet that the giant firms were illequipped to make the most of the rapidly evolving technology. “We used to worry about whether anyone would buy LED products,” Zucker says. “Now we worry about how to maintain our breakneck growth rate.” The big draw of LED bulbs, of course, is efficiency. They use up to 75% less energy than incandescent ones and last 25 times longer. Even today, LEDs represent less than 10% of the U.S. market, but they’re gaining fast. Around the time LEDs started to catch on, Zucker was fired as a fixed-income research associate at Prudential. He had entrepreneurial aspirations and became fixated on China. To his parents’ dismay, Zucker, who had studied Mandarin in college, moved to Shanghai in 2007 with $3,500 in savings and no prospects. He eventually secured a job in sales for a lighting and flooring company. Vidal, who is from the South of France, started working in marketing in 2004 at a Hong Kong supply- chain company, helping clients with everything from shipping and logistics to finding lighting manufacturers. Two years later, he was opening a new office in Shanghai. “It’s Asia,” he says. “As soon as you have a little bit of understanding or people start trusting you, they will just throw crazy opportunities at you.” TIMOTHY ARCHIBALD FOR FORBES 58 | FORBES JUNE 13, 2017
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DISCOVER THE #WinstonGarden
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Contents // JUNE 13, 2017 VOLUME 19
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Here’s to breaking more glass cei
Page 9 and 10: UNICEF does not endorse any brand o
Page 11 and 12: Suchi Mehta, Sheraton Associate sin
Page 13 and 14: FACT & COMMENT “With all thy gett
Page 15: Slack is where work happens, for mi
Page 18 and 19: LeaderBoard ABOUT-FACE The rear of
Page 20 and 21: LeaderBoard ENTERTAINMENT Hello, Do
Page 22: LeaderBoard ON THE BLOCK Time Machi
Page 25 and 26: Learn why enterprises worldwide tru
Page 27 and 28: REL ABLE You rely on your employees
Page 29 and 30: O-mobile: Jerry Seinfeld got coffee
Page 31 and 32: THE ETERNAL MOVEMENT Ulysse Nardin,
Page 34 and 35: LeaderBoard CONVERSATION THE INTERE
Page 36 and 37: Where Creativity Connects. Spring i
Page 38 and 39: STRATEGIES 36 | FORBES MONTH 00, 20
Page 40 and 41: STRATEGIES most successful technolo
Page 42 and 43: STRATEGIES Farquhar and Cannon-Broo
Page 44 and 45: STRATEGIES Mohammed bin Salman, 31
Page 46 and 47: STRATEGIES How the West Was Won Des
Page 48: TECHNOLOGY FAST TECH 25 Big Pharma
Page 51 and 52: CEO, JON ORINGER SHUTTERSTOCK Shutt
Page 54 and 55: 3 0 3 0 U N D E R OFFICE MATES ORGA
Page 56 and 57: ENTREPRENEURS Google Slayer Startin
Page 58 and 59: ENTREPRENEURS HUMAN RESOURCES HOW T
Page 62: ENTREPRENEURS Vidal later joined Ta
Page 65 and 66: your co-conspirator might give you
Page 68 and 69: INVESTING FUNDS Build the Wall! Por
Page 70 and 71: Passion fuels potential. Inspiratio
Page 72 and 73: America’s Richest Self-Made Women
Page 76 and 77: Sponsored Inspiring Greatness: ADVA
Page 96 and 97: THE LOOMING RETAIL BAILOUT Think Am
Page 98 and 99: FORBES RETAIL BAILOUT CHEAP LABOR H
Page 100 and 101: FORBES RETAIL BAILOUT 10 5 0% % 10
Page 102 and 103: THE BIG CHEESE FROM PIZZA HUT AND D
Page 104 and 105: THE CHEESE KING An avalanche of che
Page 106 and 107: THE CHEESE KING Just as his timing
Page 108 and 109: FORBES LIFE The Second Time Around
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THOUGHTS ON Pioneers “I don’t r
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LET’S LACE UP OUR SHOES. LET’S
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HOW ONE WOMAN LAUNCHED A PUBLIC HEA
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THE ZIP SHOULDER TOTE DETROIT • W
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