Ryan Emmons is the co-founder and CEO of Waiākea, Hawaiian volcanic water that starts as rain and snow on Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano. He started Waiākea in Hilo in 2012 with two co-founders, including his cousin.

Ryan believed the world didn’t need another premium bottled water, so Waiākea had to push the whole category to do better. Fourteen years in, it has earned the highest B Corp score ever given to a water brand, and through its own nonprofit, the Kōkua Initiative, it supports education, conservation, and people in need across Hawaiʻi.

Ryan cares deeply about the people in his life, from his team to his two girls to the communities Waiākea gives back to. Every founder has a different reason for showing up, and for Ryan, so much of it has to do with people.

In this episode we get into:

• The reason behind Waiākea, fourteen years in

• Summers at his grandmother’s bed and breakfast, and where his values came from

• How becoming a dad made him empathetic toward everyone, even people behaving badly

• What it’s like to carry a team, their families, and his early investors

• Where the name Waiākea comes from

• The side of Hawaiʻi most visitors never see

• The night before he was supposed to close on a new bottling facility

• How he handles a crisis now compared with the days of “you and two other guys”

• Fifteen credit cards and fourteen years of running hand to mouth

• Choosing a public benefit corporation over private equity money

• Why he couldn’t have started Waiākea as a husband and father

• The bar his dad set as a parent

• Who Ryan is without Waiākea

• How he sees his legacy

• And why he could never do it alone

More:

• Find Waiākea: www.waiakea.com