George Milton co-founded Yellowbird in 2012 with his partner Erin Link, in their Austin backyard, with 150 habanero plants and a refusal to make the watered-down stuff. He came up as a working musician, selling hot sauce out of a backpack at gigs until the bottles started moving faster than the CDs. 13 years later, Yellowbird is a national hot sauce brand homegrown in Austin, Texas, with the line "Keep hot sauce weird" stamped on the side. Last October, George stepped aside as CEO, hired his replacement, and published a public Substack post called "I just hired my replacement" that didn't try to make any of it look tidy.

In this episode we get into:

• Getting ahead of the narrative before the industry decided it for him

• The moment the CEO search got real

• Devastated and relieved at the same time

• Knowing years ago there would be a ceiling he wasn't suited for

• The trap of being too in the business

• What happens when your mattering project is no longer your job

• Calling customers personally about a damaged bottle

• Why focus groups are a $20 billion-a-year waste

• Selling hot sauce out of a backpack while the CDs went nowhere

• Building a company with your life partner

• Reserving the right to say "I love you, I can't talk about this right now"

• Almost giving up every Sunday at 2pm

• Endurance as the actual edge

• Hoping someone reads his resume at his funeral and is confused

More:

• Find Yellowbird: yellowbirdfoods.com

• Read Lucas' deep dive on takeaways from this episode here

• Read George's letter, "I Just Hired My Replacement"

• Listen to George's podcast, Gross to Net, on Spotfiy