100 sales reps earning six figures, and 4,000 live events per year generating $50 million in revenue. Then in March 2020, 90% of it vanished in weeks. Bryan Hurley, founder of 360 Cookware, had already made the bet most founders would never touch: building an American manufacturing plant when everyone else was shipping production to China. He could not shut it down, could not lay off his team, and had no outside investors to call.

What kept the company alive was the same thing that made it look foolish on paper: total vertical integration and a product built to last forever. Bryan turned down a 60% margin improvement to keep jobs in America, refused to coat his cookware with chemicals, the industry quietly cycles through regulatory loopholes, and is now fielding more manufacturing requests than in the past 22 years combined . If you are building a product business and wondering whether quality or cost wins long term, this is the episode.

Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(04:19) How to Survive Industry Disruption

(08:29) What "Heirloom Quality" Actually Means

(12:06) Bryan's Origin Story in Sales

(21:03) Never Rely on One Sales Channel

(31:04) The $12M Burn the Ships Moment

(37:00) Why He Stopped Chasing Private Labels

(44:07) How Coated Cookware Tricks You

(54:17) Advice on Parenting as a Founder

His mentor's only advice: "Sell more good." Drop a comment with the best one-liner advice you've ever received.

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Connect with Michael:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/michaelrhunter

Website: https://michaelrhunter.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrhunter

Connect with Bryan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-hurley-7a622551

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/360cookware

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/360cookware

Website: https://www.360cookware.com

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