Tim Brown on Navigating the Highs & Lows of All Birds - Business Lessons with All White Turned Entrepreneur

Tim Brown had been a dream guest for us since we started the Between Two Beers podcast in 2019 – and he didn’t disappoint when we recorded with him at the end of 2023.

This is one of our favourite episodes and we left this original recording feeling incredibly inspired.

Tim was a professional footballer who played 112 times for the Wellington Phoenix and earned 30 caps for the All Whites.

But at the same time, he was forming an idea for a woollen, environmentally friendly, sustainable shoe.

That idea became Allbirds, and nine years after co-founding the company it went public on the Nasdaq with a valuation close to $4 billion US dollars.

In this episode we talk about the realities of being the CEO of a billion-dollar company, all the most interesting steps on his journey from a Wellington flat to worldwide footwear industry leader, partnering with Leonardo di Caprio and meeting Barack Obama, the challenges the company faced in 2023 and why he stepped down as co-CEO.

Since recording this in 2023, Tim’s co-founder Joey Zwillinger has followed in his footsteps, with a team of executives with more traditional footwear and retail roles steering a restructure at Allbirds.

Meanwhile Tim has also joined Icehouse Ventures as a Venture Partner focusing on US businesses and has became a minority shareholder at Auckland FC, the newest professional football franchise in New Zealand where his sporting insights will be invaluable.

For this episode of Business in Between we pick up our conversation with Tim after he had retired from football at the age of 31 to pursue a master’s degree in management at the London Business School.

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