Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Johnson.
Blake Johnson is a Los Angeles based entrepreneur who has founded and successfully sold a variety of businesses throughout his stunning career. The current valuations for the businesses he has founded exceed $1.1 billion. He has achieved such success by focusing on business fundamentals and forward-thinking endeavors. His thoughts on business, success, and the entrepreneurial mindset can be found at blakebjohnson.com, a thought-leadership website that he maintains.
Blake currently serves as the founder and chairman of Byte, a direct to consumer dental aligner company. Byte has revealed a massively underserved segment in the dental industry and has achieved rapid and significant success. Under the Byte business model, clients receive dental impression kits at home. Those impressions are then reviewed by a nationwide network of dentists and orthodontists, and the client is sent a customized treatment plan. Actress Kerry Washington serves as a creative partner and has helped to draw well-deserved attention to the brand through social commentary and creative marketing.
Prior to Byte, Blake served as the Chairman and Founder of Currency Capital and IM Capital Access. Both companies were named on the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Best Places to Work, and several of his ventures have landed him on the Inc 500/5000 list of fastest-growing privately held companies. In his free time, Blake pursues a variety of philanthropic endeavors. He is a significant benefactor of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Boy Scouts of America (achieving Eagle Scout status in his youth), the International Justice Mission, and MOCA Los Angeles. Through the Blake Johnson Alliance, he provides grants to deserving businesses and non-profits serving the advancement of education, arts, sciences, and social well-being. He currently lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife and two children and is passionate about creating and improving opportunities in his Southern California community.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Hell no! It has been anything but smooth. It’s been horribly turbulent and the highs, high and the lows, low. I got started out on my own in 2005. In 2007 I had one of the fastest-growing companies in Los Angeles. In 2008/2009, in the depth of the financial crisis, I narrowly escaped bankruptcy and didn’t take a day off work until Memorial Day, 2012. I started three companies in that time, all of which I successfully exited and sold to Hedge Funds/Private Equity Groups. I had a near business death misses in 2015-2107 that could have completely derailed the entire path too.
As you know, we’re big fans of Byte. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Byte is the #1 rated, doctor directed company leading the medtech revolution. Byte is a direct to consumer brand that will disrupting the traditional orthodontics market. Orthodontics distributed via traditional means are too expensive for a large group of consumers. In addition, many consumers forgo orthodontic treatment due the inconvenience of numerous and repeated in-office visits. Byte will address both of these problems by offering high quality, clear orthodontics directly to consumers.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Los Angeles is still the land of unprecedented opportunity. The access to people and opportunity are unsurpassed in Los Angeles and if you an entrepreneur, your chances of succeeding with your endeavor are better in Los Angeles than any other place in the world. This city is and has been an epicenter of access, energy and dreams. Worst part… Non-covid traffic. I really don’t think there is much to say negative. People say employees are more transient but I don’t buy that. We have millions upon millions of people here, it is just a matter of creating an environment better than the rest to keep them.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: blakebjohnson.com
