Meet Our Founder: Chad Olson

Standard No More started with a pretty simple idea: guys shouldn’t have to choose between grooming products that perform well and products made with ingredients they actually feel good about using.

But the story behind the company goes much deeper than that.

Chad’s oldest son, Mason, sat down with him to talk about where he came from, what shaped him, why he started Standard No More and why he has become so passionate about getting people to pay attention to the products they use every day.

Mason: Let’s start at the beginning. Where did you grow up?

Chad: I’m the youngest of four kids and grew up in a small town outside Chico, California. We definitely didn’t grow up with a lot of money. My mom, your grandma, had an eighth-grade education.  She worked as a grocery store checker and convenience store clerk while raising us and was one of the hardest working people I’ve ever known.

I think a lot of my work ethic came from watching her. There weren’t shortcuts. You showed up, worked hard and did what needed to be done. That was just how I was raised.

Mason: You’ve also talked about football having a big influence on you.

Chad: Huge. My late football coach, Dave Wathen, was one of the most influential people in my life. He taught me discipline, toughness and accountability, but he also helped teach me how to lead.

A lot of that stuck with me. Showing up, doing the work, paying attention to details and not cutting corners. I probably didn’t realize it at the time, but those things eventually became a big part of how I approach business and how I’ve built Standard No More.

Mason: How did a kid from a small town outside Chico end up in San Diego?

Chad: Spring break. [Laughs.]

I was attending Butte College, a junior college up near Chico, and came down to San Diego with some friends for spring break. I fell in love with the city and pretty much decided right then that I was eventually going to live here.

I spent some time at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado, and eventually made the move to San Diego. I attended San Diego State for a few semesters and ultimately earned my bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies from National University.

My plan was actually to go to law school.

Mason: Which obviously didn't happen?

Chad: No. [Laughs.] A close friend of mine, Matt Falcinelli, who went on to become a successful CEO and entrepreneur, convinced me to interview with a software technology company.

I took the interview, got into tech and never looked back.

Mason: And you ended up spending about twenty years in that world. What did you take from it?

Chad: More than I probably realized while I was doing it. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the largest and most recognizable companies in the world, including Amazon, Crocs, Dell, Adidas, Petco, Verizon and Sephora, to name a few.

You learn how major companies operate, how brands are built, how products are positioned and marketed and how much the little things matter.

But I also learned by watching really talented people. I’ve worked around some incredibly smart businesspeople over the years. 

Early in my technology career, I was fortunate to have some great mentors, including Chris Reid, Mark Stock, Dan Wells, our former CEO Josh James, and other executives like Chris Harrington and Don Cash. They were all super successful and great teachers whom I really studied up close and from afar. Probably more than anything, I learned how to be a professional from them. That was an education you don't necessarily get in a classroom.

Mason: So where does the entrepreneurial side come from?

Chad: I’m hopelessly ADHD. [Laughs.] My mind is constantly going 100 mph with idea after idea.  Ideas come to me in the middle of a conversation, walking the dogs, at the gym, watching a movie, or even in my sleep.

I’m always thinking about how something could be created or how something that already exists could be made better. I actually consider that creativity one of my superpowers.

I also hate being told what to do, as anyone with ADHD will tell you. [Laughs.] So I guess starting companies came naturally.

Mason: Of all the things you could have built, why men's grooming products?

Chad: Well, growing up, I always took pride in my appearance. I remember my buddies used to tease me, calling me a “pretty boy,” which was probably well earned, as I spent far too much time in the mirror. [Laughs.] I liked looking presentable, and having good grooming products was always a big part of that.

The problem is that good products are few and far between, and good non-toxic products are even more rare.

As I became more conscious about what I was eating and what I was putting in and on my body, I started looking more closely at the grooming products I had been using for years. 

That's when things started to change for me.

Mason: What did you find?

Chad: I started reading labels.

That sounds incredibly simple, but most of us don't do it. We grab shampoo, deodorant, hair products, body wash, whatever, and assume that because it's sitting on a store shelf, there's nothing in there worth questioning.

I started questioning it.

I was seeing synthetic fragrances, petroleum ingredients, phthalates and all kinds of chemicals I didn't want to use anymore. Then came the realization that really bothered me. I wasn't just using these products myself. I was letting you and Jaden use them too.

Remember the story I told you about Jaden learning to style his hair using my pomade? I had no idea at the time that it was loaded with synthetic ingredients.

Heartbreaking. That made it personal.

Mason: Grandma's death also had an impact on the way you were thinking about health at the time, right?

Chad: Absolutely.  I lost my mom to breast cancer in February 2024. I still wear the breast cancer awareness bracelets we gave family and friends at her funeral.

I want to be careful here because I'm not suggesting that a grooming product directly causes cancer. Cancer is incredibly complex. I turned 50 last year and losing my mom made me think differently about health, longevity and all of the choices we make every day.

There are a lot of things in life we can't control. I became much more interested in the things I could control.

What am I eating? What am I putting on my body? What are my kids using? Are there unnecessary ingredients we can eliminate? Are there better choices we can make?

Mason: Was there a moment when all of this became Standard No More?

Chad: It wasn't really one lightning bolt moment. It evolved.

I started researching ingredients and looking for better products. The problem was that I kept finding compromises. Maybe something had cleaner ingredients but didn't perform well. Maybe it worked but contained something I didn't want. Maybe the scent was terrible. [Laughs.]

Eventually I thought, why can't I just make the product I actually want?

So I did.

Then I made another one. And another.

That's really how Standard No More began.

Mason: What makes a Standard No More product different from a conventional grooming product?

Chad: First, every ingredient has to have a reason for being there. I don't want twenty ingredients in something if we can make a great product with ten.

Second, I'm very intentional about what I won't use. I don't want synthetic fragrance, phthalates, parabens, PEGs, sulfates or a bunch of unnecessary chemicals in our products.

But there's another side of this that matters just as much to me: the products have to perform.

Being non-toxic isn't enough. If my hair wax doesn't work, I don't care how amazing the ingredient list is. You're not going to buy it again.

My goal is to make some of the best men's grooming products available, period. They just happen to be made without a lot of the stuff I don't think needs to be there.

Mason: You've described yourself as pretty maniacal about the formulas.

Chad: That's accurate. [Laughs.]

Every formula is mine. I formulate them, test them, change them and test them again. Sometimes something is almost right and I'll still mess with it for another month because I know it can be better.

Before we launched, I discovered that an ingredient I was using in one of the products didn't meet the standard I wanted for the brand. The product worked really well. I'd already put considerable time into it, and we were getting pretty close to launch.

I scrapped it anyway, which delayed our launch by nearly 6 months.

That probably tells you more about Standard No More than any marketing slogan I could write.

Mason: Is that where the name comes from?

Chad: That's really what the name means to me.

Why should something continue to be the standard just because it's what everyone has always done?

I question things. Sometimes probably to an annoying degree. [Laughs.] But if there's a better way to make something, a better ingredient to use or a better choice available, I want to know why we're not doing it.

That's Standard No More.

Mason: You've also become pretty vocal about the broader non-toxic movement.

Chad: Oh, I'm probably annoying sometimes. [Laughs.]  It’s getting to the point where friends and family see me coming and they start scattering.

When I believe in something, I become very one-track minded. Ask my wife. Ask my friends. Ask you and Jaden.  You all will confirm it. [Laughs.]

But I really believe in this.  It's almost like a crusade to me.

I started the Standard No More blog because I don't just want to sell somebody a jar of hair clay. I want people to start paying attention. Turn the bottle around. Read the ingredients. Look something up. Ask why it's in there.

I'm not trying to scare people, and I'm definitely not pretending anyone can live a perfectly non-toxic life. I don't.

It's about making better choices when you can.

Mason: Our family obviously comes up a lot when you talk about the company. How important are we to all of this?

Chad: You're everything.

Adriana and I have you two boys who couldn't be more different. Jaden is a natural athlete and competes in soccer and jiu-jitsu. And you are incredibly creative and can absolutely shred on the electric guitar. Jaden is learning Portuguese, and you speak German.

I'm incredibly proud of both of you.

You are a big part of why this matters to me. At some point you realize your kids are watching what you do, what you value and the choices you make.

I want you and Jaden to see that if you believe something can be better, you don't have to just complain about it. You can try to build something better.  Plus, you challenged me to start a business and here we are.

Mason: So what do you ultimately want Standard No More to become?

Chad: I want us to make some of the best non-toxic men's grooming products in the world.

But I'd also love for Standard No More to contribute to something bigger than grooming products. If somebody finds us because they need hair wax, then starts reading labels because of something they read on our blog, that's a win.

The idea is pretty simple.

Take care of yourself. Pay attention. Ask questions. Make better choices when you can.

And don't accept something as the standard simply because everybody else does.

That's Standard No More.