FORGE Fireside with Scott Cohen and Blake Johnson

This month, FORGE Founding Executive Director Brian Ellerman chats with University of Arizona alumni and Byte Co-Founders Scott Cohen and Blake Johnson.

As profiled in FORBES magazine - "entrepreneurs Scott Cohen and Blake Johnson built this unicorn in record time in what some have called one of the greatest direct-to-consumer success stories of the century. Founded in 2017, Byte launched its products at the start of 2019, and they inked the billion-dollar all-cash deal with Dentsply less than two years later."

Hear from Scott and Blake about the entrepreneurial lessons that have made the most difference in their success and what areas of growth they are prioritizing now.

Scott Cohen is serial entrepreneur and investor with a demonstrated track record of building start up companies to growth stage, to exit. He has a passion for hiring great leadership teams to solve massive needs in large addressable markets and is skilled in start ups, executive leadership, D2C model, Software as a Service (SaaS), Marketing and Sales Strategy. In the Non Profit Sector, he serves on the Board of Directors of five organizations that span Health, Economic Empowerment, Education, and Poverty Alleviation. He has been named EY Entrepreneur of the Year

Blake Johnson is a Los Angeles based entrepreneur who has founded and successfully sold a variety of businesses throughout his career. Winner of the 2021 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the LABJ Nonprofit & Corporate Citizenship Awards Philanthropist of the Year Award, the current valuations for the 5 businesses he has conceptualized, founded, self-funded and sold exceed $1.15 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.