John Cronin and Mark Cronin Co-Founders of John’s Crazy Socks

About this episode

John and Mark Cronin discuss the journey of starting John's Crazy Socks, emphasizing creativity and personal expression through fun socks.

Not liking the choices he faced, John turned to his father and said, “I want to go into business with you.” John had worked with Mark before and he thought the best way to find a job he would love was to create one. To Mark, this seemed like a great plan. The two would-be partners needed to come up with an idea for their business. John’s first suggestion? A fun store. “I wanted something fun and creative.” Though neither of them could figure out what a fun store would actually sell. Next, John suggested a food truck. He had seen the movie Chef starring Jon Favreau, about a father-son food truck business. The two started cooking up plans on what they could serve when they ran into a problem. John explained, “We can’t cook.” With his food truck initiative gone, John hit his Eureka moment. “Let’s sell socks.” John suggested they sell crazy socks. He even had the name for the business and some drawings of the website. Asked why socks, John says, “I wore crazy socks my entire life. They are fun, colorful and creative. They let me be me.” Mark adds, “John had worn crazy socks his entire life, that was his thing. We would drive around looking for them. It seemed as if John loved fun…

People in this episode

Guests: John Cronin, Mark Cronin

Topics covered

• entrepreneurship
• special needs
• business creation
• family business
• e-commerce

Keywords

• John Cronin
• Mark Cronin
• John's Crazy Socks
• entrepreneurship
• special needs
• e-commerce
• fun socks

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: John’s Crazy Socks

Books & works: Chef

Places: New York

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