Heroes in Business - Robert Fried, CEO ChromaDex, Academy Award winning Producer Rudy and Godzilla

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

One of the minds behind movies Rudy and Godzilla! CEO ChromaDex, and Academy Award winning Producer Robert Fried, is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and host of the Eliances Heroes show broadcast on am and fm network channels, internet radio, and online syndication.

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. All right. Well, welcome back. And make sure, again, you check out our past interview of where I had the co-founder of Oracle on. So make sure you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. The only place, the only place where entrepreneurs align. Excited about interviewing our next hero. Why? Well, for a number of reasons.

First of all, you're going to be blown away by what he's done in the past and now what he is doing now to help so many people. So welcome to the show, Robert Freed, Academy Award-winning producer and also CEO of Chromadex. You could reach him at chromadex.com, that's C-H-R-o-m-a-d-e-x.com or of course on our website at alliances.com e-l-i-a-n-c-e-s.com all right robert boy you are the producer for some of the coolest movies rudy godzilla and others i need to ask you though is this what was it like creating the movie rud and also Godzilla? I mean, two totally different types of films. Rudy, what was it like producing Rudy?

Rudy is a very special person. We met, became very close. A couple of years prior that I had worked on a movie called Hoosiers, I heard the Rudy story, which I was very taken by, and went to the Hoosiers writer and director. They then wrote this script, Rudy. It's very similar to Hoosiers, and directed the movie. And we had a great time. We spent three months at Notre Dame in the early 90s. It was a great football team back then. Lou Holtz was the coach. Notre Dame was very welcoming and very gracious. And we made a film that we're very, very proud of and we think has had a positive impact on many people's lives. Oh, yeah. And I mean, again, I remember that

movie quite well. And just it was so captivating. And really, I mean, now I've got to tell you, honestly, I was tearing up watching it. And then Godzilla was an idea. I remember the time I was watching an NBA basketball game. And at the time I saw a Charles Barkley Godzilla, you know, many years ago and went to work the next day and did some research about the rights to Godzilla. It turned out it was a company in Japan called Toho, Toho, Japan. in Japan called Toho, Toho, Japan. And it took nine years to get the rights to produce a U.S. English language, American big budget version of Godzilla.

Many trips back and forth, many golf games. Lots of trust had to be formed, which is the foundation of any business venture that one does. Personal relations, relationships and trust formation. And finally, we ultimately decided to allow us to make the film. And we hired Roland Emmerich, who had just come off a pretty good movie, a great movie called Independence Day. And Roland and his partner at that time, Dean Devlin, came in and rewrote our script and then directed the movie.

And it ended up being a very successful film at the time and a great experience for us, but very very different to the really experience Which is much more of a personal endeavor to Move people and have an impact on people's lives Godzilla Whereas we did have the idea that want to do tell a story of Sino American relations and the impact of nuclear war was more of just an entertainment American relations and the impact of nuclear war was more of just an entertainment. And you have entered into such a, you know, I mean, being in the movie industry is such a competitive industry. And we're going to be talking about what you're doing now too here in a minute

and how that is also competitive, but you've excelled in both of them. How have you done so well in the industries that you've touched? have you done so well in the industries that you've touched? Thank you for saying that. I think the basic principles of success are the same no matter what you do. Work hard. Finish what you start. Have a vision. Complete that vision. Be honest with yourself and with others with whom you work. Those basic principles apply no matter what it is that you try to do. There is a cost, though. When you go from one area of endeavor to another and you start over again, there is knowledge loss, there's relationship loss, and there's a time loss. There's a cost involved in making changes like this, but most people who are entrepreneurial

and who are attracted to creative thinking and creative ideas do make changes because they are passion driven. They are driven by a desire to say something or do something or create something. And often that implies change. In fact, I want to now get into what industry now you're doing, which is a completely other industry. But before we do is, you know, what industry you're doing now, you're doing, which is a completely other industry. But before we do, what industry you're doing now, you're watching, listening to me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. So make sure that you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Why? Because it's the only place where entrepreneurs align. And we have with us Robert Freed, CEO of Chromadex. And he's also

Academy Award winning producer for many famous films, Rudy Godzilla and others. You can reach him at chromadex.com, C-H-R-O-M-A-D-E-X.com. Okay, so Robert, you go from being well-known within the industry of movies, you've won awards, you're at the top here with the Academy and the Oscar, and now you make a switch to a completely different industry. Tell us about how that occurred and why you decided to go and be the CEO of Chromadex. Of course, I've only been the CEO of Chromadex for two and a half years. Before that, I was president of Chromadex and an investor and board member of Chromadex for a few years prior to that. It may seem like an overnight gradual

transition. It indeed was not. I had a friend that I knew that had started an internet company in the 90s called WebTV. WebTV was an internet television company. He got involved as a member of the investor. WebTV was a very interesting technology. It's sold to Microsoft. After WebTV, we formed an e-commerce service company that was called WHN, which stood for What's Hot Now. It was an e-commerce business that built, built and managed the online stores for most television cable companies and movie studios. So for the last 20 years, I've been heavily involved in the internet technology and in e-commerce, in addition to producing films. Around that time,

20 years ago, I had met another entrepreneur who had a biotech company that was studying stem cells in something called telomeres, which are little fragments of protein on the exterior of chromosomes on cells that shrink every time a cell divides. And it turns out that certain types of cells that are immortal, when the telomeres don't shrink as the cell divides, the thesis was that if we could identify the enzyme that keeps telomeres from shrinking when the cell divides, perhaps we could make the cell itself immortal. And I thought that technology was interesting and the science was interesting. So I became behind metabolically growing older. I thought that that would be an interesting thing to accomplish. And plus, I myself didn't really feel much like getting older.

So I began to research the technology here. And it turns out that there is a molecule that exists in all living cells called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, NAD, adenine dinucleotide, NAD, which is very central to all key metabolic processes, but almost all metabolic processes related to aging. And by elevating NAD levels in cells, you actually strengthen the empowered cell and in effect, prevent aging inside the cell. So what began as sort of an intellectual obsession ultimately led to the identification of the company, Promodex, which has a very strong patent portfolio around an ingredient that elevates NAD levels very safely and very effectively. I began investing in that company,

eventually went on the board of the company, then went from board member to executive and now CEO of the company with a mission of communicating to people the importance of NAD and this product in particular, which is called True Niagen, which is a very safe and effective way to elevate NAD levels. It's just a dietary supplement and it impacts the way the body ages. I think it's an important mission and it's why I'm presently working at Chromadex. So let's talk about some of the Chromadex products then. And again, it is a NASDAQ-listed company under CDXC. Talk to us about some of the popular products that are coming out. Chromadex is a bioscience company. We do a great deal of research and development, developing molecules.

Most molecules are related to the aging process, but there's one molecule in particular, and this molecule is called nicotinamide riboside. Nicotinamide riboside is a very, very unique molecule in that when taken orally, it has a very dramatic and positive impact on your NAD levels in the cell. I believe that nicotinamide riboside should be in the water supply. It helps you recover. It helps you heal. All stressors, physiological stressors,

are involved in NAD process. Energy metabolism, one of the biggest mitochondrial functions. In order for a mitochondria to create energy in the cell, it requires NAD. If you have more NAD, you have more mitochondria, more efficient mitochondria, and more energy in the body. Nicotinamide riboside is very, very important. So the key flagship product of Chromadex is a consumer product called TruNiagen nitrogen which contains nicotinamide riboside and you could just buy as a dietary supplement you take it every day you know you you could drink coffee get caffeine and sugar and feel short-term energy but if you take true nitrogen over a period of time you're going to have elevated long-term energy at the cellular level over several months and you'll notice that

not only impacts the body's physiological energy levels but the way the body reacts to physiological stress like lack of sleep or overeating or alcohol or infections or recovery etc all these things are energy related and if you take true nitrogen for a period of time, you'll notice an improvement. If you work out a level a lot, you're likely to notice an improvement in recovery, perhaps even an elevation in your workout levels.

So it's an important product and it is the key flagship product of Chromadex. Well, excellent. And where could we find it then? Is it sold in stores or go to chromadex.com? It's sold on chromadex.com and on Amazon. Outside the US, it's got a fairly significant retail distribution, but in the United States, it's basically not in business. All right. Well, great. Well, again, you know what, Rob? You started in the entertainment, bringing joy and now working to fight aging. Make sure you go to Chromadex.com. That's C-H-R-O-M-A-D-E-X.com. That's a hero. Robert Freed, CEO, founder of Chromadex, Academy Award-winning producer of Chromadex.com.

This has been David Kogan with the Alliance of Heroes show.