About
About Eddie
Eddie Yoon is the founder of Eddie Would Grow, a think tank and advisory firm specializing in business growth strategy. Previously, he was a principal at the Chicago-based consulting firm, The Cambridge Group.
Eddie Would Grow generates billion dollar outcomes for clients via superconsumer growth strategies. These strategies help birth new categories and drive existing category growth.
Eddie is also an acclaimed author of Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth, published by Harvard Business School Press. Strategy+Business named it one of the best business books of 2017.
Since 2009, Eddie has been a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review. In fact, he has written more for HBR than any other contributor on Category Creation.
Eddie is one of three co-founders of Category Pirates, the authority on Category Design and Category Creation. He and his fellow co-founders, Christopher Lochhead and Nicolas Cole, publish their innovative thoughts and theories, sending them straight to readers' inboxes. In less than six months, Category Pirates became one of the Top 5 most-read paid newsletters in Substack's business category.
Eddie loves to envision the future, almost as much as he loves Hawaii, the state where he was born and raised. After graduating from Punahou School in Honolulu, Eddie relocated to the midwest, where he earned dual ABs in political science and economics from the University of Chicago. Eddie lives in Chicago with his wife and three children but returns to the islands as often as possible.
Book
Superconsumers: A Simple, Speedy, and Sustainable Path to Superior Growth
Harvard Business Review Press. Named one of the best business books of 2017 by Strategy+Business.
About the name
Why “Eddie Would Grow”
The name "Eddie Would Grow" was inspired by the iconic saying "Eddie Would Go," referring to the world-class waterman and big-wave surfer, Eddie Aikau.
On the North Shore of Oahu, Aikau was Waimea Bay's first lifeguard. He saved 500 people from drowning in the high surf. In 1977, he won the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship.
In 1978, Aikau joined the Hōkūle'a, a 60-foot replica of a Polynesian voyaging canoe, on a 30-day, 2,400-mile journey from Hawaii to Tahiti. The crew were to use only ancient navigational techniques. After the canoe capsized, Aikau was the one who paddled toward Lāna'i in hopes of finding help. While the rest of the crew were eventually rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, Aikau's body was never found.
The surf industry honored the life of Hawaii's surfing hero by organizing the Quicksilver Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, a contest with the unique requirement that the waves must be 20 feet or bigger. While the organizers were deciding whether to proceed, in spite of the huge waves and dangerous conditions, Mark Foo, a famous surfer, looked on and said, "Eddie would go."
The phrase has stuck, and the iconic expression gives tribute to a heroic yet humble man who did not necessarily enjoy competition. More importantly, the statement is about having the courage to pursue greatness when others hesitate. Aikau went where others dared not. Today, his legendary courage encourages others to dream, persevere, and be generous. Yoon shares a similar worldview and loves to collaborate with clients who share the values Aikau embodied.
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