You guys — this one is special because it’s about how small innovation can completely take down an incumbent and then be absorbed by them, which is basically the ultimate tech comeback story: Roger Dahle went from founding Blackstone Griddles as a startup to becoming CEO of Weber after Cadence Health acquired both companies. Before anyone knew what hit them, his griddles were everywhere — 500k units sold in 24 months, Amazon best-seller status for two years straight, and every influencer with one — the product was so disruptive that Weber had no choice but to buy them in 2023. The deal was around $180M, and now Dahle runs both brands under Cadence Health, meaning we get a griddle-centric grill brand (GrillWorks) alongside the traditional gas grills. It's one of those "I told you so" stories where a well-executed niche product beats a legacy giant on its own turf through pure design, and now the big player owns both brands — it’s beautiful business strategy that I can recommend with total conviction to anyone interested in how competition actually plays out.

And while we're talking about Amazon products: you should grab this Chrome extension too — it literally hides those annoying knockoff brands like WNPETHOME, EHEYCIGA, and YXY so you never have to click on them again. The creator built it because they were tired of searching for legitimate brands only to get buried in duplicates, and now there's a one-click install that filters out all the junk names instantly. It doesn't affect your actual search — just removes those low-quality listings from view. You can grab the extension right here if you want it:

Source: https://www.theverge.com/podcast/958790/weber-blackstone-ceo-roger-dahle-grilling-griddles-merger-outdoor-cooking
Also see: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/amazon-brands-helper/pmlbneojmbeobnmdlndglonnbmebhba