Giorgos Tsetis, co-founder and former CEO of Nutrafol.
Thanks to big things
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for wealthy investors and consumers. Register to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
After struggling with hair loss in his 20s, Giorgos Tsetis co-founded Nutrafol in 2014 to make hair growth supplements. Earlier this year, Tsetis sold its remaining shares worth $3.5 billion to Unilever and resigned as CEO of Nutrafol.
The 41-year-old told Inside Wealth he has two goals for his next chapter: leaving a better world for his young children and investing in companies that care about social good.
“Early on, I had investors making hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars doing virtually nothing. I just made the richest people richer, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said in an interview. However, as a founder, he said he would have appreciated knowing that his success also supported causes such as food access and mental health.
Six months ago, Tsetis launched his family office, Great Things, with the aim of using the profits from his investments to fund his philanthropy. He represents a growing class of ultra-wealthy millennials, like Walmart heir Lukas Walton, who are establishing family offices early on to promote causes like sustainability rather than just wealth preservation. And while many corporate asset managers have reduced their impact investments, family offices generally have not, and next-generation leaders should double down on environmentally or socially responsible investments.
“I think the last thing you want to pass on to your children is wealth. I don’t necessarily think it’s beneficial, although we may think it’s true,” Tsetis said. “I want to make an impact now, and what I’m passionate about is getting my kids involved in these processes so they can see what’s happening in the world.”
Tsetis designed Great Things with a for-profit and a nonprofit arm, with the goal of using investment returns to fund charities that support causes like mental health and crisis response. Tsetis said a “significant portion” of the venture unit’s revenue would be donated to philanthropy, but declined to specify a percentage.
Tsetis began investing seriously in early-stage startups after Nutrafol’s Series B funding in 2019 and ramped it up after Unilever bought a majority stake in 2022. Its portfolio includes AI-driven, healthcare-focused companies like longevity startup NewLimit and BreakBio, a developer of personalized cancer vaccines.
Its investment focus is not directly focused on impact, having backed Anthropic, xAI and SpaceX. Tsetis acknowledged he was concerned about the ramifications of AI. “ChatGPT knows more about me than it does about me, and that’s a problem,” he added. But Tsetis said investing early made it easier for him to have a seat at the table.
“You don’t know where the future is going,” he said. “I prefer to participate rather than be a spectator and, wherever I can, lead and guide these conversations, because I believe we must prioritize human well-being.”
Tsetis’ ultimate goal is to give its portfolio companies a voice in how Great Things’ investment returns are returned.
“Imagine if Nutrafol was able to deploy a million dollars of its choice,” he said. “That could have been very interesting.”
Great Things has six full-time employees so far, and Tsetis’ wife, Cerelina Proesl, advises on philanthropy. The family office has supported nonprofits including Every Cure, which uses artificial intelligence to identify existing drugs to treat rare diseases, and Ubuntu Pathways, an HIV education and treatment provider in South Africa.
Tsetis said he hopes other investors strategize on how to give back rather than doing it after the fact.
Social responsibility “should be something that people are very excited about,” he said. “I hope that people will want to do something to solve this problem that we have now, which is the concentration of wealth.”