#409 - Jason McCann - CEO @ Vari - How a Simple Product Became a Global Brand

Apr 7, 2026

Jason McCann, co-founder and CEO of Vari, turned a cardboard-box standing desk into a global workspace brand. He discusses prototyping and product iteration, using AI for design and ops, scaling manufacturing and fulfillment, adding design and installation services, recruiting top HR leadership, and the future of work and reindustrialization.

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ANECDOTE

How A Cardboard Box Idea Became Vari

Vari began when Dan, with back pain, improvised a standing solution that led to a simple slide-on standing desk prototype.
Jason and Dan tested it in their office, gave samples to employees, then landed early orders from Verizon after pitching with a Wall Street Journal article citing “sitting is the new smoking.”

ADVICE

Prototype Faster With AI And Online Sourcing

Use modern AI and online sourcing to go from concept to prototype without an in‑house design team.
Leverage ChatGPT, visualization tools and platforms like Alibaba to generate mockups and find factories quickly.

ADVICE

Let Individuals Pilot AI Then Scale The Winners

Let teams experiment with AI in their domains and promote the people who naturally excel at it.
Jason gave freedom to product, finance and Taiwan teams to prototype AI modules, then added guardrails and internalized successful modules.

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Today I sit down with Jason McCann, Co-Founder and CEO of Vari - a company that started when his business partner stood at a cardboard box complaining of back pain and turned that moment into a brand that has shipped millions of desks and transformed over a thousand offices.

Jason built Vari direct-to-consumer in an industry that had never seen it. He bootstrapped the company while every instinct in the market said raise capital and burn cash. He became the fastest-growing company in Dallas, survived COVID after just putting $15 million into a TV campaign and opening 12 showrooms, and came out the other side as a fundamentally different leader.

We go deep on what it actually takes to innovate legacy product categories, how he recruited the former Chief People Officer of Southwest Airlines over a cup of coffee, and why an introvert had to learn to over-communicate when hundreds of families were counting on him.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

Links:

Vari - https://www.vari.com/

Jason on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-mccann-vari/

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Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:03:29) - How Vari was started
(00:08:42) - How entrepreneurs should think about product development
(00:11:24) - How Jason approaches AI
(00:24:07) - Developing the standing desk
(00:36:53) - Jason’s approach to manufacturing
(00:47:16) - How Vari develops new products and services
(00:56:59) - Bringing on the head of people of Southwest Airlines
(01:04:31) - How Vari thinks about innovation vs. leaving products alone
(01:14:55) - The future of work in 2026
(01:19:50) - The reindustrialization of America
(01:23:36) - Jason’s unique leadership style
(01:28:47) - Why Jason only wears black
(01:31:52) - What a week looks like for Jason
(01:40:46) - How vari runs exec meetings

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