Greenbook Future List Spotlight: Daniel Wu

Editor’s Note: The following interview features a 2025 Greenbook Future List honoree, Daniel Wu. The Greenbook Future List recognizes leadership, professional growth, personal integrity, passion, and excellence in the next generation of consumer insights and marketing professionals within the first 10 years of their careers.

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Daniel Wu and his wife founded Culture Kitchn, a kombucha brand inspired by his journey overcoming lactose intolerance. What started as a fun experiment became a thriving business, offering smoother, Asian-inspired flavors like Lychee and Yuzu. Now in 50+ locations, their hands-on approach fuels both their growth and Dan’s passion for all things DIY, earning him the nickname "Handy Dan."

As the founder of Nimbly, Daniel reshaped market research by prioritizing speed, innovation, and human connection. With no initial client base, he built the agency from scratch, now working with Fortune 100 brands. His leadership style blends curiosity, empathy, and resilience, drawing from experiences in rock climbing and personal well-being to navigate challenges and foster a strong team culture.

Outside of insights, what are your passions and interests?

My wife and I founded a kombucha brand called Culture Kitchn! If you haven’t had it before, kombucha is a bubbly, fermented tea filled with wonderful probiotics. 

Going way back, I used to be extremely lactose intolerant. I couldn’t eat all the good stuff: the cheese on charcuteries, ice creams, and pizza. On my first dates with my wife, we hit up a few dessert spots and I had to pop a handful of dairy pills so I wouldn’t blow up in the stall later. Needless to say, it was very awkward and it turns out kombucha got rid of my intolerance!

It was a significant life changer for me and so I’m always spreading the word about it, especially among Asians who have a high rate of lactose intolerance. The topic can be embarrassing to talk about for some but it shouldn’t! 

So, during the pandemic we began to brew our own kombucha. We thought it’d be fun to make Asian flavors like Lychee and Yuzu that reflected our childhood–but were not on mainstream shelves. We also started brewing a smoother, lightly carbonated version that fit what we like.

For fun, we started selling at farmer markets in NYC, and through sampling with thousands of strangers (what a researcher thing to do!), we realized we solved a hurdle that stopped many from wanting kombucha again: it’s overly fermented and carbonated–and burns down the throat.

Simply put, our kombucha is easy to drink. That messaging along with our flavors & packaging hooked current kombucha fans–and those that were turned off by their first experience.

We didn't expect our kombucha to take off so quickly when we entered retail. Culture Kitchn is in 50+ locations, including a Michelin-star restaurant group, hotels, and offices.

To date, we still manage all the fermenting, canning, samplings, and deliveries ourselves. Because of the hands-on nature of building a brewery, I developed an obsessive love for all things handy (my wife calls me “Handy Dan”) like plumbing, electrical, and now woodworking!

Circling back to research, I now have a very intimate perspective on the CPG world, which has led to better work for our clients in that space. The briefs to me feel much more alive and real.

What's a fun fact about yourself that would surprise people to know?

I proposed to my wife at a rock climbing gym! No, I did not make her go up a wall to get the ring.

When I started Nimbly, I spent my days working out of Brooklyn Boulders in Queens, NY. There was a cute little coworking space and I’d hang out there, dreaming up the business. Later in the day, my wife would meet me there to go top roping (climbing up high walls with ropes).

It became a very special hobby and community for us (and why they were the first retail customer for Culture Kitchn, the kombucha brand we co-founded). 

In rock climbing, the challenging aspects of a route are referred to as a “problem.” The experience is as much of a mental pursuit as a physical one. You can’t muscle your way through. Instead, it helps to ponder the best sequence of moves and how to position your body in the right ways. It’s like a physical meditation. I love that about climbing, and in many ways, it has shaped my patience and joy in solving problems of all types–in and out of the gym.

Since starting your career in MRX, what would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

Founding Nimbly. At the time, it was just 2 years after starting my insights career.

Even though I was new to the industry, I saw opportunities everywhere to do better. With no preexisting client rolodex, I did my own research, interviewing different insights professionals who would be willing to take a call with me. I learned about their pain points, and through hustle and guts, I launched a soon to be 8 year old agency that pioneered various new concepts and led the company through both a pandemic and a challenging economy.

Looking back to the origins, I felt that big, traditional agencies overkilled research. Outputs are often long, boring reports. Delivered on slow-moving timelines. Using stale, dated methodologies. Relying on lists of biased, professional respondents–that lack diversity.

The vision for Nimbly was to ambitiously shake up the industry norms. Distilling insights in both strategically pithy and new, vividly, captivating ways. Running on faster timelines by leveraging new tech. Enhancing proven methods and testing new approaches. Recruiting genuine participants and screening in inclusive, nuanced ways.

I also wanted to pioneer the most flexible, remote culture (this was before it became “cool” during the pandemic). And this turns out to be one of the best ways to fuel great work.

I hustled in the wild west of Linkedin (before restrictions), DM-ing thousands for feedback and advice. I drove hours for meetings and stayed in the cheapest AirBnb’s available with no desk, working on the floor. My girlfriend at the time (now wife!), fed me free lunches from her work and became my domestic partner so I had health insurance.


Through that grind, a few people did offer to help. In particular, Daniel Wadia believed in me and the vision I had, helping me secure my first project with Google. The rest is history. I’m proud to say that Nimbly has now led research for ~20% of the Fortune 100 brands, and some of the most disruptive startups of our time. 

It’s not all beautiful, of course. We, like any business, have our challenges. The last few years were hard financially but we’ve never been more proud: in the work we do, the culture we’ve fostered, and the impact we’ve through research on issues like climate, safe gun storage, and mental health, and getting fathers to be more involved in the lives of their children.

Fun fact: My parents still don’t know what I do. “Your job is to… understand people?” Yup.

What are three skills you believe to be crucial to succeed in market research and why?

I believe it’s important to nurture your sense of wonder. I ChatGPT everything, from how dryer balls work to what might the experience of a being in another dimension look like. If there’s something I don’t know, I explore why, even if it’s seemingly useless. These random bits promote creativity and reflect in the work we do.

This might be strange to say, but it helps to see people you work with, such as clients, colleagues, vendors–as human beings. Ironically, we’re in the research industry but I've observed that at times communications can be purely transactional. 

Be curious about people outside of their work persona. It leads to better relationships, which leads to better collaboration. The chemistry enables a fluid exchange of builds and pushbacks, resulting in things that you feel fulfilled and proud about.

Sometimes what we do can feel oh so important and serious: This is a major launch! Lots of money invested! Tight timelines! We can stress. Reply in a curt way. Be a bit too blunt.

It’s just a job. We’re in the business of empathy so why not lead with that with all the people we interact with, and not just the research participants. It makes for a happier experience all-around.

Lastly, never settle. I see this as a skill that requires active training. It’s easy to do what’s been done before, present insights that have been heard before, and so on. While sound research techniques have their roles, it’s important to keep trying new things. 

One way to practice is the simple exercise of combining seemingly unrelated things. Let’s try this together: look at the objects around you. What’s unique about it? How is it used? How does it make you feel? Say it’s an Amazon Show device, could it be used in fieldwork? There’s a drinks coaster: what if you printed powerful quotes on them as a creative leave behind for clients? You can do this infinitely. Most ideas turn out meh, but the repetition will improve the volume and quality that emerges. 

What do you think the key characteristics or qualities of a leader are? How does this play into MRX?

I started Nimbly at a fairly young age with limited research experience. This meant I had to navigate a ton of imposter syndrome. There’s nothing easy about growing a team with people who have 10+ more years of experience than me. What did I know about leadership?

I’m still learning about it.

One thing I believe is leadership style should adapt by situation. Like during a brainstorm, it’s about fostering creative ideas amongst the team vs saying “here’s what to do!” But it’s also knowing precisely which perspectives are important at what time. On the flip side, too many voices can impede progress and sometimes you have to make the call on what to do.

It’s important to consider your own personality and the context. For myself, I’m naturally very bubbly and positive. While that’s often a good thing, I’ve received feedback that my tone at times can downplay a main message when things aren’t great: like walking through a performance improvement plan or talking about a rough streak for the business and what this means. In those scenarios, there’s a bit of calibration that’s needed to nail the core message and still drive confidence and optimism.

I’d say the most important bit is developing mental resilience. There are many good and bad moments and these periods can come suddenly and last for months. I remember the many times in which I felt so overwhelmed, balled up, crying and spiraling away. Over time, and even to this day,  I actively refine my life so I’m better able to navigate myself through those inevitably highs and lows.

I suggest thinking about what “tools” help you. For instance, when I feel frustrated, I might close my palms while inhaling and open it up while exhaling. I might visualize being in a relaxing place, note my gratitudes, take a stroll, look at the new growth on my plants, or play fetch with my dog, Winnie.

To that point, sometimes you need a little external help through a therapist, anti-depressants, the right strain of cannabis, or even a session micro-dosing Psilocybin while writing. All these things have helped me at different points in time. 

Ultimately, your state of mind is the most important influence on leadership.