Built on Passion

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#230 Sea Sense Flip Flops - Raising The Bar For Companies That Give Back. Founder Luke McMillan Sharing His Story Dec 29, 2020

Show notes

Matt sits down with Sea Sense Flip Flops founder Luke McMillan. Sea Sense Flip Flops makes vegan, beautifully made eco-friendly flip flops however, there is much much more behind Sea Sense than just fantastic sandals.

Luke really makes sea sense stand apart and where the really awesome piece of his business comes in is the socio-economic and environmentally sustainable piece of Sea Sense. Sea Sense is working with various grassroots NGO’s to create a system designed to turn plastics into a commodity to incentivize people to help collect plastics on beaches and near waterways to prevent them from getting into our oceans. A big piece of Luke’s plan is to keep things on a grassroots level to make sure that everyone is involved in the mission equally and without vanity and he’s actually willing to go through great lengths to make that so.

In this episode, Luke dives into how he developed a product to help push forward his social and environmentally driven mission (Think Tom’s but, better), what it’s like managing relationships with NGO’s and grassroots organizations, building a community around a global issue, and how to cultivate it in a way that shares the spotlight.

#229 PostFly - Delivering All Your Fly Fishing Needs Right To Your Door Step. Co-Founder Brian Runnals Sharing His Story. Dec 22, 2020

Show notes

Matt sits down with PostFly founder Brian Runnals. PostFly is a mostly fly fishing subscription box, that offers everything you need whether you’re a seasoned veteran fly fisher or just starting out.

As you might have guessed, Brian started PostFly because he wanted to make it easy to get into FlyFishing and take a lot of the guesswork out of the process. PostFly handles all the details so you don't have to worry about it. They do the leg work of stuff that has traditionally been the difficult part of fly fishing.

In this episode, Brian dives into how he managed to build the proverbial plane in the air and build PostFly from just an idea to a thriving business. He also talks about the importance of strong relationships, the logistics behind operating a subscription box service, and his thoughts on keeping manufacturing strictly in the US.

#228 Flylow - From Duct-taped mountaineering gear to backcountry personified. Founder Dan Abrams Sharing His Story Dec 15, 2020

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Matt sits down with Flylow founder Dan Abrams. Any hardcore skier, especially the backcountry crowd will recognize Fly Low as one of the bigger small guys in the ski industry. Fly Low makes backcountry skiing apparel and recently started expanding their line digging into mountain biking as well.

Fly Low started as an incredibly small company and has extremely humble beginnings but, in a lot of ways, Fly Low helped set the stage for helping backcountry become more mainstream. Not just from the apparel side of things but, working with the ski community to help backcountry reach the center stage of the ski community.

In this episode, Dan shines the light on how Fly Low developed from its very humble beginnings sharing a more detailed look at the nitty-gritty that goes into building a brand. He also shares a better look at how to stay nimble as a young company and, more importantly, how to build a community that people can proudly get behind.

#227 Shred Dog - Raising The Bar For Kids Technical Apparel. Co-Founders Marc Dietz & Dallas Moore Sharing Their Story. Dec 08, 2020

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Matt sits down with Shred Dog co-founders Marc Dietz & Dallas Moore. Shred dog is a technical apparel company making kid’s clothes for now, but they do plan on expanding into men’s and women’s apparel. They decided to start small, literally.

In a lot of ways, they’re changing the way people look at kids’ technical apparel. For the longest time kids’ gear didn’t get much attention because they’ll just outgrow their apparel. Shred Dog actually addresses this by bringing new technology to the table to help you get more out of your kids’ gear. Another fairly wide hurdle is how to market a product for their parents who don’t really know a ton about technical apparel themselves.

In this episode, Dallas and Marc chat about their approach to marketing their products, both in the abstract sense and with kids products specifically, the importance of finding balance from your business partner, some interesting challenges that come with building a business rooted in kids outdoor apparel.

#226 NoSweat - Cultivating Culture & Introducing A New Concept. Chief Operating Officer David Holt Sharing His Story. Dec 01, 2020

Show notes

Matt sits down with NoSweat Chief Operating Officer David Holt. NoSweat makes pads for hats and helmets designed to help keep sweat out of your eyes, a simple concept with a fairly niche use but it's been received incredibly well especially for athletes. In this episode, we dive into cultivating brand culture, the different nuances of the startup world vs corporate culture, challenges with manufacturing (especially for sure a simple product), and marketing and finding the perfect people for your product, especially when introducing a relatively new concept

#225 Stout Tent - Operational Logistics, Moving Large Products, & How To Take ‘The Plunge’. Co-Founder Caitlyn Stout Sharing Her Story. Nov 24, 2020

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Matt sits down with Stout Tent founder Caitlyn Stout. Caitlyn and her co-founder (and husband) Jim Stout were fed up with their banking jobs and decided to take the plunge into a venture that would get them closer to what they loved most, the outdoors. Though that tale itself is pretty remarkable, what’s even more captivating is how Caitlyn and Jim went about creating and prototyping their tents. Since they’ve started they have grown hand over fist having built out a bustling rental arm of Stout Tent and even bought out some of their competition. In this episode, Caitlyn reveals some insight on Stout Tent’s operational logistics, the struggles of moving large product nationally, and taking ‘The Plunge’

#224 Winterstick - One Of The Oldest Pioneers of Snowboarding. President & Head Engineer of Winterstick, Rob Lu, Sharing His Story. Nov 17, 2020

Show notes

Matt sits down with Winterstick president Rob Lu. Winterstick is a snowboard brand originally started by Dimitrije Milovich who brought to life some of the first pow surfs. In essence, he gave us the tools to surf the earth. Winterstick has had quite a journey since then. Today Lu, is largely responsible for a lot of the progressive shapes coming out of this pioneering brand. In this episode, Rob discusses where Winterstick lies in the tapestry of snowboarding history, trend-setting design elements, coming back into vogue, and some tips on how to break into the snowboarding industry.

#223 Nomatic - Hunger For Knowledge, The Importance of Storytelling, & Enjoying The Journey. Co-Founder Jacob Durham Sharing His Story. Nov 10, 2020

Show notes

Matt sits down with Nomatic co-founder Jacob Durham. There’s a good chance you may already be familiar with Nomadic. They are huge innovators in the everyday carry industry, making a variety of specialized bags for luggage, travel, commuting, and camera & videography.

What you may not know is that Nomatic was really started on a quest for knowledge for Jacob and his co-founder Jon Richards to dip their toes into the product development game. They’ve grown hand over fist and launched countless Kickstarter for new products that always seem to be wild successes. In this episode, Jacob shares his approach and philosophy towards business, some pointers on how to launch and create a successful Kickstarter campaign, and the absolute importance of storytelling.

#222 Oros Apparel - Bringing Outwear Technology Into The 21st Century. Co-Founder Michael Markesbery Sharing His Story. Nov 03, 2020

Show notes

Matt sits down with Oros Apparel co-founder Michael Markesbery. Oros makes outdoor apparel and outerwear using their own patented Solarcore insulation technology. What’s Solarcore you ask? Solarcore is the flexible version of a typically rigid and fragile material used by NASA called aerogel. More importantly, Solarcore is the first-ever aerogel composite in the world. That’s right, Oros is literally revolutionizing the outerwear industry by bringing a completely new insulation technology to the table and that’s no small feat. Together, Michael and his co-founder Rithvik Venna, have put together a seasoned all-star product development team to come together and change the way people experience warmth one piece of apparel at a time.

#221 GCI Outdoor - Building A Chair For Every Situation. Founder Jeff Polke Sharing His Story. Oct 27, 2020

Show notes

Matt sits down with GCI Outdoor founder Jeff Polke. GCI Outdoor is an outdoor chair and furniture brand specializing in innovation. Some of you might be familiar with GCI, some of you might not but, they are a long-time innovator in the outdoor space. They’ve been in business for coming up on their 25th year, a fairly huge milestone. In this episode, Jeff walks us through building a solution based business and GCI Outdoor was able to stay nimble, navigating the brutal world of patenting products and constantly be delivering new practical products that keep people coming back for more.

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