How I Built This · 20 Feb 2023 · 59m
Mike Pfotenhauer, founder of Osprey Packs, explains how he grew a bespoke backpack business in Santa Cruz into a global brand, eventually selling to Helen of Troy for over $400 million. He details the critical decision to move manufacturing from Santa Cruz to Dolores, Colorado, to access skilled Navajo sewers, and later to Asia to meet scale. Pfotenhauer emphasizes his focus on anatomic design and the strategic choice to keep prototyping and design in-house to maintain product identity while leveraging offshore production.
founders before launch, early-stage companies, companies scaling up and large enterprises
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Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost of Studio Neat discuss the design and manufacturing of the ATP Chicken Hat, detailing the challenges of sourcing fabric and finding a 'cut and sew' supplier. They also announce the Studio Neat Starter Kit gift box and share their long-term reviews of past product recommendations, including James Brand knives, Sage coffee machines, and Patagonia apparel.
Mark Howley, founder of Pacific Bag Inc. (later acquired by TricorBraun), details his career trajectory from inside sales at Fresco Systems to owning a flexible packaging company. He explains his strategy of sourcing high-graphic, short-run bags from Asia to serve the specialty coffee market, and discusses the valuation and sale of his company to TricorBraun Flex. Howley also highlights his 15-year investment in developing biodegradable 'BioTree' packaging and shares advice on building longevity in the packaging industry.
Pavel Bosovik, founder and CEO of 27North, explains how he industrialized the process of making expedition vans by documenting detailed standard operating procedures, such as counting specific screws, to enable scaling. Josh Shelton, owner of Etched Nameplate Company, discusses how being fired served as the springboard for his business and details his strategy of acquiring companies annually since 2020 to grow the brand. Kevin Thompson, a leadership coach at Cambridge Air Solutions, describes how the company uses daily morning meetings and core values to build a culture that enriches lives, moving beyond just manufacturing HVAC equipment.
Elyse Daniels, founder of Exodus Wear, explains how she turned a niche idea for fully customizable senior jackets into a multi-million dollar business by rejecting online customization tools in favor of hand-drawn student designs. She details her bootstrapped journey from a $6,000 investment to scaling production, emphasizing the critical importance of maintaining a diverse network of manufacturers in China to mitigate risk and negotiate better terms. Daniels also shares her sales strategy, which relies on aggressive cold calling and a premium pricing model that avoids discounting to preserve brand value and customer loyalty.
Tom Seymour interviews Jessica Kwon, founder of Jack & Friends Jerky and co-founder of Moka Energy, about her journey from a Cornell food science background to building CPG brands. Kwon details the operational challenges of bootstrapping, including 3 AM kitchen shifts and hand-packing orders after a New York Times feature, and the technical pivot from DIY Photoshop designs to custom-printed packaging via Wagon Design Studio. The conversation highlights the importance of owning manufacturing mistakes with partners like Seymour’s company and the strategic decision to launch Moka Energy with an experienced team to skip early-stage hurdles.
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