Hardware Podcasts

Backroads: Tom Hale. How a desk worker became a trailblazer in active travel

How I Built This · 10 Nov 2025 · 50m

What this episode covers

Tom Hale, founder and CEO of Backroads, explains how he quit a city planning job in Las Vegas in 1979 to launch a bike touring company after a midnight epiphany and a 5,000-mile solo ride. He details the company's early survival strategies, including a 'collect early, pay late' cash flow model that allowed growth without investors, and recounts overcoming major crises like a warehouse burglary, a van rollover in Nevada, 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and the pandemic. Hale discusses the operational shift from camping to hotel-based trips, the importance of training full-time leaders, and how Backroads scaled to over 5,000 trips annually while avoiding the 'Instagram trap' of overtourism.

Most relevant to

founders before launch and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Backroads, U.S. Bank, Takeoff Luggage
Also
Death Valley, New Zealand, Hawaii, Bali, Venice, Florence

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