My journey as a founder-operator
My journey began with a hyper-specialized role on Wall Street, which inspired me to get an MBA so I could evolve from a specialist into a generalist. I spent the next two years soaking up everything I could about operating a business, and after graduating I dove right in and started my first business. Then I started another. And then another. All three from scratch. All three founder-operated. All three without investors or employees. And at one point, all three were running simultaneously! I was a fractional entrepreneur from the start.
I’ve been able to bring some incredibly fun things to market. But my favorite part of this journey has been the number of different hats I’ve gotten to wear along the way. At some point or another I’ve led efforts in: ecommerce, operations, marketing (on and offline), digital ads, customer experience, PR, comms, branding, wholesale, sourcing, popups/activations, partnerships, collabs, licensing, crowdfunding, product development, among others. If I had a singular specialty, it’s my ability to work across disciplines to bring new ideas to life in a smart and original manner.
Read on for a brief history of each business, or connect with me on Linkedin or email.
griz coat
Wear it proudly and remember: It’s not a costume. It’s a lifestyle.
In 2012 – while splitting my time working as a fractional CFO and separately building a software startup – I decided to launch a “just for fun” Kickstarter project making faux-fur bear coats along with my brother Karl. Naturally, this “just for fun” project really took off! The product went viral a few months after the Kickstarter had ended, so I decided to put my other endeavors on hold and quickly scrambled to build a company around it. I was now a bear coat entrepreneur!
We built a fairly unusual business model for the time: a vertically-integrated multi-channel international brand, funded without outside investor capital and operated without employees. That’s a pretty big effort for a tiny team! It required heavy doses of creativity, resourcefulness and an ability to work across disciplines. I knew I could prove that building lean and nimble businesses like this was not only possible, but it also came with some distinct advantages that produced great results. We might have been odd balls building a business like this back in 2012, but these days the term “solopreneur” is pretty well-known and captures the spirit of our model.
Highlights
- Kickstarter: 6th largest fashion project at the time, awarded “Best of 2012”, 3 successful follow-up campaigns for new products
- Pioneer of online “drop” strategy, resulting in single-day sell-outs of initial 3 product releases
- High visibility (and free!) product placement: regular appearances in national TV ads, TV shows and movies
- Collabs/partnerships: Lyft, theChive, Pink Agenda, Daybreaker
- Press: Bloomberg, Huff Po, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Men’s Health
Freezy Freakies
Back from the ’80s: the raddest gloves ever!
With Griz Coat established and growing quickly in 2014, we set our sights on a new project: resurrecting one of the most iconic brands from our childhood, Freezy Freakies.
Freezy Freakies are winter gloves with hidden designs that appear when the gloves get cold. If you grew up with them, they were one of the most crucial items in your closet. The love for this brand is mindblowing. So I reached out to the original brand owner to negotiate my first licensing deal, sourced an overseas glove manufacturer with the capability to make magical color-changing winter gloves, started up another Kickstarter project, and we were off to the races reviving a truly classic ’80s brand!
The brand revival was a hit! This fundraising campaign went viral out of the gate and we were left with no choice but to end our campaign early. Our entire first year of inventory had sold out in just a couple weeks (and with near-zero marketing costs!).
Highlights
- Resurrection of an iconic ’80s brand
- A Kickstarter launch that nearly went too viral
- Fan-forward popups and retail activations throughout NYC
- Virtual sell-outs every winter for a decade
- Collabs/partnerships: Swany, Game of Thrones, Vaseline, Kith/Lucky Charms
- Press: NY Times, ABC, “Best News of the Year, Maybe the Decade”, Powder Magazine
Rumble Jar
We design incredibly simple cold brew coffee makers, so anyone can make great coffee without all the fuss.
With two businesses under our belt, we turned our attention to launching a third. This time I found myself diving into a product line that was a whole lot more practical and, dare I say, serious: a line of cold brew coffee makers called Rumble Jar. I was by no means a coffee expert, but hey, I hadn’t been a faux-fur costume or color-changing glove expert either! Same formula as always: dive right in and figure it out.
Again we turned to Kickstarter, and in a crowdfunding world now dominated by flashy video games and angel-funded tech gizmos, I was completely shocked by the reception to our ultra simple coffee maker that didn’t have a single moving part. It was a sign of good things to come. To this day, the love for Rumble Jar is something I still marvel at. It’s a product that simply works well.
With Rumble Jar growing quickly, our two-founder, zero-employee team found we hit our limit. So we made the decision to sunset Griz Coat in 2019 and focus on growing Rumble Jar and Freezy Freakies, both of which are thriving to this day. RIP Griz Coat!
Highlights
- Kickstarter: Project of the Year (2017), selected to be Kickstarter’s first non-artist resident
- Product line extended beyond brewing equipment and now includes coffee grounds and accessories
- DTC-native brand with successful expansion into wholesale with 200+ retailers
- Trusted in-house cold brewer for several coffee chains and restaurants
- Collabs/partnerships: The GFB, Fifty/Fifty, Java Johns
- Press: Wall Street Journal, Outside, Architectural Digest, Mashable, Seattle Coffee Gear, SF Gate