How Solo Brands builds passionate fans one product at a time

Episode transcript, edited for clarity

Bill Thorne:  Welcome to Retail Gets Real, where we hear from retail's most fascinating leaders about the industry that impacts everyone, everywhere, every day. I'm Bill Thorne from the National Retail Federation, and on today's episode, we're talking to Michael McGoohan, chief growth officer of Solo Brands and president of Solo Stoves. We're going to talk to Michael about his impressive career background spanning multiple industries, his new position at Solo Brands, and what growth will look like for the group of outdoor lifestyle brands.

Michael McGoohan, welcome to Retail Gets Real.

Michael McGoohan: Thanks. Really happy to be here.

Thorne: Before we got started, we were talking, you've been in Atlanta, which is great. You're now in Chicago. You have had, I mean, you look at the career experience, it's pretty extensive, and it's kind of, you know, a roadmap, that kind of one thing leading to another, leading to another, getting to you where you are today, based on all of that knowledge and expertise that you've gained up to this point in time. Tell us, how did you end up at Solo Brands?

McGoohan: I've been really fortunate over my career to work on some really incredible teams that have spanned some also incredible brands, and so built, ultimately to this moment — the CEO of Solo Brands, Chris Metz was a board member — still is a board member at my former company — and so we had a conversation after he joined here, and was really excited about the growth opportunity, having mirrored some of the things that I've done over the course of the last 10 years, and really felt like it was a really exciting time to join the company, and one that had exceptional growth opportunity.

Thorne: The brand itself, I was talking to one of my colleagues and I was in the car earlier this morning and she said, well, who is it? And I told her it was Solo Brands. And she was like, now, what is Solo Brands? I said, well, you know, one of their products is Chubbies. She goes, stop right there. I love Chubbies. So, so we know Chubbies, but tell us about Solo Brands.

McGoohan: Yeah. So Solo Brands is a collection of really strong, digitally native lifestyle brands, generally lead the categories in which we play. We have strong brands like Solo Stove, which is the world's number one bestselling fire pit. Disrupted the category during COVID, and we'll talk a little bit about the growth story there.

We have Chubbies, which is one of the top selling brands of men's swimwear. We have Oru, which sells a really innovative kayak product. ISLE, which sells leading portfolio of paddle boards, including inflatable paddle boards that we have, some really exciting technology there, and a couple of other brands that sit in this portfolio.

If I think about what's happened over the course of the past five years and trends of people coming out of COVID, spending more time at home, more time … wanting to spend outdoors as people think about detaching from their phones and the ‘always on’ cultures that we started to build. You know, this company sits really at the center of those consumer trends and offers products that I think marry up really nicely to people's lifestyles and needs. And so, it's one of the many reasons that I'm really excited to join here.

Thorne: So, tell me about the Solo Brands growth journey. I mean, how long has it been around?

McGoohan: Yeah, it's a really interesting story. I mean, the business has been around for, you know, probably about 13 years now. Started as Solo Stove — so Solo Stove was founded by two brothers. They were entrepreneurs. Tried a number of products. They were avid campers, and so they found a need that they — as they were going on their camping trips — that they wanted to create a stove that was small enough to fit in their backpack that would allow them to warm up food or warm water, and so that was the first product that was created and literally it was a backpack size (or smaller) little stove.

 And that became a product that they sold predominantly online. Stood up an Amazon business, and was doing single-digit millions of dollars. Gradually started to build and build through the sort of mid-teens, and it stood itself up to about a $16 million business pre-COVID. A couple of private equity transactions happened along the way of different investors.

I think the two brothers (there's actually a great podcast on telling their story) but I think they learned about where they had passion, which was around products. And had a little bit less passion around building and scaling a business that required more people to do so, and gradually ended up bringing on new leadership and partnering up with a guy named John Merris, who was the CEO.

He then scales the business from about $16 million to over $500 million in two and a half years. And just this incredible growth story of where they organically grow the Solo Stove business, make a couple of critical acquisitions, go public — IPO the business — and just this just rocket ship of growth.

And so, the team did a lot of really great things during the period and certainly rode the wave of organic interest — those fueled by people spending more time at their homes during the period of COVID, and so just an exceptional growth story that, you know, at the core is: It's a great product-led business. We have great products. We believe that we lead our categories for a reason.

We actually just had some PR come out this week that we were named — not only the number one fire pit, which we were inspired to — we were just named by “Wired” that we're the number one pizza oven on the market, too, and so we continue to turn out great products to support people's outdoor lifestyles.

But that certainly becomes a core reason of why the brand scales, and during this period you know, (I'm talking about Solo Stove in particular), it builds this somewhat cult following of people. One of the draws to me of joining here was that our net promoter score is amongst the highest of any brand that I've worked on, and I've worked on some pretty incredible brands from Oreo and Cadbury to Biofreeze, that I helped build a couple of years ago. Brands that had really the strong consumer legions of brand advocates.

This brand has the same thing. You read our Facebook threads right now: It's just legions of people talking just with so much effusive praise about the brand and its meaning and the quality of the products. And so that becomes a really a core tentacle of why the business scales and ultimately gets to the level that we're set at today.

Thorne: You know, I want to go back a little bit. Again, this is before we started recording, but we talked about, you’re a University of Michigan grad. When you were sitting in your dorm room in Ann Arbor, was this what you thought? This is what I'm going to do someday.

McGoohan: So, I went to Boston College undergrad and then I went to Michigan for grad school. Interestingly, when I was at BC, I had two really different career goals. One was I wanted to work in sports. I think anybody knew me from that period of time — continues to be a theme of my career, and I've done a couple of things in sports. That was one path I was looking at.

The other one was: I was really interested in going to law school, and thought that I would get a JD/MBA at some point, and eventually maybe start up my own business. And I had talked myself into that: If I had my legal degree, too, maybe I didn't need to hire lawyers, and I could do it all in the house. That's what I thought as a college kid. That it was just that easy. That I could shortcut the process.

But I knew I always wanted to go into business, and I think people ask me like, “Hey, you know, what was your goal at that point?” It would have been to do something that was sort of sports-related in business. And so, I have followed that to some degree. I mean, the goals have gotten sharper over time, and I think I really interestingly learned through working in sports, how much I love brands, and how I am the ultimate consumer. I love walking stores and looking at packaging. I understand why someone made the choices they did, and I love watching advertising and understand why people … what's the tactic and the approach there, and so building disruptive, consumer brands has really become my passion, and that's really what I've followed the last 15 years of my career.

Thorne: It's interesting that you mentioned, you know, walking the stores. When I was with Walmart, and I was able to travel with the president of Walmart U.S. or the CEO, and we would do these store visits. What you would learn just by the way that they viewed, you know, actionality, or the way that they viewed how products were being displayed.

McGoohan: I’m not allowed to do the shopping anymore because I take too long, and I always come home with more things than are needed. I'm just drawn to something to try it. But I, yeah, it's great.

I mean, early in my career, I worked for Mondelez, and that's really where I got the ultimate crash course. I mean, one of our real strengths for Mondelez is our direct-store delivery model, and you know, one of my favorite things to do was to go get up for the 5 a.m. shift, and go ride with a driver, and go learn, you know, how are they merchandising in store, and understanding then where do you have flexibility in store to get more share shelf or build a more powerful in-store activation, and it was just really, really great learning that (ultimately now, as I've gone to businesses that are smaller than Mondelez) but being able to take those practices really to understand — this is how you build best-in-class partnerships with your retailers. Because ultimately your business is not successful without building those relationships, and that's become a huge part of … you know. Look at Biofreeze. We built this exceptional partnership with Walmart, and we took a brand that was a brand-new brand, and we had a during our period there, we were getting more than 40 weeks of display. It was a brand-new brand at Walmart.

Thorne: That's phenomenal.

McGoohan: But that was all because we had a great sales team, and we built this great relationship in which we had win-win economics, and we said, “Hey, it's a sleepy category. We're bringing in a brand-new consumer here to you, and we think that we can grow and scale this together and build partnerships.”

And so, you know, so it’s those learnings you go back through your career that you start to build upon that ultimately, I think it'll really become additive to say, “All right, how do I take the great learnings of watching this brand, this business do this? And how can I then apply that my current situation?”

Thorne: You talked about growth, and you talked about the phenomenal growth, obviously, with Solo Stoves, but we had a lot of things happen that weren't normal over the last five years. Things that you couldn't plan for. You got into … you did what you needed to do to get through it. You succeeded as a result of it. You continue to grow different kind of ways that we've done it from the past where it's been pretty consistent. You know exactly what's going to happen (well, to some degree). What do you think is some of your biggest challenges for continued growth?

McGoohan: Yeah, I mean, this business, like I said before, was built around a really strong product portfolio, and sort of caught lightning in a bottle during a period of time.

I think we really have three things that we're focused on right now that I think have us feeling really excited and bullish about the growth potential of the business.

The first is that we have a brand that resonates with the core group of consumers today. We have to continue to strengthen and build that brand, and make it into — well, we aspire to make it into the most disruptive outdoor lifestyle brand out there.  We think we can really penetrate beyond being what I would say today is a bit of a product-focused approach to become a consumer-obsessed approach that allows us to really earn a greater share of wallet across a lot of lifestyle locations.

That's everything from (currently we're positioned well on backyard living) around the fire pit to doing more things in outdoor cooking (like we're doing with our pizza oven). And we look at then occasions more … that are more “on-the-go lifestyle” that we think there's some really interesting places to venture there. So, it starts a little bit from like, “How do we position the brand and strengthen it so that that becomes the core calling to consumers to come to us?”

I think the second thing is expanding on omnichannel. We have built a really strong direct-to-consumer platform. That's been the core of the business. We're one of the very few direct-to-consumer brands out there that has remained fairly profitable.  We're not overly levered. We haven't fallen into a lot of the traps that other D2C businesses have done, and that continues to give us a great opportunity to scale.

But we also are starting to build great partnerships at retail with partners like Dick's [Sporting Goods], for example. They've been a great partner to us, and we think that there's more opportunity to expand and build more relationships at retail, and expand that side of the business. But not necessarily at the expense of the D2C business. There's just a lot more doors to open there and opportunities that continue to grow our opportunity.

I must say Amazon is really great partner to us as well. I think there's more opportunity for more places. I think this is one of the shifts we'll make is that we want to be wherever the consumer is, and the hope is that as we expand across channels, instead of saying it's well, a one-plus-one equals two, no, it's a one-plus-one equals three, because we're actually meeting the consumer where they are, and we're then growing incrementally across channels, not at the expense of others, and so that's the second part of the journey.

And the third, you know, which sort of drives the whole thing is, continue to ramp up the innovation pipeline. We've made a couple of key hires recently, and brought in some really great talent that is going to help us build upon that foundation. We have been a disruptor. We have been an innovator at the core of the business, and that will be a key part of scaling and growing the brand in the future as we develop more winning products.

Thorne: So, other than shopping, what is it that you really love about your job?

McGoohan: Oh, people. My favorite part of … really the opportunity to be a leader is building teams and helping identify great talent. There's a person on my team says that … he describes me as a “collector of talent,” and so I love to identify people — sometimes they're a little earlier in their careers — who I think have great leadership capabilities. People that can motivate teams. People who have that sort of winning spirit, and figuring out how do you bring together a collection of people that have complementary strengths that allow you to then create, and build, and achieve something that maybe is greater than what you think is possible. How do you motivate people around bold ambitions and then go after it, and build the strategy, and the execution plans to do it.

So, the team is what really motivates me. You know, certainly the product side, too, being really passionate about what you're selling.

Thorne: Yeah, it's one thing that we always talk about on Retail Gets Real: It doesn't matter what level of leadership you are in the brand that you work for, if you're not passionate about it, then why are you doing it? It’s a constant theme, Michael. It’s the industry for passionate people that want to interact with the consumer, want to do what's right for the consumer, and just as importantly, do what's right for the other team members as well as the brand. They know that a rising tide lifts all boats.

McGoohan: Couldn't agree more.

Thorne: There's a summer upon us, obviously. Getting warmer in Chicago. What are the three products that you have at Solo Brands that you would take to the beach with you and why?

McGoohan: Well, fortunately you picked the beach because I think we got plenty of options for you to take. I mean, for me personally, I would start with a great pair of Chubbies board shorts, and so you get yourself fully outfitted to look your best at the beach.

Our bonfire product, which is a fire pit — Solo Stove is a great opportunity to gather around, especially at the end of the day with friends on the beach. It's portable, lightweight, smokeless fire pit.

And I’d probably bring an ISLE paddle board with me. We make … we have an inflatable paddle board. We actually have all different sizes, but some of them can convert over to being used as kayaks as well.

Thorne: How does that work? Inflatable?

McGoohan: Correct. Yeah, we have actually proprietary technology on there that simulates like a hardboard when it inflates. We actually use this for inflatables that go into the pool, too. So, you can actually stand fully on them, you know, a person of my size, with no problem without it sinking.

It really solves one of the core problems in paddle boarding. People love paddle boarding, but your hardboard is huge. Where are you going to store that at your home? Do you really want to carry it to and from the beach versus, you know, being able to inflate it there? You can either do it with a hand pump or we sell also an electric pump as well to do it a little faster.

Thorne: You need a little exercise with a little exercise. That's pretty good. I like that. You have been in the business for a while. I'm not calling you old. You've been in the business for a while. You've done a lot of things. You've been highly successful. I have to believe that along the way you've gotten some really good career advice. If you were to define (you don't have to say just one) but if, I mean, something that always has stood out to you as a really, really meaningful piece of career advice, what would that be?

McGoohan: Yeah, I sort of say, you know, three things. The first is that when you're choosing jobs, choose jobs based on people, not based on companies. Ultimately, leaders are ones that will give you the opportunity to show who you are, and what you can do with things. I think sometimes we are overly precious around the title that we're given or the company that we work for, and the company is really important because you want to work for a company that you generally believe in and you have pride in.

But at the end of the day, the person you work for is the most important part of the decision. Working to build a great relationship with that person and earn their trust ultimately becomes, I think, the biggest determinant about whether you're able to move up as quickly as you would like, or ultimately achieve your career ambition, whatever that is.

I think the second thing for me is every business that I've been in and the successes that we've had has come around figuring out how to lay out a bold ambition for something that you may, at surface level, not view to be possible, but then building a great team and rallying them around going after. And so, it's this managed risk strategy where you want to figure out — what's the bold enough thing that is achievable, but feels like that great stretch and how do you motivate towards that? And so sometimes we fall into traps — especially in this data-led world — that we think there's an answer to everything, and realize that business is hard, it's challenging, and there is no roadmap that tells us how to do everything.

I started my career as a consultant, and I think one of the things we were really good at was sort of using data to show ourselves to be 120% that we were 100% right. We really have to validate ourselves. We realized that in the business world 1) that's not necessarily needed, but 2) it isn't realistic either to do that on everything, and so how do you start to lean in places where you've had experiences that say, “Yeah, this is right or I've seen this work before,” but make sure you're taking a healthy amount of risk because that's how you get deeply rewarded.

When you go down the middle of the path — and I think about especially related to brands — too many brands are worried about things that I think actually aren't that meaningful to driving their business results, and so, finding the lanes in which you are going to lean in to disrupt because in today's consumer world, this is more fragmented than ever. Consumers have a really low tolerance for being sold apps, and want authentic connections with you, and so that comes through by being bold and disruptive to do so. So, there's a whole lane around that. So that's the second thread.

And the third thing is that at the end of the day, if you want to be successful, I think you have to remember that you have to bet on yourself. No one's going to make opportunities for you. You have to make them happen, and so someday get enough confidence that you can do it. You have to be a great listener and know. Be really honest with yourself that no one knows your strengths and weaknesses better than yourself. What gets in the way is many people don't have an honest conversation with themselves to know what their true strengths and weaknesses are.

But your career (to me) is made off of your strengths. I believe that every person is born with two or three things that they do exceptionally well, and the people that find what those strengths are, and then leverage them to their advantage are the ones that get ahead. I think it's one of the fallacies in business is we always give people reviews, and say, “Here are the three things you're good at and here's the three things you're not good at,” and the idea that you're going to be able to take those three things you're not good at and turn it into strength over time I think is a huge fallacy.

People just acknowledging and saying, “Hey, I'm not as good at that … ” Well, that's why I go hire this person on my team who is really good at that thing, and so then we collectively as a team are going to be a lot better. That's the third piece of advice I give people, is to be really honest about your strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately bet on yourself. Bet on yourself in a way in which, you know, you're leaning into the things that you're really good at.

Thorne: That's absolutely fantastic. I mean, I know that we do have a lot of students that listen to this program. It's wonderful that they get exposed to great advice like that, great leaders that are doing extraordinary things, and it gets them very excited. I had the opportunity to serve for a couple years as the executive director of the NRF Foundation, and work with these students and work with these universities. I was just absolutely astounded by the number of times that people would come up and say, “I wrote down word-for-word what X guest said” as something to look at once you get out of college. You know, this is where your focus should be. It's pretty impressive. 

So, the future of retail … What excites you the most about the future of retail?

McGoohan: I think it'll be connecting what is the physical and the digital world. I think we're heading on that path, but we're not fully there. I don't think we've unlocked the true power today — physical store footprint with people's digital shopping behavior, and I think it's going to be really exciting to go.

I do imagine a world where you're going to be on your phone, you're hit with an ad, and you're going to be given a choice – would I rather be shipped to my home or go to my local store and pick it up because that's the most convenient path for me in a purchase. I mean, those things to me are really exciting to think about how the world develops.

I think we're also going to see ways in which we're going to push further into experiential, which I think is really important. In a world in which we are so connected, and so on, and so digital, I think there's going to be more of a push to be present, and products that help you do that, and connect meaningfully with others. I think that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about our portfolio here because we are sitting at something that is so culturally needed today.

We don't connect enough with others. There's some crazy stats out there today that more than 50% of men in this country say they don't have a friend. A real friend in the world. They don't feel like they connect with others. I mean, they have transactional relationships but somebody that they really can count on, and there's many other stats like that.

As we see the future of this business we’re in together, I think it will be: How do we connect with each other in meaningful ways, and I think that's a big part of what we at Solo Brands are trying to do through our portfolio.

Thorne: It's fantastic. Michael McGoohan. It was a true pleasure talking with you. Thank you for joining us on Retail Gets Real.

McGoohan: Thanks for having me.

Thorne: And thank you all for listening to another episode of Retail Gets Real. You can find more information about this episode and others at retail gets real dot com. I'm Bill Thorne. This is Retail Gets Real. Thanks for listening. Until next time.