Advice Line with Randy Hetrick of TRX

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Hello and welcome to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Roz. This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges. Each week, I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on the show.
Who will help me try to help you. And if you're building something and you need advice, give us a call and you just might be the next guest on the show. Our number is 1-800-433-1298. Send us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and the issues or questions that you'd like help with. And you can also send us a voice memo at Hibt at ID.
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Alright.
Let's get to it.
Joining me this week is Randy Hetrick. He is the founder and inventor of TRX, the Full Body Resistance Strap Exercise System. Randy it's great to have you back on the show. Thanks for coming on.
Guy, it is so nice to see you and great to be back. Thanks for having me.
It's awesome to have you. You were first on the show back in twenty seventeen. Uh this is the early days of how I built this.
And just to remind people uh of your story.
You were a Navy SEAL, you were uh stationed in South East Asia for for kinda grounded for a while, and you and your buddies were
kinda getting frustrated'cause you weren't able to work out and you had this idea to use like an old jujitsu belt, uh, which you accidentally kinda brought with you to do pull ups or I guess upper body work. Um so you throw it over a a a bathroom door and boom, I mean you start using it for resistance training. That was the genesis of T R X.
It's a pr it's a pretty great story, isn't it? And that it happens to be true. So it yeah, it it those straps had pretty long legs, as it turns out.
And it's just it's so wild to me that that that even though you happen to have that
that belt and it happened to have that idea and then it became this kind of legendary product. Anyone for anyone any of you who haven't heard that episode, because this is in the early days of how I built this, um, you gotta check it out. We will put a link to it in the episode description.
Randy, before we get to today's callers, it's been a few years since we last spoke, right? Twenty seventeen, and a lot has happened for you for TRX, I think two years after
We spoke you sold a controlling interest in T R X that was in twenty nineteen, but then a bunch of other stuff happened. Just bring us up to date on what's been going on in your life since since you you last spoke on the show.
Well, it is funny when you think about it that man, we were
Eight years ago? Where'd that eight years go, Guy? I'm not you know, we packed in a lot in there, but yeah I
I sold the business to uh some private equity guys and uh
You know, it uh let's just say it was not a match made in heaven. We uh
After a couple of years decided all right, I had to go and
you know, pursue my bliss elsewhere.
So I did.
And I started a company called Outfit, which is outdoor mobile fitness.
And
You know, just as I was getting that thing up and rolling, it turned out that uh
The opportunity came around to buy back my original baby.
And I uh went out and
Found a good uh buddy, my good pal Jack Daly.
And we
hatched a a plot to uh buy uh a TRX out of uh what was kind of a troubled situation, let's just say
And so we ended up, you know, I I ended up with a turnaround and a startup, which is almost more fun than uh one guy should have, but it's been an incredible ride and and T Rex is doing great again.
And and outfit is this as you say that's a mobile exercise company. Basically it's a it's a gym in a van and it's it's kind of a franchise model, right? It's designed for is that is that right people can buy a franchise and then run it as a gym wherever they live?
Yeah, well we're just getting going on the franchising aspect. Because you know, I felt at the beginning I needed to really understand the ins and outs of of this business, which is pretty
Pathbreaking, if you will. You're not in the gym. The gym, think of the gym as a rolling
Kind of a rolling storage unit full of functional training gear that comes out of out of the van.
The group
fitness class goes on in parks, you know, parking lots, beach parking lots, like beautiful places outdoors. And then in ten minutes
it sets up and tears down and drives away.
And ultimately
I'm very excited about it as an opportunity for veterans coming out of service.
uh because the the cost of buy in and the and the operating costs are so much lower without brick and mortar.
And you know, as you know, I'm pretty passionate about about the veteran space. I the two two groups of people that I really love veterans and trainers.
Yeah. No, it's it makes so much sense. I mean, I I use like every time I do bike repair now, I get one of those mobile bike repair shops comes to my house and and everything's in that van. And we're talking about light equipment, right? Straps and and functional equipment. You're not like pulling out a treadmill out of the van or or or like a Peloton.
No, exactly. You you don't have fixed overhead.
Uh that's anywhere near
what you would experience in a brick and mortar
But you have quite a big c capacity and train up to fifty people at a time.
So uh
It's it's uh it's you know, hey.
Have me back on in a few years and I'll tell you how it went.
Well, absolutely. You know, Brandy, the fitness market has changed so much since you started TRX, right? I mean even even easier in the sense that you can find a manufacturer easier, but harder in that there's so much more stuff out there, so much more noise.
You know, and as influencer marketing and customer acquisition costs have gotten higher and higher.
If you were today I mean you are doing it, right, with your new company, but if you were to
To introduce a new product into the market today.
What do you think you would do?
Differently.
in order to break through all the noise and the millions of products available on Amazon and on social media.
Well it is
It is a non trivial question that you're posing there. It's it's a uh
The clutter
Is yeah.
you know, just profound out there and and trying to break out. I mean, there's a couple of ways to do it.
generally one of them is kind of foreclosed, which is by your way to exposure.
that for early stage companies.
you know, rarely happens unless you happen to come from a trust fund and can afford to do it. So, you know, I would say that getting good authentic
influencers on board is a good way to do it because you know those folks have large followings who trust
their uh you know what they say and are interested in what they do. And that can be a a relatively
Uh inexpensive way to do it.
You're gonna pay some
Equity.
in all likelihood.
But if you pick the right partner.
Then you get somebody who
will be excited about the business and will want to be a partner rather than just kind of a pay to play. That can be an effective way to do it.
Yeah. Uh Randy, let's bring in our first caller to the advice line. Are you ready?
Ready when you are.
All right, great. Welcome to the advice line. Please uh join us. Tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just a bit about your business.
Yes, hi, Guy and Randy. I am so excited to be here. So I'm Pai Say, I'm the co-founder of Benny, calling in from Toronto, Canada.
Benny is shaking up the energy market with naturopathic doctor formulated energy drinks for caffeine conscious or caffeine sensitive consumers. Got it. Okay, welcome to the show, Paige. Thanks for calling in. So Benny is a a beverage, just like an energy drink like Red Bull or Monster, but I'm assuming different, right?
You betcha. Yeah, you said it different. Okay, what makes it different?
Yeah, so it's like I said, it's for caffeine conscious consumers, like my co-founder and myself. So it's less caffeine. It's eighty five milligrams of caffeine, which for energy drinks or even for a cup of coffee is definitely on the light side. And then we use some pretty unique ingredients. So the base of the caffeine itself is Yerba Mate tea.
Which is a tea from South America that gives you a really nice kind of gentle sustained boost, almost similar to a matcha. And then we use a blend, uh proprietary blend of adaptogen. So we have lion's main, Rishi, and ginseng. So it gives you a really nice sustained boost. Nice. Okay, well, thanks for calling in.
And tell me a little bit about how you started this. I mean it w when did it start and why?
Yeah, great question. So I met my co-founder back in university. We went to the University of Victoria and we really bonded over this shared love of wellness and entrepreneurship. And she, like yourself, Randy, was an athlete all through university and she was on a run one day in her fourth year and it broke out into essentially anaphylactic shock. So throat closed in.
body covered in hives, it was very scary, and spent the next couple of months trying to figure out what was going on in hospitals and kind of with
typical Western medicine and they sent her back saying she had exercise induced anaphylaxia. So started peeling back the layers and now it's so obvious, but once she started cutting the excessive caffeine, you know, the multiple coffees, the Red Bulls, the caffeine pills, she felt way better. So
We wanted to see if that was something that other people were dealing with and after doing some research and bringing on an atropathic doctor, we found it was a really big problem. So we thought there's no one really putting this in a can in a fun, accessible, efficacious way.
How tell me a little bit about the business. So you started this
You uh d how did you guys uh finance it and and find a a manufacturer and get get it into cans? Did you raise money, for example?
Yeah, yeah. We lots of people think it's our parents because we're so young, but we actually launched with a very small bank loan, twenty five thousand dollars, which was
Amazing, you know, life changing. We couldn't have done it without it. So that was our launch. Started really in my co-founder Julie's kitchen, uh, brought our Natural Path Doctor on, brought on kind of a team to help us formulate, got the formulation down, and that was two years ago. So sin we've really bootstrapped it. We've been profitable, which has been really great for
a beverage business, but we can't really grow that way. But now uh in about a thousand stores across Canada.
Nice. So let's get your question. Yeah, yeah. So this is the how I built this exclusive. We've actually never shared this publicly. I got to get permission from my co-founder, but uh we're launching in Target nationwide later this year. So in all of their stores. Thank you. We're so excited. But we wanna know.
Beyond you know, the obvious the finances like how can we really set ourselves up for success?
Well, well first of all, congratulations. Lots to unpack here. And before we get to your question, I wanna bring Randy in. Randy Hetrick
Um do you have any thoughts about her questions or do you have any any questions for Paige?
Well I mean it I
Congratulations on the early success, I I think.
You know, so it sounds like you've had pretty steep growth, right?
Yeah. No, thank you. It's been it's been like a dream come true. So much work, but a dream.
And you mentioned that you're profitable, which um honestly, like if if I can give anybody advice, including myself, it's always hey, get profitable as quickly as possible and stay profitable because you make
infinitely better decisions from that position. And you guys, it sounds like are in a are in a really great spot with with uh
you know, a a huge key account.
Early.
in your business. And so uh your is is your main
question or you guys are unable, I presume, to finance or or to finance it from from your own cash flow is is kind of where we're headed, right?
Totally. So yeah, we're exploring like, you know, bringing on more investors. We've done a very small, you know, friends and family, which has been good. Um, but PO financing, like even just knowing like how much money, I think the number is like infinite, right? Like we're up against the biggest players in the world with like the biggest budgets in the world. So
Just kind of navigating from like where we want to be to like how do we work our way back from
Kind of obscurity in Canada.
Pai, do you have give me a sense right now of what of what what you guys are doing in terms of sales.
Yeah, so we s we launched about two years ago. We've done just I think over five hundred thousand dollars.
To date target, obviously their POs are gonna be
Yeah. And are you launching an all two thousand plus stores simultaneously, or are you gonna start in a region?
Yeah, so we're we're launching with a uh limited edition flavor for the holidays in November and December. Our buyer is leaning in really deeply with us. He has a really good relationship with a lot of other energy drink brands that have kind of grown over the last few years. So he's kind of replicating their success in what they did. So
An LTO limited edition flavor in the holidays and then launching
All stores in January, which
Is intimidating. Do you have somebody you're working with who is experienced, um particularly with a retailer like Target? I mean you might mention the buyer, but uh but but like a consultant, somebody who because uh you know, again, and I I don't want to scare you and I be people have told you this, but I think it's important to be prepared for this, which is
You know, and we've had this on the show where people uh go into target Walmart too early and then, you know, they're out for a few years and then they have to come back and then they get to come back and they're okay. But
Sometimes you know these big
Big
box stores, they gave you one chance initially. And so there's a lot of pressure, right? Because you want to sell this thing. So so my first question is, do you have somebody
that you've identified or that you can work with in addition to the buyer. Yeah.
Yeah, we do, which has been great. They've been really, really awesome, kind of a broker team. And then we've got some great advisors. Some of them have been past guests who we love. Um, but even still, it's like there's a million and one, you know, ways it could go. And like you said, exactly that guy. It's like a one shot, it feels like. So we don't wanna don't wanna blow it.
Yeah, Randy, you guys you guys must sell TRX at Target, right?
We don't sell at Target, but we do big box retail, you know, through through Dicks and we obviously do a lot on Amazon. But what I was going to to mention uh to Paige was that very, very early, at about the same point in in our evolution,
We had a great big opportunity with a
big box, massive big box retailer called Costco.
And what
You know, it was so tempting.
And I flew up there to Isaqua and sat around a big

And the reason that I said no was because
I was in the same spot you were. I was going to have to take on a big chunk of debt in order to finance this pilot.
And
uh the put rights
Are the thing that you wanna really make sure that you understand, meaning like if the product
You know, those guys are no dummies. That's why they have gigantic businesses and generally they they ha will have terms that if the
If if the business doesn't work exactly as they
uh hope it will as the the product doesn't work exactly as they hope. They can put it back to you.
In our case
You know.
We had product problems.
That ended up coming out shortly after
We passed this up. Had I not passed it up for that reason, there would have never been a T Rex. So I would just
you know, sort of throw that out there and if you have if you have a great advisor who's very familiar with
with big box retail.
Then they'll I'm sure be telling you something similar.
But that
is not a trivial decision.
Right, to to make, to do it or not to do it. And I you know, just you really gotta know your product.
Yeah.
Yeah, Paige, the other thing is you want to do everything in your power
To harness
your followers, your fans, anybody that you can possibly get to go to those stores and to buy the product, obviously.
I'm assuming you're gonna work on, you know, some kind of sampling um s demos and things like that. But
I'm a qu quick question for you. I'm curious because I'm looking at the cans. They're really nice, beautiful
Who is your target audience? I mean you mentioned people you call them
caffeine conscious so people who are looking for a little bit of a b a hit, but not uh
J sort of a jittery buzz. Is it women? Is it men? Is it is it both? Who is your kind of
Typical customer.
Yeah, we call them our friends with Benny. So it's typically that kind of eighteen to thirty-five young women, some men, but usually students, young professionals, someone that either can do like one coffee a day and it's kind of their afternoon pick me up, or someone like my co founder who really just can't.
like handle that much and it's kind of their their go to pick me up in that way.
Y you know, the the reason why I ask is because um and you may know this story also, Randy, about monster energy, which is
Uh, they really focused on a specific demo when they launched. You know, it was like
Guys who listen to Metal, who are into M M A and Motocross, like no joke. I mean that is how that brand
just went through the roof. And I think
It's interesting'cause that is definitely a
a a category of c of customer, right? And I feel like
There isn't really an energy drink that targets women. Th it's like extreme sports. It's like, you know, it's Red Bull and Monster and you know
But I don't feel like there are many drinks out there that are energy drinks for women.
Yeah, that's exactly it. We kind of say what would Red Bull be doing with their community for this community in twenty twenty five if they were doing it today. So we do tons of events, like Pilates, like, you know, all those good things that that
our community really likes that I like. So
And you mentioned Pilates, but there are so many
You know.
opportunities that that to me would be so clear and so aligned with what you're trying to do. Have you guys started to explore
certain collaborations with brands that uh you know might not be
uh obviously everybody wants everybody to buy their products. Like you want men to buy your products, you want young and old people to buy our products, but having a core
committed tribe of of customers is not a bad idea. Have you have you started started to kind of reach out to potential collaboration partners?
Yeah, do you mean like on like a limited like flavor with Yeah, a flavor or some kind of offer or some kind of something.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. We've got them kind of on the works with different creators, but I love the idea of like if it was
I'm trying to think like what would be the modern like equivalent like a like a soul cycle or something like that where it's very clear. Exactly. Exactly.
Yeah,'cause I'm looking at your website and I feel like it's cool. It's great.
But I feel like g it it says women owned here.
And normally my advice is like, well, you know, you really want to appeal to everybody, you wanna be kinda careful about those things. But in this case, I think it makes a lot of sense.
for you to lean into that. I I think it really does.
No, this is such good advice. And like a TRX, I don't know we'll if we'll do a collab, but we'll find a right partner. It would have to be black and yellow, but it would work. It could work. No, I I I think that that one other

that I that bolsters, you know, the idea of focusing
is the reality that at this point in your evolution
You know, you don't have
A lot of resources.
Yeah. You you really do kind of have to focus in it sounds to me like you're far enough along to have pretty high level of confidence in in that kind of hierarchy of
of of consumer targets starting with you've got the you've got the woman and you've got her age group. That then allows you to stretch those resources, you know, and and
Yeah.
to the maximum effect.
versus a shotgun, where now you're taking them and spreading them so thinly that they don't really make an impression on anyone. So I I agree, I like the idea of of uh of your current target.
Yeah, especially because it's gonna be a potentially a cheaper way to market, right? Because you're you're gonna need to balance marketing dollars and production dollars.
Right. And you mentioned you've got uh an advisor's on the show in the past. Who is that?
Yeah, Tara Bosch from Smart Sweet. Sweet. She's wonderful. Yeah, we're we're so lucky to have her. Yeah, she's great. Uh cool. Randy, any last minute thoughts?
Well, I mean I I
I think a an advisor that knows the space.
the more relevant that advisor's experience is.
the more directly relevant that she's gonna be to you. So that sounds amazing. It sounds like exactly the right person. And if she's dealt with
with big box retail distribution so much the better. Sounds like
You guys are off and running and uh
Man, I wish you the best of luck.
Yeah, good good luck, Pai. Um, the brand is called Benny. Page say, uh thanks for calling in. Thanks so much, guys.
Congrats.
Yeah, I I this is a tough category, dr beverages, because there's a lot of competition and even energy drinks, right? Um and obviously dominated by the the big players that you know, the Cokes and the PepsiCo's. But um
it it there's always an opportunity. I there's all yeah, we've talked about this in the show a million times, that there's no such thing as a saturated market, right? Is that there's always
going to be uh uh you know an audience people who are interested in your particular product or item.
And two things that I really love about her space is one
It's you know, coming as a product guy that makes durable products, I can tell you that the idea of consumables
And recurring revenues.
is fantastic and while while her space is heavily competed, it's also the kind of space where if she creates something unique, which it sounds like they're on their way to doing.
There are a ton of strategic acquirers out there, right, looking to snap that up and roll it in.
Stay with us because after the break, we'll talk to another founder working to take their business to the next level. That's after the break. I'm Guy Roz and you're listening to the advice line right here on how I built this lab.
Welcome back to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Roz, and my guest today is TRX founder, Randy Hetrick. And Randy is with me to take your calls and hello, let's bring in our next caller.
Hi Randy, hi Guy. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Carrie Jones, and I live in the ski resort town of Whistler, British Columbia and Canada.
I'm the president and co founder of Peaked Pies. We're an Australian bakery cafe group, and at Peaked Pies we make from scratch five inch individual Australian savoury meat pies.
Awesome. Thanks for calling in, Carrie. I've had them. They're not yours in particular'cause I'll have to go to Whistler, but
Uh meat pies are delicious.
They're basically I mean in ev every culture makes a version of these Cornish pasties or
Yeah, with some kind of calzone or something, right? Some bread or pastry stuffed with
meat or cheese or uh savage. So um tell me a bit b about the business.
Yeah, so we are a so
Meat pies in Australia are very iconic. They're kind of called the traditional like national dish. Yeah. And um
When I moved to Whistler in two thousand and nine to for ski season, like Whistler is basically run
and overrun with Australians. And there was no
um meat pie shops here, which I thought was really strange. And I then that's when I met my um now husband and co-founder. Um he's
Amazing in the kitchen, and he's heard me talk about I miss the Australian meat pies and and he then heard everyone else saying it. So he started making them at home. He's Canadian.
And then friends started coming over and then we joked, Oh, we should open a pie shop and uh that was two thousand and thirteen. We
opened a pie shop. So they are hot grab and go. So you come into our little cafe, it's quick service. Um the display case is right in front of you. It's a custom made, just exactly like you'd find in Australia. So they're hot, ready to go. Um we bake
all throughout the day and we just top up this heated display case. So someone walks in, they say, I'll have a steak, bacon and cheese pie. Um we have a little twist on it. So we say, Do you want to get that peaked? And then they add mash mashed potatoes, mushy peas and gravy. We put it in a box and out they go. They literally have a
homemade hot dish within like a minute and a half.
Wow.
All right, so you and how many cafes do you have?
So we have uh three um corporate owned stores um that are Peds. We have built a three thousand square foot production facility now. And uh we are in the process of building our first franchise location. Nice. Okay, so you're starting to think about and you have a franchisee already?
We do, yes. Yes, is our very first one. Yep.
Amazing. Okay. Lots to talk about before we do. Tell us what your question is.
Yeah, so I've been listening to How I Built This for a long time and I've noticed like a common theme from some of your entrepreneurs which have credited their growth to bringing on the right strategic investor.
My husband and I have um bootstrapped Pinked Pies. It's just been us. We don't come from money. Um we've put a lot into this over the years and we're definitely at a point now where we're looking to bring on a strategic investor.
And
I'm a confident person, I'm happy to reach out, I'm talk to people, but it's getting them
Once we're in those meetings, what would you say are some smart questions for us to ask a potential strategic investor? Um, what information do you think we can request from them to help us evaluate if they're truly the right fit?
For us.
All right, this is a great question for you, Randy, because you have dealt with this uh in good and bad ways. I know. Um so first of all, uh th thoughts or questions or answers for Carrie.
Well, I mean I
I love the franchise model for what you're doing here. And interestingly, Carrie, we're we're at the at the same pos it's kind of roughly the same place with our franchises, right, in terms of of rollouts. So while I'm not gonna position myself as a uh deep expert in franchising, I am an empathetic fran early stage franchiser with you.
Uh and to Guy's point, yes, I have had uh both good and
not so good experiences with uh
with capital partners.
And that I've thought a awful lot about. And and so I think
Um, one, this seems to me at first glance I pulled up your site, which is really beautiful, by the way.
Thank you.
to a franchise model because
in general, I think the things that make
The best franchises are the simplest concepts.
Right. The more complicated the concept, yes. The less well
A franchise structure.
Works because all of that complication has to be trained.
into your franchisee or the whole thing falls on its face. So
This one looks

for that.
And obviously a franchise is a great way for you to scale rapidly in a relatively capital light way.
Um my first kind of question to you just as a general

Okay, but
Since you're doing this as a franchise and franchises can grow as fast or as slow as you want them to, since you are the franchise or selecting
how many you take on.
Are you sure that you
That you really
Need and want.
External capital.
It's not it it is the capital, yes, but it is the strategic part of it as well. It's my husband and I like uh
We it is just us. We didn't go to college. We didn't we don't have university degrees in this. We have you know, as a a lot of founders
don't have really
That growth of like
someone who's experienced in really the operation side of things, the um
franchise development uh
And with that
The capital
um as well. So marketing and and so forth. Like we've
We're really looking for someone who can partner with us to really booster this.
Well, I think that's a great answer and and self awareness in a uh
in a in an operator, in a in a in an entrepreneur is a very valuable thing. We as as Clint Eastwood said, right, a man's gotta know his limitations. So so that that's uh that's all great stuff.
Uh.
I would say that, you know, my initial
Impression and then I'll
pass the mic back to to guys just to make sure that, you know, what you described was was a lack of domain expertise in certain areas of this, which you can get
with team members who bring that.
Right. And I I would just be I would be
very careful expecting

from your investor unless and we can talk about this in a second, unless you really get the right
one, which isn't is easy to say you're gonna do. It turns out to be hard to do.
And so you know, that's that's a that's just kind of a
A pathway that you can
You can choose between, you know, the right path and the left path. Do we build it ourselves by getting some money and then hiring
Team members with expertise.
Or
Do we bring in that strategic investor early and have that person help us do it all?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I think I I think really what what
what you're saying is and Carrie I think this is really great advice is
You can bring in an investor, but that investor ultimately may talk a big talk about how they can help you strategically, but they're investing in twenty other things and they're focused on unless it's an investor operator, somebody who says, you know what, I'm gonna put money in and I'm gonna be your C uh CFO or the operation chief. I think there's an argument to be made here.
That
you can do one of three things, or may maybe even more than that. You can bring on an investor who might just be a silent partner or not a great investor, or you can bring on
We can I try to identify really great operators, people who have experiences particularly
in sort of small to medium sized franchise operations, building them out.
uh who are sort of semi retired, they come in for some equity and
And that is one option, or you do a third option, which is you bring those people in and you raise money in addition to that. Because having folks with operational experience like that is very attractive to strategic investors as well. They're gonna want to see that you've got somebody who worked for a Panera or a
uh a Dave's hot chicken or or whatever I'm just throwing names out there. Whatever other businesses that have a franchise model.
Та нок.
This is a really interesting idea. It's a really interesting product. Um, I could see
something like this having um s you know strong appeal, particularly in Canada, where you've got a huge sort of, you know, Anglo expat population, right? People are f already sort of familiar with this kind of food.
Uh and I would really spend time I mean you can
You can troll LinkedIn.
And do
Just do searches on LinkedIn and find people.
who have experience in building franchises, who are semi retired. I mean I think
Randy's Randy, your your suggestion here, if I'm getting it right, which I think I am, is find the right operators.
Yes. Yeah, I I'd be very careful about going
toward a financial investor who has been involved in
And
you know, franchises before.
Because
You have to find out well at what stage.
'Cause that makes a huge difference, right? Were they were they involved and do they have an operator on their team who was successfully involved in a
early stage franchise, which is where you guys are. Very, very, very different game, right? Where where we are now than where
Yeah.
you know, ten year old franchise or is with a thousand units or
Or more.
Um and I I like the idea.
That
you know, Guy is recommending a lot of finding
A successful
retired or, you know, kinda quasi retired.
Operator.
Who
Did really well.
And is now out there bouncing around interested in cool projects.
And would get involved with you as as an advisor for a little bit of equity.
And who may say, you know what?
I'd like to do this for a couple of years and come out of retirement because that's the kind of like perfect early stage investor.
That
That you
you know, you may find
And
And you also might just find people who love the concept who want to put up some cash.
Which then allow you to pair
a good advisor with some new hires
And get yourself another, you know
Two, three, four years down the road.
And then look.
Yeah.
'Cause you know, things change fast, right, in an early stage business in a couple of years.
Can you know make all the difference.
Yeah, and and Randy, you'd said um that
You had been
brought on an investor and then you were able to buy them back out. Was there any signs, or would you say are there any red flags that potentially you know, I think that's what I'd be worried about is um
Bringing on someone as a strategic investor and them not being as strategic as they claim.
I would say that's more common.
They're not.
Right.
Uh.
in investors who claim to be bringing the the the the famous word is, you know, synergies.
uh to to what you're doing. Um
and experience because they will show you that they were involved in some
you know, successful brand that you like. But then if you really scratched, you'd find out that
you know, the the involvement was pretty shallow.
And so I'd be careful of that. I'd really look for somebody who
who had deep expertise in a pretty narrow
um, you know, feel the business, right? Franchising.
Food franchising.
Yeah, I I agree. I think and and that's really where you can
do your diligence, you know, where where you identify somebody who has had experience
as a as an executive or or an operator in some capacity
with a franchise model that you can now start to call people up and really dig into this person's background. Somebody who's
You know, some again, semi retired, might be interested in getting some equity. I would also, by the way, just reach out to some of these people who've been on our shows. Cold cold, you know, contact them on the Instagram or LinkedIn, see if they'll get back to you. Can't promise it. But I think
That's really g the best.
uh strategy for you right now is to find somebody who's willing to take a risk, who's interested, who loves this brand, this product.
And
uh and is willing to, you know, take a risk for some equity because it it you know, it may not work, obviously, but but but of course the hope is is that it will.
Right.
Okay. And even if somebody passes, by the way.
Uh
Like
Ask them like get something from them, right? Find out because it's easy to be like, ah, that person just doesn't get it.
But and I know, believe me, but try not to try try it try to ask, like wait a minute, what what is it that you don't like?
Don't just let'em
Go.
Get something out of'em because you're gonna come away from that conversation with some really useful intel.
Mm.
Mm hmm. And also ask them if if they don't like it, hey, is there somebody you know of or you can think of who this might be more interesting to? That's also worth asking.
Amazing.
No, I really, really appreciate that. That's been some really good
Thoughts.
Awesome. Carrie Jones, the company's called Piqued Pies. Good luck. Congrats. Keep us posted. Thank you.

Alright, we're gonna take another quick break, but we'll be right back with another collar. Stay with us, I'm Guy Roz, and you're listening to the advice line right here on how I built this lab.
Welcome back to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz and today I'm taking your calls with Randy Hetrick of TRX. Randy, you ready to take the next call? Absolutely.
Alright, let's bring our final caller. Welcome to the advice line. You are on with Randy Hetrick, founder of TRX. Welcome to the show. Tell us what your name, where you're calling from, and just a little line or two about your business, please.
Hi guys.
Thank you so much for having me here. I'm Katherine Perry and I am the co-founder and VP of Adapt Apparel. We're a modern adaptive clothing brand.
Adapt create stylish, easy to use clothing designed for people with disabilities.
Aging loved ones, and anyone recovering from surgery or managing medical conditions. And I'm calling in from Williamstown, Ontario.
Awesome. Thank you so much for
calling in and congrats uh adapt apparel. So this is
comfortable clothing that is designed for people
If I'm if I got this right, with mobility issues or maybe who had surgery. So what does that mean? There's like a bunch of ways to put it on and take it off and like give me a description of what what an outfit would would would be like.
Absolutely. So it's easy and accessible clothing. So
For example, um, if you have had a knee or a a hip replacement and you're
post op and you're recovering with your chiroc on your knee, we have our signature and patent penk zipper that comes all the way down that you can rehab in.
Or maybe you're going through
Cancer treatment, infusion dialysis, right? Um, it is clothing that you can use for those for those uses.
I get I get you. So how did you come up with this idea?
Yeah. Okay, so I was a special education teacher and a phys ed teacher for 21 years. I retired and um I have my own health and wellness business uh to this day. During that time, I was called upon to be um a primary caregiver for both my parents who have Alzheimer's.
And mobility issues.
when my father was dying, the nurses said to me,
Catherine, your father really needs adaptive clothing. And I said
Like most of us, I have no idea what you're talking about. Yeah. But direct me in the direction I did a quick deep dive and I was like.
No, that's institutional looking. Uh, where's the dignity in this? I'm not putting my father in this clothing. Um, and that's how we start I said, we're gonna do better and we must do better.
And that's uh we launched in October of twenty four.
So they're like I'm looking at the website, this like comfortable sort of like sweatsuit type kind of at leisure wear, but really
With zippers down the sides of the legs and down the sides of the arms and like easy buttons that you just uh snaps that you just like break away that you can open easily. So it's really design uh clearly inspired by your own experience with your parents. Mm-hmm. And it doesn't screen
I have a mobility issue, or perhaps I have a cognitive issue because of you know Alzheimer's. Let's give an example. My mom wears it all the time. She feels good and she looks good.
Awesome. And tell me a little bit about how you're doing in terms of sales, right? Are you are sell selling entirely uh through your website?
Yeah. So we started with um, you know, direct to consumer um market and we now are I would say forty percent on uh direct to consumer and sixty percent is you know selling we're with uh long term care homes, we're with um medical uh distribution centers.
physio uh clinics, uh hospitals. Um so
We're really a hybrid of a model right now. Um, and I think we can serve the masses with that type of model.
Cool. And uh tell us your question.
So my question is so Adapt apparel, it was born from a personal mission and was to create dignified functional clothing for people with mobility challenges. We've seen a strong interest from the long-term care rehab infusion clinics, but as we grow, we wonder, are we spreading ourselves too thin?
Що?
To scale, or are we actually serving the sectors? It's giving us a competitive edge. It's a really, really cool idea. I love the idea. Randy Hetrick
Wanna bring you in on this. Uh clothing for people with
You know, coming out of the hospital or
Aging or mobility issues, I mean, g it's just seems like a no brainer to me.
Well, I mean, first of all, I love
Catherine's kind of combination of deep domain expertise and
than the passion, right, from having worked with her own parents and and and and that you you put those two things together and you've got
Really a pretty special recipe just to start with. That that deep
domain expertise and passion. Right. And you're gonna need both, obviously, as you go forward. I love yeah, you know
The the when you think about
The fashion space.
Or the apparel space. Fashion apparel is notoriously fickle.
And you know, read that as risky.
functional apparel is starting to kinda have its day. And I and I don't think that
it's necessarily I mean we're seeing this in the fitness space too, like functional apparel, um, beginning to to pop up and
I think it's
It's
Very interesting.
At this point.
Maybe
Nitchy?
Right, still but I think there's a huge potential audience if you can
If you can break through as to your question, I mean you're asking kind of that that that great question of hey, how early do I focus?
Which is
You know, which is a not a non trivial question. I mean it's you gotta stay nimble enough to find the the kind of the vein
But but then focus as you begin to scale.
That's what we said too, Randy, you know, for the first year, you're collecting your data, your analytics and everything, right? And don't be afraid to pivot. And as we, you know, navigate the murky waters, we're in the muddy water system right now. Do we branch?
And or do we stay within where the story started?
I mean I think
It's a little bit of both, but I think it's about time frames, right? You're you're only a year into this thing and
You've got a really innovative idea and product in a and and Randy to your point, I mean at leisure where and you could call anything functional, right? I mean Viore short are functional. It's a billion dollar business, right? Huge business. Lou Lemons of the world. Um this is really specific for
Um I and I think a lot of people, not just elderly people, but anyone who's been in hospital can identify with
the need for something like this. And I think right now, in my view,
You are your best teed up to really work with hospitals.
Care facilities rehab.
uh facilities infusion clinics and and really try and make inroads
with those um institutions because that's where you're gonna m that's you're gonna f obviously find your initial customers. I really one just sort of observation here is
You've got a really interesting logo, which I think is a thumb print or a fingerprint.
Yes. Oh I'm so glad you asked. Our logo is my mother's thumbprint.
I love it.
It's it's a really cool logo. It looks distinctive. It looks like something you can really build out as a recognizable brand. But I think for now
You really want to make
You wanna get traction with those places where people are, you know, are in need of this, right? You're not necessarily gonna have an easy time with these hanging up at uh you know at Dick Sporting Goods.
Right now.
Maybe in five years. But right now you want these
where your potential customers are.
Yeah, it's a great point because, you know, we've had interest from retailers and we we, you know, our team will sit around and discuss that. W, you know, is this something that we really want to? Does it align with our core values? And that's really important to us.
I'm gonna follow Guy
was heading us to you guys are brand you like
brand spanking new. I know it probably doesn't feel that way to you, right? Because it's it's like the uh you know everybody everybody talks about. Yeah.
Yeah, so but to to the rest of us, right, to the rest of the world, you're brand new.
And I think that it's
It's really, really important to find your
advocacy.
Early.
From
You know, wherever it is, find that advocacy that that
People really
Get it?
And care?
And want to pick up your banner and help carry it.
forward because when you think about re about retail.
It's pretty easy.
Really?
To sell in.
But what you really gotta focus on with retail is sell through.
Right. And that's where a lot of early brands that their buyers are out there in retail looking for things to buy. They're under pressure to bring in some new things and so they'll they'll find you maybe.
Bring you in, but if you don't have some momentum, if you don't have some advocacy out there.
It can be the worst decision you ever made because you can
Finance, right?

And then the retail rejects you and for maybe ever.
But certainly for a long time that retailers burned.
And so
I wouldn't rush too fast to worry about
About retailer broadening your
you know, your your target. I'd actually try to
To find
The real spot where you're hitting the target.
as and evidenced by feedback from those early customers.
And then focus on that.
Right, learn from them. Okay. Make your make some mistakes in a forgiving environment.
I appreciate that so much.
Awesome. I think it's a great product a great idea.
uh Catherine Perry Adapt Apparel uh congrats. Thanks so much for calling in.
Thanks, guys. Best of luck. Thank you.
Thanks.
So Randy, um
Entrepreneurship alive and well in North America.
Okay.
Clearly. So I get so excited by by listening to these folks' concepts, guy, and I I could listen to even more of this.
Yeah, you know.
I am reminded
Every day.
Uh with what I do.
How much innovation.
I mean and look
Uh uh th th this isn't like, you know, uh a laser AI product, but it's a really innovative product. And we're talking about
Something that
people need. It's just a reminder of how much cool stuff it people are m uh creating all the time.
You know it.
Mm.
Without fail in in my life experience, forget just my business experience, but
The things
That
Always do the best are the things that start by solving a problem.
Right. Because and then the broader the broader hell that problem is, the faster the adoption and the and the more, you know, meteoric the rise of the
of of the product. But if you can solve a problem and it it does seem like she's solving one, I
You know, I've my parents are
or aging and uh, you know, my dad just passed away and dealing with spending a lot of time in the h in hospitals. I haven't seen anything like this. So it
It definitely seems like if she can if you know, if she can learn early and get it right that there's a there's a great
early mover advantage.
For sure.
Um Randy.
a question I ask all of our returning guests, which I want to ask you, is is that when you look back at at your time building TRX, and we I mean, again, you guys have got to hear this episode. I'm gonna say this again and again. It's so good.
And there's so much we didn't even talk about about that episode on this show, including how you took on all the copycats. But w if you were going back in time when you were really getting getting this off the ground, knowing what you know now.
You know, ha all the experience you have now.
What do you think
would have been helpful for you to know. What advice would you give your younger self?
You know, coming out of Stanford Business School when I did, I think it was crippled a little bit by by the false sense that if, you know, if you can't get your business to be worth a hundred million bucks in three years, then it's not worth doing. Right. Because you know, I graduated from Stanford in oh three. It was kind of on the back of the first dot com bubble burst.
But
There was an awful lot of of kind of
That thinking in the valley.
And what I would tell myself, honestly, is is like
Be a little more patient.
Uh do not I
I really can't say it enough. Like get profitable as early as possible.
And stay profitable and make make decisions.
From a mindset that
You know
I want to try to maintain profitability.
And even if I have to go underwater a little bit to do it, a little bit's fine.
Deeply less fine.
And because, you know, honestly, when when you're living in a profitable world, the the the clock tic more slowly, you think more clearly.
And
And I
I just that would probably be the biggest piece of advice that I'd give give myself to to you know answer your question is be be patient.
uh stay profitable, focus on my customers.
And you know, grow at an organic
rate rather than some.
uh artificially.
powered, you know, uh nitrous oxide powered rate that
You know made
May not work.
They take you in the wrong direction.
That's the inventor and founder of TRX, Randy Hetrick. Randy, thanks so much for being with us. Great to be with you, guy. Thanks for having me back.
And of course, if you haven't heard Randy's original How I Built This Episode, please, please, please do take the time to go back and check it out. It is so good.
I will put a link to it in the podcast description, and here is one of my favorite moments from that interview.
The manufacturer that I had started with
didn't have a depth of
manufacturing experience in
kinda product that I was bringing which is this product has to be very durable.
And so one of the
Very early large lots of inventory we ordered.
arrived.
And
You know, we had sold out of everything, so of course we were out of stock by the time it arrived, and desperate to ship.
Well we hooked up the first suspension trainer lean back.
And the handles
just cracked like potato chips.
Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week, and by the way, please make sure to check out my newsletter. You can sign up for it for free at guyroz.com or on Substack.
And of course, if you are working on a business and you'd like to be on this show, send us a one minute message that tell us a little bit about your business and the questions or issues that you're currently facing, because we would love to try and help you solve them.
You can send us a voice memo at hibt at id.wondery.com or call us at 1800-433-1298.
leave a message there and make sure to tell us how to reach you and we'll put all of this information in the podcast description as well.
This episode was produced by Katherine Cypher with music composed by Ramte Narabluy.
It was edited by Andrea Bruce. Our engineers were Robert Rodriguez and Quasey Lee. Our production staff also includes Alex Chung, Carla Estevez, Casey Herman, Carrie Thompson, Chris Massini, Ramel Wood, Sam Paulson, Niva Grant, and Elaine Coates.
I'm Guy Raz and you've been listening to how I built this.