Getting to Know ReddyYeti

You probably haven't heard of ReddyYeti yet, but this young startup is making big waves in the world of outdoor recreation and changing the way small businesses market and connect to their consumers. ReddyYeti's goal? Creating a community for outdoor enthusiasts to discover, support, and save big on the latest and greatest outdoor brands and products. With thousands of startups entering the outdoor industry every year, ReddyYeti is bridging the gap between innovative and ethically-run companies, and their target audience includes YOU! 

So what is ReddyYeti? We got in touch with co-founder Josh Salvo and picked his brain on everything from company history and future plans to their new membership program, complete with bi-weekly gear giveaways and huge discounts on new gear. In short, you won't want to miss the chance to join ReddyYeti's rapidly-growing community, discover your favorite new brands, support ethically-run startups, start saving big, and never pay full price on outdoor gear, outerwear, and travel again! 

OP: What is ReddyYeti.com?

Josh Salvo: ReddyYeti is a community of outdoor sport enthusiasts who want to discover and support innovative and ethically run startups related to skiing, snowboarding, climbing, hiking, camping, kayaking, mountain biking, surfing and travel. Check out all of the startups we’ve helped grow so far on the Outdoor Startups Page.

We help these startups grow through The ReddyYeti Podcast, where we tell their story through the voice of their founders. For each startup’s story we share on The ReddyYeti Podcast, we also offer a giveaway featuring the products from these innovative startups. You can check out our latest giveaway on our home page.

In addition we have also created a membership for the community, where members can gain access to discounts of up to 50% on over 100 outdoor startups, discover dozens of new, innovative outdoor startups, receive first access to startups' new products, access to their ambassador programs, and gain first access to purchase startups' demo and trade show gear at up to 60% off retail prices. 

OP: We hear you're giving away free gear. Tell us more!

Josh Salvo: Every month we feature five to eight new startups and give away a number of their products to our community. We have given away as many as 10 prizes per giveaway. Examples range from a pair of handmade skis to a custom ski and snowboard jacket or the world's lightest pack hammock. You can check out some of our past giveaways here.

OP: How can outdoor enthusiasts around the world learn more about the companies that you promote?

Josh Salvo: They can check out the ReddyYeti membership, where we showcase over 100 outdoor startups and give members a ton of perks including discounts of up to 50% for the entire year. We will be adding new startups to the program every month with the goal of helping people purchase all of their outdoor gear from innovative and ethically run startups. 

We also have a section on ReddyYeti called Outdoor Startups, where we list all of the brands we’ve worked with. On their brand pages we share their story, who their founders are, what year they were founded, where they are located, how many employees they have, products they currently offer, and a link to their podcast episode where their founder/s share their story. Every two weeks we add a new startup, so our community can constantly discover new brands. 

OP: When did you start ReddyYeti and why? How did you come up with this idea?

Josh Salvo: ReddyYeti has had a few different iterations. Originally, my co-founder, Andrew Pfundstein, and I wanted to start a ski company. We were going to call it Village Skis. We spent about three years designing and building skis in our parents’ basement. In this process, we discovered a ton of micro ski brands that most skiers didn’t know about. We thought it would be awesome to bring all these niche ski and snowboard brands together in one location so that the everyday skier could find them. That’s exactly what we did. We launched an e-commerce platform called ReddyYeti that exclusively sold niche American made gear in action sports.

We ran the e-commerce site for about three seasons before deciding to shut it down, as we were in the middle of college and didn’t have the capital to grow to the next level.

Drew and I messed around with a media site after that for about a year, and then in October of 2015, we came up with the new ReddyYeti with our third business partner, Matt Dello Buono. With our past business ventures, we realized that it doesn’t just take a great idea to build a successful business; it takes time, money and knowledge of marketing, along with many other things.

So we thought, why don’t we build a community of outdoor sport enthusiasts? And through this community we wanted to support and help startups in the outdoor sports world grow without breaking the bank on marketing expenses.

OP: What's been the biggest challenge getting your company started?

Josh Salvo: It has been building a highly targeted and engaged community. We have had a great start, but it has taken a lot of work to build a community like ReddyYeti to just over 23,000 subscribers. ReddyYeti isn’t a community for everyone. We want to attract people who are very active in their sports, not just people who are active in their sport a couple times a year. The person that wakes up early to squeeze in a backcountry tour before work, that climbs everyday, that checks the surf/weather report religiously. Getting in front of people like this and gaining their trust isn’t easy, but we are getting better at it every single day, and the larger we get, the easier it will be.

OP: Working with outdoor industry startups is definitely a cool niche. What have you learned during this journey?

Josh Salvo: We have learned that all of these startups have some incredible stories, and consumers want to hear those stories so they can get to know the people behind the brands that they are purchasing gear from. We live in an age where consumers can purchase from brands that align with their personal values. For us, we have been learning how we can best facilitate that for our community.

OP: Where do you see ReddyYeti in five years?

Josh Salvo: We want ReddyYeti to become one of the largest voices in outdoor sports. We believe that we live in a time where the consumer, you and I, have the power to decide which companies deserve to be in the spotlight. At ReddyYeti we only work with startups that we feel offer a quality product, are environmentally sustainable, and give back to their community. Currently, ReddyYeti is a community of almost 10,000 subscribers, and we are in the process of launching an exclusive membership program that helps people discover new startups and gain access to exclusive deal and discounts towards those startups. Sign up for a FREE MONTH here.

Feature photo by Lane Wunderli.