Foundr Magazine Podcast | Learn From Successful Founders & Proven Entrepreneurs, The Ultimate Startup Podcast For Business

Ryan Duey was living in an RV with his float spas closed and no backup plan when he and Michael Garrett built their first cold plunge from a retrofitted $100 bathtub in a garage. They turned their Shopify store on with zero marketing—and got a sale. What followed was one of the most unlikely scaling stories in DTC history: $30 million to $80 million in a single year, $250 million in cumulative revenue, four sharks bidding on Shark Tank, and a category they essentially created from scratch—all bootstrapped, all assembled in-house in California. In this interview, the co-founders of Plunge break down the real cost of scaling a high-ticket inventory business, why they lost an estimated $20 million in revenue from lead times alone, and the organic influencer strategy that built the brand before they ever ran a paid ad. What you'll learn in this interview: • How they got their first sale with zero marketing—and the Black Friday that showed them how big this could get • The cash flow trap every invento