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The Journal
Wednesday,
March 13, 2024

Bootstrapped, Profitable, and ProudThe Journal



BOOTSTRAPPED, PROFITABLE, AND PROUD


“THE ACTION IS THE JUICE”: THE HUCKBERRY ORIGIN STORY



Words by

Andy Forch and Richard Greiner

Updated on

December 21, 2023



Five years ago, Rich and I were freezing our butts off on a rickety chairlift on
the backside of Squaw Valley when we decided to go for it.




Looking back, we were far too naïve to know exactly what it was, but we
definitely knew what it wasn’t — cranking out spreadsheets for 90 hours each
week for the rest of our lives. Still, gaining the courage to leave our safe,
lucrative jobs wasn’t easy. As Jerry Seinfeld might say, it was like tipping a
vending machine — you don’t just push it over, you have to rock it back and
forth a few times.




Having discussed our idea over countless Anchor Steams after work, we knew in
our bones that Huckberry needed to exist. There were men’s stores, sure.
Adventure magazines, too. Yet nothing out there spoke directly to us —
25-year-old guys who lived in the city but lived for the outdoors — and we
envisioned a brand that was equal parts store, magazine, and inspiration to help
guys suck the marrow out of life.




So in the summer of 2010, we left our jobs, invested $10,000 each from our
savings to form Huckberry LLC, and set out to scratch our own itch.


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We chose the name Huckberry because we both loved Mark Twain's Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn and thought Huckberry was the perfect totem for the spirit of
adventure we wanted our brand to embody. More practically speaking,
Huckberry.com was available on GoDaddy for $9.98 and Huckleberry.com was not.




We hit the trade show circuit and sold our favorite brands on our vision. Most
looked at our self-designed business cards, smiled with amusement, and said no.
But enough said yes, presumably taking a chance on us not because of where we
were, but because of where we were going.




Inspired by 37 Signals’ (now Basecamp) Bootstrapped, Profitable, and Proud blog
post series, we decided not to pursue venture capital. We wanted to build our
business on our terms. Towards Patagonia and its organic Let My People Go
Surfing brand, and away from the VC-fueled boom-or-bust brands that were chasing
it.




So we hustled. Working out of our apartments, we read Photoshop for Dummies
cover to cover, and designed Huckberry 1.0. Our friend’s younger brother, Jimmy,
helped code it between classes during his junior year at UC Berkeley. Our first
website wasn’t pretty, but it worked, and as a mentor once told us, you always
throw out your first pancake.




In April 2011, we flipped the switch, and Huckberry.com went live.

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Our community began to grow…slowly. We couldn’t afford to advertise so we got
creative and partnered with the Art of Manliness (thanks again, Brett 👊) and
Outside. Brands began to ask how they could get featured on Huckberry. When our
apartments started to overflow with inventory and cardboard boxes, our roommates
and the local barista suggested we get an office. So we rented one in San
Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood for $600 a month. We felt like kings; it
didn’t matter that our castle was only 296 square feet (well, ~350 square feet
if you include the bathroom).




We built our team. Ali joined. Jeff. Alex. Even Eli, our local barista. No prima
donnas in that group. Every day at 4pm it was pencils down and packages out in a
blitz of boxes, beer and tape. At 5:25pm, we’d carry each box down to the
street, grab a mail cart, and push it uphill both ways in a blizzard to the post
office. If you’ve ever lived in San Francisco, you know the uphill both ways
part is true.




When our inventory began to overflow into our bathroom, we started looking for a
warehouse. When we had to store inventory on our roof overnight, we really
started looking for a warehouse. In the spring of 2012, we found one in San
Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood, and not long after moving in, Ali decided it
could use a 12-foot rock wall.



Writing all of this in January 2016, it’s hard to believe that it’s been over
three years since Ali, Buddy, and Si built that rock wall in our old warehouse.
It feels so close, yet so far away (if you recognize that we just dropped some
Hall & Oates, good on you). So much has changed. The tens of packages we used to
ship a day are now thousands. Our team has grown from six cold souls wearing ski
jackets in a 48° degree warehouse to 50+ strong working in a (heated) office in
the Design District. In this past year alone, we launched our Ambassadors
Program, introduced our Artist Spotlight and Field Guide series, shipped our
first print catalog, and partnered with our friend Chris Burkard in the next
installment of our Explorer’s Grants.


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Still, the important things remain the same. As Apple founder Steve Wozniak once
said, all the best things that I did at Apple came from a) not having money and
b) not having done it before, ever. Every single thing that we came out with
that was really great, I'd never once done that thing in my life. Woz would be
happy to know that as we approach our fifth anniversary we’re still a) 100%
bootstrapped, and b) hustling to build the most inspiring, creative, and
profitable company in eCommerce.




We’ve always believed that a Jedi draws his strength from the Force — that you
all are Huckberry, and we're just the stewards. So in perhaps one of the
greatest understatements of all-time, we’d like to say thank you for supporting
us on this journey. For bearing with us through our growing pains, false starts,
and the time I accidentally Instagrammed six pictures of the inside of my pocket
while dancing with my wife in Vegas (blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol).




I think Rich and I now realize that when we decided to go for it that day at
Squaw, that it was an adventure. That for us, the action is, and always will be,
the juice.




We promise that everything about the Huckberry experience — the gear, stories,
experiences, shipping times et al. — is going to get radically better in 2016.
The road ahead is unpaved but open, and we can’t wait to share the journey with
you.




See you out there. [H]




Andy Forch and Richard Greiner


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