• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, April 26, 2024

Imagine getting your shot on Shark Tank, attracting multiple offers from these celeb investors, including the prospect of lucrative licensing deals…and then walking away. The founder and CEO of puffy blanket and outdoor  gear brand Rumpl, Wylie Robinson, walked away from the Shark offers to pursue his own source of funding and even an NFL licensing deal. And he learned a lot of lessons along the way.

Rumpl is a decade-old company that has rich distribution relationships with the likes of REI and Nordstrom. It also experienced both a pandemic bump and subsequent sales hangover. In its latest initiative, it is leveraging might you might call nano-influencers – camp counselors whose social network may be as small as a bungalow in the woods. You can listen to the entire podcast at this link.