On Starting Over: Update from Ryan Carter, Founder/CEO of Camping with Dogs

May 26, 2020 6 Comments

You may have been wondering where we’ve been the last couple of years, so I wanted to fill our community in. There’s been a lot happening, tons of highs and lows, and we’re finally ready (and stoked) to introduce what we’ve been working on for the past year.

Where do I even begin? 

If you follow my personal Instagram account, you’ve seen a very polished view of my life. Trips to amazing places, tons of bread, pizza, cookies, and my beautiful daughter, Caroline. If only life were that simple. The reality is that life is messy and at times, unnecessarily complicated. Over the past few years I’ve struggled with balancing everything. I was trying to do all of the things, all at the same time. This is a short story of success, epic failure, and starting over. 

Some know this but most don’t. I started my social media agency, Parachute Media, about a year before I started Camping With Dogs. Both were growing fast, and as much as it was exciting, I quickly got in over my head. After growing the Camping With Dogs community to over 200,000 people on Instagram in year one, I wanted to start making dog products.

 

After two years of trial and error, I launched a line of dog gear at the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. We sold close to $10k worth of product right out of the cardboard boxes they were shipped in. We had no fancy displays, but people loved the colors, designs, and functionality. However, it turned out that we were not ready for the response and growth and took a step back to make sure we got it right. I realized quickly that managing three fast-growing and dynamic companies required a bigger and more experienced team, and that is what we have built over the past year.

While Camping With Dogs went silent for a while, there were a lot of people who didn’t want me to give up on it. Those of you who reached out to me, thank you. It means more today than it did back then, mostly because I was still processing that giant F up. 

Fast forward to today... 

My wife and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world 10 months ago. Being a dad is incredible, especially recently. I love all the little things, like picking out her clothes and getting her dressed in the mornings. This new phase in life has forced me to refocus a lot of my goals and ambitions. I’ve slowed some things down, really taken time to work on Parachute Media, and consider what I wanted out of Camping With Dogs. Most importantly, I finally have the right people in the right seats for what I want to do next. 

 

We’re relaunching our dog product line. 

FINALLY! 

I’m excited to announce that Camping With Dogs is launching a dog product line called Alpha Pak. We’ve been silently working on this new concept for over a year. We took what we learned from the first failure and made a lot of improvements. I feel confident in our team, research and development, and runway for success. I’m sharing this with you first because it’s you that has taken the time to share your special moments with us at Camping With Dogs. You’re the reason why we exist, and I want you to be part of this journey. 

We want Alpha Pak to be your choice for all of life’s adventures, “From Street to Summit.”

 

Additionally, you’ll notice new products on Camping With Dogs very soon. Camping With Dogs started off as a space to inspire people to get outside with their dogs, but it evolved into so much more than that. When making this new collection, our main priority was to create products that will inspire you to never stop looking for your next adventure. Make sure you are following us on Instagram, so you will be the first to know when we release our new products!

 

Thank you for your continued support, grace, forgiveness, and patience. 2020 has been far from perfect and quite frankly, needs a complete do over, but we’re starting over fresh. I hope you’ll join us!

-Ryan

Share:

6 Responses

Leave a comment

Name *

Email *

Comment *

---

Also in Blog