Brothers Jeff and Spencer Jan didn’t have to reinvent the wheel to build a $400 million company with a cult following.
Instead, they “reinvented fire.”
Their company, Grapevine, Texas-based Solo Brands, makes the Solo Stove — a backyard fire pit that the Jan brothers describe as a “virtually smokeless” campfire alternative. It’s a Kickstarter success story: The stove’s campaign hit its $15,000 goal in just two hours back in 2016, ultimately raising more than $1.1 million.
As of Tuesday morning, the company now has a $406.74 million market cap under the stewardship of CEO John Merris, who signed on in 2018 after meeting with the brothers. The co-founders were looking for an experienced executive to help them grow the business, and Merris says they initially came on a bit strong.
“I remember in that first conversation with them, Spencer and Jeff telling me that they had reinvented fire,” Merris tells CNBC Make It. “I thought, ‘Man, that’s a bold statement. I mean, fire has been around for thousands of years and you guys are somehow the ones that figured this thing out in some special way?”
Then, the brothers sent Merris home with a Solo Stove — and the first time he tried it out on his Texas ranch, he was “absolutely blown away.”
“They had made it accessible for an everyday person in a neighborhood, in a town, to be able to have a campfire-type experience without having to have a 50-acre ranch,” he says.
Stoking the flames
The Solo Stove’s patented stainless steel design features double walls and vent holes that create a “natural vacuum” effect, bringing in extra oxygen. The result: a fire that burns roughly twice as hot as a typical campfire.
“Because it’s so hot, it burns more efficiently,” Merris says. “And that efficient burn is what’s reducing the smoke and ultimately creating that better experience around the fire.”
The appeal of a fire without smoke is fairly obvious, especially if you’ve ever had a fun evening of sitting around a campfire ruined by a sudden…
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