How he Grew Outway from 0 to 8 figures in 5 years (Nobody Teaches This)

To get more in business, you should typically be doing less (through subtraction), not more—the inverse of what most entrepreneurs naturally believe.

“we're taught that like to get more you have to do more and I just don't think that's true I think to get more you should be doing less typically you should be subtracting”

A good sock should be seamless, moisture-wicking, have strategic support in the arch, and strategic cushioning in areas where the foot makes contact with the ground—these features solve real problems (hot spots from seams, blisters from sweat, midfoot fatigue) that cheap, low-quality socks create.

“the seams uh they're not seamless so they're going to you know create hot spots and pinching they're going to be typically probably lowquality cotton and so they're going to absorb sweat which leads to blisters there's a ton of different things if you look at you know any good athletic so specifically ours they're going to be seamless they're going to be moisture wicking they're going to have support so there's going to be support in the arch to help with you know midfoot fatigue there's going to be strategic cushioning”

Fraser sees value in trying things and 'touching the stove' to learn through direct experience; but in general, prioritizing long-term thinking and good business fundamentals works better than relying on hacks; you need to be willing to try but not foolish.

“that has been kind of the theme sometimes these things can work but I think very rarely over the long term they they do that's not to say don't try things as they come up too I think like I always try to be cautious of of telling people like oh don't try the hacks just focus on long term sometimes you need to try things and you need to like touch the stove once or twice but generally speaking if you prioritize the long-term and do good business it's going to work well”

Fraser visualized brand as a human with three components: (1) name (how people reference you), (2) appearance (visual design), (3) essence (how you make people feel); changing the name is like changing your name—requires getting used to but doesn't change who you fundamentally are, whereas changing essence would be changing the person entirely.

“I broke brand down into kind of Three core components...I visualized a brand as a human and we'll use you as an example okay so you've got three things primarily you have your name how you look and your essence...if you came to me and said you know now my name is Dave that would be like a little weird to take some adjusting but like it doesn't change who you are...if you came and had shoulder length hair somehow...it would take some getting used to to recognize you but ultimately you'd be the same person...if you came looked the same had the same name but we're a completely different person...I would question whether or not you were the same person whereas you changing your name or how you look doesn't change who you are brand is ultimately how you make someone feel”

Competitive sport is a better training ground for business than business school because sport teaches you how to perform under pressure, deal with consistent failure, build networks, negotiate, think creatively, and learn that everything is earned through work—lessons you cannot learn from reading about tactics and common knowledge.

“sport will teach you that you have to put in the work if we use running as an example you can't just show up and run a marathon right you can get to the start line anyone can go to the start line but it's going to be pretty clear who prepared and who didn't but beyond that competitive sport at least in my uh experience you know I was Competitive Cyclist I was five times on the national team for about 10 years traveled around the world racing my bike and what that taught me was a bunch of things most importantly failure and resilience”

Starting a business with a friend primarily because it would be 'fun' is the wrong reason to do so; the critical question entrepreneurs rarely ask themselves early on is 'what happens if this goes right?'—not just 'what if it fails?'—because failing at something that worked is more painful than failing at something that didn't.

“I didn't expect the business to work I was like it was it's like what are the odds here's this like former athlete guy that's kind of like not particularly great at school has no business experience who set a goal to build a sock company everyone looked at me like I was crazy like some people still do right and so I was like this would be way more fun with a friend which by the way is like the world's worst reason to start a business with someone it's because it's fun to do with a friend that I've learned in highight”

The goal is not to hit specific revenue or growth numbers but to build a business that can sustain for 20+ years; if you're profitable, growing, your customers are happy, and your team is thriving, you have a 'pretty damn good business' regardless of hitting arbitrary targets.

“there's people out there be like we don't have goals I think goals are still important I think goals are incredibly important you need a North star but that's how we think about goals much more of a North star than like we need to hit this like because those are fairly arbitrary and we're not a public company you know we're not having to like do earnings reports that are going to move our stock price it's like it doesn't matter right if we're doing good business and we're growing and our customers are happy and we're profitable and we can do that over 20 years we've got a pretty damn good business”

You can be ambitious and content simultaneously; the book title 'Pleased But Not Satisfied' captures this balance—being happy with where you're at while still driving for more—which is different from the false choice between 'burn yourself out chasing more' and 'be complacent.'

“maybe there's a title of a book by David soal which I like which is pleased but not satisfied and it's sort of like you can be happy where you're at and you can still drive for more that's something I've struggled with is like I'm incredibly happy this year and like and I've been you know struggling with like people ask like what's your biggest challenge right now... it's like I feel like I've spent 2 years fighting problems that like I'm in kind of like a Sol phase right now on one hand hyper ambitious but on the other hand content cuz tent is almost like counter to ambitious right and it's how do you balance those two things”

After his partner left, Fraser took out a $150,000 personal loan with high interest rates from multiple sources (credit cards, lines of credit, student loan draws, and eventually a low-interest loan from his future father-in-law) to buy out the partner's stake, marking what he considers the real start of the company because he was now fully committed and had skin in the game.

“I had to go take out a personal loan to make it happen of like $150,000 which was insane right I remember we finally agreed on a number and I didn't have that money I had student debt I had the exact opposite of money in the bank...I went to every Bank in town and would just I was like okay I've got credit cards all draw out on I've got a line of credit I've got some student loans um my then girlfriend now wife like she was was like I'll sign on we'll get some loans...my now father-in-law reached out after he's like hey look I appreciate that you were willing to do this but I'll loan you the money...and that's kind of what I Peg is like the real star that's where I was like I'm all in cuz I had to go take out a personal loan to make it happen”

Surrounding yourself with people who are rowing in the same direction and have similar goals is important, but there's a double-edged sword: as your network grows to include people further ahead, you can start experiencing insecurity and trying to 'keep up with the Joneses,' leading you to rush your own timeline and abandon authentic operation.

“you want people around you that are rowing in the same direction right like you want people that have goals you want to be able to swap and share insights you want to be able to encourage each other the power of having like a great Network or group around you is kind of a double-edged sword sometimes too though because although the like a great network of people are going to propel you forward and teach you things you wouldn't know sometimes you start to kind of try to keep up with the Joneses a little bit”

Advice from smart people is valuable but should be filtered through your own context and expertise about your business; the common advice 'you sell socks, you should sell underwear' misses the reality that different product categories have completely different supply chains, gendered positioning, and marketing implications.

“the most common advice I got from people is oh you sell socks have you thought about doing underwear it's like yeah of course I've thought about doing underwear but like those are completely different supply chain psychologies now it's gendered where socks are unisex like there's so many considerations but on the surface it's good advice and so had to really learn that you know advice is welcomed and appreciated but it's my job to synthesize it and actually use it when it makes sense”

As a founder, you must learn to separate your personal preferences from what the market wants; if your best-selling design is cats and you don't like cats, you need to get out of your own way and celebrate that customers love cats, not project your preferences onto the product.

“I have had to get better at is not letting my personal preferences dictate what goes out so if I dislike a design I have to ask myself I have to remove kind of my personal preference be like do I think our customer base will like this design because we're now much bigger than my preference and it's no longer the million or so people that are like me it's it's much bigger than that”

The real driver of his childhood motivation was a desire for acceptance and belonging—seeing his younger brother excel at hockey, seeing his parents value athletic success, and wanting to be part of 'the club' or get the same recognition his brother received.

“when I found early on it was cycling I was like oh I'm pretty good at this and I was like I'm going to go all in and the drive was really I think when I reflect back it was a drive to be accepted to feel like oh I finally am in the Club I finally am good at something...I had a younger brother and he was almost in our childhood the exact opposite he was incredibly good at sports...my brother's really good at it and I see him succeeding and I'm not succeeding at it and my parents are great and of course they love me but I was like I want to be good I want to make them proud with something right”

When Fraser asked himself 'what would it look like for this business to be around in 20 years?'—focusing on longevity instead of next-year's growth metrics—the business became more fun, he fell back in love with the product, and the team felt inspired rather than constantly chasing arbitrary goals, which paradoxically led to better business results.

“I asked myself what would it look like for this business to be around in 20 years forget about what we grow this year how do we build a business that endures over time and that makes the building so much more fun...the thing that gives me the most joy is you know I sit down with our team now and we're we're talking about the future and it feels like we're on our toes and not our heels now...we're dealing with the hard problems calmly”

Fraser used a 'butterfly moment' metaphor for the rebranding: the company was a caterpillar for the first 5 years, entered a cocoon during the rebranding, and emerged as a butterfly—still the same thing but with new wings and ability to fly, which helped him and the team reframe the crisis as transformation rather than loss.

“it felt like what I had created the name I created kind of died a little bit like that phase died a little bit and we were reborn as like I had this kind of other analogy it's like up to that period we were you know we were a caterpillar in the first 5 years and we went into a cocoon and emerged a butterfly it's like it called it our butterfly moment and you know although like we look different with a new name or whatever we're still the same thing we're just kind of now we've got wings and now we can fly”

When considering a big swing, Fraser now uses a mental test: imagine being in a room with 100 people explaining the rationale; would most people agree it makes sense (is it rational)? And would he be happy with the decision in 5 years? This tests both external rationality and internal long-term alignment.

“when I think about it now I try to imagine I'm in a room with 100 people and I'm explaining my rationale for taking a big swing and I like to imagine that like I need to do a good enough job that the majority of the people be like that makes sense at least that's rational that the why you want to do that so I try to take myself out metaphorically put myself into a room and be like would the mo would most people agree with this and then the second question I'd like to ask is like and would I be happy with this decision in 5 years so I'd like to extend the time Horizon on that”

Socks were chosen as the product category because they are relatively low-risk to enter (low capital requirement), socks are culturally significant in cycling (a way to express individuality), and Fraser realized the entire sock category was underdeveloped—most socks remained use-case specific (cycling, running, dress) while athleisure was moving toward versatile, multi-use apparel.

“why socks socks particularly in cycling are a large part of the culture so in cycling when you're on a team it's an individual sport we race individually but you're on a team and the team whether it's National or your Your sponsorship team you'll get a kit so you'll all look the same you look the same as your teammates socks were this area where you could wear whatever you wanted and so I would always wear kind of funky colored socks”

People buy socks because of emotional response to the design (animals, nature, food, abstract patterns), but then discover the actual functional quality of the product; this design-first engagement followed by functional discovery allows the brand to educate customers about sock quality they never knew existed.

“socks are this like I mentioned with cycling socks are this way that people can express individuality uh and within that people have different ways they like to do that whether they not they like to celebrate different animals they love or you know nature Landscapes or their favorite food so we discovered that like it's really hard digitally because we're primarily sold all online um we're also sold in store but primarily online at least for the the majority of the business how through the the computer screen or the phone screen can we convince you that this sock feels good without putting it on your feet that's really tough an easier way is to give you an emotional response being like I love cats for example I want to buy that sock cuz it has cats on it but what we know is that's the best pair of socks you're ever going to put on and so that person buys the pair of socks cuz they like the design they put it on and then like you they come back and go oh my like I didn't even know socks could feel like this and they replac their sock drawer with it”

Your job as a founder evolves as the company scales: early on you do everything, but as you grow, your job becomes having one really good idea per quarter that moves the needle 6-12 months out, enabling you to spend time reading, networking, and 'idea harvesting' rather than being in the weeds.

“for me I had to reinvent that I like work today is not what it used to be it's not Hands-On the tools as much it's not overriding decisions it's not getting too into the weeds it's not losing touch I still have a very uh firm kind of finger on the pulse of the business I have a lot of consumer feedback sent directly to my inbox I want to know what's going on at that level but it means not getting involved in the weeds”

Through a process called 'road map' with coach Jack Skoll, Fraser worked through his psychology, childhood, and drivers to understand that much of his behavior was rooted in seeking external acceptance; learning to operate authentically without being limited by others' opinions was a breakthrough.

“I actually texted a mutual friend of ours Andrew Wilkinson and I was like here's kind of what I'm going through I didn't know if it was therapy I needed to do I didn't know if it was a business coach like I I just knew I needed to work through this and understand myself better and and just learn more about like what am I not doing have I never done before that I should be doing to try and challenge myself and grow so I actually texted a mutual friend of ours Andrew Wilkinson and I was like here's kind of what I'm going through... he mentioned this guy Jack SK who does this road mapap Pro where Andrew had done it and a few other people in the business Community had done it”

After 5 years of growth, Fraser went through a 2-year period of trying to hit arbitrary growth goals and making ego-driven decisions (trying to rush timeline, making a bad marketing hire to force growth, expanding into non-core areas); in July 2023, he reset by removing ego, dropping things that weren't core to the mission, and extending the time horizon.

“the biggest hiring mistake I made was thinking like you know going into our second year of not hitting the growth goals like I arbitrarily said ego really attached to it like we need to do better we need to kind of keep the good times rolling you know Co was this big inflationary period for e-commerce businesses and direct consumer businesses like everyone started shopping online you got this huge boom and the market started to draw down really hard and so you're trying to to find growth and exceptional growth in a market that's going down it's it's very challenging but I was kind of hard-headed about it”

Work for a founder is not limited to sitting at a desk or being 'in the office'—it includes conversations with family, reading, networking, walking, and anything that generates insights and ideas that serve the business; the challenge is internally justifying that this is 'real work' when it doesn't look like work.

“my my work is 24/7 the Mosaic it could be something my wife says like she's incredibly smart like she gives me tons of ideas she's the real co-founder in the business right like those early days who am I going over everything with like her level of business knowledge would be higher than you know people going with mbas like she's seen it all talking to her about things walking through problems talking to everyone it's just like work looks like that”

Fraser's mother was the first person who believed in him; even when his decision to pursue cycling instead of finishing university was a 'big riff' in the family (they valued education and traditional careers), she intuitively understood that he was different and had an internal drive that would work out—she told him 'I know you'll figure it out' without needing to see the plan.

“my mom yeah so I went to University and dropped out so that's like that was a big riff in our family cuz going to University was the safe path...my mom like I could tell deep down she was like I know you got this I know you'll figure it out...my mom being like you know kind of just on the side you know being like I know you'll figure it out that was you know so important she's always kind of been in my corner”

Fraser's approach to rebranding included creating a YouTube series where he walked customers through the rebranding process and interviewed hundreds of customers about what the brand meant to them; this allowed him to bring the community along on the journey and shift from 'I created this brand' to 'this is our brand that we're all building together.'

“we actually ended up creating like a little YouTube series where I walked people through and brought them along on the rebranding process I like here's what we're doing we interviewed like hundreds of people of our customers being like what does the brand mean to you...when the name changed that was almost a part of the ego I had attached to like I'm made this thing it's mine that's where that kind of like left which I think was really a good thing I was like this is our brand now this is the customers brand this is the team's brand we're all building this”

Fraser set three core pillars for himself this year: (1) getting the business back to thriving and having fun, (2) getting his health back to where he feels confident and inspired, (3) focusing on family with his two young children; these three things holistically need to be going well for him to operate at his best.

“I had kind of like three goals this year was like get the business back to a place where we're thriving and having fun get my health back to a place where I feel confident and inspired and like kind of all in on this and then the the third one was a more personal it was just like you know I had a new kid I two two boys and one was born this year was really just like you know like really focus on the family because I had my first kid during like the real thick of business and during CO as well...family business and health were three core pillars and those things holistically all need to be kind of going well for me to operate at my best”

Fraser showed early signs of entrepreneurial tendencies (building a bike repair shop in his bedroom closet, organizing bike teams with schedules, building little businesses) but didn't recognize these as entrepreneurship at the time—he just did what came naturally to him.

“she understood that like I was intensely passionate about things as a kid and I don't think also she really had a frame for entrepreneurship like CU it just wasn't a discussion like I had all these little things going I had my own little my own little bike shop repair I built an office in my bedroom closet I was always doing these...I built bike teams I would get all the kids in there we build teams I was organizing people we had like schedules...and I just didn't know what it was I was obsessed with the idea of kind of building business I built bike teams leading teams building little businesses and I just didn't know what I was doing was entrepreneurship”

The business grew to multi-six-figure revenue in the first year by hand-selling socks in a Tupperware container to schoolmates and teachers, demonstrating that early traction can come from direct sales and personal relationships rather than marketing.

“the first socks I sold I just took to school in a tupperware and hand toand combat and sold them to students teachers B said like you know we're not friends if you don't buy these and so that was like the how it got started and so ultimately after after a year it started to get real like the work required nights and weekends as like the common stories go and you know it became pretty clear that this was out of line with his values... the first year we did you know multi6 figure revenue of just selling socks kind of around town for the most part”

In 2021, after 5 years of 100%+ year-over-year growth and raising millions in funding, Fraser received a cease-and-desist letter from an IP attorney claiming another company had rights to the brand name, forcing a 6-month rebranding process—this was the first time he faced a problem he didn't create and couldn't solve alone.

“literally the day the money hit the account we raised you know millions of dollars it hits the account I get an email from my lawyer that says urgent in the subject line and that's just almost never a good thing and it's from my IP attorney which I bar I rarely hear from from it was our first ever cease and assist and it it basically said you know there's a a company that uh believes they have rights over your name and and is demanding that you do X Y and Z and one of those is stop using the name”

When Fraser first received the cease-and-desist, his initial reaction was panic—he believed it was a 'death blow' for the company; but after talking to people in his network, he learned this was not uncommon, which helped him shift from panic to problem-solving mode.

“I was kind of immediately just shook cuz we just raised all this money we've been in business for 5 years and that was the first time you know in sport and in business to that point everything was something that like I was solving problems that I created I wasn't battling somebody like I was in charge this was something happening to us that I was completely out of control on...Maybe half an hour I was like this is a death blow you know like I was kind of like let myself and then you know I called called you actually I called a few other people I was like okay like this is not uncommon um but it was incredibly stressful”