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Inside Startup Investing with Chris LustrinoAuthor: Kingscrowd, Sam Fiske
Join Chris Lustrino as he talks to startup founders, angel investors, fund managers, investing platform executives, and more about the online private markets. Inside Startup Investing gives listeners the inside scoop on alternative investing such as startups from an investor and founder perspectives. Language: en-us Genres: Business, Investing, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Building a DTC Hardware Giant From Cold Water
Episode 141
Wednesday, 9 July, 2025
In this episode of Inside Startup Investing, Chris Lustrino speaks with Ryan Duey, co-founder and co-CEO of Plunge, the cold therapy and sauna brand that has quietly scaled to $80M+ in annual sales with minimal outside funding. Ryan breaks down how a garage-built idea during COVID turned into a high-growth wellness hardware business with over 40,000 customers, including a fast-growing B2B channel. Founders will appreciate his transparency about scaling manufacturing, solving shipping nightmares, and building technical moats through operational execution. If you’re in DTC, hardware, health & wellness, or considering community rounds, this is a must-listen.Highlights include…Founding story: From brick-and-mortar wellness to e-comm hardware (2:01)Shark Tank ROI and national brand awareness (5:00)Market sizing: Comparing cold plunge to hot tubs & sauna categories (6:33)Expanding product lines to drive retention & cross-sell (8:55)B2B growth: Cold plunges entering hotels, gyms & commercial spaces (9:00)Solving hard problems: Damage-in-transit, demand planning, and support infrastructure (11:39, 14:45)Bootstrapped to $80M+: Smart cash management, customer pre-orders, and debt usage (17:57)Manufacturing capacity & scaling challenges (20:18)Moat = execution: Why hard ops are the defensible layer (14:45, 22:17)Acquisition potential: PE, wellness tech, or DTC conglomerates (23:35)
