RevUniversity: Building Culture with Jeremy and Kristin Andrus of Traeger Grills

Jeremy and Kristin Andrus of Traeger

Jeremy and Kristin Andrus took the stage at RevUniversity on September 1, 2022.  As husband and wife, business partners, and parents, they shared their experiences building culture in business and at home. Jeremy is the President and CEO of Traeger Grills and Kristin is a fierce advocate for ending Period Poverty through her #SisterGoods campaign.

This couple divides and conquers together while turning challenges into growth. They are impacting their business and communities while raising 6 children. Read on to learn more about how they create balance in their crazy, busy lives.

Jeremy Andrus and Kristin Andrus take the stage at September’s RevUniversity

Culture

Jeremy and Kristin believe that culture is the backbone of any thriving business. Jeremy said, “People won’t give more than their job unless they buy into the culture of the business.” The five cultural values at the heart of Traeger’s culture are:

  1. Done done done. Believe in delivering quality to a customer.
  2. Test kitchen mentality. The best organizations build a team of people who believe in getting better. 
  3. No reservations. We thoughtfully respect a customer in all of our touch points.
  4. Stand in the fire. Good companies are born from risk-taking. Be willing to take smart risks.
  5. Cook together. We want low-ego teams and people who are easy to work with. Rather than dictators for leaders, we want “servant leaders” that will help instead of just control. We want a team of people to show up and elevate others.

Part of creating the wanted culture in a business is hiring. In the beginning of Traeger, Jeremy said he interviewed, “99% of the first 400 people we hired.”

“I view a CEO’s role first and foremost as filtering and protecting culture.”

Jeremy Andrus, Traeger Grills

He demonstrated a long-term focus as he filtered people based on culture and values in order to build a culture that would allow Traeger to succeed in the business environment.

Partners in marriage and in life, Jeremy and Kristin support each other’s individual goals.

Philanthropy and fighting for a cause

Kristin actively fights for the rights of women in her community and around the world. Kristin is a board member for UnDEfeated, an organization that serves underprivileged youth and single mothers in Uganda. She is also an Instagram influencer and uses her platform to raise money for menstrual care products for women and girls all throughout Utah.

“When women use their voices and their resources and their talents and their energy— then we are the change.”

Kristin Andrus, Community Champion

Kristen highlighted the communities that Traeger supports such as Roots High School in West Valley City, Utah, and various other food advocacy groups throughout the state. Traeger believes that food brings people together to make meaningful connections—so what better way to get involved than to help diminish food poverty?

Kristin reminded all in attendance that you do not need to have money in order to make a difference. You can give your time and talents to help lift others around you—whether in a formal setting or simply serving in your own neighborhood. 

Jeremy and Kristin Andrus interview by Bri Ray at RevRoad HQ in Provo, Utah.

Work-life balance

Jeremy and Kristin both talked about work-life balance and the importance of spending enough time in each of the areas. Jeremy explained that he has a time that he leaves the office and is done with work every single day. He said that it “forces me to prioritize my day.”Kristin acknowledges that many women experience internal conflict knowing that they cannot be at home with their children and serving in the community at the same time. There is always a trade-off. She has learned that everyone needs to “create their balance,” and to remember that both things are fulfilling and worthwhile.

We are so grateful for Jeremy and Kristin and their willingness to share their ideas and experiences as business owners and philanthropists making a difference in the lives of countless individuals! 

Video interview link: Jeremy & Kristin Andrus | RevU Featured Founders

End of Blog Post

Four Foods Founders to Share Their Story at RevRoad University Event

Four Foods Image

Provo, UT — Utah power couple Shauna and Andrew Smith will share their startup story with a live audience of entrepreneurs on Feb. 7 at RevRoad University. The event will take place from 11 a.m. –1 p.m. at RevRoad HQ, 1555 N. Freedom Blvd.
The Smiths work in tandem as president and CEO of Four Foods Group, a restaurant operations company that owns franchises across the country. Their brands include Kneaders, R&R Barbecue, Little Caesars, Swig, The Soda Shop and Mo’ Bettahs.
Four Foods fills the role of owner and operator for its franchises, with a focus on growing and scaling emerging brands, Andrew Smith said.
The pair will talk with RevRoad’s Rebecca Palmer about how they built the business from a single Kneaders franchise 10 years ago. They’ll discuss the role tech has played in their growth, their business partnership as a married couple and more.
To see a preview video, visit https://youtu.be/PRDQRsMZNmI.
February’s RevRoad University will also include a legal workshop with RevRoad Chief Legal Counsel Joel Beus. He’ll discuss intellectual property, including what kinds of information qualify for trade secret protections and how to prevent misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information.
The free event will include complimentary lunch, courtesy of R&R Barbecue, and invitees are encouraged to come with questions for the presenters. The event will be streamed live at https://bit.ly/2oJw2mR.

RevRoad University to Host Homie Founder Johnny Hanna

Johnny and Paige Hannah

Anyone interested in learning the story behind the Homie billboards scattered up and down I-15 is welcome to attend RevRoad University on Thursday, Dec. 6, at 11 AM.
The free event will feature an interview with Homie founder Johnny Hanna and his wife, Paige. They will talk with RevRoad’s Rebecca Palmer about the beginnings of Homie, the struggles they have faced trying to grow a company as they grow a young family, their successes, and their plans to take Homie nationwide.
Audience members are strongly encouraged to come with questions of their own for the Hannas. Complimentary lunch, courtesy of Homie and RevRoad, will be served after the live interview and Q&A.
In addition to the interview, RevRoad University will include a free workshop on how startups can “create their own rainmaker machines.”

“No one has a job until someone sells something, and generating revenue is one of the most important things a business can do,” said RevRoad CEO Derrin Hill, who will lead the workshop alongside RevRoad Chief Sales and Talent Officer Dave Myers. “Join us to learn about several key aspects of creating a sales machine for your company.”
For a sneak peek of the December event, click here: https://youtu.be/5lBGjJeiKLE. Attendees can add their names to the Meetup event at https://meetu.ps/e/G3RrP/2Qr1p/f.

RevRoad hosts Women Tech Council Cofounder Sara Jones

We continued RevRoad University series in July with a focus on marketing video and the value of lean growth strategies. The free series is focused on business leaders and startup employees, and was open to the public.

Each RevRoad University event includes a workshop about an important element of business growth. Then, over lunch, I get the opportunity to interview local serial entrepreneurs about their experiences.

This month started with a presentation on the importance of storytelling in video from RevRoad Video Director Tigran Mirzoyan. He talked about the history of visual storytelling, the importance of asking the right questions and having humility, and how to create a story arc.

After lunch, sponsored by Squire & Company, PC, Sara joined me on the RevRoad stage to tell her story. She talked about how she transitioned to entrepreneurship after working as a patent attorney, and how much the landscape has changed for women in tech since 2007.

In fact, much of that change may be due to her efforts. Sara cofounded Women Tech Council in 2007, and has helped lead the nonprofit organization ever since. The group is laser focused on providing only what the community needs, and was careful to listen to feedback at every stage of growth. Today, the organization has 10,000 men and women members around the country, has helped thousands of college women in STEM careers and has inspired 12,000 high school girls through the SheTech program.

The complete transcripts and video recordings of the event will be available soon. To watch previous #RevU workshops and interviews, visit us on Youtube and be sure to follow our channel and let us know what you think in the comments.

Then, mark your calendar for our next edition of RevRoad University. We’ll host San Diablo Churros Founder Scott Porter, and focus on branding and raising capital.

 
RevU July – Gallery
[mk_image_slideshow images=”10972,10973,10974,10975,10976,10977,10978,10979,10980″ effect=”slide”]

Need Funding? Get Traction

Here at RevRoad, we recently held our first-ever Give Your Business a Shot competition for entrepreneurs, and we were delighted to see so many promising founders making serious progress. There were excellent companies at many stages, from idea to early customer feedback to post-revenue and seed funding.
Since the competition, we have talked with many of the 18 judges about what they saw (in the name of transparency, both myself and my co-author Rebecca were among the judges). Many of the judges are active investors, and all have experience in helping businesses grow.
One of the most important themes across the board was traction. We saw examples of companies that had made great strides in this area, and our 3 prize winners were definitely among them.
Judges also noted that companies that were further along had made great strides in a short timeframe. Focus was the primary differentiating factor. Companies that focused on proving out their business model, early and simply, showed that they are winning.

What Makes a Winner

We also saw some companies that still had work to do in terms of getting traction and problem validation, so we decided to put together a quick guide that we hope can help.
First, let’s talk about what we mean by traction. In the world of entrepreneurship, traction is evidence of demand for your product or service. Ash Maurya put it more specifically:
“Traction is the rate at which a business model captures monetizable value from its users.”
For investors, the best proof of traction is sales. But depending on your stage, other proofs of traction may be more relevant:

  • User signups
  • Insights from customer interviews (specifically, problem interviews and solution interviews)
  • Letters of intent (LOIs)
  • Testimonials from experts in the field (or recruiting them to your advisory board!)
  • Recruitment of a strong management team
  • Strong sales channel partners
  • Customer feedback that your solution is a “must-have” (40%+ is the magic threshold)

For more ideas, check out this list from Fundable on traction for different types of businesses.

Shining Examples from Give Your Business a Shot

The competition provided some great examples of young companies that had already gained significant traction. Check out the great line-up below.

$1,000 Fan Favorite Piero


The founders of this portal (doorway) management company interviewed facilities managers and wheelchair-bound students to identify a problem important enough to build a company around. They started with the premise that life is more difficult than it needs to be for the disabled. Then, they identified 4 possible solutions, only one of which had anything to do with doorways.
Their interviews showed that building entry and exit is a huge problem for both wheelchair-bound students and facilities managers. Automatic door buttons for the disabled are often difficult to find, doors often close too quickly, and facility managers have no easy way of knowing whether they are functional.
Focusing on doors, Piero built an initial solution of automatic doors that could be opened by a smartphone based simply on proximity. Their problem is focused and specific, and they know exactly what their customers want. They also know they’re addressing a large market.

$2,500 Runner-up Neighbor


Neighbor, which connects people with extra space to people who need storage, has also gotten far in terms of traction and problem validation, and it shows in the company’s go-to-market strategy. It all started when one of the co-founders, Preston Alder, couldn’t find affordable storage space when he was headed out of state for a summer internship.
“We launched with little more than a Google Sheet” Alder said.
Through renter and host signups, the company proved that Alder was far from alone in wanting more reasonably priced and conveniently located storage space. Next, the company built robust, geographically focused technology solutions. They’ve avoided expanding too fast while they optimize their solution.

$10,000 Champion JourneyFront


JourneyFront, our overall winner, offers predictive hiring technology to help companies find better employees. In terms of traction, this company hit it out of the park. It has earned the business of 20 corporate customers since launching in February of 2017, and has given 16,000 assessments. This has resulted in annual contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars. In addition, the team represents a deep bench of expertise, proving that some of the best people in the business want to be part of its success.

Final 12 Contestant Mentionables


Mentionables has done a ton of validation interviews and has learned who their main 3 early-adopter customer types are. Having learned exactly what problems their customers face and who their best customers are makes them highly focused and efficient. They can reach these customers in highly cost-effective ways.

Final 12 Contestant Unbird


Unbird, which helps product managers understand and react to customer feedback, proved traction by the best available metrics: signups and sales. Already, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company has 110 customer signups, 31 companies in its system, 2 sales, and 10 companies evaluating its solution for purchase.

Final 12 Contestant Portal Power


Portal Power, which provides charging for phones and devices via one simple cord, did a lot to validate that heavy power packs and a mess of cords are a problem for many people. The company learned focus during its participation in the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah, conducting a market outreach survey with 500 potential customers. Nearly 80% said they would prefer a portable charger that was in the form of a normal charging cord. Next, Portal Power ran simple advertising tests with online ads, proving an ability to reach new paying customers in a cost-effective way.

How to Get There

Entrepreneurs are impatient by nature, and they often focus on getting big before they focus on proving they have a compelling solution to a widely held and painful problem that people are willing to pay for.
For example, many entrepreneurs try to raise capital before gaining meaningful customer traction — nearly always a no-win path. There are surprisingly simple steps entrepreneurs can take to gain traction very rapidly and thus dramatically improve their chances of startup success:

Problem interviews:

Find people who would be your early-adopter customers, meaning people who would be most willing to pay for your proposed solution. Then, ask these questions and keep careful track of the answers:

Some people say X is a problem. Is it for you?

  • Why, how and how often?
  • How do you currently get around the problem?
  • How big a problem is this for you?
  • Are there other elements of the problem we have not addressed

Solution interviews:

This is your next step. Once you’ve identified and documented the customer problem you are solving and built a prototype or even mockup solution, select several customers for a follow-up conversation. Ask these questions:

  • We found many people had problem X and we’ve developed this solution. Do you share this problem?
  • Would this solution solve it?
  • What do you wish were different about this solution?
  • Will you sign up for our pre-launch to be notified when this is available?
  • Will you pay $X now to reserve you solution and be among the first to receive it

Landing page with sign-up for notification on launch:

This is great for software companies, social networks and even e-commerce. Set up a landing page version of your site. Craft an offer but keep it simple — just find a way to showcase on one page your value proposition, a demo of your solution and pricing. When people visit, ask them for:

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Feedback

Did you attend the competition? What did you learn, and which contestants did you find most inspiring? Let us know on our social media channels @revroadutah.
Rebecca Palmer, RevRoad Strategic Communications Champion, contributed to this article.
Big thanks to Freepik for the use of the header illustration on this article.

February #RevU: Little Bees & LLCs

RevRoad HQ was packed full of promising entrepreneurs last week for #RevU, the second edition of the 12-month RevRoad University series.

Legal 101 Workshop

The morning kicked off with a Legal 101 workshop from RevRoad Legal Counsel Joel Beus, with help from RevRoad Co-founder and Finance Manager Bart Skalla. The focus was on legal business entities for startups and founders.
“What’s the upside, and downside, of an LLC?” he asked. “You have ultimate flexibility and you can do whatever you want.”

Later, RevRoad Co-founder and Finance Manager Bart Skalla weighed in.
“If you’re not yet organized, I strongly suggest you consider organizing as a C Corp,” Skalla said, explaining that C Corporations make it much easier to raise capital down the road. They also provide flexible ways to include employees in stock plans, and come with many other tax-advantaged fringe benefits.
If you were one of our guests at February #RevU and are interested in seeing more slides from the presentation, please email marketing@www.revroad.com.

RevRoad Builders Series — Little Bee Speech

After lunch, the crowd took their seats for the RevRoad Builders Series. Featured Founders Chris and Heidi Hanks, of the app development company Little Bee Speech, joined me on the stage to talk about their growing pains, successes and inspirations.
The Hanks’s shared the story of how they started building language development apps for children. When it all began, Heidi had a private speech pathology practice and found herself creating study materials for her students from scratch. At the same time, Chris was developing his skills in multimedia.

Then, just before a long-awaited family trip to Disneyland, Heidi saw an iPod touch for the first time. Immediately, she realized how helpful it could be for her students and their parents.
The couple spent the whole vacation talking about the app idea, and the next year and a half building concepts and designs for what would become the first app from Little Bee Speech. Soon, they hired a developer on contract and were ready to submit to the App store.
There were great success and great failures along the way, and eventually the business was so successful that the Hanks’s transitioned to doing it full time. They learned valuable lessons learned about when to go to market, what happens when you accidentally shrink your market, how to beat the competition and how to keep passion alive even when your full-time cofounder is also your full-time spouse and co-parent.
To hear the full interview, visit ht.ly/KfGy30iar5F. If you like what you see, please comment and share. You can also check out the live tweet stream from the event at https://www.twitter.com/revroadutah.
#RevU will be held every month in 2018 on the first Thursday of the month, except for the month of April. If you would like to be invited to a future event, please subscribe to our newsletter.

Free Workshop & Interview Series for Local Entrepreneurs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 24, 2018

Provo, UT — Utah business accelerator RevRoad is pleased to announce RevRoad University, February edition.

  • When: Thursday, Feb. 1, from 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
  • Where: RevRoad HQ, 1555 N. Freedom Boulevard, Provo UT
  • Why: Inspiration, education, networking and free lunch

In its second month, #RevU will feature a Legal 101 Workshop with RevRoad Legal Counsel Joel Beus. Then, while enjoying a free lunch sponsored by Hill Insurance & Investments, attendees will hear a RevRoad Builder Series interview with Featured Founders Heidi and Chris Hanks of Little Bee Speech.
#RevU will take place the first Thursday of every month, throughout 2018. At its kickoff in January, dozens of local entrepreneurs turned out to learn about using the lean canvas model to create business plans for their companies. Then, they heard from local businessman Brad Creer about serial entrepreneurship and how to rely on your team to overcome challenges on the road to revenue.
For a sneak peek of the February event, click here: https://youtu.be/RxyYj8LtbjM. To see who’s coming on Facebook and add your name to the list, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/2057386887808173/.
Guests are encouraged to RSVP at info@www.revroad.com.
 


 

For media inquiries, interviews or additional information, please contact RevRoad Strategic Marketing Champion Rebecca Palmer at rebecca.palmer@www.revroad.com or by calling 801-668-7073.

Step 1: Is Your Problem Big Enough?

How to Know if Your Entrepreneurial Solution Makes Sense

Part 1 of the series “Risk & Reward: Navigating Your Road to Revenue”

Nov. 10, 2017

Starting a business is always challenging — statistics show that more than half of all companies fail in their first 10 years, and 75 percent of startups never return seed money to their investors. To paint a picture that’s even more dire, nearly 9 in 10 innovations fail in the marketplace.
There are many reasons for these failures, probably as many as the failed ventures themselves. At RevRoad, our team of experts has seen it all. We’ve had a lot of successes, and we’ve failed a few times too.
In this series, we plan to share many of those lessons with you. We are builders by nature, and we believe in entrepreneurs. We are confident that creativity, hard work and innovation are the building blocks of a better world for us all.
 

Starting from Scratch: Find Your Problem

The best business ideas don’t jump into their founder’s heads fully formed and ready to go to market. Instead, the best innovators spend a lot of time thinking about problems.
It starts with a basic premise: if you want to make money, you need to create something of value. The easiest way to do that is by solving problems for people, by fulfilling the needs they already have.
Fortunately, we are surrounded by problems. Next time you feel annoyed or feel the need to complain, jot it down in an idea book. Do the same when you hear other people complaining. Then, analyze what’s causing the problem. From there, start filling your head with ideas about how those problems could be solved.
Soon, you’ll have more solutions than you know what to do with. The next step is to decide on the right problem (and solution). First, your problem has to be a painful, either physically, financially or in terms of wasted time and energy for your potential customer. Next, it has to be a problem for a large number of people. Finally, it has to be a big enough problem that you can convince people to pay for your solution.
 

5 Simple Steps to Problem Validation

But how do you know if your problem meets that criteria? This process, known as problem validation, is difficult. But it’s not impossible. Below, I’ve laid out a few steps you can follow to make sure you’re on the right track.
 

1. Craft a predictive customer persona

Illustration of predictive customer personas for entrepreneurs.
This doubles down on the idea of a classic customer persona. It’s more than just a description of who you want your customer to be. Instead, it should describe the kind of person who is suffering from your problem, and suffering enough that they would buy your solution. I really like the way Laura Klein described the idea in the InVision blog.
Note: Don’t feel like you have to take on a large-scale market study here, but spend at least some time on research. Try typing your problem into a search engine to see what comes up. Look for discussion boards and forums, in particular, and read as much as you can.
 

2. Find at least 10 people who match that persona

Illustration of finding 10 people to fit your predictive persona for startup problem validation.
This is where the real work begins. Do whatever it takes to find people who fit your predictive persona. Steer away from friends and family, as these people will be biased toward your idea because they naturally want to support you. Instead, find these would-be customers out in the wild. Organizations such as 1 million cups and industry-specific groups on social media can be a good place to start.
Note: If you can’t find at least 10 people with your problem, it may be time to go back to the drawing board. This is a pretty clear sign that your problem isn’t widespread enough. Just don’t give up too quickly — it’s normal to have multiple iterations at this early stage in the problem validation process. Go back to thinking about solvable problems and start over as many times as you need to.
 

3. Interview your customers to make sure solving your problem is a top priority

Illustration of customer persona interviews for problem validation within a startup.
The next step is to schedule interviews with your would-be customers. This can be on the phone or in person. Start out by asking them about the problem you have chosen. Make a point of letting them talk; the more you get them complaining, the more information you have about what your solution should be. After they’ve said their piece, ask them if solving the problem would be a high priority for them. Have them rate the pain on the scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most painful.
Note: If you find people who have your problem but rate it below 7 or 8 on their personal pain scale, it might be time to pivot. To grow a successful enterprise, you will need to make sure you’re relieving a significant amount of pain. Think of it this way — you want your solution to be a “need to have” rather than a “want to have.”
Looking for inspiration? Check out the remarkable problem validation story of GoPlug, one of RevRoad’s Champions on the Road to Revenue.
 

4. Get customers to name a price

Illustration of getting potential customers to commit to buying your entrepreneurial solution.
When you get your would-be customers to tell you they truly have a problem and that it is a painful one, they will be primed to hear about your solution. Before the interview ends, pitch them your idea. Tell them how you intend to fix their problem. Then, ask them how much it’s worth in monetary terms.
Note: If your would-be customers want your solution but aren’t willing to pay for it, it’s a sign that you haven’t chosen the right problem, or that your solution isn’t quite there yet. Don’t ignore this valuable piece of information. Getting it right before you start building will save you time, tears, and treasure in the long run.
 

5. Find multiple buyers, or pivot before it’s too late

Illustration of finding multiple buyers for your startup solution before your build.
You don’t need to get all 10 of your would-be customers to commit to spending money on your project. But if you can’t get at least a handful of them to do so, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Note: If you can’t get traction at this stage, be sure to ask would-be customers what’s stopping them. Really listening to their objections is your path to a good pivot and, ultimately, to profitability.
 

Conclusion: Pitch Before You Build

We’ve laid out some pretty specific steps for how to validate your problem, but you don’t have to follow them precisely to ensure you have a good idea (the serial entrepreneurs here at RevRoad haven’t always, anyway). But whatever you do, make sure that you’re solving a real problem and that the market for a solution is big enough. It’s the only way to be confident that your idea will make you money.
 


About Rebecca Palmer

Rebecca is a seasoned writer, editor and strategic communications professional with 10 years of experience telling important stories. She started her career in journalism and transitioned her skills into marketing, public relations and content management. She believes in entrepreneurs, and believes in the power of research and analytical thinking to propel them toward success. When not helping other entrepreneurs achieve their dreams, Rebecca reads voraciously, runs a small violin studio and is (slowly and awkwardly) learning west coast swing dancing.