We recently connected with Chad Lipka and have shared our conversation below.

Chad , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Let me begin by sharing that I’m mostly Finnish and I have been using saunas my entire life. It was a normal part of our weekly routine to use the sauna on Wednesdays and Saturday nights growing up. Mid-week and end of week bathing where we also got to socialize, relax, and sweat out the struggles and frustrations.

In the summer of 2020 my family, my wife and kids and I, moved to my wife’s hometown of Duluth, Minnesota which is right on the western most tip of Lake Superior. Before departing from Washington state, where I had lived for ~28 years, a good friend of mine gifted me an old tent sauna that he had from a Russian company that had been selling them for some time. In Duluth, we often would set up the tent sauna, which was super portable but quite beat up and old, on the shore of Lake Superior and it was always a magical experience to be able to use a sauna literally feet from the water and be able to hear the sounds of the waves, wind, and birds outside. Often friends would ask to borrow it and sometimes it would come back with some new damage. I was in Graduate school at the time in Duluth earning my MA in Psychology and simultaneously saw an opportunity to start and learn about running a business while also sharing this unique sauna experience with more people. I purchased 2 new sauna tents and started a business that was solely focused on renting out these saunas at a super affordable price. My goal was to simply share the experience without bearing the entire cost myself. It was a fun time and I felt it was a success if I recouped my costs for the saunas in a year. What happened next however was completely unpredicted and led me to take a major turn. When the Russia-Ukraine war started, the sanctions quickly prevented the Russian company that had been selling these products from shipping them out of their country. I realized this meant there was no one selling this product in the US at all and began to develop my own ideas about how to improve the design and search for manufacturers who I could work with to produce my own. After working out several iterations of tent, stove, and other sauna accessories I received my first batch of saunas in the fall of 2021 and sold them out almost immediately, As the first US-based sauna tent company and the only supplier of this product at the time, I felt very confident that it would work but it exceeded even my optimistic expectations. At this time I was working part time as a mental health counselor and running the sauna business part-time but seeing how quickly the first production run sold out prompted me to make the choice to focus solely on the sauna business and really make a go of it. It made me nervous and somewhat conflicted to leave the profession I had just started, especially when I had just spent 6.5 years in school earning my degree in order to do this. But I felt that it was a great opportunity to share something I love with a much wider group of people and I do see sauna as a very important tool for health. If I’m going to be focusing my time and energy on something it has to be something I think can make a difference in people’s lives and ‘m not interested in just selling a product to make a buck. While learning about psychology and mental health I noticed there is a need for more experiential modalities and sauna is becoming incredibly popular for very good reasons. Sauna, along with cold plunge are two ways in which we can introduce short-term physical stress to our bodies that is incredibly beneficial for us.

I was, and am, really excited about this particular approach to sauna because it provides a genuine, authentic, Finnish-style sauna while being vastly more affordable that almost every other option out there. Our mission started as: Making authentic sauna accessible through rentals in my local area to making sauna accessible to just about anyone who wants one. As the saunas are portable, they aren’t subject to building codes and many renters can use them in their outside space where they wouldn’t be able to put a more permanent or expensive traditional sauna. It’s a unique way to address the growing demand for experiential health tools while maintaining my personal connection to the Finnish roots of the genuine sauna experience. I’ve heard countless stories from customers about how the sauna was a major part of transformation and growth in a positive direction and that’s what keeps me going every day.

Chad , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a 37-year-old father of 5. I got into my industry while attending graduate school for psychology and started a sauna business as a fun way to expand access to authentic sauna through the use of portable, wood-fired tent sauna. We currently sell several different sizes of tent sauna, which are the most affordable yet authentic sauna option on the market by a wide margin. They are perfect for renters, those who are new to sauna, those who want the portability to use sauna at different locations, or those who simply want more temporary affordable option. We are the industry leaders in design, quality, and service, with the mission to make authentic sauna as accessible as possible. I am particularly proud that we provide excellent personal service in a day and age of automation, as well as making our design the most easily accessible in a physical way with our full-size door being large enough that it’s even wheelchair accessible. I have a lifetime of experience with authentic Finnish sauna and have used that experience and knowledge to create the best possible sauna experience while balancing portability, affordability, and quality. We are genuinely passionate about good sauna and not all saunas are created equal.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I have been heavily influenced by my education in psychology, but I also have a decade of experience in construction, as well as 6 years of experience in the US Army Reserve, with one tour of duty in Afghanistan. I’ve had a multitude of bosses, managers, and leaders that I’ve worked under, some good and some bad. If I had to pick one book that has influenced my way of thinking regarding business, it would be How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Everything worthwhile in this world runs on trust, the only natural human resource. It truly is all about relationships and understanding that everyone matters. Everyone is the center of their own world and while we need to maintain healthy boundaries to maintain self-respect, it doesn’t take more energy to treat people well than it does to treat them poorly or ignore them. As Adam Grant says about Givers in Give and Take, givers may get taken advantage of more than takers, but they also reap far more benefits from their relationships and overall, I’d say it’s worth it. Another honorable mention is Why We Do What We Do by Edward L Deci. We need to foster autonomy and personal ownership and people will feel more intrinsic motivation, perform their jobs better, and actually live healthier lives. As a leader we owe those following us clear expectations, our trust that they will fulfill those expectations, and general positive regard as fellow beings.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

There a couple of things that have helped us build r reputation within the sauna market. One of which is simply timing where we were able to be the first US-based sauna tent company and haven’t had to try and penetrate an already established market. Beyond that however is that we have become well known for being a truly solid brand that cares deeply about quality, standing behind our products and consistently providing top-tier customer service. This is the type of customer trust that simply takes time and consistency to build and has led to some exceptional opportunities for brand partnerships that we really feel good about. Genuine trust has to be build over time and can’t be purchased like some influencer partnership. While those can be great and help build brand awareness, they are only available as long as you’re willing to keep paying. We believe in our product, our mission, and the experience we are providing to our customers and that shows. It takes time, it takes effort, and it takes diligence but it’s well worth it if you’re in it for the long haul and want to sleep well at night.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Saunatent.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/northshoresauna/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthShoreSauna/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/north-shore-sauna
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@northshoresauna

Image Credits

Bill Lowney, Josh Kowaleski