We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joshua Thurmond a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joshua, appreciate you joining 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.

Necessity is truly the mother of this invention. We were on our last raft trip of the year in 2020. Stage II fire bans were in place. Not to mention, it was super cold. Weather in the Colorado high country in the Fall can be unpredictable at best. Anyway, we had one of those big, clunky, round fire pits and we were all huddled around it to try to stay warm. Everyone agreed that it wasn’t very good. Someone was griping about how messy it was and how awkward it was to tie down on the raft. I mentioned that I could make a much better one. Of course, another guide dared me to prove it. I said the whole thing will fit inside of a 50cal ammo can. Everyone thought that was a cool idea but no one had a whole lot of faith that I could pull it off. After the trip, I went home and built seven prototypes in the next 72 hours. I used all sorts of materials and tried a lot of different techniques. In the end, a simple steel pipe and an unaltered ammo can made for the best fire. I tried everything. Air mixers, copper pipes, cast-iron burners, you name it. The simple steel pipe with a specially configured burner configuration made a big yellow flame that really mimicked a Campfire. I feel like I made something that was as close as I could get to the real thing and that came in a very slick, portable, and cool package. It turned out that no one had ever brought something like this to market so I went for it!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been working and guiding in the outdoor industry for as long as I can remember. I started off as a camp counselor with the Boy Scouts and was lucky enough to grow up on the Potomac River in Washington DC. For those who don’t know, Potomac is a breeding ground for world-class kayakers and is in very close proximity to some of the best white water in the country, if not the world. I moved to West Virginia after high school to pursue a degree in outdoor rec but washed out of college quickly and started guiding and snowboarding full time. I tried my hand at snowboarding professionally bouncing around from Mount Hood to Lake Tahoe. In the summers, guided rafts, taught rock climbing, and did expedition work in far-flung places like Malaysia for cave cartography. I have guided in Alaska, Montana, West Virginia, Maryland, Colorado–all over the place! I’ve also taught skiing and snowboarding all over as well. Instructing and guiding doesn’t pay a whole lot. Shocker! So, in the middle of all that, I also got a culinary arts degree so I could stay alive and feed myself. After that, I switched careers as a chef, got married, had kids, got a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs, and went to work at the National Sports Center for the Disabled. Probably the job I was most proud of. I ran a program that included climbing, shooting, parkour, cycling, paddle sports, etc. I also teach wounded veterans to whitewater kayak with Team River Runner.

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

I think it was very important for us to be authentic. We truly use the product and do all the activities. People understood that we were real users and that our customers were real users. This made a huge difference. We all only use Customer photos for most of our social media and I think that really has the authenticity. I think everyone in our world is searching for things that are real and that I feel authentic and true. This helped them connect with our product. They also understood that we were trying to solve a really important problem. Wildfires in the west have become an existential threat and everyone can see it right in front of them. It’s no longer someone else’s problem or not in their backyard. —

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

We have bootstraft the project from the very start. This was certainly a very challenging way to start but we also retain 100% of the company. We ran incredibly lean and handmade much of the product from the onset. For my next product launch I may do it differently but for now I’m happy with the results.

Contact Info:

• Website: fireanytime.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireanytime/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lavaboxcampfire/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lavabox-portable-campfires
• Twitter: @fireanytime
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwcBwz9J9A-Pg1vxMOmK0Lw

Image Credits
Jarius Popp, Amanda Schwengel