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

Ryan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

My wife and I have always been more comfortable with risk than our family or friends. When we started our first business, Social Supply, we quit our jobs. Living of credit cards that also paid for materials and tools seemed more stressful for the people that cared about us than it really ever phased her and I. We did this with a son, moved 5 different times, 3 of those times back in with family to save money. And when credit cards ran out, we would have our parents add us as a card holder which would widen our credit to debt ratio opening up our options again to apply for a new card. Eventually we paid everything off, started to see cash in the bank account, and it wasn’t so risky anymore.

We’ve also just started a new business. We are starting an event venue from a historic building in Washington, D.C. and it feels like the beginning all of over again except we needed money to even qualify for this. But the risk feels similar. The construction process is navigating so many unknowns, driving towards a vision, without really knowing if you are on the right path, just like it felt for Social Supply. So I guess the risk never really goes away if you want to keep building.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Ryan Ryskamp, Co-Founder and CEO of Social Supply, a design and production firm based in Washington, DC. We work primarily in the events industry, creating custom builds, stage sets, installations, and design-forward rentals for everything from social/corporate gatherings to large-scale brand activations. It’s a space that’s constantly evolving, and we’ve built our company around being nimble, thoughtful, and just a little bit obsessed with design and the best production quality.

I actually didn’t come from this world originally. I was trying to launch a boutique marketing firm when my wife Jessica—who had been a wedding planner for eight years—got me a job with her production company just to help pay the bills. I started doing installs and learning the ropes. When we launched Social Supply in 2016, we contracted out our first few builds, but we quickly realized we wanted more control over the creative and fabrication process. I built my first all-wood bar shortly after, and it actually came out great. That was the moment I realized, okay—there’s something here.

Today, Jess leads creative as our Creative Director and leads all of the event operations, and I focus more on the strategy, back end business operations, and consult on engineering. We approach things from different angles, but we’re always aligned on quality and purpose. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to grow the way we have—our strengths balance out.

Over the years, we’ve shifted fully into events after dabbling in some other industries, and that focus has paid off. We now offer everything from full-service design to a pretty robust inventory of in-house rentals. Our clients are often planners or companies who have big ideas and need a team who can elevate those concepts with strong design and sharp execution. When those relationships click, they tend to stick—many of our clients now bring us along for national and even international projects.

I’m proud of a lot, but one recent milestone was securing our first venue, which opens in 2026. It’s a highly sought-after building in DC, and it took both our track record with social supply and the financial means to make that deal happen. It was a full-circle moment where we were able to use capital and make a big bet on ourselves that we seeing paying off really well. It’ll allow us to grow in a new direction while continuing to support our core work in events.

I also personally lead our marketing efforts, which is a small team, me and 2 others. Since we took it over 11 months ago we’ve seen some incredible traction. We’ve doubled our Instagram following from 35K to 70K over the past year and saw a 160% increase in revenue in the first half of 2025 compared to 2024. It’s been encouraging to see the momentum.

At the end of the day, we’re not trying to be the flashiest or the biggest—we just care a lot about doing work that’s thoughtful, well-designed, well-made, and a little unexpected. That’s what people have come to expect from us, and that’s the bar we try to meet every time.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Both my wife and I did everything from day 1. We would replace ourselves on some things but I think we probably had a problem in the first 5 years of the business where we thought we HAD to be the one to do certain things. For the past 5 years after that we have done a much better job at replacing ourselves but it wasn’t until the past year that I realized something that I’ve read in countless books. If you purposely do less, others magically rise to the challenge. Giving people the autonomy to figure it out has provided a huge boost to us in terms of our skill and capability. This happened while I was and still am trying to get the new venue business off the ground. So it was a little by accident but great lesson to learn.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We always thought that events were a stepping stone for us to do what we really wanted to do which was commercial design and build, specifically hotels and restaurants. When we started getting those projects it was like a slow leak in a balloon. We couldn’t see ourselves deflating but after a couple years of it we realized we were over it. We recommitted to events, saw the benefits again, and focused. The result after getting back to what we were really good at it, a massive uptick in profit, then business, and now we find ourselves branching out to encompass a much bigger strategy with the venue that helps us rise in the ranks amongst the most respected companies within the event industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://socialsupplydesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialsupplydesign + https://www.instagram.com/supplyhousedc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-ryskamp-908151b/