Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Samantha Peck, founder of DryFoxCo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Samantha, 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.

Having solo traveled for years, I had my essential products that went on every trip including my quick-drying towel which always came in handy…packing up small, drying in minutes, and saving me from paying towel rental fees. But the towel I had wasn’t perfect and what I wanted didn’t exist. Towels on the market were basic, usually grey and boring with no special features. So in 2017, I decided to learn how to design and create a better travel towel for every type of adventurer. Traveling alone, I always wanted a safe place to securely hide my valuables (phone, wallet, keys) while swimming so I added a custom zippered pocket on the backside of my towels. I also wanted a more compact towel so I added a built-in pouch the towel could fold down into. And most importantly, I wanted to create towels with unique, fun designs that stood out amongst the other towels.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Travel is my passion. Making travel easier for others by creating lightweight products is my goal. I’ve always been a compact, carry-on-only traveler who loved the challenge of a “weight limit”. Whether as a solo-female backpacker trekking across Europe or currently as a vanlifer roaming across the US, I’ve always thought it incredibly important to not get held back by your stuff.

DryFoxCo is a small, solo-owned business that designs and creates unique travel towels in various sizes for all adventurers. Our towels are lightweight, quick-drying, and compact making them perfect for travel, camping, hiking, swimming, etc. They feature our exclusive pocket/pouch for storing your goods.

One of the main reasons I started DryFoxCo was to connect with like-minded people and become more engaged in the travel/outdoor community. In order to do this, DryFoxCo is a mobile business and vends at festivals, events, and expos all over the US. Honestly, nothing can beat connecting with people in-person and getting to share travel stories!

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Starting DryFoxCo, all I had was an idea and some graphic design skills. I had no idea how to make my product a reality. I spent 6 months just absorbing information through podcasts, YouTube videos, and articles from other entrepreneurs who had created a product. The process looked complicated, but this was what I wanted and I knew I had to work hard to achieve my goals.

With a rough sketch of the product, I started messaging companies to see if they 1) understood my idea and 2) could manufacture my towels per my specs. I dealt with time zone delays, language barriers, and inflated price quotes because I was just a small start-up that couldn’t meet high MOQs. After a few months, I connected with an amazing sales rep who could see my vision and we went into production on a sample. Five years later, I’m still working with the same company because they just get it.

I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way, but the most important one is to breathe. When having your product manufactured by someone else, you can’t be in full control and things will happen. Orders might get messed up, there might be a misunderstanding, shipments get delayed. You’ve got to account for your company’s lead time and place orders way before you need them. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s definitely worth it and rewarding to see your dreams/visions become a reality.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Hands down without a doubt, meeting new customers in person and sharing my travel experiences and creation story. It is so important for a customer to be able to put a face to a brand, especially when you are just starting. Nowadays, it’s impossible to differentiate your company online; everyone has competition.

Through in-person events, I am able to connect one on one with my customers and get to know them on a personal level. We can share travel stories and just chat. That experience encourages people to buy. They get to know, like, and trust you and your brand and want to support you.

By forming that connection and creating a quality product, people will buy from you and tell their friends/family. Word of mouth will forever be DryFoxCo’s best marketing technique. I have shows where year after year, people remember me, a conversation we had, or the “cool fox towels” and they come over to talk because I’m a familiar face and they want to share my story with their friends and they want their friends to meet me and see my products. It’s a seriously great feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dryfoxco.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/dryfoxco
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/dryfoxco