We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Spencer Sutlive. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Spencer below.

Spencer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

It all roots back to high school chemistry class. My teacher had invited a guest to come speak about his career as a biochemical engineer and some of the projects he’d been hired for, one of which was for the United States military. The speaker explained that he and a team of others were tasked with creating a blast-resistant spray that would coat the walls of government buildings and the bottoms of Humvees to protect them from explosives. Rumor had it if you coated an egg in this spray and threw it off a skyscraper, it would bounce.

I knew that there was some potential here, so I quickly got to work brainstorming a way to utilize this spray for consumer goods. When the idea of an ultralight cooler came about, I knew there was no time to waste.

When the first sample arrived, I had to put the durability of the cooler to the test. As an 18 year old boy living in my parent’s house, there wasn’t much “official” testing equipment available to me at the time, so I had to get creative! I shot the cooler with a bow and arrow, threw it off the roof, parked a jeep on it, and knee boarded on the lid… okay that “test” was just for fun. Needless to say, it passed each test with flying colors. It was time to bring this vision to life.

Throughout college, I washed windows and worked plenty of other odd jobs to financially support my first Kickstarter in 2019. The primary goal for the campaign was to gauge the market’s appetite for an ultralight high performance cooler, and there was a clear answer when the fundraising goal was crushed within just 24 hours of launching. The next few weeks were filled with plenty of R&D, sewing, and hours in a U-Haul making deliveries to customers in the greater Atlanta area. The first rendition of a Rugged Road cooler was named the Onitis 45; it was named after a species of beetle that has a higher strength to weight ratio than any other living creature on the planet.

The Onitis 45 coolers began selling faster than we could make them, and just about every cooler we made the first year of production had already pre-sold! I felt it was time to meet with potential new investors and manufacturing partners to keep up the momentum and push the company to the next level. In the weeks and months following the first Kickstarter, I asked for feedback from customers – the good, the bad, and the ugly. From this, I took what he knew was working, and partnered with an engineer to fix what wasn’t. The ultralight structure, reversible lid, and ability to float were fan-favorites, while the harness system, inability to drain meltwater, and lack of security were points to improve moving forward. With this feedback, we spent nearly a year honing in the cooler’s features and functionality. In the summer of 2021, we launched the first rendition of the Rugged Road 65, which was designed with our customers’ suggestions in mind. The RR65 now has a drain plug, marine-grade stainless steel latch, patent pending hinges for the lid, and two types of handles, all while still remaining ultralight with the ability to float upright.

In the months following the launch of the Rugged Road 65, we reached out to our customers for feedback once again. While the cooler had come a long way since the early days, we knew that our customers would provide insight and share their experiences to help us further improve the product. We received an overwhelming amount of support for what we were doing with a huge demand for accessories and more sizes.

This brings us to today. In 2022, we launched the Rugged Road V2 collection. What’s new with V2? Well, we took our customers’ tips to heart; each hard sided RR65 cooler now comes with a basket and divider. We have also increased the thickness of the coating to make the cooler more durable than ever before. The V2 coolers have a unique non-slip coating on the feet, and we extended our warranty from 3 years to lifetime. Once completed, our V2 collection will feature the RR65, as well as the RR45 and RR85 in 4 different colors.

Spencer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am Spencer, I’m 24 years old and a recent graduate of the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!). I’ve always had a passion for the outdoors, and when I’m not working on the business, you can usually find me climbing or kayaking.

My life has been dedicated to growing Rugged Road since 2016. Countless hours have been spent designing, testing, pitching, and even driving around to deliver coolers. However, I know for a fact that I would not be where I am without the incredible community of people around me lifting me up and supporting my dream.

Running a business has taught me many things in just a few short years, but the most important thing that it has given me is the opportunity and ability to give back. Rugged Road is so much more than just a cooler company; it is a vessel to serve the community. Through the Rugged Road Foundation, we are able to donate 10% of our profits to building wells around the globe. We have broken ground on our first two water projects in Niger, and are looking forward to many more to come in the future.

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

Without a doubt, putting our customers first has helped us to build our reputation in this market. As a small (but rapidly growing) business, we have made a few mistakes over the years. Some of these mistakes could have, and maybe even should have, set us in a pretty tough position to recover from. However, by ensuring that our customers felt heard and taken care of, we have built an incredibly strong community that continues to support us and our journey. We would not be where we are without our customers, and we will never forget that!

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

In good times and bad, my team and I constantly find ourselves referring to the lessons in The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan. It is an easy read that transformed how I view and run this business.

In short, it is the idea of acknowledging how far you have come from when you initially set your goal, rather than feeling overwhelmed by how far you have to go to reach the finish line.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ruggedroadoutdoors.com/
• Instagram: @Rugged_Road_Outdoors
• Facebook: @RuggedRoadRR
• Linkedin: Rugged Road
• Youtube: Rugged Road Outdoors
• Other: Thank you for this opportunity!