Manufacturing the Future Escapod Founders on How They Became the Ninth Fastest Growing Manufacturing Company
Lifelong campers, Chris and Jen Hudak wanted to fit outdoor adventure into their busy lives. But they found that they were spending more time setting up camp than actually camping. There was the first problem they needed a solution for, and solved it by building an off-road teardrop trailer they could bring with them, giving them back more time to adventure.
They started Escapod in 2016, and today have scaled to over seventy employees. They were recently named the ninth fastest-growing manufacturing company by Inc. But with that kind of growth comes a whole new set of problems to solve, which Jen and Chris talk about in this podcast episode.
In this Episode…
Listen to our conversation with Chris and Jen Hudak to learn more about their journey to creating Escapod, their approach to operations, and their advice for people like them who had an idea that solved a problem, and now want to scale their business to sell to the world.
Topics include
- Investments that small businesses can make to help scale their operations, like tracking products and work instructions, and freeing up time to focus on other business activities.
- What Escapod's employee training program is like, and why knowledge fails without documentation.
- How to evolve the customer experience through technology, like using the website for a customer one-stop shop, and the importance of partnering with others to build those services.
- How Escapod measures success, and how they iterate if something isn't measuring up.
- Why the most critical investment they make in their operations is investing in good people.
- Actionable advice for small businesses looking to improve their operations through technological solutions.
Resources
- Escapod.us
- Insta: @escapodtrailers
- Insta: @ChrisHudak
- Insta: @JenHudak
- Jen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenhudak/