Impetro Gear
From Cardboard Prototypes to Acquisition
Co-Founder & Product Lead
Key Metrics
The Problem & Hypothesis
As a multi-sport athlete (skiing, MTB, climbing), I noticed a friction point. Outdoor gear is often emotional—athletes love collecting skis or jackets—but backpacks are purely functional clutter.
- The Insight: While some users are "collectors," there was an underserved segment of "Pragmatists": athletes who value efficiency, storage space, and cost-savings.
- The Value Prop: One ergonomic base unit + specific "Zip-on" skins for different sports. Reduce waste, save space, save money.
I had to move past my own bias ("I want this") to validate that a market segment actually existed that prioritized utility over the status of owning multiple specialized bags.
Product Strategy: Trade-offs & The Kill List
We started with "Frankenstein" prototypes—cardboard, tape, and webbing—to validate ergonomics before aesthetics. Moving to production required ruthless prioritization between features, cost, and timeline.
- What we killed (Cost Control): We originally wanted a Nylon Ripstop fabric with Kevlar reinforcements. We loved it, but we killed it. It was engineering overkill that would have destroyed our margins without adding tangible value for the core user.
- What we kept (Sunk Cost Management): We utilized a complex back system (frame + foam) that was arguably too advanced for V1. However, removing it would have required re-tooling and delayed launch by months.
I learned to distinguish between "perfect engineering" and "smart business." Sometimes you cut a feature to save money (Kevlar), and sometimes you keep a complex feature to save time (Back System).
Commercial Strategy: The Pricing Trap
We launched on Kickstarter in November 2019. We hit our public funding goal, but missed our internal financial targets. A post-mortem revealed a critical error in our Go-To-Market strategy:
- The Pricing Blind Spot: We ran A/B tests to generate leads but never displayed the price.
- The Result: We built a mailing list of "deal seekers," but launched a high-end technical product.
- The MOQ Reality: We launched with an MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) of 500 units. At this volume, our unit economics were too thin to sustain the business long-term compared to a volume of 1,500+.
We fell into the trap of optimizing for "Sign-ups" (Vanity Metric) rather than "Qualified Leads" (Revenue Metric). This taught me that Price Transparency is a qualification tool, not just a checkout detail.
Operations: The Crisis & The Fix
Production coincided with the start of COVID-19 (Jan-April 2020). Shipping costs spiked 10x, and travel restrictions prevented me from performing on-site QC in Vietnam.
When the bags arrived in Austria, we found a critical defect: the main carry handle was not sewn to spec.
- The Decision: We could fix them cheaply in Austria (risky quality) or send them back to Vietnam (expensive & slow).
- The Execution: We chose brand equity over short-term savings. We air-freighted the entire stock back to Vietnam for factory-certified repairs.
The root cause was a lack of verifiable remote testing protocols. This failure taught me to build "Systems of Verification" (e.g., a Factory Cheat Sheet) rather than relying on trust—a lesson that applies equally to code deployment and bug bashing.
The Turnaround & Exit
By late 2020, we were cash-poor but inventory-rich. We needed a win.
- The Pivot: We secured a critical technical review with MTB-News.de.
- The Result: The validation drove massive Black Friday sales, clearing 6 months of inventory in weeks and helping us break even.
- The Strategic Exit: Facing a capital-intensive "Round 2" of production that would require significant new debt, we analyzed the risk/reward ratio. We decided to prioritize capital efficiency and sold the brand assets/IP via Shopify Exchange in 2021.
Knowing when to sell is just as important as knowing when to build. We successfully exited the brand to new owners who could fund the next stage of growth, while I moved on to my next challenge.
From Hardware to Software
Building Impetro Gear was a masterclass in ownership. I learned that whether you are shipping backpacks or games, or the core principles remain the same: validate early, watch your unit economics, and build systems that scale.
However, managing physical inventory taught me the pain of slow iteration cycles (6 months to fix a handle). This is why I am now focused during my freetime on Software and AI Product Management—where the "Frankenstein Prototyping" phase happens in minutes, not months, specially today with AI, allowing for faster learning loops and rapid value delivery.