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Passions-to-Profit: Hitchfire
Passions-to-Profit: Celebrating the Barbecuing Entrepreneur
As the traditional end of summer, Labor Day also serves to celebrate the American work force and their commitment to productive, inventive and important contributions to our society. In this spirit of honoring America’s hard-working heroes, we’d like to dedicate the entire month of September to applaud the entrepreneurs who’ve applied their talents to making your barbecuing adventures more engaging…and tasty!
Second-in-a-Series: Hitchfire; We Can Build a Better Mousetrap (or, in this case, a hitch-mounted grill)!
Years ago, there was a company that manufactured a hitch-mounted grill, and it was quite successful, until it just disappeared from the market around 2007-2008. After conducting some serious market analysis, we’d determined that, perhaps, the financial crisis and subsequent layoffs, had an outsized effect on the existing market for this product, but still felt that the concept was valid and ripe for further development.
Working in stealth mode for about a year, Hitchfire started developing product in 2019, with hopes of launching in early 2020. Unfortunately, the pandemic began to unravel life as we knew it in early 2020, and, needless to say, everything became increasingly more complicated. Tradeshows where we had planned to launch Hitchfire, showcasing our new hitch-mounted grill, had to be scrapped and, eventually, we were forced into virtual launch mode in September 2020.
Patience Played an Outsized Role in Our Success
The pandemic presented a huge obstacle for launching a new company, but everyone was rewriting their playbook, so we had company in figuring out how to reach consumers and launch the Hitchfire brand. The bigger, secondary problem, was a huge spike in demand for outdoor goods, as everyone was turning toward outdoor recreation as a pandemic ‘coping’ strategy. Typically, that wouldn’t be considered an issue, but the demand for goods across the outdoor industry made freight costs skyrocket. As a young small cash constrained company, paying $20k or more for a container was unsustainable and potentially catastrophic. Luckly, we survived, but it took a lot of creativity and patience.
A Unique Selling Proposition: ‘Redefining Life at the Hitch!’
Our entire product line is hitch-mounted, and, although our flagship product is a hitch-mounted grill that deploys in seconds and allows you to keep grease and unwanted smells out of your vehicle, we also offer other hitch-mounted products like kitchens, cook stations and storage solutions. We like to say that we are redefining life at the hitch!
The primary feature of our products is a proprietary dual swing arm that allows our equipment to easily swing out to the passenger or driver side of the vehicle. The grill mounts to the top of this swing arm offering quick deployment and a convenient place to store your grill so you don’t have it sliding around your truck bed or inside, fouling up your vehicle. When you are ready to head to the big game or wild outdoors, you just turn it off and swing it shut. Tailgating has never been easier!
Our Favorite Recipe
Chimichurri Salmon with Curry Smashed Potatoes
Salmon with savory, curry-smashed potatoes, and a spicy mint chimichurri to cut through the richness of the salmon. A note from experience… make extra chimi as it’s always the first to go!
Passions-to-Profit Series
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