Yardsale

About

On today’s episode, I sit down with Cristina Ashbaugh, co-founder of Yardsale, an outdoor apparel and equipment brand, and Double Black, its recently opened coffee shop / retail space in San Francisco.

Yardsale started with a pair of magnetic ski poles, but in less than three years has expanded into bags, apparel, owned retail, and now coffee.

In this conversation, we talk about why something as simple as adding magnets to a ski pole created a surprisingly difficult manufacturing problem, how a viral TikTok and a Fast Company article helped accelerate the company almost immediately after launch, and what Yardsale’s experience on Shark Tank actually did for the business.

We get into how their mix of revenue has shifted over time, how Cristina and her co-founder think about expanding into new categories, and why wholesale has become a smaller part of the business than they originally expected.

Lastly, we talk about Double Black specifically, how a search for warehouse space turned into a coffee shop and retail store, the economics of operating the space, and why staying independent has given Yardsale more flexibility in deciding where to take the business.

I learned a lot during my conversation with Cristina, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.