Pete Dering, founder and CEO of Peak Design, did just that. He started in 2010 with an idea for a camera clip, launched it on Kickstarter in 2011, and spent the next 15 years turning a simple photography accessory into a company selling everything from camera straps and tripods to backpacks, phone mounts, and luggage.
Along the way, he avoided outside investors, built a loyal customer base, and largely ignored the conventional rules of running a growing business. For years, it worked remarkably well. The original camera clip still brings in $7 million in annual sales, and Peak Design has grown into a business with roughly $100 million in annual revenue.
But success brought its own problems. After years of growth, the company began hiring too quickly, costs rose, and Dering found himself facing the prospect of an unprofitable business. He had to make difficult staffing decisions and reconsider an approach to management that had served him well for more than a decade.
In this episode of Keep Going, I talk with Pete about the role of luck in building a successful company, why solving real problems matters more than clever marketing, and what happens when a founder realizes that instinct alone is no longer enough to run the business.
We also discuss why he has no plans to sell Peak Design, why he prefers developing leaders from within the company, and why he believes that being a relaxed, happy CEO might be more useful than the constant intensity we tend to associate with successful founders.
It’s a fascinating conversation about building a company, making mistakes, and figuring out what success should actually look like after you’ve achieved it.
