LESSONS IN: FINANCING
Happy hunting
Resourceful Redneck bags big bucks selling survival tools
By Alec Bruce

ANY HUNTER will testify that he spends a lot more time in the woods sitting on his rump than pointing and shooting his rifle. And if that hunter happens to be Mike Holland, that’s time to think. So it was not long ago when the former New Brunswick civil servant, a lifelong outdoorsman, began to cogitate ways to transform his recreational passion into a bonafide business.

“Anybody who grows up in rural New Brunswick knows you go into the field with limited resources,” he says. “A lot of things can go wrong, so you need to be creative pretty quickly. You might only have a hammer and a piece of yarn to solve a problem or figure something out.”

Still, what if these on-the-fly inventions could be manufactured, commercialized, packaged, and sold to outdoorsy types across Canada, possibly even the world? Better yet, what if the Internet and social media took the place of traditional bricks-and-mortar store frontage and advertising to get these products into customers’ hands?

Thus was born Resourceful Redneck, operating out of Holland’s Riverview home, just about a year ago. His website explains what he likes to call the company’s DNA: “We are not just a company that sells products; we are outdoors people ourselves. Much of the product line has been invented as a result of real people facing real situations in the field and needing to find solutions to those problems.”

The start-up’s product line is broad as well as ingenious. Customers can buy, online, everything from apparel and hunting accessories to knives and tools. Homespun problemsolvers devised by Holland and members of what he refers to as the “community” of hunters and fishers (to whom he pays royalties on sales) include the “barrel buddy” – a protective cover that fits over the tip of a rifle – and the “bear-ier” – a girdle that affixes to a tree’s trunk to keep overly curious ursine visitors, without harming them, from reaching a hunter perched in the canopy.

Holland is both the face of the company and its R&D department, which, he says, is fortunate. “I don’t do commercialization and mechanization,” he says. “That’s not something I would be any good at.”

For that, he has a broadly experienced expert in these functions, his partner Steen Gunderson, who also happens to be the general manager of Dieppebased ambulance manufacturer Malley Industries.

Last November, the two men travelled to Toronto for a highly coveted appearance on the CBC’s wildly popular television program Dragon’s Den, as much for the exposure as the chance to raise equity for their fledgling company. To their surprise and delight, they got a bite from Dragon Joe Mimran, the fashion titan behind Club Monaco, Caban, Alfred Sung, and Joe Fresh. For a 10 per cent stake, they could walk away with $50,000. “We were ecstatic to not only secure a deal, but to hear that an idea that I had while out hunting was not just valid, it was investment worthy,” Holland said at the time.

Fortune, it seems, does favour the bold. Within days of their turn on the show, they received an even better offer from British Columbiabased Thunder Boyz Productions Inc., which runs the Trigger Effect TV program. Its cash-for-equity proposal was similar to Mimran’s, but the additional perks were simply unbeatable, especially the opportunity to market directly to their target community of customers with commercial spots, website enhancements and social media management and expansion. They quickly sealed the deal.

Now, the entrepreneurs are positioning Resourceful Redneck — which is, Holland says, financially healthy — for measurable growth. “The moral of the story is learning how to capitalize on the interests of people with like minds,” says Holland. “Understand the needs of your community of customers and do everything you can to meet them.”

Next: Lessons in innovation