Ep 618: Inside Tumble – Scaling a Nine-Figure Rug Brand

About this episode

The episode features Tumble co-founders discussing their journey in building a successful rug brand without external funding.

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Most founders want to be first in a category. Justin Soleimani and Zach Dannett did the opposite, and built Tumble into one of the standout washable rug brands without raising a dollar. In this episode, the Tumble co-founders and Co-CEOs break down how they entered a category Ruggable created, fixed the product complaints they found buried in thousands of reviews, and validated the whole thing on Indiegogo before opening a Shopify store. Then they get into the part most founders never have to survive: moving their entire supply chain out of China in 30 days when tariffs went from 25% to 175%. What's covered: Why they launched with 120 SKUs and used crowdfunding as a demand-forecasting tool, not just a fundraiser The lot-number QC system that let them kill 90%+ of product defects within two years How pre-orders and Shopify payouts gave them a negative cash conversion cycle while bootstrapping Why they didn't hire a single full-time employee until they were well past $20M in revenue The China-to-Thailand pivot and accidental Canada launch during the tariff crisis Their YouTube incrementality test that ran head-to-head…

People in this episode

Guests: Justin Soleimani, Zach Dannett

Topics covered

• scaling a business
• crowdfunding
• supply chain management
• product development
• DTC brands
• bootstrapping

Keywords

• Tumble
• washable rugs
• crowdfunding
• supply chain
• bootstrapped
• DTC
• tariffs
• product defects

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tumble, Ruggable, Indiegogo, Shopify, YouTube, Meta

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