Scott Duffy interview with The Pink Helmet Posse, Business & Burgers: Season 1 Ep. 6

I'm Alan Taylor. My buddy Scott Duffy and I are in search of the best burger in America. Each month, we visit a new city to try some of the top restaurants, pubs, and brewhouses while sitting down for a candid conversation with some of the top entrepreneurs, athletes, entertainers, and celebrities. I don't know about you, but I love talking business over a burger. Welcome to Business and Burgers.

With a reputation for quality skateboarding products geared to safely equip young girls ages 5 to 15, the pink helmet Posse brand has started a movement worldwide enabling girls to get out and skate.

My daughters are both Pink Helmet Posse skaters, and they started skating skateboarding when they were 5 and 6 years old.

How wild.

How did you guys get started in all this?

Well, it really started when myself and two other dads got together and were like, oh, your daughter skates? Oh, my daughter skates. How old is she? And they're all the same age. We did a. I don't really like using this term, but we did a skate date, and we went to the skate park, and when all the girls turned up, they all had pink helmets on. The girls didn't know each other, so they saw, like, you know, other little girls, they're in little skirts and pink helmets, and they instantly just gravitated towards each other and took off skating. They hit it off really quickly. And we noticed that, like, when we got them together that they would skate more, that they just had a great time. And every couple weeks, we'd get them all together. They'd always be skating around. And then people at the skate park just started going, oh, there's the. There's a Pink Helmet Posse. And a little light bulb went off, and we're like, oh, okay, let's, you know, if we get these ones together and other little girls would join in, let's make some little stickers up so they can feel like they're included. And it's like a group thing.

So when did it turn into a business then?

Well, when we realized there was no little girl boards.

Yeah.

Available.

So, I mean, like, it sounds like you guys had the same problem that I had. Basically what we kept hearing at the retail stores was girls don't skate, and so they didn't carry anything and particularly little girls. So everything was so big. But what was cool is you guys tried to solve it.

Absolutely. I mean, basically what happened was we found a mini board for my son, and it had a big skull on it, but it was the perfect size, and he loved it because he's a boy. And he's like, oh, Skull. He could relate to it and was stoked he actually slept with it. Then when my daughter started skating, she was riding my board. And we went to the skate shop and we couldn't find. They didn't have any minis. So I ended up driving to Encinitas, drove an hour, found a board. I had to drive an hour.

But it was like a guy's board.

It was definitely. It was made for a boy. And so we decided, hey, let's get some boards with some colors that girls can relate to. So we went to right here in Costa Mesa, we went to Professor Schmidt, who's, like the guru of building skateboards. He's been doing it probably longer than I've been alive. And he basically steered us in the right direction to make the best board for kids.

And so he made one board, and then where did things go from there?

Well, he actually said, you need more than one board because as the kids grow, their board needs to grow with them. So we started off with four different sizes in two different colors. We had pink with our logo on it, which, you know, it's our original logo with just a star. And then somebody said, hey, not all girls like pink. And so he did a purple one, too.

But here's what's so cool about that. What's so cool about that is I think that when most people have, like, an idea, they fail to get started because they think they have to have everything in place before they jump in. They got to have all the money or the perfect board of the. You guys just went, we're going to do pink, and we're going to put some, like, stickers on it. And we went to the skate parks, right. And you gave away stickers and. And you built momentum, and that's so cool. You didn't wait, you got started.

Absolutely.

So you kind of reinvented the whole segment, creating skateboards for girls. And everybody said, girls don't skate. So, I mean, did you think he was crazy when this all started?

No, we were.

You were on.

We were both ready to do it because we knew we were going to be a skateboarding, surfing, family. So we wanted the right stuff.

Which is cool because your background is in photography, around the surfing industry and Surfer magazine and all that kind of stuff. But you didn't have a background in making skateboards?

No. I mean, well, almost zero. My very first job was putting together skateboards in a sporting goods store in Rhode island, like 100 years ago. Right. Plus, I was a. You know, I skateboarded for years.

Still today you didn't start in any big fancy warehouse.

Right.

Where did you guys get started?

In our garage.

In your garage?

Yep.

Yeah. So how is that? So what's it like to be a married couple almost 10 years and have. And start a business together and have five kids. And have five kids.

I like to call it organized chaos.

Thankfully, I'm very organized. So, like everything's a plan by the hour.

Are you organized?

No.

No.

So you guys balance each other out.

So I'm a little crazy and he's like, mellow. So together we're like kind of perfect.

You were an interior decorator by trade?

Yeah. Yeah.

So that goes well because that's an organizational skill unto itself.

Yes.

Which is a really good balance too, by the way, for any founder, whether you're married or you're not married. Actually being a partner or a co founder is a lot like being married because you spend so much time with that person. And it's so important that you find people that don't have the same skill set that you have, but bring a complimentary skill set to whatever that business is.

And how long has it been now.

Since we started the Pink Ham Posse? It's been three and a half years.

Has there been any big learnings along the way?

Tons. Lots of trying.

Life changing.

What is the number one tip you'd give to married couples starting a business.

Together in their garage?

In their garage?

Probably just to listen to each other and like learn off of each other. You can feel like you know what you're doing, but sometimes the other one knows better.

Who's the boss?

For sure, I am the boss.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's great. Definitely the boss.

And so did you guys, when you got started, did you kind of clearly define what the roles were gonna be?

Not really. I mean, I think we just kind of fell into what we were good at. And then there's certain things she can do far better than I and there's certain things I can do better than she can. So it's kind of like we try and learn a little bit of the other. But, you know, I'm a train wreck when it comes to organization, so if I did any of that stuff, we'd be done.

How old are your kids?

Nine, seven, five, three and nine months.

Nine months.

Wow.

So do you get out much?

No.

Is it boss? I think we've heard that today is the first day in about nine months that you guys have been longer than that.

Yeah.

Oh, my goodness. Here we go. Here we go. So we have got some amazing burgers that were prepared for you guys today. And we have Marissa, who, by the way, so Muldoons is like, this is my home pub. This is my home burger right here. And Marissa grew up here at Muldoons in the business.

Marissa grew up in her family's nearly 43 year old Irish restaurant. She, she was Muldoon's own little mascot. Now to the hamburger masterpiece, the Celtic combo. Despite Muldoon's extensive menu, everything is made from scratch. And the Celtic combo is pure genius. It starts with a half pound grain fed beef patty topped with Dubliner cheese imported straight from Ireland. Then they add some delicious homemade corned beef, top it with braised cabbage and wrap it with warm grilled rye. To be honest, I've never had corned beef on a hamburger before and wasn't sure if I'd like it, but oh, did I? Bon appetit.

Bon appetit.

My first experience purchasing from Pink Helm and Posse was amazing. And I tell people about that experience everywhere.

It's the little things that count.

It's the little things that count.

Customer service is really important for us because it's basically our advertising. Almost all of our orders are just from people recommending us that have used us. And so we try and I mean, we do handwritten notes. You write, thank you so much for supporting small business and local and you know, just like grateful that people are going through us instead of big, huge.

She said a big word. Yeah, grateful. She's grateful. That spirit, I think people feel it coming through in the product right down to that handwritten note.

We could sell a cheaper product and with better margins and nobody might recognize the difference, but we know the difference and we want to, you know, we won't do that. Everything we sell, we stand behind 100% and we put our own kids on.

You know what I like about this too? And Sarah, you said it. You know, you're the boss.

Yeah.

But on top of that, you're teaching something to your daughters. You're in essence the CEO because you're calling the shots when it comes to the financial part of this business, which is going to trickle down into your kids. Boys and girls really affects those kids. So you're teaching them how to skate.

You're.

You're teaching them how to do it safely and you're teaching them how to be entrepreneurs and not even knowing it. I love that.

If you could tell anything to.

Female entrepreneurs starting their own business, give them one piece of advice, what would that be?

I've just always Felt like I could do anything I wanted to. I mean, honestly, I've never doubted that being a woman, I couldn't do something. Like, pretty much anything I've ever tried to do, I've done. And I just want my girls and my boys to feel like that. And eventually I'd love for our kids to take over this business and grow it and, you know, keep it in the family and just know they can do whatever they want to do in.

Such an analog world that you guys are in. I mean, manufacturing and skateboards and trucks and wheels. Talk to me about how you integrate technology into that and that's maybe your side of things. I don't know.

It's something I've learned. It was never my side, but we both kind of learned, you know, how to build a website and how important social media is to inspire our customers.

So there's a learning process. But the cool thing about technology today, particularly technology built for small business, is if you spend a little bit of time on it, just a little bit of time, it's amazing how far it can take your business. Yes.

Yeah.

So how much you can learn not knowing anything.

What's your favorite part about being an entrepreneur?

Not working for anybody. Being able to take the kids surfing and skating every day without getting in trouble.

You know, just hearing your stories about how stoked your daughters are. Yeah, that's what makes it awesome. Like when you go to a skate park and you see a girl that you've never seen before on one one of our boards with one a sticker on their helmet and they're shredding. Yeah, yeah. They're out ripping.

Yeah.

And you know that like, the Pink Helmet Posse movement is, you know, it's real and it's making a difference. So.

Yeah, you know, like, this is kind of. It's almost like a little hard to talk about, but my older girl was. Was very, very introverted and we couldn't get her into sports and we could. She just wasn't interested and things like that. The first sport she took up was skating, and she rode your boards. And the thing is, she developed so much confidence as a result, and she really started to come out. And that's the impact that a small business can have. Like, they don't even realize that they're having on other people. And then people start to talk and that becomes your marketing.

All right, enough about business. Let's get back to the burgers.

Alright, I'm winning.

Scott walked away from our conversation with the Pink Helmet Posse with some great skateboarding gear for his two little daughters and we both walked away with some great business insights like, you don't need to have every detail in place to start your new business, just get started. When going into business with your spouse, make sure to listen and learn from each other. And finally, customer service is extremely important. Good word of mouth is essential for small businesses.

Next time on Business and Burgers, we return to the local taphouse and kitchen with John Ashworth. John noticed the distinct lack of style in golf clothing back in the late 80s, and by 1989 his newly formed golf apparel company was raking in millions. His journey from pro tour caddy to golf apparel mogul is one for the ages. So join us next time as we take a bite out of business right here on Business and Burgers.

Check out more episodes of Business and Burgers and our B and B blog at our website, businessandburgers.com also, don't forget to visit our Business and Burgers Facebook page and give us a big thumbs up. Join us each Wednesday for an all new Business and Burgers presented by Microsoft, where we get to the meat of a successful business.