From Beer Mile Strategy to Local Ride Curation, Scott Baldwin is Making Front Pack Sports the Hub for EVERYTHING Endurance

Earlier in the spring my buddy, Chas, told me that he trained with a guy named Scott Baldwin who was building a social media platform dedicated to endurance athletes. On top of that, Scott hails from the Philadelphia area, so I had to meet him. On the Meteor patio, Scott shared his vision for Front Pack Sports, a social hub where athletes can gather and do what they do - seek friendly competition and training buddies, pontificate on gear and get exposure to physical therapists, trainers and new products. As I racked my brain, I realized that a purely social experience like this does not exist and there could be blue sky for an entrepreneur like Scott to nail the value proposition. This is way easier said than done, so admittedly I was a bit dismissive with Scott’s pitch taking into account his lack of experience building consumer web businesses. 

However, I did subscribe to his newsletter…and I was immediately hooked. Scott boldly covers ALL notable endurance stories each week and he does so in his authentic voice, which is goofy and earnest at the very same time. So when Scott shared some impressive newsletter growth numbers, I was super impressed and instantly regretted my dismissive first impression. In fact Scott’s spirit and his business development growth initiatives are so complementary with what Hill Climbers supports, that we conceived a live audience podcast event for him on the spot. What ensued was a podcast taping with a small but mighty studio audience, which asked fantastic questions during the Q&A at the end of the show. In the spirit of our first live event, we’re front loading the Q&A portion of the interview to put you in the studio with us. Now enjoy the show.

Hill Climbers is more than just a podcast, it's a growing business network for cyclists. You can tap into our event by following our Linkedin and Instagram, and subscribing to our newsletter.

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Theme Music: Summer Vibes by Rizik

Transcript

0:11

Alright. Well, believe it or not, we are kicking this off with a live studio audience. I've got, 1st and foremost, my my wife here who is, our in house CMO. So thank thank you for being here, Caitlin. I'm very hungry now. Yeah. And, we've got, a couple more notable audience members. You can see SAPS here, which is a relatively new electrolyte beverage. Founder Jordan has joined us as well here in the studio audience. So, man, we're doing things a little bit, a little bit differently. Another big one is is this fellow to my to my left, and and Franco, can you please introduce yourself and and let the folks know kinda what you're what you're up to? Then we'll introduce our our guest. For sure. Yeah. Super excited to be here. My name is Franco Martins. For those I haven't met, looking forward to chatting a little bit more in the happy hour afterward. I've been in Austin for about 5 years. I am a runner originally, but converted cyclist over the last 3 or 4 years and fallen in love with it. I am taking a little bit of a break from working and reached out to Sam and seeing, how I could help him. And here I am. So really excited to get to engage with the community, and meet founders like Scott and help out with the podcast and increase the reach, especially with the in person and community events. Yeah. Franco is gonna add some flavor to our interviews. So, without further ado, we have Scott Baldwin here from from Pac Sports. And, I guess Scott and I met really pretty recently, like, only only a few months ago Yeah. Through a mutual friend, Chaz Laccolade, who was pretty excited to put us in touch for for pretty obvious reasons. Scott has started a, a social media platform for endurance athletes, and we're gonna jump into that, all sorts of of details and and your background story. But, Scott, formally, well, welcome to the show. Thanks for thanks for joining us. And, by the way, congratulations on on kicking off your your new company, your brand. Yeah. It's been exciting. And, yeah. Thank you for having me. I'm excited, Franco and Sam. It's gonna be good. To put the audience on the spot, do y'all have any questions? Anything come to mind? Yeah. So, what would, the place on front pack sports be for someone like Elizabeth who's not hardcore endurance athlete right now? Yeah. And, sadly, I hate that we got to this question at the very end of the interview because it is. It's it's for the avid to the weekend warrior to the professional athlete. Like I said before, we're we've been doing this. We've got over 300 posts, and it's, like, it's all about positivity. So whether, you know, in going back to, like, the question of what do I want front pack to be, when I did my market research and I I interviewed females and males that were subscribed to the newsletter, And a big part of the female response was, I don't have a place to be have female female connection as well. And that was really sad for a lot of people because, like, let's be honest, in endurance sports, like, you might run up against women problems like that. Sam, Franco, myself, we can't answer. And you show up to the group ride, and it's 90% men. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Exactly. So, no, to answer your question, yes. We want it to be for anyone and everybody. Elizabeth also mentioned she's doing a decent amount of weight training, and and a lot of that, I think, is in service to endurance or or not. But but, do you do you have, sort of subject matter experts and programming on the site for weight training for endurance athletes? Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question as well. So right now, I'd know of some coaches that are already on the platform, and they do specialize in weight training, one of which is in Austin. But, going back to the actual platform, the idea is also if you're getting super into weight training but you're not sure how to tackle it and you don't wanna injure yourself, the idea there is also, that coach could per he could put programming onto the platform. And then if you wanna have 1 on one time and also pay for a plan that's, you know, whatever cost that he decides. So yeah. Absolutely. George brought up a great question, which is, Strava and how how does front pack sports, play in an ecosystem where Strava is is obviously really dominant? And it could it be, a situation where there's an integration with front pack sports, or do you see yourself as competitive and entirely separate from Strava? Friends or foes? Frenemies. Yeah. That's that was a part of the when I was doing my market research originally was looking at Strava. So Strava, a 125,000,000 users. They've raised, I think, $500,000,000. They're valued at, I think, 1,200,000,000. So, like, they got their thing going. But the really interesting thing about Strava is, one, their CEO, not even 2 months ago, said he doesn't wanna be a social network. He doesn't that's, like, not what he wants to do. And I think the beauty of what Front Pack is doing is Strava, the the journey starts and ends with someone's run, ride, or triathlon. You see what that person did, and that's that's it. Right? So for us, it's like we want people to talk about the journey from when they first start at, hey. I just bought my, like, first bike to I just did this race to I'm going to the Tour de France, and, like, this is gonna be fun, and we're gonna go to all these different cities. So, I see us as we're we're focused on, like, different audiences, but at the same time, I I am gonna launch a, a Strava integration into Frontpack. So if you join the Frontpack Strava group, there will be an integration where it will show the leaderboard. So, if you're a member of Strava and you join Frontpack, you can kinda, like, look at how everybody's doing for the month. Like, where do you, like, fit in? Like, are you training for, like, least amount? Are you training the most? And then the idea there, I would love to work with brands to say, like, hey. For the month of October, we're gonna be able to give you, like, a a ceramic group set, to the winner of the month, that kind of stuff. So Yeah. And and, George, I'm really glad you asked that question because as you were explaining it, Strava is not a social first platform. It's not and and to your point, it's not trying to be. Yeah. So, social, it's not quite an afterthought, but it's not the point. Yeah. Exactly. And it they also launched, like, a chat functionality. But, like, I I will say, like, I'm a Strava user and but I've never really even used that thing. So Not a lot of people do. Yeah. And that's such a good I mean, we talked about it earlier in the conversation, the idea where you're consolidating all these different groups kind of into one place. Strava is where a lot of these groups live. However, it doesn't help you consolidate and figure out what's going on. Yeah. Totally. Even Thursday, you have to That's a great point. Manifest the ride. You can't you can't prove it out easily. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. We're just we just set up 1 month. So we launched on September 3rd, but as you said, it's it's called Front Pack. It's the first social network for endurance athletes by endurance athletes. The whole idea is, to have this one place where, cyclists, runners, triathletes, you could be yourself. When we looked at, you know, the market and we looked at the things that we particularly didn't love about, you know, online and community is the fact that so much of it was really, like, anonymous. Yeah. And front pack specifically is all about being your, like, true self. So whether you it's about positivity, it's about connection, motivation, storytelling, and just a place where you can, like, lean on each other. So Awesome. Yeah. And I think that's a perfect sort of connector segue into, like, why Chaz connected us originally. Here, we are doing a podcast and trying to build a community around business networking. And you, Scott, are in our backyard build building this, this entire platform. So I thought, what better, kind of initiative for for Hill Climbers than to support you in getting the word out, bring a studio audience, in to to network with, and, and really help you help you get cracking on this thing, you know, 5 4 or 5 weeks in. So, yeah. I guess, like, just to just to kinda warm up, what's your story with endurance and and cycling? How'd you get started? Yeah. Absolutely. So my story is so I've been in Austin for 10 years. Originally, I think, one of the reasons Chaz set us up together is because I'm from outside of Philadelphia as well. He was like, oh, you're gonna love this Philly guy. Cheers. Yeah. So I I grew up outside of Philadelphia. Like, I've always loved bikes, like cycling. I grew up in, like, South New Jersey, so it's very much like farmlands and It's beautiful. Terrain. Yeah. But there was just there's this road where you can just ride on. And at the time, I was into BMX and, like, you know, going in the woods and jumping dirt and, like, you know, wrecking my rims. And then I got a little bit older and got into, like, road cycling. What what age? What? So I was probably, like, 14 when I started Okay. Into road cycling. My dad had this steel a steel Raleigh bike from, like, the 19 seventies. It was, like, hanging on the wall in our in our garage, but, you know, I would borrow that thing and just got into it. And then, yeah, I I got into mountain biking college. I went to WVU, so West Virginia University. Ton of mountain biking out there. And then the older I got, I, like, leaned more into, the endurance aspect. And then, over the last two and a half years, I've gotten, like, really serious about longer endurance events, which is like Ironman and, you know, just racing. Like, just fell in love with racing. It's we'll we'll get into it, but I think endurance sports, whether it's cycling or running or triathlon, like, it's this, like, microcosm of life in general. So, it's just the older I've gone, it's just something that I've gotten more invested in. Why why do you think that is? That it's a minor You you have personally gotten into endurance at at this age, you know? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think and I think that goes back to, like, why I even started front pack. But for the longest time, we're all, like, athletes. Right? And we grew up playing soccer. We grew up riding bikes. And, you know, you get to college, and if you're lucky enough, maybe you get a scholarship. And maybe you continue that journey, and you you're on your own sports teams. But the second when you get out of college, if you don't go pro, it's like you gotta go to the working world. You've learned teamwork and you've learned motivation and confidence through sports, like, your entire life. And then all of a sudden, it's like, whoosh. Go work in the corporate world and go work for the man and, like, kill this part of your childhood. Yeah. Exactly. But but as I've gotten older, it's I I worked professionally for 20 years in communications and marketing, and it's just like, you know, I worked for all these companies, and it was great. I learned so much, but at the same time, like, it didn't really push me physically or mentally. And I've gotten really back into endurance because of the connections that you have with people. Like, the people that you used to meet when you were 18 and you were doing sports, like, now again, like, you and I, for example, like, we've gone together. Like, I go on your Thursday rides. We become pretty good friends over a short period of time. Yeah. Exactly. So and then, you know, family, all that stuff, like, there's just still a part of you, like, that is inherently, like, you're still you're still a little bit of a caveman. You know? You wanna test yourself. You wanna see, like, if you can still do things. And, it's all about for me, it's about the journey. So yeah. For for me and, like, the reason I built the platform was because I think if you do it, you're super passionate about it. And more oftentimes than not, your family or friends are tired of hearing about it. So I was like, oh, like, let's get all these people together. This all this all sounds familiar. Yeah. And by the way, you know, definitely wanna give you props. You recently had a pretty big result at a at a triathlon race. What what was the story with that? Yeah. Absolutely. So it was a couple weeks ago. So it was, an Olympic distance triathlon, but, yeah, I finished in second, my age group, and then 10th overall. So And you said there was a field of about 500 people. So Yeah. That that's it's that's a good result, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think for me, like, especially, it's, I grew up with a swimming background. So it's, like, that's typically the thing people hate the most. So it's like, if I could do that really, really well and then I just, like, burn my legs out biking and then the running aspect is like, let's just hold on. Yeah. Awesome. Well, let's start talking about front front pack a little bit. You are obviously pretty fit to have that result. You have you have a couple kids. At home, you got your family, you know, young youngish family, and you decided to to take this this big step in in starting a company in entrepreneurship. What how how did that come about? What's what's the backstory? And then we're gonna ask you just just to prepare yourself. How do you how do you fit it all in and how do you get it done? Yeah. It's like a very deep breath moment. Yeah. So front pack was a solution to a problem that I saw 10 months ago. And the problem being the fragmentation of trying to find things online that concern cycling, triathlon, or running. There's just an there wasn't a good place Like, you can go to, like, websites and read about all these different things, but, like, one place to find all this stuff together was, like, nearly impossible. So at the time, like, I'm really big into, just, like, learning about new things and, like, early adopter type stuff. So I was like, oh, like, obviously, like, newsletters have, like, exploded. But at the time, this was back in, like, December, January of this year, I was like, hey. I'm gonna, like, start this newsletter, and I'm gonna I'm gonna bring in humor. I'm gonna bring in my own personal antidotes. I'm, like, I'm gonna bring my personality. And real real quick, Scott's newsletter is fantastic. It is very thorough and covers, like, anything you would wanna know in endurance for for that week. So you can you can subscribe at from packsports.com. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's delivered, and all you need to know is is in the newsletter. It's actually it's a little too thorough, Scott. I spent I spent a lot of time, reading the articles that you published, and it's super relevant. So Yeah. No. Thank you. Yeah. And I I try to mix in a lot of things. And I I I list in their races because there's just the Internet's so noisy. Right? It's just, like, it's so hard to find anything and it's so I just yeah. Like, I'm just trying to condense. I'm trying to help people out. I know how it is. Like, you get to your desk in the morning. You, like, wanna have 8 to 10 minutes to read a newsletter that you like and, like, get something out of it. So that was the whole point of it. So I started that in January. That quickly grew to a couple thousand subscribers. So then I was like, oh, cool. Like, maybe I'm on to something. People would message me as well. They would email me, and they're like, hey. Like, this is super cool. Have you ever thought about, like, making this bigger, expanding this in some way? And there was really no real answer. It was just like some way dot.dot. Right. It's like, okay. The things that drive me crazy are, like, Reddit. It's, like, completely anonymous. There's, like, groups about cycling and but it's not local. It's super negative as well. So it's like, hey. I don't should I get clip in, like, shoot like, get it, like And then peanut gallery talks shit. That's really right. And it's like, oh, you suck. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, okay. This is not a place people wanna go to. So long story short, I I just did a ton of research, built out a business plan, found, like, what I think is a white space. Not only that, but, like, over the last year or so, like, just the sheer amount of layoffs people are going through. Like, if you look at LinkedIn, LinkedIn is really a professional network where, like, I know what you do professionally. I know what you do professionally, but I don't necessarily know, like, that your hobby is cycling. I've been putting a lot of cycling content up there. So you you know I'm a cyclist if you follow my LinkedIn. Exactly. But, like, with all the layoffs happening, it was, like, if you're super into this thing and it's cycling, why not, like, connect through your profession but also through your interests? So when we when I decided to build out from pack, it was like, I wanted it to be 2 things. I wanted to be to connect around hobbies, but also connect professionally in a different way that LinkedIn couldn't provide. Great. Yeah. So how do you go from I I think you had a career working for some for some pretty big notable companies and you you mentioned communications and marketing. Again, you got the family at home. Like, what was the conversation like with with your wife about, taking this leap and and going going all in? Yeah. Luckily, I so I've been married for quite some time, and, you know, we have 2 amazing children, and I have amazing supportive life. And we said this is gonna be super tight, but I just the way I'm built and the way I operate, I knew if I didn't try, I would get to, like, 70 years old, 80 years old. Eventually, oh my god. You're a bitter old man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've never tried this. So that was that was a large part of it. It was just like it was it was all encompassing. It was, like, ingrained into me. And we we've talked about it a little bit, but I truly believe whether you're at a race or you're meeting people, like, there's that connection that didn't exist online. And that's, again, like, something that we're trying to build out. Like I said, it's been a month, but, like, we want people to to feel the emotional investment that they get in real life with, Front Pack. Outside of, like, the family support system, was there, like, mentors that you were kind of talking this through before making the decision? Was there any, like, super impactful advice you got from anyone outside of that? Yeah. Yeah. No. Absolutely. So a bunch of mentors, reached out to a lot of people. The things that and again, like, going back to the microcosm of life and sport is the things that they really pointed to me was because of what this business is and there's social aspects, there's connection aspects. Like, the first being is, like, consistency. If you're gonna go in, like, you have to go in and you have to be consistent every single day, you gotta show up. Whatever is going on in your, like, household or whatever that day, like, you still gotta show up. Like, the people who are on your platform are relying on you. So it's definitely, like, the consistency thing. And then also one thing that I've discovered, which is totally true, is this whole idea of pivoting. And I'm sure, like, every entrepreneur goes through this, but go with what works, but be pair be prepared to pivot on a moment's notice if things aren't working. So much for me thus far has been throwing spaghetti at the wall and, like, how are people on the platform reacting? And, like, is this working? Is this not working? Can can you share, 1 or 2 of those those pivots that you've had so far? Or Yeah. Absolutely. So some things that have have worked is each month, we, like, launched, like, a theme. So the in September, we launched this idea of looking back to move forward and, like, we based the entire month around that. So, like, what can you look back on the last 8 months that we can move forward with? So one thing that we did was we launched introduction meetings. And I hate to say meetings, but they're, like, more like sessions because we don't want it to be all that serious. Right? It's like, hey. Let's introduce ourselves. What goals did you have? What did you do? How did you do, what did you do well? And then, in October so we continued the theme idea. In October, we are doing, like, this idea of, like, keep on climbing. So It's almost like an accountability group. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And by the way, I appreciate that you said you're you're not taking yourself too seriously because that, I think, is one of the criticisms about this community. Yes. You get a bunch of road cyclists together, and, yeah, it's it's a lot of talk about roads. Too. Right? Yeah. A lot of talk about road cycling. For those that are newer to the sport, it's intimidating. Yeah. So I I love that. That's part of the brand. Yeah. No. And that's so true. If you don't have accountability, it's like, what are you really doing it for? So the and the the accountability comes from the people around you. You don't need someone to be yelling at you. But if it's like, hey. Like, I had a really hard day. Can someone pump me up here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So we've been sticking with this theme because everywhere else not in Austin, it's getting colder and people are, like, getting less motivated. They're like, hey. It's, like, sweatpants season. So, like, the whole idea for October of, like, keep on climbing is, like, resist this urge. You're almost there. Like, we're almost to Thanksgiving. We're almost to the holidays. What what's that one last goal that you kinda wanna hit? Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. I I think this is a good segue into to one of the questions that we had was you're building a social platform. Critical mass is really important because for those accountability groups, there has to be someone on the other line on on the other end Yeah. Keeping you accountable. What are some of your thoughts and initiatives around building the the onboarding flywheel? One that I think is really could be sticky is you're you're having a guest, like, livestream every week or so. Can you tell us about that? Yeah. Absolutely. So open to open to name changes, but it's called the Front Pack Show. It's a weekly livestream with, experts, coaches, guests. We have 1 person on a week. I interview them. So the idea is if you're a member rather than I I love podcasts, by the way. But, the idea of a podcast is very much like a one way communication form. So you record it, and then you send it out to the world. The idea for, The Front Pack Show is if you're a member of Front Pack, come be a guest on the show. And, like, just like we have live guests today, come ask questions. Like, if you don't have access to a physical therapist but you're fighting an injury, like, come on and ask. Yeah. It's access. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, and then so we we do that show. We package it up. We put it on the platform for replays as well. What what's, what 1 or 2 guests you've had on the show? Yeah. Absolutely. So a guest that we just filmed with today was and I'm always, like, looking for really interesting people. So this girl, Liz, she's the 2 time back to back the world beer mile champ. Just like super, super fast paced. That's gnarly. Yeah. That's that's badass. Like Oh my god. Geez. So so why don't you explain to the listeners what that is? Yeah. Absolutely. So the beer mile, which she actually, I was just super curious about this. Like, I was curious about what beer do you drink, what temperature, like What was your strategy? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Right. And it's so funny. There's so much strategy behind it, but it's, like, totally crazy because she was a she she was a runner at Johns Hopkins. She's consistently run ever since she graduated. She actually lived in Austin for 4 years. Yeah. And she just, every year for the last 2 years, she's won this beer mile champ. So the beer mile is you you run you you chug a beer, and then you run a lap, so it's 400 meters, And so you do that 4 times. And the idea is, 1, you have to do it without yakking, and then, 2, you have to do it as fast as possible. Which is part of the strategy. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And it's, like, it's interesting because I was I I do my research, and I was watching her previous races. And the first lap, she's she was, like, in 4th or 5th. And then she just continually, like, just hunts down her opponents. Right. It was it was awesome. And each week, we're trying to have bigger and bigger guests. Obviously, that's gonna be a part of our strategy as well. So we can get to new audiences because we have, these great guests, people on the platform as well. They've already made their inputs of, like, hey, we want Jim Walmsley. They're like, Lance Armstrong. Yeah. I was like, I will I will try my hardest to do all these things. Yeah. So What does, like, success look like for you when you're thinking about front pack 5, 10 years from now? Like, and can you talk to us a little bit about what the last month has been like in terms of user counts and things like that? Are you happy with it? Are you wishing for more? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So in terms of 5 to 10 years from now, this was actually a conversation I had with one of my mentors as well was and he he said it perfectly. He said, you don't need to be Facebook. Facebook is too big, and you're not you're gonna totally lose, like, the community aspect. You know? You're gonna be sitting in front of congress testifying about whatever. So for me, the dream for me is to have 100, if not a few thousand members who are all being positive, motivating each other, storytelling. I'm such a storyteller. I think that's why I love, like, my career in communications and marketing. There's nothing better than a good story. You know? Like, when I read to my kids at night, that's the last thing we do is, like, read stories. And so the idea of having 100 or thousands of people just really engage with each other, and we live in a complex world. Right? You don't need to go, like, doomscrolling. Why don't you go, like, scrolling for some positive things? So, like, when you jump on when you jump on the app at night, feel good about yourself. Or if you did have a bad day, post about it and have people say, like, hey, man, like, wake up tomorrow morning and feel better. And, like, you know, it's funny enough. October 10th is mental health awareness day. So it's like yeah. Absolutely. So, I just think just having a positive place for everyone. And then for me, personally, I want to get big enough where we can keep it community based. I would love to build out an Austin chapter. There's so much going on in this city. So but it's so hard to find. You know? There's, like, a 1000000 run clubs, and there's a 1000000 things happening. But, like, where do you I don't know where to go to find all that. There's, like, not one central location. Like, if we had an Austin chapter, it was, like, on the platform, we have a calendar. And then every day, it's like it shows the different things that are happening. Like, just be able to go on there and say, hey. I'm gonna do this today. And then on Thursday, I'm gonna do hill climbers. And then on Saturday, I'm gonna do the breakfast club. So I would love to do city chapters. For me, personally, I would love to give back. Like, having people donate money or time to, like, buy bikes for the underprivileged around the holidays, that's, like, stuff that's really important to me. So, again, like, I want people to be feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves. Yeah. And, like, Austin is such a a music city. Right? There's there's tons of websites that, like, outline for you all the different shows, live events, all this kind of stuff. And so we're also very sporty athletic outdoor city, and I very much resonate with the fact that it's difficult to find, rides, runs, those kinds of things. There there as as we are talking about it, I don't think there is a single place where you can just find all the runs and and rides which abound. I mean, there are so many run clubs. So many. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So That's a really good point. I saw someone post not too long ago, but they made a spreadsheet of, like, all the different run clubs. And it was like, if you're into this, go to the go here. That's cool. Yeah. But it was like, that was the only time I've ever seen, like, on one sheet, the sheer number of run clubs that there are. So, yeah, that's, and then in terms of actual growth, like, what I've seen in the last month and what I've learned in the last month is, one, it is a positive place. So with over 300 posts and comments, not once have I seen anyone railing each other about their political affiliation or, you know, what their thoughts are about the Middle East. Like, it's it's been like, that's been super, like, gratifying. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. So, like, that's been really gratifying. In terms of the growth, right now, we're at a few hundred people, a few hundred people across the world. So we've seen people from New Zealand, South Africa, obviously, across the US, Canada, some professional athletes. Yeah. So right now Can can you talk maybe just about, like, what it what it takes to become, a a user of Front Pack Sports? Like, is there a fee? What what's the what's the story? Yeah. Absolutely. So right now, the idea is, to keep it like a freemium model right now. So right now, we just want people to join to to get, like, inundated with it and be a part of it. When you first sign up, you know, fill out your profile. Depending on your location, it will point you to, like, 5 to 7 different people who are like you, one that may be into cycling. Or if you've added your profession, it might it it will put you into a group of like minded professionals. Very cool. Yeah. So there right now, there's marketing. There's sales. There's consultants. There's therapists. So right now, it's a pretty decent size. But the thing for me is, at the end of the day, I can only do so much. It has to be up to the user to say, hey. I'm gonna jump into this thing. There might be 10 or 15 marketers in a group, but it's like, how are you connecting? Right? Yeah. A lot of the posts that I'm creating, it's trying to get people to interact. Are are you seeing metrics around those interactions with those cohorts, and are are folks reaching out to each other and trying to connect with each other? Yeah. So on the back end side, I can see it from a chat perspective. Like, I don't see what they're chatting about, but I can see that they are people are chatting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's been, like, very cool to see as well. Yeah. Yeah. And and I'm sorry. Are, are the connections regional? Are they national, international? Is geography part of the criteria for the cohort? No. So the the cohort for, like, your profession, it it right now, it's lumped in just by profession. I am gonna have an update here in a couple of weeks where I can make it even more granular Mhmm. Which will be really exciting. That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. So, and, again, it is ever evolving. It's we're constant pushing out new features and different ideas. There's and I can part of my job is to figure out, like, how does this play a role into the community? So I can't do, like, affiliates. I can do a bunch of different things where I'm like I also don't I want people to just get in and, like, hang out and talk. I don't wanna, like, make it so it's like, oh, I like I don't even know what the hell to do here. Yeah. Yeah. And as as far as that goes, what are your thoughts for monetizing? Are are you is that something you wanna do sooner rather than later? Are like, to your point you just made, are you just kinda get engagement for now? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would be lying to you if I said money is a factor. You know, but I wanna do it the right way. I wanna get people in. I'm not just gonna, like, bring in all these people and then just say, hey. Now you have to pay x amount of dollars. I will say that there's the freemium model, but there's also, there is a founder's membership Mhmm. Where the promise is if you join and you decide to pay the 9.99, at no point will in our history will we change that. We we're not gonna do what Strava's done or, you know, what a million other platforms have done. So Well, for 9.99 with with some of the, guests you have on the livestream, that's, like, a really good value. That's 4 expert Yeah. Speakers a month for $10 that you can you have personal access to. Yeah. Exactly. And and then, to finish up with your monetization question, there's also opportunities for, professional athletes if you wanted to create your own space. So I just use this example because he's because he's obviously the most famous cyclist in the world. But, you know, say if Lance Armstrong wanted to create, like, a front pack space, he could create a space and charge whatever he value he thinks he brings to the table. So it's like, oh, I really love Lance. Lance is promising in his space. He's gonna do biweekly calls with everybody, and he'll just talk about what he's up to. Yeah. Also, rides or whether he wants to make posts or put photos. Because the one thing that drives me a little bit crazy and being an entrepreneur, I've already had conversations with professionals, athlete, like, agents, is, hey. Your athlete loves to post on Instagram. They are just giving away content for free for likes. Maybe it's because they have sponsors that they need to appease, and maybe they get affiliate dollars out of that. But at the end of the day, they're giving away content for free. The other main platform right now is YouTube, but YouTube pays between 1 3¢ per view. So if a pro athlete spends 10, 15, 20 hours a week, puts out a video, and he gets 50,000 views, that's, like, $800. So it's, like, all that time and money, why not why not create a closer connection with the people who are really into you and give them the time of day. Have that personal relationship. So yeah. So that's another way that I'm looking at it as well. So Yeah. And I I think, you know, what we're talking about is is fan club or direct to consumer, app, you know, functionality. And a lot of platforms do that, you know, pay Patreon. But you don't hear about any that are specific for for athletes or even more specifically for endurance athletes. So branding yourself that way sounds like a great a great outlet. Yeah. Exactly. And you brought up Patreon, which is a great example. And it's like again, going back to the the athlete, it's, hey. 1, create a space here because these are your people. You know? Build awareness. Like, maybe someone doesn't know about you, but they will know about you because they're already in the network. And and they're more likely to shell out, you know, 15, $20 a month or whatever whatever you wanna charge. Yeah. Yeah. And that's up to the athlete. Like, they could charge whatever they want. Like Right. Some I don't care. Right. So yeah. Yeah. So I made a lot of exciting things. It's like the hamster wheel is always spinning, unfortunately, because, again, like, being, an entrepreneur and, like, a solo entrepreneur, it's, how how are you pulling resources together? How how Yeah. What does your team look like in as a solopreneur? You know? Yeah. I mean, the great thing about my network network as well is there's a lot of great automation tools actually in the the platform. So some of that stuff, like, when I want people to have, you know, a completely customized experience when they jump on, but it's like, I can't literally send a chat to the hundreds of people who are joining. So that's been helpful. But, again, like, it's otherwise, it's it's really all myself and talking to people. We're I think the thing with hill climbers and myself is we're not traditionalists. We're not we're not ingrained from, like, a publication or, you know, we're we're not affiliated with anyone. So I think the great thing about that is everyone that I do reach out to, they're super supportive in terms of, like, giving their time and being helpful. So anytime I have reached out to people, they're, like, yeah. Like, just find some time and, like, let's get on a call. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And that builds momentum and and confidence for you. Yeah. For sure. And and I just when I've reached out to people, more times than not and I mentioned this in our our little show notes, like, we're we're total outsiders. Like, this is this is brand new for for both of us. We have not been in this industry in any capacity besides running and riding bikes and and swimming. Yeah. And is there, anything as far as resources or, an ask, anything that you're looking for that listeners could help with, you know, what what's it? Scott@frontpacksports.com is your email. Right? If you if you work with brands or you know brands, obviously, we're a little bit different in terms of the way that we're looking at advertisements. We're really interested in working with brands that align with our core values and, like, promoting those. So, yeah, if if if this entire conversation sounds like something that you wanna be a part of, absolutely reach out to me. And I think you do have affiliate marketing set up. Right? So Yeah. So I do have affiliate marketing set up. Even if it's a success fee, that's something that you're you're supporting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool, man. Something you mentioned a couple of times was just how kind of the microcosm of endurance athletics is sort of like life. I I definitely resonate with that in terms of, like, you set the training plan and, just like you said, the business model and then you you you do what you're saying you're gonna do. But then when you get sick, when you get injured, you pivot, and you keep trying to grow. And so, I'm definitely optimistic that you'll continue on the right path here, as you keep growing the Yeah. Yeah. That's the idea. Right? And, I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head. It's no no plan ever is, like, a to z. You know? There's just What's that quote? It's like, everyone's got a plan until you get punched in the face. Yes. Mike Tyson. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, I get punched in the face daily. But it's like and that's the thing. It's like sticking having a good plan. Right? Like, you need to there's like, I said it before, but there's so much noise. You could easily, like, go off on the wrong track because you saw what's working for a different brand. But, you know, you created this thing to be your authentic self, just like hill climbers, you know. It's you're you wanna focus on, people who have built businesses around cycling. And it's like, you don't wanna go talk to different someone different, and, like, then all of a sudden your whole platform is not what it was. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, having a super strong plan, again, having mentors, having your North Star. Yeah. It's all those things. Resilience, persistence, and never giving up. Yeah. Definitely. And and maybe we'll get the audience involved here in a bit, but can you talk to us a little bit about the features? Like, if you're a solopreneur, you're not necessarily developer background. What does that development look like? What's the turnaround? How's that team supporting you? Yeah. Absolutely. So right now yeah. I guess when I say solopreneur, I actually have 2 people that I'm working with. So, a developer and a strategic guy. So from start to finish, the app, especially the tail end, because, like, you have to get Android and Apple approval, and depending on, like and I knew this from my old old professional background, but if Apple's super busy, it's it could take weeks to, like, get your your final app approved. And when you do submit it to Apple, it takes quite a bit of time because there usually is some feedback about it. So all in all, it probably took, 4 months to go from design to branding to to launching it. So That that seems like a pretty quick turnaround. That's impressive. Yeah. And again, I think for for me, it's when I talk to people, they're like, dude, you've done all this in, like, 5 months. Like, don't be so hard on yourself. I'm impressed. Yeah. So I think that's for me. Like, the key takeaways that I've gotten over, like, this last month is, one thing our one of our guests said on a livestream previously was win the day. Like, don't think too far into the future. Win that day, win the next day, and then over the course of a month, you won that month. So that's something I'm really bad at. It's like I'm thinking down the line. I'm thinking, how am I gonna I I do have to pay bills, and, like, my wife's super supportive of probably how long this is gonna last. It's stressful. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And then the last thing I've learned in the last month is it's lonely. I went from a world of working in corporate America where you had I worked at some of the biggest agencies where I had so many resources and I had people to below me. If I got it in if I didn't know something, people below me, like, could find, like, answers for me. And they're like You're delegating to yourself. Yeah. Right? Absolutely. So yeah. But, like I said, I didn't wanna get to 70 or 80 and say I never I never tried this. I think it's a great reason. Yeah. Scott, thank you. Yeah. No. Thank you. This was perfect, and thank you, audience, for, being here and volleying some really, really, on point questions at us. Franco, thanks for thanks for joining as well. Yeah. Been awesome, man. Thanks, Scott. Yeah. I know. Thank you both. I hope my passion came through. And, again, one last plug. If you are interested, go to front packsports.com. You can sign up right there. It will it will launch you into the portal, and your life will never be the same. If if you wanna do, like, a, you know, a plug, look directly at the camera and say the same thing. Seriously. Okay. I encourage everyone, if you wanna change your life in terms of endurance sports, go to frontpacksports.com, sign up, and your life will never be different or the same. Perfect. Yeah. Alright. And then take a swive a swig of this delicious sap. Yes. Yes. Cheers. Cheers. Alright. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, everybody. Yeah.