Kahuna Creations Business Description
Kahuna Creations is a maker of outdoor recreation products, specializing in surfboards, snowboards and longboards and some items of their own design, including the Kahuna Big Stick for use with longboards. The company was dreamed up by owner Steve McBride as a way to enjoy what he does for a living. “I always wanted to run a business that I could really sink my teeth into,” McBride said. “I used to be the Marketing VP for a huge software storage and hardware company and just got to the point where I didn’t really get excited about the stuff I was marketing anymore.” Kahuna Creations adds a unique style to the boards with their own creative Hawaiian designs into every board and Big Stick they create. Kahuna Creations are the inventors of the Kahuna Big Stick which is a solic wood barrel with wheels that acts like a stand up paddle for longboarders to use as they push across the pavement.
Industry and Market
Kahuna Creations offers boards for water, pavement and snow to boarders of all types across the United States and beyond. The company has a broad audience that primarily targets boarders of all skill levels who are college-age to 50 years old. However, the company also targets anyone and everyone who “wants to stay young.” Kahuna Creations also sells to retail stores across the United States. “Ninety-nine (99) percent of our business is in the United States and ninety (90) percent of our business is through retailers and surf shops,” McBride said. “Hardcore shops are not really our target—they cater to teenagers.”
Target broad markets: retail stores, surf shops and college-aged to 50-year olds.
Business Challenge/Objective
For several years prior to meeting with FundingUniverse, McBride and his wife self-funded the company and also sought assistance through development loans offered by the City of Ogden.
But rapid growth in recent years, while an excellent problem to have, forced McBride to seek other funding.
“We got to the point where we were growing faster than I could personally finance so we were looking down the angel route,” McBride said. “So it was good timing to do the speed pitch.”
FundingUniverse Strategy
McBride heard about Funding Universe and speed pitching through a friend at the City of Ogden. After being coached by the Funding Universe team, Kahuna Creations participated in a speed pitching event in September 2007 at the Davis Tech Center.
Results
According to McBride, Kahuna Creations did find an investor through FundingUniverse and he also received excellent coaching.
“When it comes to the business plan, we have it pretty tight,” McBride said. “But they helped us prioritize what the big selling points of the company are, and in tightening up what we were going to cover in the first 4 minutes.”
Kahuna Creations also had the chance to meet with several different investors at the speedpitching event. “The speed pitching event gave us a good opportunity to talk to qualified investors,” McBride said. “It was really good because we found an investor—that worked out for us.”
Kahuna Creations Update
When McBride first met with FundingUniverse the company was already in a fairly mature stage. Kahuna Creations had been in business for several years but suddenly experience a stage of rapid growth that McBride and his wife could not personally finance.
“We self-funded the company for a few years,” McBride said. “But I had to prove to myself that there was a real market for the product before I approached investors.”
The company, located in Utah is maintaining a steady growth pattern and McBride continues to be optimistic about the future of Kahuna Creations.
“We’re at the point now that we’ve actually proved that we can grow,” McBride said. “We’re in the middle of the growth stage, but we’re just stepping on the pedal.”