During the pandemic, founder Glen Collins incorporated different aspects of his life – a background in branding and design, outdoor activities and spending time with his twin boys, one of which is on the autism spectrum – into a new company.
With a mission of giving back and giving a fresh face to classic backyard games, outdoor lifestyle CPG startup Autside unveiled its concept toward the beginning of the year with the launch of a crowdfunding campaign to help get the company off the ground. With the campaign's continued success, Autside is eyeing a full launch, bringing its products into customer's hands near the end of summer or early fall.
"I like the noncompetitive nature of yard games, and how they're just tethered to having fun… and being with some friends and family, and the sort of passive gamesmanship about it," Collins, who also serves as president of Autside, told NTX Inno. "It's just fun and something to do. It's something I grew up with my entire life, but as a branding professional. … I've always felt like a lot of these games were a little underwhelming."
Collins has a lengthy background in helping design and market new products, serving as a client director and partner at local studio Switch Creative. So when he met with a few friends who worked in the same building over beer and tacos, he became excited about designing a block tower, similar to a giant Jenga they showed him. A few days later, with the idea still in his head, Collins noticed the excitement in his twins as they played in the backyard. And after that, he said he had already put together an 18- to 20-page deck for what would become Autside.
"I just could not shake this idea," Collins said.
At its core, Autside is a maker of revamped outdoor games, planning to launch with products like a pickleball setup, bags and boards (otherwise known as cornhole) and a block tower game. The company also is planning a line of apparel, including t-shirts, hats and wallets. Beyond the joys of spending time with family, as a father of a child on the autism spectrum, Collins saw the potential of Austide's products to be used in physical therapy, which can help kids on the range socialize and gain self-confidence.
He said he thinks the company's unique design puts into its products and will attract initial customers to Autside, but its social impact side will help retain them and create a community.
"It's going to be product forward, especially at launch, it's going to be, but it's just going to be nested in this incredible brand system and a really good story, that's why we feel really optimistic," Collins said.
After launching, Autside plans to donate five percent of each purchase to nonprofits and foundations working with children on the autism spectrum until investors are paid back. Once that happens, the company intends to donate 10 percent of each purchase, focusing initially on direct-to-consumer sales.
"To be completely honest, [giving back] is my daily jam. I get up, and I'm a parent, my twin boys are eleven, and I have one that's on the spectrum, and how I go about preparing him for the day and getting him involved in how I parent and communicate model for him? It takes a lot of love and a lot of work," Collins said. I want this business to be unique and be amazingly successful and profitable, but I'm not motivated by money only. I want my kids to be a part of these nonprofit partners that we work with."
To help form an initial community around Autside and get a feel of the market ahead of launch, the company took on its first outside funding via a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The company was initially looking to raise $30,000. Now, with 21 days still left in the campaign, Autside has surpassed its initial goal by more than $10,000, with investments from 125 backers. That funding will help inform the company's initial product offering when it launches as the weather cools ahead of the holiday season. Collins also said he hopes that issues the company has seen in the global supply chain needed to manufacture its products will have been resolved.
As it looks to grow, Collins said for Year One, the plan is to roll out a new product every other quarter, eventually boosting that to one or two products per quarter by Year Three.
"I want Autside to be a representative ambassador or advocate for all of those groups and to be able to support them all but to also bring joy to families and individuals through products. And just to come alongside and bring an overall sense of awareness to the community and the support that they need," Collins said. "It's something that through products and through your affinity towards this brand that you just have this connected love for supporting the cause, whether it's conscious or unconscious."
