‘I’ll Tax Your Seat’

This week, in Episode 246, we meet Ben Knepler, who, along with his True Places co-founder Nelson Warley, came up with an idea for an outdoor chair that they believe could be a game-changer. They liked the idea so much that they quit their corporate jobs, they raised money, they borrowed money—putting their own homes at risk—they fought through the pandemic, they found a manufacturer in China, they launched on Kickstarter, they found another manufacturer in Cambodia, and then they ran smack into the brick wall of President Trump’s second-term tariffs. Or, as George Harrison almost put it, “If you try to sit, I’ll tax your … sturdy, portable, folding chair that could create a whole new category of high-end outdoor products except you’ll probably have to try to sell them in some other country … ‘cause I’m the tariff man.”