Mike’s Story, From Yeti Knockoff to Building New Brands
Episode description
What do you do when you’ve already won, and still can’t stop building?
Sean Frank and Matthew Bertulli sit down with Mike Beckham, (CEO of Simple Modern and Simple Ventures), to unpack what happens after you climb the mountain. Mike shares how Simple Modern grew from a bootstrapped “Yeti knockoff” to nearly $200M in annual revenue, paid off all its debt, and suddenly found itself generating more cash than it could reinvest — and what he decided to do about it.
The conversation covers Mike’s framework for capital allocation when the obvious moves run out, including why he launched electrolyte brand Trevi (and what the $2–3M learning curve actually bought him), how Simple Ventures is building a portfolio of lean, AI-powered businesses with single-threaded leaders, and why Mike believes now is the single best moment in history to be a builder.
From the counterintuitive case for being 13th in a massive market, to rewiring your brain around what AI makes possible, to why physical goods aren’t going anywhere — this one goes deep.
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