Episode Details

Most people assume leadership gets easier with experience.

Dave Hanney, CEO of Alpkit, would probably tell you the opposite.

The problems change. The context changes. The market changes. And every time you think you've found the playbook, something comes along and proves it doesn't exist.

Dave has spent more than two decades building businesses in the outdoor industry. He helped scale GO Outdoors from three stores to forty, walked away during what he describes as a purple patch in his career, and set out to find a path of his own. That journey eventually led him to Alpkit, where the highs have been incredible, and the lows have been just as real.

What stood out to me in this conversation wasn't the growth stories. It was how Dave thinks about uncertainty.

He talks openly about making hard decisions when there isn't an obvious answer, why leadership is a craft rather than a title, and why the failures that stay with him have very little to do with spreadsheets, strategy, or performance metrics.

They are the moments when he feels he let people down.

We also get into why he believes too many businesses become disconnected from the customers they serve, why customer insight should travel all the way back to the design table, and why some of the biggest opportunities in the outdoor industry come from simply paying attention to how people actually spend time outside.

There is a humility in Dave's approach that I found refreshing. The willingness to admit he didn't always know the answer. The recognition that every phase of leadership demands something different. And the belief that when things get difficult, you have to separate business failure from personal failure.

If you're leading a team, building a business, or trying to figure out your next move, there's a lot in this one.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

[00:00:] Introduction
[00:06:01] Scaling GO Outdoors from 3 stores to 40
[00:07:39] Why leadership is a craft, not a trait
[00:10:40] The accountability that comes with board-level leadership
[00:15:28] Why you need to throw your hat in the ring
[00:18:34] Risk-taking, family, and having a Plan B
[00:20:19] How Alpkit started with a phone call
[00:24:01] Seeing opportunities others overlooked
[00:27:50] Why observation beats assumptions
[00:31:01] Challenging the outdoor industry's seasonal model
[00:36:21] Building community beyond products
[00:40:49] Making hard decisions when the path isn't clear
[00:44:56] Why leadership failures are usually people failures
[00:47:19] What the outdoor industry is getting right and wrong
[00:52:01] Advice for founders and future leaders

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Leadership changes with context. What works in growth often fails in crisis.
• Functional expertise gets you promoted. Broader perspective is what helps you lead.
• Most career opportunities come from opening doors yourself.
• The hardest leadership decisions are rarely commercial. They are human.
• Business failure and personal failure are not the same thing.
• Every company has its own context. Copying someone else's playbook rarely works.
• The strongest brands stay close to their customers and the places they serve.
• Innovation starts with observation, not assumptions.
• When uncertainty disappears, difficult decisions often become easier.
• Caring for customers is still one of the most durable business strategies there is.

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