Today we’d like to introduce you to Rhett Jones.
Hi Rhett, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
January 2023: Accidentally met a billionaire. He motivated me to think really big and treat pursuing raising millions of dollars and following my dreams and building a bike park as something I could genuinely do within weeks at age 17 – a mission I previously didn’t anticipate even attempting until age 25 or 30. I thought he was crazy at first, but then learned that doing this super ambitious thing as a teen was actually possible.
February: Made a pitch deck and cold-outreached to 500+ people.
March: Got some demand but they said they needed to see land, first. So, I tried to get land.
April: I grinded to get the contacts of every viable Texas ranch, and contacted them (including long hand-written envelopes). Every single person said no! I was thinking about giving up. But a few people motivated me to pursue on.
May: After a series of fortunate events, I found a real estate investment group to invest $2.8m into land. Their reason: It was risk-free (good property), required no beyond-land money, but to be honest, they didn’t believe in the idea. They just invested because they were rich and liked me as a person. Person > idea! Crazy lucky.
June: Then secured the remaining $350k (in hindsight, I totally should’ve restructured this deal).
July: Locked in the investment! Started construction, but it did not go well.
August: Construction got shut down. But, then, I hired 10 people to come Sep 1. The property officially closed Aug 31!
September: Built with a real machine-based crew. Problem: I sucked at management. The process went horribly. The trails were designed incorrectly. Not their fault – my fault – I was a bad manager.
October: Got my act together and finished the build out decently, but it wasn’t amazing.
November: We opened! Very fun.
December 2023 – March 2024: Worked full time. But: I realized that this park was never ever going to make the money it should be making to be sustainable. Very unfortunate.
April-May: Got new people in place to run the whole place for me. I stepped away. Even if I stayed and worked hard, I could never get the profit up to a justifiable level. So, I let it sit at breakeven with other people running it (this is still the case a year later). I then started working on other businesses and started working on the land sale (finding a new land investor so I could get all investors a proper return).
May-Aug: Fiddled with many business ideas. None worked. (Condo development and a gigantic bike park in Washington.) No progress on the land sale.
Sep: Started working on Cased, my current business. Thought it would take 2 months to develop products. Nope. Took 9 months! Still no progress on the land sale even though I tried more routes.
Oct-April: Developed Cased. Took so long. Tried developing a ski glove company but it didn’t take off (still has potential). Went through 2 cofounders, but finally found a guy in April. Did some wild negotiations on the land sale and tried a bunch of different routes – I was fortunate to find a way to split it up where I can ensure all investors get a profit (based on some kind land investors)! Got a new realtor. Now, it’s just a matter of time before someone buys.
May: Properly launched Cased.
June (Today): Finally started getting sales when we launched paid ads in late May. Averaging $600/day. But, this is nothing. Goal is to get this to $3k/day by the end of June and do $100k in July. We shall see!
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Cased?
Cased is a padded apparel e-comm brand (knee pads, padded pants, durable jerseys, etc.) that’s currently just for mountain bikers but with hopes to expand to more industries. I’m the founder. My later-joining cofounder lives in LA. We offer the industry’s most minimalistic, sleek, and comfortable pads – other pads are too bulky/hot/irritating. We also offer the first ever fully custom fit gear. It’s high-end stuff that uses the most protective materials.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
If you actually set your mind to cold-texting and cold-calling (not cold-emailing) 500 people with a genuinely professional pitch deck – I’m not exaggerating – ANYONE with almost any company can raise $1m. People think raising $1m is a shot in the dark or has 50% odds or requires previous connections or something. No. If your business model is decent, and if your pitch deck is strong enough, you have a 110% chance of raising $1m if you cold-outreach to 500+ people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cased.us
- Instagram: rhettrides
- Twitter: rhettjoneslore
- Youtube: rhettjoneslore
