Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Haynes.
Hi Steven, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I retired from a 15-year career in strategy consulting to pursue a path towards health and wellness. This path led me to create Fjord, a cold therapy company focused on building and selling high-quality, affordable cold plunges for other high-performers. I dove deep into bio-hacking in my early 30s in an effort to stay young and happy. I’m a former triathlete and lover of all things water, so this career shift into the health and wellness industry felt more aligned to my values and passions.
My “why” for starting this business is all about community. I value relationships over everything else. Cold water immersion is great for your health, but so are quality friendships and meaningful community. For me personally, I wanted to build a brand and product that centered around community. That’s why we offer an XL 2-person cold plunge, to make it easier to host friends, have plunge parties, and do cold plunge challenges with friends. Fjord is building a culture that’s both healthy and fun!
My affinity for cold water immersion began on a trip to Norway in 2015, where a local convinced me to do my triathlon training swim in the frigid waters of Oslofjord. I became addicted to the cold shock response, and that kick-started my journey learning about the mental and physical benefits of cold water immersion. In January of 2023, I was looking at the market for cold plunges and was discouraged to see the price points start around the $5,000 range. That prompted me to get creative and DIY-build my own cold plunge using parts and components from different suppliers. My friends would come over and plunge with me, asking if I could build one for them too. Word spread that I was building cold plunges, and after a couple of months, I was getting “orders” for more of them. That’s when I decided to leave my consulting career to turn this passion into a full-time business.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s certainly been a fun and rewarding journey starting this business, but it has not been perfectly smooth sailing. As I’m sure any entrepreneur will tell you, starting a company always takes longer and costs more than you anticipate. For me, it took a lot of time and investment to develop the product at a high level of quality yet at a low enough price point to get customers’ attention in a very “saturated” cold plunge market.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Our mission was to make cold, clean water affordable so more people could experience the mental and physical benefits of cold water immersion. We care a lot about customer satisfaction and that meant we had to over-build the chiller power to out-perform others on the market in terms of cooling power/speed. I’m proud of the community we’ve built around the Fjord brand and it’s rewarding to see people fall in love with cold water immersion as they use our products.
We are an Austin, TX-based company with a truly authentic and beautiful tribe of users and ambassadors. We partner with two of the world’s top DODS (death-diving) athletes to help them build cold tolerance and mental toughness in advance of the DODS world championships held in the icy waters of Norway each year.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I’m someone who naturally enjoys comfort. That’s one reason I love deliberate cold exposure it serves as a healthy outlet for me to become uncomfortable and grow in my resilience to stress. Since I incorporated daily cold plunges into my life, I’ve noticed it takes a lot more to knock me off my composure. As a result, it’s helped me become a more confident and fearless person in all areas of my life.
Pricing:
- Fjord Cold Plunge starting at $2,990
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fjordcoldplunge.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/fjordcoldplunge
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554663475130
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fjord-cold-plunge
- Youtube: @fjordcoldplunge
- Other: TikTok: @fjordcoldplunge
