This episode of On Point features an interview with David Hunt, Founder and CEO at Crossrope, a fun new way to get fit anywhere with a weighted jump rope experience. In this episode, David talks about his life as an aviation pilot in the US Navy, overcoming serious life-changing injuries through passionate entrepreneurship, and the importance of taking calculated risks while also embracing uncertainty.
This episode of On Point features an interview with David Hunt, Founder and CEO at Crossrope, a fun new way to get fit anywhere with a weighted jump rope experience.
David is a 2004 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Entrepreneurial Masters graduate, former Naval Aviator, startup founder, and jump rope enthusiast. With just a library card and an entrepreneurial itch, David was able to overcome a severe injury to focus his energy into creating a company that provides fun, accessible, and impactful workouts with revolutionary jump rope technology.
In this episode of On Point, David talks about his life as an aviation pilot in the US Navy, overcoming serious life-changing injuries through passionate entrepreneurship, and the importance of taking calculated risks while also embracing uncertainty.
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“A lot of people have ideas and it's really hard to take the steps, even if you don't know what they are, to go for it and to try something else, especially within the reality of you can do. Like a lot of times I think entrepreneurs are glorified for the unsung heroes taking crazy risks. And in reality, most of the time, it should be a calculated risk. If you are listening to this right now, and you are thinking about taking some sort of a risk or doing something entrepreneurial, please calculate it, and have some backup plans, because it can be a big mistake.” - David Hunt
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(01:48) Segment: AAR
(04:52) Experience at the Naval academy
(10:32) David’s initial career
(14:06) Becoming a pilot
(16:42) Entrepreneurship within the Naval academy
(19:44) Experience on active duty
(26:51) Starting Crossrope
(33:03) Transitioning from active duty into Crossrope full-time
(39:48) Lessons for service members
(48:30) The future of Crossrope
(53:17) Final remarks
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West Point Association of Graduates
[00:00:00] Narrator: Hello and welcome to On Point. This episode features an interview with David Hunt, Founder and CEO at Crossrope, a fun, new way to get fit anywhere with a weighted jump rope experience. David is a 2004 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology entrepreneurial master's graduate.
He is a former Naval Aviator, startup founder and jump rope enthusiast. With just a library card and an entrepreneurial edge. David was able to overcome a severe injury to focus his energy into creating a company that provides fun, accessible, and impactful workouts with revolutionary jump rope technology.
In this episode of On Point, David talks about his life as an aviation pilot in the US Navy overcoming serious life changing injuries through passionate entrepreneurship and the importance of taking calculated risks while also embracing uncertainty. Now, please enjoy this interview between David Hunt and your host, Tim Hsia
[00:01:15] Tim Hsia: Welcome to On Point founded by Eddie Kang, West Point class of 2008. I'm Tim Hsia, West Point class of 2004. And today we're joined by David Hunt, 2004 grad of the United States Naval Academy. Dave, how are you?
[00:01:28] David Hunt: I'm doing well. How are you, Tim?
Tim Hsia: I'm doing fantastic. You are the first non West Point grad we are interviewing for this podcast. So this should be really fun. So due to that, I'm going to try to avoid making any jokes at the expense of Naval Academy. And if you could do the same about West Point, that would be awesome.
David Hunt: One team one fight, right?
[00:01:47] Tim Hsia: Yes, absolutely. Let's get into our first segment AR or for our non-military listeners after action review.
In this segment, we'd like to touch on specifically what other veterans can learn from you, your process and your journey. First and foremost. Could you please talk about your decision to attend a Naval academy? . Yes,
[00:02:04] David Hunt: absolutely. So it was 1999 and I was very interested in two things, track and field and going to a college that had strong engineering programs.
I was interested in girls too, but two things relevant to this conversation. So. In doing so I had had a couple people at my school that I had heard talk about the service academies and I grew up in upstate New York. And I think that in evaluating the service academies as an option, certainly there was all lure to joining the military, seeing the world, serving your country.
I think the prestige that comes. What you hear about the service academies and the opportunity for the caliber of individuals that you get to work with. And so when it came to decide where I might prioritize going, I had done a summer seminar trip down to the Naval academy. Met a bunch of interesting people did a recruiting trip for track and field.
It was a little warmer down there than it was in upstate New York. So the confluence of those factors were what ultimately influenced me to take a shot and to try something that I didn't necessarily know years earlier. Would've been something that I was interested in.
[00:03:26] Tim Hsia: And I wanna say in an email exchange we had earlier this week, you actually know one of our previous guests, Rodney Manso. How do you two know each other?
[00:03:35] David Hunt: It was in early 2000 at the New York state high school track and field championships. And we were both there competing in high jump. I think we were seated very similarly. I wanna say that they sequenced the high jumpers by order of the highest height that they had achieved that year.
And if I recall correctly, I had jumped six, six, and Rodney had jumped six, eight. So he was already the favorite. And I didn't realize that at the time, but I had a stress fracture in my spine. That had not been diagnosed. So I had the shooting pain. Didn't have a great meet, but I specifically remember how awesome Rodney was.
I mean, he was a great sportsman, a great competitor. We had a little bit of rapport and we that's where we found out that he was going to army. Uh, and I was going to Navy and we, uh, proceeded to compete against each other in eight track meets into an outdoor track and field from, uh, 2001 through 2004. So when I had seen that he was a previous guest, I reached out to him, sent him a, a LinkedIn invite and just really cool how these early meetings in these early competitions can manifest in new opportunities to reconnect down the.
[00:04:41] Tim Hsia: Amazing. What a journey for both of you, high jumpers, track and field athletes, veterans, and now both entrepreneurs. Can you talk about your experience at the Naval academy? Were you a good student, a bad
[00:04:55] David Hunt: student? I would say both. I went to a preparatory high school [00:05:00] and upstate New York McQuaid, Jesuit. I had a great experience there and I feel it prepared me very, very well academically, whereas others had struggled.
So my first year there. When the focus was academics, the focus was getting through the year. I did very well academically, but as soon as I hit my sophomore year, it was movies and video games and hanging out and trying to, you know, get off for the occasional party and focusing on track and field. And I majored in systems engineering.
And though I still to this day, appreciate engineering and technical type topics, the level of expectation in that track and that program and the level of effort I was willing to put into it were at two different levels. And so I did fine. I would say upon graduation, probably I was maybe barely in the top half of my class if I recall correctly, but good experience.
Even though
[00:05:52] Tim Hsia: you're a Naval academy alum. I find the west pointers, their background and experience quite similar and dissimilar. So Brad Geer who's a co-founder of farther, went to Catholic preparatory schools and said that that was an excellent preparation, whether it was discipline or academics. And it seems like that was the case for you.
Many other guests had somewhat of a reverse pack. They said they started off. Not so good students, but then turned out like much stronger and kicked into the high gear. The ne like the last three years, you seem to have taken the opposite approach.
[00:06:24] David Hunt: Yeah, it is. I think it's just one of those you end up finding that the things that you have an opportunity to Excel the most in are the ones that you get excited and inspired by.
And. What's interesting is during my time there, and this is no knock on the academics or anything of that nature during my time, I, I was not impassioned by the things that I was learning, especially given that I wasn't coming out with plans to be an engineer. It was more of this idea of like, here's this great major I should do this.
I feel like I'm good at math and science. And what I found is that I was [00:07:00] really passionate. Sports and track and field and jumping. I was actually had my very first entrepreneurial idea, you know, plebe year and my youngster year there ended up, you know, bringing it to one of those invention submission companies to see if it was a viable product.
And I ended up not moving forward with it, but I shared that experience because I've always been an advocate of super hard work and tenacity and perseverance qualified with the asterisk. If I'm really interested and inspired by doing it. And so certainly no regrets. I did fine academically, and I think it set me up for service selecting pilot afterwards and having a good career and experience.
But I think I had those signs early on. That there were other things that were more inspiring and energizing for me beyond the academia.
[00:07:49] Tim Hsia: I'll try to make this the last time I referenced previous guest. But what you said reminds me of actually McChrystal saying the best cadets are not necessarily the best officers and there's just like different [00:08:00] measurements of like evaluation.
And I go so far as to now say extended to where you are today, is that how you're measured as cadet is very different. Or mid shipment is very much different than how you're measured as a junior officer. And then in the civilian world, it's completely different measurement. And so there's so many different ways you're being graded across those three transitions as a mid shipment.
And then as a junior officer and then as a civilian entrepreneur, how do you think you have adapted your career across all three? Not
[00:08:28] David Hunt: only does make sense. I think it's a great reflective question that everyone should ask. I mean, even, even if they didn't go to a service academy where you think back through the formative.
Phases of your life and how the decisions and experiences that you had ended up priming you to ideally be successful in the next one. So I think for me, the mid shipment experience, if I can reflect back and place myself in that scenario was about expanding my worldview and coming up [00:09:00] with my own personal thesis, values and philosophies around.
Why I did things the way I did them and how to prioritize what I did. So in essence, I think the objective when I was there was to do well enough academically and to do well enough in preparation to ideally be able to select the career path that I wanted. Well, still making sure that I was carving out time for the things that really energized and inspired me, whether it was something as my track and field career, whether it was something, uh, as silly as getting into poker and blackjack, uh, you know, I, I would take on these various hobbies and these things that really resonated with me.
And then I would. Carve out a very intentional and focused period of time to actualize what I felt was my ultimate potential in that thing. That was my focus. So, you know, as amid shipment, that was the first thing is I can become [00:10:00] good at things if I'm interested in doing so. And I think one of the representative example is that I went to Navy as a high jumper.
And when I left, I was on the four by 100 meter. I didn't come as a sprinter, but I wanted to really work on my speed for other events. And so having experiences like that in those formative years, where I could do things that I might not have thought that I could do were very helpful in setting me up for the next phase, which was my career.
I ended up service selecting pilot, and that was not the plan. When I left to go to Navy. What I had told everyone was that I was gonna be a Navy seal because I. Navy seals are badass and. Quite frankly, I feel like I was kind of sort of a nerdy non badass in high school. So this was like my attempt to be something that I didn't feel like I was, and I'm still not a badass, but, uh, you know, you can professionally work on it.
So I went in with this idea that I wanted to be as. Seal. And then I [00:11:00] faced the brutal facts of reality. That number one, I love to work out, but I like to work out on my own terms and not with seal style PT, number two, I'm not a great swimmer. And I made an effort and just still was not a great swimmer.
And so you end up. Kind of being a little disoriented, like, Hey, you know, I, I came here and I had this idea of what I was gonna be and what I was gonna achieve. And I ended up deciding that I wanted to be a Naval flight officer because I liked the strategy and the tactics that went behind it. And I spoke to my guidance counselor, who was a nav flight officer.
And he said, he said, look, you know, I mean, they just approved the class before you for getting PRK. So, you know, cause I didn't have perfect. So that you could get the corrective surgery to become a pilot. And he said, I love don't get me wrong. I love my career as a Naval flight officer, but if I had had the opportunity to be a pilot, I just thought it was really interesting and really cool.
And, and there was times when I looked at that community and wished that I had had the opportunity to do that. So. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just saying, take that into consideration. And so I ended up [00:12:00] deciding to be a pilot and I'm making fun of myself, cuz I've always had motion sickness issues.
I knowingly selected pilot and went into flight school, knew knowing that it was gonna be a struggle. And it was a struggle. I had, you know, massive issues in the early phases, but what was interesting and this was kind of like the second phase and sort of the career element. What was interesting is that when you've committed to doing so.
Because of the personal pressure that you put on yourself because of the peer and the societal pressure and this feeling of like, you have to do that. And this is the expectation and you have the support. Of a community of friends that you're going through flight school with, that are doing it. They're getting it done.
They're figuring it out. It's so powerful to see the things that you are afraid you don't think you can do and be successful in them. And so I, I went through, they call it spin and puke, where you go through six weeks of spinning around and a chair to try to a adapt, uh, your capacity for motion sickness.
They had put me [00:13:00] on some temporary medicines to help me get over. And it was never easy, but I got through it and I got through it to the point where by the time I got to my operational squadron, the challenges associated with qualifying and growing and leading led to me actually leaving my junior officer squadron as the number one early promote, cuz I, I had worked so hard to do the best I could to get the instructor pilot qualifi.
All from someone that had no business being a pilot in the first place. And now is one of those sorts of experiences where I think as it lends to the next phase entrepreneurship, it's so helpful to be able to go through the trials and tribulations and to build up the grit, to build up the management of the stress and the anxiety, and to be able to buckle down and really push through when you're not sure if you're gonna be able to.
Right. But you gotta.
[00:13:51] Tim Hsia: When someone says they're aviator in the army, it's very easy. You're black Hawk, Apache, maybe Chinook. You were a pilot in the Navy. [00:14:00] There are several airframes, but
[00:14:01] David Hunt: what type of pilot were. So I flew P threes, which again, I always say P three, for those who may or may not be familiar, it was sort of a cold war era anti-submarine warfare platform that was modeled off of like the original Lockheed electro airframe.
So if you're looking for a visualization, it's about the size of a C one 30, basically it's uses the same engines. It's four engine prop, plane, and post cold war era. A lot of the mission sets transition from anti submarine to, uh, reconnaissance and carrier strike group support. So that was the bulk of my operational experience, but I also chose P three due in part to the motion sickness in the fact that again, I joined the Navy.
But when I'm on boats for a long period of time, I get motion sickness. So it was a strategic decision as well to fly one of the few aircraft that actually lands on a normal runway so that I could sleep in my bed in my house at night. And I feel. Convicted that that was a good decision to this day
[00:14:59] Tim Hsia: was [00:15:00] the decision for P three, maybe based off what happened in my memory around 2002, 2003.
And what happened in China, cuz that was a very famous slash infamous event. Did that somewhat draw you to that
[00:15:11] David Hunt: airframe? I think there was a number of factors, right? They have the Navy standard score. Right? So as you go through the first phase of flight school, you have to be in the top. Of all recent aviators that have gone through and similar to my Naval academy experience, I was barely in the top.
Had I wanted to choose jets. I qualified, but I probably would've not been selected. The helicopters was into the whole thing about being on a boat. A lot of 'em are on cruisers and frigates. And so P three was the remaining platform, which I feel isn't as glamorous as some of the other ones. But what I did genuinely appreciate was to your point, a lot of the mission sets and sort of.
There's obviously tactics and strategy in any community. But I, when I had done a midshipman cruise my junior year, my second class year, [00:16:00] and I actually had an opportunity to cruise with AP three squadron. So I saw a lot of what was going on. I learned a lot about. How the anti submarine warfare mission was going.
And it was very interesting to me to kind of think through what goes into tracking down a sub or doing the recon. So that was definitely one of these things where it wasn't like a begrudging decision. Like, oh, I don't wanna do that. I, I had a genuine level of excitement about choosing that airframe in that mission
[00:16:24] Tim Hsia: set.
Here's a P three in Moffitt field and every now and then they let you like go in there. And I took my kids there and it feels almost like a. Within that airframe, like in the back, like all that equipment and chairs and that whole setup. The question I have is in the class of 2004 at west point, there's a number of entrepreneurs.
And I'm curious if that's the same in the Naval academy. In
[00:16:47] David Hunt: my class, when I had decided to go to the crossroad route, there was actually a guy, my company, Eric Rivera, who was our company commander first class year. I don't know if you've met Eric, but he's E O D guy. [00:17:00] Just great human being super smart. He was a systems engineer with me and he was the only person that I knew that had made this transition to the entrepreneurial route.
He started with one called bullets to bandages. So for anybody that has a 50 caliber beer bottle opener, he sort of like, I'm not gonna say he invented it, but that was like, they sort of reinvented and were the first ones that learned how to market a product and it's tough. Right. Cuz then, you know, once it has become kind of a commodity, so there's all sorts of different brands that have.
50 caliber bottle openers, but he was a great inspiration and a resource for me to go to early on and get a lot of guidance. When, you know, I had no resources, no connections. He was so generous in some of the connections. In fact, it was a connection that he had made. Early on that helped us find the sourcing coordinator for our manufacturing needs that we're with to this day, that's been an amazing partner.
So Eric is certainly one to highlight, but there's been a good, I'd say even in my class, probably, you know, half dozen to a dozen others. [00:18:00] That I know, you know, have gone out and have been successful in, in entrepreneurial routes. It bears saying, and I shared this story with you, but the listeners might find it interesting.
The high school that I went to when I was on the chess team sophomore year in high school, I had an eighth grader come in that frustrated me every day, knocking over all the chess pieces. He's the only person in my whole life that I've almost gotten into a fight with. And I probably would've gotten some sort of an assault charge.
And fast forward, this eighth grader ended up going to the Naval academy and this eighth grader ended up going to Kellogg and he ended up, you know, working in service to school and he ended up making the introduction of me to you. And his name is JD Mora. And so I know he's doing a lot of stuff in this space as well.
Uh, he's a great connector. And I love that story because kind of similar to the rod Manzo story, you just never know how relationships can manifest. And I think it's a great example of always doing your best to empathize, treat people with dignity and respect and always be open minded to, [00:19:00] to reconnecting regardless of what the first impression is, right?
Because you never know what might manifest. And I think I'm ultimately indebted to him in many capacities for being on this discussion.
[00:19:09] Tim Hsia: It's so fascinating that the more I hear a Naval academy alone talk, the more I feel that our experiences are very similar before we get back to that transition from active duty, Crossrope, let's actually rewind back to the Naval academy.
Were there any mentors you talked about the mentor that talked about going to pilot, but any other mentors you had at the Naval academy. And then can you expand a bit more about your experience? I know I'm asking two questions, but can you then expand about your experience in the Navy,
[00:19:40] David Hunt: on the mentor side of it?
There's not one specific one that comes to mind. It's more that I felt very supported by. Individuals that I liked trusted and respected in the various facets of my experience. [00:20:00] So to expand on that a little bit, a vast majority of my, you know, in-company leadership, you know, when my youngsters, my second class, my squadron commanders, I had a very good experience with, and I, I think that they were really great leaders at a young age.
I look up to them and really aspired to learn. From their approaches, you know, to leadership and what it meant to be a good leader. And I know a lot of times people talk about, you can learn from bad leaders as well. Like, I don't wanna be like that, but I would say by and large at the company level, and then certainly at the senior enlisted level, all of my senior enlisted leadership within the company, the Naval academy was, was great.
Some of 'em, I, I, I were terrified of, I remember, you know, first class year, Master chief. And I, I feel Tara, his name will come to me, but master chief was just one of these individuals that like his demeanor through the challenges and the highs and lows was so formative in [00:21:00] me, understanding how to manage stress, you know, to think through and understand that when things aren't going well, what's constructive is finding communication path and a presence that really anchors people, you know?
So that would be a good example. On the track and field team. Steve Cooksey was the head coach. Coach Cantello was the S M a grad, uh, and then ended up coaching at Navy. He was a former javelin world record holder and to have, you know, access to the caliber of individual that were amazing competitors. I think for a lot of us, that's why, you know, at the service academy is even if you didn't do, uh, like a varsity sport, you still did intermurals because there's so much that can be learned from sport and athletic.
And so to have. These coaches who were amazing and impressive mentors. One of the things that I learned is I went in there, guns, a blazing, wanting to train and coach myself. I was so driven. I was so driven in what I wanted to do, that I was one of the people on the team that did two, a [00:22:00] days on my own. And you know, the lesson that I learned, the lesson that I learned is my coach told me to stop doing that.
He yelled at me and he said, stop doing that. He said, when you do that, you're conveying to us who are the experts in training? That we don't know the right coaching mechanisms and protocols and do you know what they were right. And I got injured. And so, you know, I, I learned these, these humbling lessons, thinking that I knew how to train myself and how to actualize my full potential.
And that sometimes you have to defer to the experienced authorities. You can't always know at all. You can't know the best. And so I think that there was just many, many individuals at all levels. helped me to think and reflect from this place is kind of like a little bit of the cocky high schooler. You know, you, I was the first in my high school class to get accepted to college.
Everybody's ready to celebrate when you get to a service academy. And you know, I'm like the captain, my track and field team, everybody thinks that they're so great. And I've always tried to be a humble person, but these things can get to your head. And then you go [00:23:00] there and you learn, right? Like, no matter how successful you are, no matter what you're doing, you have to have to have to keep that humility.
And it has to be authentic or you're just gonna get smacked right down. And the same it's it's happened in business too. Right? It always does. So it's good to learn those lessons. I'd like
[00:23:15] Tim Hsia: you to talk now about your time in the Navy and how that helped to start Crossrope and it almost ties into that over-training aspect.
You just
[00:23:24] David Hunt: brought up, like I'd mentioned, I felt like I had always had that entrepreneurial itch, like many people do, maybe some of you listening. It's one of those things that can't be denied. And I think that the big jump is like a lot of people have ideas and it's really hard to take the steps, even if you don't know what they are to, to go for it and to try something else, especially within the reality of what you can do.
Like a lot of times I think entrepreneurs are glorified for, you know, the unsung heroes taking crazy risks. And in reality, you know, most of the time it should be a calculated risk. If you are listening [00:24:00] to this right now, and you were thinking. Taking some sort of a risk or doing something entrepreneurial, please calculate it.
Uh, and have some backup plans, cuz it can be a big mistake. But for me it was something that couldn't be denied. And so in 2011 I was newly married. I was, I was on base getting a workout in before I was gonna do an evening simulator flight simulator event. And. Yes, you hit the nail on the head, Tim. I just, it's never good enough.
I always have to improve. I always have to do more. So I was doing a power lifting routine for bench press to try to get my new, personal record on, you know, some ungodly amount of weight that I really didn't need to be bench pressing. And I tore my pectoral muscle doing it. And what's worse about it is I tore it.
I actually hadn't taken the time to make sure that I was using the correct form. I tore it because I actually had bad form. I did this to myself. It was a little bit of a freak accident. I entered into a little bit of this despondent phase. Like I'm so stupid. How can I do this? [00:25:00] Why was I, you know, lifting this weight?
It, it was a weight that was within my capacity, but it was. To what end. Right. And then more frustration around not maybe getting the proper coaching to make sure that I was lifting with the proper form. So I was in this very despondent state where I couldn't fly. I had to get it surgically reattached. I was sitting around feeling aimless and purposeless.
And, you know, I think a little bit of the aha moment is I've always been like a skeptic by nature and you hear these broad generalities and these trite sayings, like turn lemons into lemonade and look for the silver lining and all that crap that we've all heard a million times. And like, I, I hate that stuff, but.
It felt like if I were going to challenge my perspective on it, this would be an appropriate time to do so. So I like evaluated my options. I could be despondent and I could sit here and mope and feel sorry for myself and, you know, torture my poor [00:26:00] wife of three months. Who's trying to take care of me and do the best and be negative or a, I mean, I had these entrepreneurial ideas and these burning ideas, and if there would ever be an opportunity.
In the context of my Naval career, I might take a shot at something. The one thing that I do have now is. I have a little bit more time than I would've had. I'll still, I'll be responsible in the fulfillment of my duties to the extent that I can perform them. And beyond that for this time that I have during the recovery, I'm gonna do that.
So from there over the course of about a year within, probably a week of when I had surgery, I had a notebook with some different ideas and I've always enjoyed jumping. I've always enjoyed fitness. And it was a personal problem that I was solving for. I had experienced these weighted ropes when I was stationed overseas at camp Leer in Jabuti jumping with 'em as hardcore as I possibly could.
And they kept breaking and it, like I said, I have an engineering background. It was a very poorly [00:27:00] engineering design. I, I don't wanna throw shade at whoever designed them, but they screwed a metal screw into PVC tubing. Like when you jump with the rope, what do you think is gonna happen? The screw is gonna unscrew from the literally the worst product design I have come across to this day.
The problem that I was solving for is I wanted a really good high performance jumping experience. with a range of rope weights. And so in order to do that, if it is robust, durable, high, performing expensive to manufacture handles, is there utility in, in value to others around being able to clip in and clip out different weights of ropes?
Like, Hey, it makes sense. Right? Like how could there not. An interchangeable jump rope. You can interchange and change your resistance and everything else. And that was the one idea where my wife who always gives constructive input. It's like all the other ones were kind of silly. It might not have worked out.
And I don't remember what they were, but that one she's like, that actually does make [00:28:00] sense. Like why do they not have a jump rope with different ways? And so I did Google searches and looked around. There was some jump ropes where you might have to replace the rope. Or there was like a key, you know, like a little key chain ring that you could swap out, but there was nothing where there was the consumer facing delivery of what this multi weight rope experience would look like.
And so that was the idea for a cross training jump rope. You know, you could cross train with your different fitness abilities and capacities by using different weights of ropes and. For the next year, it was going to the library, reading internet articles, trying to figure out how I could piece together in expensive prototypes.
That was a fun exercise. I ended up when you don't know what you're looking for and you don't have the budget to get something professionally made. It seems obvious in hindsight, but it's hard to find the things that you didn't know you needed. So I needed handles with, with some bearings on it that I could use in some capacity in doing Google searches.
And it ended up that none, Chuck. [00:29:00] Were the ideal product for creating handles, cuz I could get bolt cutters and deconstruct them. I could go to Lowe's and home Depot and I could buy some cable and, you know, piece together, these very rudimentary prototypes. And so throughout the course of the year, it kind of culminated in April, may of 2012, where I'd been able to get some contract help on getting a website put up.
I had these sort of like very crude. but working prototypes. And I learned what I could about digital marketing and sending out some emails and things of that nature. In essence, from that point, I launched a crude product that I had not expected to launch. I thought that I was gonna have a working prototype, but what was crazy about it is even though it was not professionally made, even though I was deconstructing these nun checks in my garage, the functionality and the experience that it gave to those early adopters was.
And they liked it. This was all, you know, while I was still in the Navy. And you know, this was in [00:30:00] 2012, you know, from 2012 to 2016 during Crossrope I was still active duty. And making sure that I could fulfill my commitments to my department heads, to my chain of command for what I needed to do to be in integrity with the expectations that were set upon me and, and frankly, to be like a good custodian of taxpayer money.
Am I doing what I need to do while still carving out every possible hour and minute that I could to make sure that Crossrope could give me as much runway to be successful for when I made the transition out in 20.
[00:30:33] Tim Hsia: How did you know that crossroad was where you're gonna spend your time? Because for entrepreneurs, it's hard to know when you've got real product market fit.
[00:30:44] David Hunt: In my experience, the evolution of it was not planned out from what I think it. Typical. Well, vetted entrepreneurial plan would be so, so, you know, I, I think that there are these very [00:31:00] important. If you have the knowledge, the network and the experience to go through and test your hypothesis and map out what the stages are gonna be along the way, it's a wonderful thing to do.
And it's a great resource. In my case, it was a little bit different because the litmus test was finding the validating milestones. In small chunks along the way that were just good enough to get to the next space. So what did that mean? It meant that when I launched and had the first month of sales in 2012, it was $3,000.
Right. So it was, it was not nearly enough to become viable, but it, it wasn't zero. And it wasn't $3,000 all from people that I knew it was mostly from people that I didn't know. So that was enough to say, okay, you know, I can start to pull some of my customers to see what they like about it. I can start to determine whether or not I want to invest in a couple other marketing channels, you know?
And so I, I think that the product [00:32:00] market fit piece of it really wasn't for a couple years, it was honestly, it was very touch and. For three and four years, the reason why I was able to have it be touch and go and not validate product market fit was because I was able to do enough in the moonlighting hours to keep it moving forward.
While I still had the stability of the full-time Navy job. And that's not practical for all, you know, opportunities and for all entrepreneurs, but that was something where. For those out there who are listening, if you are contemplating something, if there is a Moonlight path and there is an opportunity for success that isn't at hyper speed, it is a lesser talked about path that can work and that worked.
And I think paid dividends in my experience with crossroad.
[00:32:49] Tim Hsia: Fascinating. Can you talk us through the decision when you left active duty and where you were with crossroad
[00:32:56] David Hunt: at that? When I started [00:33:00] Crossrope I had two years left on my commitment. I got my wings at two years, and then it's, it's an eight year commitment, but I had one year left in my command at VP 30.
Um, so VP 30 is, you know, fleet replenishment squadron. So it's where you go as an instructor so that you can, you know, teach great experience great people. So many good friends that I still keep in touch with. Is that San. That is in Jacksonville, in Jacksonville, Florida. Like I mentioned, I had the injury while I was there and I was trying to evaluate, is there another, what should my next set of orders be?
I had one year left at VP 30 on my orders and I still owed another year. So I had to make a decision of what I was gonna do next. And I was trying to evaluate what options were available. That would allow me to continue to give Crossrope the best chance for success to continue what I had been [00:34:00] able to start at VP 30, but ideally also orders that weren't, you know, in, in quotes career killing orders, right.
There was this idea of like career killing orders, because you just don't know, and it's easy to get fearful, right? It's easy to get fearful of failure. And what if this doesn't work out and, you know, I had one kid and another kid on the way. You know, my wife and I were trying to make wise long term decisions for our family.
And so what had happened is I was trying to evaluate what the options might be is that some of the ones that felt like they would be accommodating of me continuing to be able to Moonlight consistently didn't have openings, didn't have capacity or were desirable, you know, to others there that had a more likely shot of getting the, that set of orders.
And so I did have to make this commit. While I was still at VP 30 to tell the detailer I'm gonna get out and run crossroad full time. And so that actually happened probably only [00:35:00] six months into starting the business where I had to make that decision still knowing that I had a little bit of runway with my commitment when I had shared that with the detailer, I ended up getting assigned as a shooter to the USS enterprise, but the USS enterprise was decommission.
So it was one of these roles where had I intended to continue on with my career. It would not be a good set of orders, but it was an important billet to be filled. So it was kind of a mutually good opportunity, you know, send somebody that's gonna be a competent performer to this role that needs to be filled, will still giving me the opportunity, cuz I wanted to be open and transparent with regard to the Navy, to the leadership about what my plans were and what my desires were.
I think it's so important. And that's another thing, right? Like you can. Be sneaky about something for so long and actually H how VP 30 ended up finding out about it is I got a placement on the front of Navy times. Uh, so my PR firm had pitched it. And you know, so now the cat was out of the bag of, of this whole jump rope thing that this crazy Lieutenant is [00:36:00] doing.
I share that because the decision was made early, but then when I got to USS enterprise, the chain of command was very supportive and accommodating. I did what I needed to do to help support the inactivation process. And because of that, my plan to get out at mid 2014, I ended up staying an extra two years in that billet because the business had not grown as well.
And as fast as what I expected. And because I felt like front in a moonlighting capacity, I was able to continue doing what I needed to do. And so I ended up getting out in 2016 to run crossroad full time.
[00:36:34] Tim Hsia: Given that path, it feels like in some ways you actually were able to de-risk certain aspects of the company, a lot of entrepreneurs, or even, I think the general audience might have this question, which is, did you ever have to do any funding?
And if so, in what shape or form did that
[00:36:51] David Hunt: look like? I haven't had to do any funding. and I think what I appreciate is I have a tremendous level of [00:37:00] respect for the context that's needed in each scenario to determine based on personal and professional needs, when funding is, or is not needed. So sometimes there's this discourse around like you should bootstrap or you shouldn't boot strap, or you should raise.
And a lot of times that perspective is given without the full context of all of the factors. Maybe that's why you even, you know, have context ventures. Right. I, I love the word context. And so in my case, had I departed after a year, it's very likely that I would've needed to go out to try to. You know, some funding to make it sustainable.
And at the same time, I also feel that interestingly enough, the business may not have been investible at that point in time. It's like this interesting paradox where like, there's just a lot of questions around the model and the product and the positioning and the brand and where it was, where, you know, I don't know if that would've been highest and best use of my time.[00:38:00]
To seek it out. You know, the funding can be very, very important. It may be very important and relevant for us at a future date. And it's something I've certainly made the effort to learn more about, because I think it's so critical for founders as they are evaluating the past that they wanna choose to at least be able to make calculated determinations and understand what the ramifications of those various choices.
And how timing affects the choices versus feeling like there is a single template and that's the only. The only way to go. And so that's been my experience and it's been a positive one having bootstrapped it, but that said, even with my team, as it's grown, I've looked for ways such that if there is future funding, there's certainly more than me that stands to benefit from those opportunities or from.
Prospective future partnerships or exit plans and things of that nature. I think
[00:38:54] Tim Hsia: it's fascinating because oftentimes a lot of entrepreneurs default into thinking they need [00:39:00] funding. And I think funding is actually what should be your last choice if possible fund through what you did was fund through your customers.
And it also gives you a lot more options now than. If you had say raise a lot of money. It's fascinating. I think that this journey is something that more entrepreneurs should be aware of. That it's a possibility, of course, like if you're trying to build a Rivian or Tesla, you can't really bootstrapped shooting, you know, rockets in the Mars, but fascinating.
The you've been working on crossroad for about a. I'm curious and I'm sure at each point, year one, year five, year 10, there are different lessons, but where you stand now, what are some lessons you have for potential entrepreneurs? Whether they're Naval academy, coast guard, air force, west point just service members in general.
[00:39:52] David Hunt: One of the first ones is that having a multifaceted personal [00:40:00] growth plan. is really, really important. So I think what I mean by that is there are certain individuals that have very formal business education. You know, they go, they, they get their MBA. They go do consulting for a while. There are other individuals that they studied business before.
Some individuals that kind of might learn, you know, skills specific hacking from online resources or they're taking online forces. Some that, you know, seek out certain sort of types of mentors, some that read. So there's so many different ways to learn. And in my experience, it's an open-mindedness. To ensuring that you are learning across a couple of those different facets and having intentionality around it because I have learned amazing and incredible things through books that MBAs don't know, I've learned amazing things from MBAs that I'm never gonna learn from a coach or a [00:41:00] mentor that isn't up on the formal academia.
That's very, very relevant to what's going on. And as you have. Sort of like personal learning and growth plan that incorporates these various facets, it's gonna change at different stages. Right? So I, I don't mean like, Hey, map out X hours a week and put in this and this and this just have a general awareness around it and make evaluations on how those facets can help you to learn the things that you can put into action now, because where I find a lot of the greatest.
Business and personal growth comes from is you learn something that's very relevant to what you're working on right now, or to a specific challenge that you have, you know, business or personal you put into action. Of course it doesn't work exactly how you think it was gonna work or how somebody said that it's gonna work.
Then you can go back to that resource, whether it's a person or a book or you know, or a worksheet, and you [00:42:00] going through the repetition and the iteration between the growth and learning resources and between the experience. It has a accelerating effect in terms of how fast you can learn and be effective.
So I'd say, I'd say that's the first one, have some sort of a plan it's gonna vary. Don't follow some set template, but be very open minded. And for me, it's been a combination of mentors. It's been a combination of books, podcasts, executive education, all sorts of different things. And I'm so appreciative of that because if you aren't learning and growing, you're really gonna struggle cuz it's essential within business
real
[00:42:33] Tim Hsia: quick.
Before you go to second lesson is Socrates Rosenfeld, a west 0.04, classmate him on the podcast. And he said, uh, essence of what you just shared, which is that. Entrepreneurs and veterans in general should embrace uncertainty. And you can't just like, you should have a plan, but you should be able to embrace that uncertainty.
And it's the, and embracing it, lets you see the beautiful things in life. And then I also summarize what you just shared with [00:43:00] having a growth mindset and the whole notion of learning and earning. It feels like as an entrepreneur you've been able to learn and then apply those learnings to.
[00:43:09] David Hunt: oh, yeah, for sure.
I think at the end of the day, you know, fulfillment and impact are so important and it's easy to wax poetic all day long to a new entrepreneur about again, like find fulfillment, you know, find passion with what you're good at. And so I respect that, like, there are. Nuts and bolts that you gotta learn and understand, but as, as you, you know, evolve and grow through your journey, you realize that a lot of sort of that broad, overarching, softer, more abstract input does inform the way that you decide to do things.
And it does oftentimes inform in a meaningful and tangible way, the results that you produce. And so to your point, like the learn and. We've heard that before. It's just very satisfying. When you say, Hey, I [00:44:00] have invested in this growth mentality. And the validation of that is that myself and my team and the others who have supported are creating something that is valued.
It is valued. And the, the evidence of that is cuz people are buying it and you manifest and re rewards for that. So, absolutely agree. The second business lesson is around. Mine and my team's internal approach to goal setting. So goal setting is one of these things that is emblazed in us. In fact, I remember, I think it was post Navy.
I did one of these, like, it was like you just graduated or it was like the week of graduation, kind of like these life lesson sessions. And so there was like a public speaking one and there was one on goal setting. And what resonated with me is I, I, I guess there was maybe you or others have heard this, but there was some sort of.
Harvard's study of a cohort of Harvard grads in 1975. And then they came back 25 years later [00:45:00] and they pulled that cohort on who had set goals and had plans to execute those goals, versus who had not proactively done that. And I'll probably butcher the numbers a little bit, but the essence of it was like of the 3% that had been consistent in setting and executing.
They had 97% of the wealth of the cohort, right? So like don't put too much stake in those numbers, but the gist of it was it parlayed this very strong impression that like, oh my gosh, I have got a goal set from here for the rest of my life. If I wanna be successful. And. What I found is that goal setting is very challenging.
Like we've sort of been conditioned to like set a goal and then do all the actions that you need to achieve it. And anybody that's done enough goal setting know that it just doesn't always work out that way. And it doesn't mean that you didn't goal set the right way or that you're not taking the right actions.
It just means that it can be useful to have some other frameworks that serve you. So one of 'em, you know, James cleared from atomic habit. [00:46:00] If anybody's read that book, he shares a lot about the idea that it's useful to have a target, but it's more important on how you think through the steps, activities, behaviors, and habits that you believe will help you to achieve that target.
So you can say, Hey, I wanna lose 10 pounds, but we all know just saying it isn't necessarily gonna be successful. But if you say, Hey, I view myself as an athlete and as an. I am going to partake in playing tennis three times a week. And if I wanna be good at tennis, I'm gonna need to work on my strength and my conditioning.
And then all of a sudden, after three months of tennis, you've lost 10 pounds because you have been committed to the behaviors that serve your identity. So as we think through that in goal setting, what we've done organizationally is we've said, Hey, here's a goal that we're shooting a revenue number, a traffic number, a metric.
here are all the actions that we believe, and we hypothesize are going to deliver the goal. But then we're gonna [00:47:00] say success is the execution of those actions within our control, and then landing in that goal plus or minus X amount. Right? And then if we exceed that, we now have a data point to help us to better scope out what reasonable targets are.
If we're below that, what is the number? That we're below where we can then have an after action discussion, which we have anyway to say, did we miss on the execution? Did we miss on the premise or can we come up with a very cogent case of why. The reason why we didn't hit it was because the factors were just beyond our control.
And so main takeaway there, goal setting. It's not that easy. It takes a lot of pressure. And if for you and your team, it's not just about hitting the number, hitting the number, hitting the number, and there's more context to ranges and the habits and the actions that you think are gonna deliver that it can create a really healthy and bot in environment around what it means to try to set constructive and valuable [00:48:00] goals personally and profess.
I hit on too. I feel like I got, I feel like I got my four in, in those two minutes at time I could go on, but I think those are two good ones and I'll defer back to Ethan. I wanna
[00:48:09] Tim Hsia: be thoughtful of our time and I want to get to, and I feel like I'm a vessel for the audience. So the audience would want to ask this, where is crossroad today and where do you think crossroad will be now that you've done the last 10 years?
Where might it be? The next 10?
[00:48:24] David Hunt: Well today, if I could define Crossrope, I'd say we deliver the best jump rope fitness experience in the world, and we define jump rope fitness experience. From when you take our products out of the box. When you download our app, you're ready to jump. It feels great. It's high quality, and it inspires you to feel that this could be the activity.
That serves you in whatever your goals are, whether they're better health and wellness, whether it's losing weight, whether it's becoming more athletic or whether or not it's just doing some sort of movement that feels [00:49:00] like it's not mundane and repetitive team wise. We're about 30. We've actually contracted a little bit from 2020.
So always good from that, you know, humility discussion that I mentioned to realize that there are factors. Beyond your control that can spur growth and contraction. And for us, with the advent of interest in home fitness, 2020 was a peak year for us. But we still, if you look at our growth over the course of the past 10 years, we're still, you know, when you dampen it out, we're still on a positive growth trajectory working on new products and better experiences than ever in 10 years from now.
If I can, you know, I think articulate what a win would be for us. At a minimum, we'd love to add a million new jumpers a year. We'd like to have the jump rope, fitness experience talkable and transformative enough so that it is category expanding. Uh, so a lot of times you'll hear about people talk about what is the total market [00:50:00] opportunity, the total addressable market.
We wanna have a share of that. And we feel like as a leader in the position, we have a great chair of the existing jump rope market. That's not the exciting opportunity anymore. The exciting opportunity. A share of the portable fitness market and the home fitness market and the accessory market where.
We're viewed as, you know, the preeminent quality products and experience from top to bottom that people would jump with. And so, you know, we're, we're committed to that over the next 10 years in growing and building the team who knows how many, I mean, you know, maybe we have a hundred or 200 employees, maybe we've found a strategic partner that can help serve to actualize the brand and get us to, you know, new channels and influencers.
Others that might be interested in what we're doing, but you know, the big hair audacious goal is really around this idea of having crossroad become a household name and jump rope fitness.
[00:50:56] Tim Hsia: I remember in elementary school, maybe it was my era [00:51:00] only, but we're the same age jump rope was a big thing. Like suddenly like every elementary school, they they'd introduced that during physical education.
And I still have my kids jump rope on cross ropes and it's a fantastic product. And I think that it's really impressive with what you've built a lot of entrepreneurs. And I would say I'll use the word layman. Think. Headcount is actually what matters, but I don't think it's headcount. I think it's about to your point, your impact and then profitability.
And so it's amazing to hear your journey. Would you say that a lot of Naval academy alums support Crossrope and how well are you known in that community? I would say probably there's not too many west pointers familiar with the.
[00:51:44] David Hunt: It's tough to peg a number. You know, I've kept in touch with a good number of my classmates and I've taken opportunities, especially I'm in the Raleigh Durham area.
So they have a service academy for all service academies meet up group. And so there's been some good connections there. I'm not sure if there's a [00:52:00] way to quantify it, but I will say I appreciated that many of my classmates that have gotten into the entrepreneurial space. Have been supremely helpful and supportive.
I've always looked to reciprocate as well. And you know, a lot of times they, they talk about the service academies. It's kind of like the, you know, the, the fraternity afterwards, where it's very easy to have the past shared, shared experiences that allow you to jump right in and connect and just try to be good, decent human beings, try to make a positive impact in the world.
Right. You know? This is
[00:52:37] Tim Hsia: not a sponsored read or a Midroll or a post roll, but I will personally vouch for crossroad. It's a great set of equipment. The mats are great. The ropes are great, Dave, this was awesome. Having you on the podcast. I'm almost afraid that we should do more Naval academy folks given this podcast and would definitely ask that you come back one of these days and see where cross [00:53:00] and you are.
I'm sure you've still got big BHAGs big goals. Any last remarks before we close this session over?
[00:53:08] David Hunt: Well, first of all, thanks again for having me on. I always enjoy talking about this and I will say that if the feedback is terrible, I'm happy to have helped you determine that you don't want any more Naval academy people on the show.
If the feedback is decent, then I'm honored to have been the first that you, you know, thought to invite on, especially given. The crazy impressive list of individuals that you've had. So beyond that, I do mean it earnestly. If there's anybody that's listening that is interested in reaching out, LinkedIn is super easy and a great place.
Or Dave crossrope.com. I've found that the entrepreneurial community is, has a very pay it forward mindset, the surface academy, entrepreneurial community, like, you know, supercharges that force multiplier. And Tim, when we were out in San Fran, you know, had a couple discussions with you and others that just said, look, we feel that [00:54:00] veterans in general, you know, veterans and, and certainly service academy.
Entrepreneurs are underrepresented and we have a lot of amazing experiences that we can share and things that we've learned. And so I think this podcast is a real service for helping to inspire and connect in any way that I can help and be a part of that. I am, you know, genuinely more than happy to
[00:54:23] Tim Hsia: Dave.
I've learned so much from you previous to this podcast on this podcast. Can't thank you enough. We're definitely gonna have more Naval academy alums. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.
[00:54:33] David Hunt: Thanks you too. This has been a production of the WPA, a OG broadcast network. Please take a moment to rate and review the show and join us each week for a new episode.
Thank you for listening.