Starting Line
We’ve talked to more than a few founders on the podcast, but it’s rare to catch someone pre-launch, while they’re sweating the details and doing the heavy lifting to get their idea off the ground. Today’s conversation is exactly that - YJ Tung is creating Foresthill Basecamp (and making solid progress!) and we wanted to check in to see how it’s going - and what we can learn from his experience, while he’s in the thick of it.
Building in Public: A Basecamp From the Ground Up
YJ Tung is building Foresthill Basecamp — a performance lodge with ten modular cabins at mile 62 of the Western States Trail, featuring saunas, cold plunges, and everything an endurance athlete could want after a long day on the trail. The idea started after a three-hour delirious drive home from his first ultra, and it's now becoming real through a combination of validation, relationship-building, and no small amount of serendipity.
In this conversation, YJ walks through how he and his business partner validated the concept with just $15-20 a day in Meta ads before building anything, how a chance connection in the Second Nature Slack turned into real partnership support, and what it's been like to work his first-ever trade show booth at TrailCon. He also gets candid about losing his father, managing the imposter syndrome that comes with pursuing something this ambitious, and why he's convinced he's exactly the right person to bring this particular idea to life.
Second Nature Is Supported By Halo
Halo is a hospitality platform built by trail runners specifically for sports and event travel. They work with brands, event organizers and professional leagues to simplify one of the most operationally painful parts of any event: lodging. If you’re a brand thinking about experiential marketing, managing travel for your team or professional athletes, or a league handling lodging for your athletes and fans, Halo’s platform gives your brand a custom hotel booking platform and locks in better rates so you’re not managing hotel logistics from scratch. They’re already working with names like Western States, Aravaipa, Rabbit and New Balance.
And if you’re just heading to a race or event yourself this year, it’s worth checking out, too. Same platform with great rates, community, perks from band partners and less hassle. If any of this sounds like you, reach out to their team and tell them you heard about Halo on Second Nature.
Show Notes
Here To Help
The most common refrain we hear from friends working at brands is “we need to find content creators, but we are strapped on time”. This is the exact problem that Popfly has solved. If you’re working at a brand that needs this kind of help, you need to check this out (and tell them we sent you), it’ll be worth it. And…if you’re an athlete or creator, you should definitely get on this platform - there are brands, ready to support you and looking for your talent. We’re using it outside of the podcast and having a lot of success with it - and this is exactly why we wanted to partner with Popfly in the first place. Highly recommended!
BPC - Brand, Product, Content
BPC is our closing segment where we share Brands we’ve discovered, Products we’re using and Content that we love.
Trail Work (Book): This book is one of the best resources for trail building currently out there - and the author is one of the people currently helping create the trail system at Foresthill Basecamp.
🤘Without A Doubt - Braydon Bringhurst: Braydon Bringhurst is your favorite mountain biker’s favorite mountain biker. Style, flow, and especially in this video - tenacity. This is Braydon’s first official film with Patagonia, and it’s not what you would typically expect, which makes it even better.
Thank You
Thanks for joining us this week and supporting the podcast - stay tuned for next week’s episode where we dig into the playbook for Affiliate Marketing with someone who has been working in the space for a decade. We recorded it at Outdoor Retailer, and we’re extra excited to share this one, because we haven’t covered affiliate marketing in the past - and this conversation is loaded with insights. Stay tuned!
Validating with $15-20 a day in ads before building a single cabin is the move more founders need to copy. Too many people build the whole thing first and pray for demand. A lodge at mile 62 of Western States is a genius niche too - you're not competing for attention, you're the only option when someone's legs are done and they need a sauna. Distribution built into the terrain.
Hitting play now - so good!!