In the beginning…the tactical “WHY” of Western Outpost
So, this is the beginning, the inception, where it all started. I guess you could call this the genesis of Western Outpost.
Today is Monday, October 7, 2024. Exactly one week ago I filed with the state of Utah to form a new LLC. of the name “Western Outpost.” Unfortunately, I’m still waiting for the bureaucrats to approve my application. Apparently Utah recently upgraded to a new online system for business registration and now it takes even longer…because that makes sense.
But again, I digress. This is the beginning, genesis. Oddly enough, to even get to the beginning of Western Outpost we have to go back even further. So, let’s take a little dive in.
In April of 2022 a close friend of mine approached me and asked if I’d be crazy enough to start a SAAS company with him. This made total sense because neither of us knew anything about SAAS so of course, we thought this was a wonderful idea.
So, we did. We knew that it was going to be a long road, especially since we had no VC backing and weren’t planning on trying to obtain any investment backing from friends or families. We were going to bootstrap this little company.
So, we did. For the first year we didn’t grow much. We learned a lot from the few customers we did onboard, and we were ready for a bit more growth in 2024. This year has turned out to be another year of learning, rising, falling, and trying again. We finally have the software to where we want it to be able to scale.
I know what you’re asking yourself right now. What does any of this have to do with a random little company called Western Outpost? Stop being so dramatic. We’re going to get there, I promise.
Stride Retail strives to be the best ERP for money spent. A lot of ERP’s are insanely expensive. Check out NetSuite for example. It’s a pricepoint that most small companies could never afford. When we started Stride, we wanted to provide the little guy with a software that could compete with what the big guys had. So, we did, at least to the best of our abilities.
As we started gaining customers we noticed one thing. It’s hard to run a software company and not have some real-world, authentic, messy, and demonstrable data you can share with perspective clients. How do you create fake bank statements without taking inordinate amounts of time? How do you mess up and then fix your mistakes? How do you show your clients what it’s really like to run a business with your software?
The answer, if you follow me, lies in Western Outpost. I started Western Outpost because I wanted to learn even more about Stride Retail and gain real-world, authentic, messy experience. I also wanted to spend my evenings building something with my hands after spending most of the day in my office building things with a computer. Sometimes, the best therapy is listening to the hum of a sander or the rattle of an impact driver. It feels good to build something with your hands that you can physically touch.
The other purpose behind Western Outpost was to be a learning tool for others. I want to be able to share the lessons I learn as I implement Stride with a real business. What worked, what didn’t work, what to avoid, and what to lean into, these are the subjects I want to cover. Western Outpost may grow much larger than what it is right now, but my hope and goal is to keep it open as a learning center for those that are implementing Stride for themselves.
Hit me up. DM me, email me, send some smoke signals if you ever want to reach out and learn more about the business. It’s an open book. I think we’re all better off when we share what we know. I’m part of a business network and one of their core values is “Givers Gain”. This is my gift. I hope that someone finds this blog/vlog/random thoughts from Nate gives them the information they need or motivation they crave to get out and start their own thing.
You see, this is kind of a big deal for me. I’ve started a business before, but it was with a friend. (Actually that’s part of the reason I started Western Outpost, but we’ll get to that in a moment.) But this, this is my first real thing on my own. I don’t know where it will go from here. It could grow into something completely different, or it could stay what it is. A little side hustle to my other business. Who knows..time will tell.
Anyways, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. You deserve a pat on the back and a Mountain Dew (or your drink of choice.)
Until next time.