The Born And Raised Audio Experience

In this podcast episode, Trent and Matt interview Cody Rich, founder of Bridger Watch, about why he built a hunting-focused smartwatch and how it evolved from wanting usable offline maps and hunting features on a watch. Rich shares his background from Perrydale, Oregon, moving to Montana, early work in Marine Corps training using Hollywood-style special effects, then entrepreneurship through Powder River Cartridge and learning marketing/SEO before starting The Rich Outdoors podcast and building Backcountry Fuel Box. Seeking a larger legacy business, he pursued a Garmin-adjacent niche, raised money, and assembled teams including former Fossil talent and connections to Google leadership and a CTO with Garmin dog-collar experience, ultimately building custom hardware and a new operating system. He describes key features: offline topo maps with panning/zooming, onX waypoint/track/markup syncing, integrated ballistics via Sierra True Data, redshift mode, frequent over-the-air updates, and ongoing battery-life improvements, with purchasing available at bridgerwatch.com, GuideFitter, GovX, and via HSA through TrueMed.

Trent and Matt chat with Chad Alder, newly hired general manager of Born and Raised Outdoors and the first GM not named Trent, who is away at the Hoodoo bow shoot. Chad discusses joining a strong company community, his initial focus on learning the business through risk analysis and identifying strengths and weak points, and how he applied and first interviewed with CFO Ashley. Originally from Southern California, Chad moved to Utah for work and recently relocated to Oregon with his wife, a high school teacher, and their two daughters (ages 9 and 11). He describes family life, parenting lessons, and his oldest daughter's celiac disease prompting early self-sufficiency in cooking. Though not a hunter, Chad has outdoor product and e-commerce experience and shoots firearms and bows; Crohn's disease has limited backcountry hunting. He also shares a background in Hollywood Video, social work with at-risk youth, and behavioral work with autistic students, plus favorite films across genres.

In this Episode Nate and Trent talk about IP 28 and other Oregon Hunting Issues.

Trent and Tyler catch up after a busy spring of bear hunting, including a week in Idaho with Mountain Ops featuring hounds, where four bears were taken but the guest only saw one and didn't shoot; they discuss surprising appreciation for dog hunting, bear overpopulation near home, and how terrain and low bear density can make spot-and-stalk unappealing. The guest recounts a dangerous incident where hounds tried to cross a raging Salmon River fork, leading him to rescue a nearly drowning dog and recover others via an old miners' cable bridge. The conversation shifts to outdoor media: audience metrics favor constant action, YouTube has become crowded, and live hunting "camps" are growing, often funded by attendee fees with sponsors providing product. They argue in-person events may be "future-proof" amid AI, note AI's risks without critical thinking, and describe an AI-driven product scam involving a knockoff Anchor Point bow holder. They also discuss hiring, execution vs ideas, and scaling a founder-led hunting brand.

The hosts discuss feedback from a four-day elk-hunting class with 44 attendees and their podcast, which listeners said is as much about being a man as hunting. They reflect on teaching children work ethic, contrasting physically demanding jobs with current work, and emphasize not "ruining" work ethic by excluding kids from helping; a friend's advice is to let a child assist with projects even if it's inefficient. They talk about giving kids autonomy without overprotection, Wyatt leaving for a demanding summer deckhand job on an Alaska sport-fishing boat out of Seward, and the father's hope he's prepared him. The conversation covers treating kids' ideas with increasing respect, learning alongside them, maintaining love through conflict, and grounding parenting in biblical themes of love and measured, purposeful anger.