We all had our favourite things growing up. To some, that was a sport. To others, a collection, a treasured artifact, a gift, or a toy. Maybe it was a hobby – or perhaps even a place. 

Our favourite things become a part of who we are. They can change or grow with us, and we can enjoy them in new ways. And if we’re fortunate, we can give back to the community that has given us so much.

Such is the case for Adam Wrublowsky and Dane Homenick of The Den. These longtime friends have combined their love of skateboarding with a meaningful way to give back to the skate community. Dane has many years of experience in the skateboard industry and has built successful apps for over 10 years. With over 18,000,000 downloads, his apps have registered remarkable success, and he’s learned a great deal about building experiences that create a loyal audience. Adam has 12 years of experience in business and product development with Apple and brings with him considerable knowledge and experience helping to launch incredible products in a competitive industry with high user expectations. They want to build things that people love, and they’re ready to do it.

Read on to learn more about The Den and the Netflix of Skateboarding!  

The Idea 

Adam and Dane are the founders of The Den, a tech startup in the Ascent stage of the North Forge Founders Program. They share a love of skateboarding (skating), technology, and entertainment and are creating an entirely new way for everyone in niche communities like skateboarding to engage with and support each other.  

“The idea for me occurred when I was searching for a skateboard video that I grew up watching,” said Dane. “These skate videos are important. These videos shaped who we are and influenced the clothes we wore, the music we listened to, the way we spoke – everything.” 

“One day a few years ago, I was looking for a specific video I had spent a long time watching, and I couldn’t find it anywhere online. I thought it was pretty sad that a video with such a big impact on my youth just couldn’t be found.” “The idea was for a place where all these videos could be housed, like an archive of the classics, and at the same time a place to release the new ones.”

Like all great partnerships and shared experiences, Adam’s story was similar, but he had a different perspective and was able to build on the initial idea. “I just noticed how these videos in our industry are our form of marketing,” said Adam. “A big brand like Nike will produce a video, and the goal of that video is to show off their clothing, showcase their shoes, and influence viewers. But to me, it was disjointed because there was nothing directly connecting those videos to product purchases.” “And so I thought, ‘why can’t I buy what I see in these videos? Adam continued, “I wanted to find a way to connect the powerful marketing material with the ability to buy the goods we were being shown.”  

When asked about their project goals, Adam was happy to share their initial thoughts: “The goal, at the very beginning, was to create an archive of all skateboard history. Like Dane mentioned, these videos have been around for 30 or 40 years, and there isn’t a central place where they’re all archived.” “We began to understand that the revenue model of skateboarding is a bit broken. We knew that these videos fueled the economy of skateboarding, but the skaters and filmmakers don’t get directly paid for the sales. The brands don’t get the support they deserve either.” Adam continued, “that’s where the e-commerce idea came in – that became the next step.” “The bigger vision was to create an economy that sustained itself and wasn’t reliant on big corporations like Google (YouTube) who don’t understand the culture well, or put money back into the community.” “We’re building something to support the whole community and benefit everyone. A portion of the revenue is already going back to community organizations we believe in.”

How Does it Work?

When asked how to describe their app and business best, Dane had a clear picture to share: “The best way to visualize what we’re building is to say that it’s been called the Netflix for skate videos.” “At its core, it’s a streaming service for all skateboard videos, old and new, available on all the popular devices, including smart TVs, and from there, we’re building out a way for viewers to connect with the skaters and brands they love – and from there, we’re building out a way for the viewers to connect with the skaters and the brands they love.” “This is the economy piece. This is connection. And this is a way to strengthen the culture.” Dane explained a bit further, “To enable all of this, we’ll have a lot of great functionality. We’ll allow the viewers to buy from, connect with, and talk directly with the brands and skaters.” “We’ll include tailored push notifications based on how the user is watching content. We’ll also give brands the ability to create special offers based on how long someone might have watched one of their videos.” “The e-commerce aspect will allow viewers to see what type of shoes or deck is being shown and then facilitate a way for them to buy those things – that’s what we’re creating.” 

Dane added, “Our mission with The Den is to create an unbelievable experience for skateboarders to watch content they love and directly support the brands, skaters,and filmmakers they follow.” 

The Switch

‘Switch’ in skateboarding happens when a skater uses footing opposite their normal stance – but they don’t necessarily go in a different direction. Adam and Dane adopted a similar approach to The Den, as Adam explained: “We leaned into the e-commerce side of things. We had always assumed that skate brands would love this, but we didn’t understand some of the issues they had. The biggest thing is the money they’re spending to get sales – it’s a lot.” “And from that, we better understood what they needed and what our platform could provide. So I think that was our biggest realization. It wasn’t necessarily a pivot. We leaned into it more than we would have at the beginning.” Dane agreed and expanded a little: “We thought that one of the biggest benefits was greater exposure, but as Adam said, those conversations helped. We learned what they needed and cared about the most – and that was to make sales in a trackable way. That’s their big pain point. So we made it as easy and seamless as possible for the viewers to buy from the brands they see in The Den.”

The Den and the North Forge Founders Program

Dane spoke briefly about how they came into contact with North Forge and the Founders program: “I heard about it a few years ago. It was recommended because I had built an app in the travel space. I was on my own at the time, doing my own thing, and didn’t know much about it. But when Adam and I decided to dig into this idea, it popped up again, and we’re so glad it did. Because it’s been great!” “You don’t know what you don’t know. There were so many opportunities to be around some smart people who would ask some questions you didn’t think of.”

When asked if there were things they’d known sooner, Adam added, “I think I wish I’d known how big an impact it could have at such a crucial stage of our business. There were some great, pivotal conversations we had with some people at North forge that set us on the right path, and things we learned that could have taken us months to find out otherwise (if at all).”  

There have been many benefits, but Dane recalled one specific conversation that was pivotal for them, as he was happy to explain: “We have benefited in so many ways, but there was one thing, in particular, I can think of. I’ve been building apps for a decade now, and I was pretty set on doing things a certain way. Our Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) challenged us on a specific piece of the strategy. We took it back and thought it over together and ultimately decided to take the approach that he suggested. We are so glad we did this because it has changed how we’ve done things, technically speaking, for the better. That one conversation enabled us to make a better decision, and we’re now in a much better spot from a financial and product development standpoint. We can now make sure we do this exactly how we need to. It was huge!” 

But there are other things that a founder needs, and they found vital support there, too, as Adam explained: “When you’re a founder, and you’re stressed to the max, to have someone just ask you, ‘How are you doing?’, or ‘How are you mentally?’ ‘How are you physically?’ ‘Are you sleeping?’ was helpful. It made us think differently and realize that if we can bring our best selves every day, then we will be successful. So it’s something that we never really thought about before. But we realized it was often overlooked, and we prioritized this early on. It’s so important for us and should be for all founders.” 

Dane added thoughts about having a team behind them: “you don’t just get one EIR; you get the whole team. The whole bench is there waiting to help – the best sounding board is these brilliant people at North Forge, and there’s so much expertise.” 

When asked about what they most look forward to while being part of the Founders Program, Adam felt it was the opportunity to learn, grow and meet others: “we look forward to learning from some of the obstacles and successes others have had.” And also to deepening the relationships with the EIRs and the team and North Forge, as well as the other founders.” 

What’s on the Horizon for The Den? 

Dane and Adam have big plans for the future, which Dane was happy to share: “We’re going to launch in early 2023, which we’re very excited about. We are going to grow and make the best experience for people who love skateboarding and for the brands who support it. In 2024, we’ll likely roll out a similar thing, in other channels, like surfing and snowboarding.” Adam added, “all while expanding our in-video e-commerce technology to the broader streaming industry!”

Adam also spoke enthusiastically about the advisory board they’ve put together, adding, “we’re so proud of the advisory board. Dane and I are adamant on having the brightest minds in our corner, and this board comprises well-respected industry experts. We’re as proud as we are grateful to have this team helping us as we build something that will change how we engage with and support the communities we all love.”

Next Steps:

If you’d like to know more about The Den, their exciting blend of streaming, skating, and e-commerce, or their plans for the future, Adam, and Dane invite you to contact with them directly via email: 

• Adam Wrublowsky: adam@entertheden.com
• Dane Homenick: dane@entertheden.com 

Do you have a business idea that you’d like to discuss? Tell us about your vision, and let’s meet to chat about it!