GARY: Next on Start Up, we head to Kent, Washington to meet up with Spring Faussett, the founder of Tiger Tail, an innovative company that focuses on providing relief for muscle aches and pains.

All this and more is next on Start Up.

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♪ My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country faces significant challenges, small business owners are navigating their way through a changing global marketplace with strength and perseverance, while continuing to push the economy forward.

We've set out for our 13th consecutive season talking to a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they learn to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves.

This is Start Up.

♪ In early civilizations, massages with stones, wooden tools, and herbal compresses were commonly used for muscle relaxation.

As our understanding of the human body advanced, those methods evolved into more sophisticated tools for easing muscle tension.

In the modern era, technological advancements such as electric massagers have transformed muscle relief, allowing for deeper, precise relaxation.

And further innovations like foam rollers and percussion massagers provided targeted relief, catering to both athletes seeking quick recovery and individuals managing everyday soreness.

Today I'm heading to Kent, Washington to meet up with Spring Faussett, the creator of Tiger Tail, a company that offers unique products specifically designed to alleviate muscle soreness and enhance recovery.

I'm excited to meet Spring and learn more about her journey as an inventor and entrepreneur.

♪ ♪ ♪ Was there anything in particular that you remember that inspired you to want to create something- bring something into the world that didn't exist yet, be an inventor.

SPRING: I'd always been an inventor probably started inventing when I was 12 years old, I don't exactly remember that there was a class or a teacher in specific because I remember being super, super excited about the Pet Rock guy.

GARY: Pet Rock.

SPRING: And I remember thinking that if the Pet Rock guy could do it, I could do it, GARY: Yeah.

SPRING: Which meant if the Pet Rock guy could like invent a million and sell a million of something that I could certainly do it.

GARY: Yeah.

SPRING: And I didn't know what it was going to be but ever since I had heard about that story, I was like, okay, I got to do it.

I don't know what it is, I don't know what it is, but I'm gonna do it.

GARY: What is Tiger Tail?

SPRING: Tiger Tail is a company that makes muscles happy.

I create a lot of tools that really massage the muscles and help people with their muscle pain.

GARY: Let's go back to when the idea first hit you, what were the circumstances around that?

SPRING: I was a soccer player in school, played soccer since I was eight years old and I had torn my ACL in post-college and that kind of hurts.

GARY: That's a tough injury.

SPRING: It hurts a lot.

GARY: Yeah.

SPRING: And when you break your knee like that you go to a lot of physical therapy after to help you get back on your feet again and those therapists were recommending a swimming noodle.

They were recommending a rolling pin, both of which were not designed for muscle.

I kind of crossed the rolling pin and the swimming noodle to create a handheld foam roller.

GARY: Talk me through the first prototype.

SPRING: I went through the aisles at my local hardware store and I started piecing together parts.

I knew I couldn't have any tools I only had $250 in my bank account for that.

GARY: Restricted a little bit, financially.

SPRING: Yeah, so I'm roaming through the aisles of this hardware store going what can I piece together and I basically found some, you know, plastic pipe that fit together and then I found some grips online.

I pieced them all together and next thing you know I had a prototype and it worked!

♪ GARY: This is what it all started with.

SPRING: That is what it all started with.

Yeah, so it's got a grippy, um, grippy foam middle, doesn't bend and, uh, there's no beads, so no pinched skin, no pulled out hair.

Rolls like butter, so you can roll it anywhere and you were talking about having a little bit of a problem with all those workouts you were doing.

GARY: Yep.

SPRING: So, you roll that quadricep muscle of yours right before you run or after and it's going to help keep your muscles in shape.

♪ GARY: After that when you realized you had a working prototype, were you religiously using the product for yourself?

SPRING: I was and I had taken it to a couple trade shows and my very first trade show was the Seattle Bicycle Show and I made about a hundred.

GARY: How'd they sell?

SPRING: I sold them all.

(laughs) GARY: Wow.

SPRING: I made another hundred.

And so then I signed up for the next trade show.

And then I sold those out.

And then I was like, okay, what's the next trade show I can do?

GARY: Yeah.

So you were trade show hopping.

SPRING: I was trade show hopping.

Yeah.

GARY: When was your first retail success?

When did you finally close a retail store to get your product in?

SPRING: I mean, I was getting small mom and pop retails.

And, you know, those were kind of like 12 at a time, which is okay.

GARY: They were putting their toe in the water.

SPRING: Yeah.

My first big retail, I mean, I guess distributor was a catalog, Perform Better.

GARY: Perform Better catalog.

SPRING: Yeah.

GARY: Is that an athlete performing?

Like what kind of catalog is that?

SPRING: Well, they sell to athletes.

They sell to colleges.

They sell to universities.

They sell to fitness clubs.

So... GARY: That's a big deal.

SPRING: Yeah.

And they ordered 500.

GARY: Oh wow.

SPRING: And I said, this is cool.

GARY: Awesome, and did they sell pretty quickly?

SPRING: Yeah, they sold, that was their order every month.

GARY: Every month?

SPRING: Yeah!

GARY: Okay, so now we're really getting somewhere.

SPRING: Yeah, yeah.

GARY: Was it just you at this point still making these things by hand?

SPRING: Yes.

GARY: Wow.

SPRING: I made the first 20,000 in my garage.

GARY: Oh my gosh.

SPRING: Yeah.

Seems like a big amount, but when you're making, you know, a thousand a week, it's 20 weeks, didn't seem like that much, but all of a sudden now, you know, it turned into a big problem for me, because I was really having a hard time keeping up with my own orders.

Especially when Perform Better or some of the other catalogs started ordering 500 a month.

♪ GARY: How big is this warehouse?

SPRING: It's about 7,000 square feet.

GARY: Okay.

You haven't grown out of it yet?

SPRING: No, we actually have some more space on the other side for... GARY: Oh, for expansion?

SPRING: Mm-hmm.

GARY: How'd you end up finding this space?

SPRING: I decided that I don't like to pay rent.

GARY: Okay.

You bought?

SPRING: So I started looking for a building to buy almost immediately.

GARY: Gotcha.

SPRING: So this building came up for sale and I negotiated a deal and we bought the building.

♪ GARY: You have a full on photography soundstage here.

SPRING: Yes, I found value in having a quick little studio that I didn't have to run and go and do studio shots.

So I thought, oh, if we could have a studio space at any new building that we got or any new space that we got, it would be really, really valuable.

So I save money and time.

GARY: Awesome.

SPRING: Win.

So built the cyc wall out, and on a side note, we rent it out when we're not using it.

GARY: Incredible.

♪ Is the manufacturing for all your products done here in the US?

SPRING: No, we actually do some manufacturing overseas.

The overseas partners that I have really understand the dynamics and the difficulties of manufacturing with foam.

And a lot of our products are made out of foam and rubber, actually.

GARY: Did you at any point have to get a bank loan or bring on an investor or anything like that?

SPRING: So we never did the investor route.

GARY: Wow.

SPRING: Yeah.

GARY: This is all self-funded?

SPRING: All self-funded.

GARY: It's incredible.

Good for you.

SPRING: Thank you.

It's not easy.

There could have been a faster path.

But an investor... GARY: Smart path.

SPRING: I think so.

I think the investor path is a really difficult one.

Then you owe, you know, just basically your soul to someone else.

One of my early kind of mantras is build, sell, repeat.

So I would build product, sell the product, repeat the process.

So then as I would build it, you know, I would be able to bank it and then reinvest it.

GARY: When did you start adding other products to the lineup?

SPRING: I started adding other products to the lineup almost as soon as I started talking to customers at those trade shows.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: Because they said, "This is really, really great, but how do I "massage my own neck?

And how do I get up here because I get headaches?"

So, yeah, I started adding products right away.

♪ It's all about muscle compression.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: The difference about each tool is where you apply that compression and how.

Yeah.

GARY: Now this is if the interview goes too long and then they rep it here and then pull me off screen.

SPRING: That's right.

You're going to hook them right out, right?

Yeah.

GARY: Now what is this thing?

SPRING: This is one of our brand new tools.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: So this is a massage hook.

GARY: How do you use it?

SPRING: And we call this the Tiger Cane.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: And so right here, this reaches over behind you.

So now you can get those knots in your back.

GARY: I get it.

SPRING: Without having to... GARY: Yeah.

Because a lot of times with my Tiger Tail, it's hard to get it.

And then you're getting other areas too.

SPRING: Exactly.

GARY: What is this contraption?

SPRING: This is our acupressure mat.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: So I like to use this post run.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: And if you look at that, look at those little, those nubs.

GARY: Yeah.

SPRING: They're really spiky.

GARY: Looks like golf shoe spikes almost.

SPRING: A little bit, but not quite as spiky.

GARY: Right, right.

SPRING: But what I like to do is stand on it barefoot.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: It's a little spicy.

GARY: Yeah, yeah, it looks spicy.

SPRING: Yeah, but it kind of gives me that meditative, "Oooh, take a deep breath," and all I'm thinking about is just the moment in time that I'm standing on the mat.

So it's a quite meditative experience for me.

GARY: Amazing.

SPRING: That's why I like it.

♪ GARY: As momentum is building and you're building up steam, was this practically all the word of mouth thing or were you starting to do any marketing and getting the word out?

SPRING: Word of mouth.

GARY: All word of mouth.

SPRING: All word of mouth.

GARY: What community was your best advocate?

SPRING: Physical therapists.

GARY: Wow.

That's where you want to be then.

SPRING: Yeah.

Physical therapists and athletic trainers.

GARY: Do you have any sort of degree in physical therapy or sports medicine or anything like that?

SPRING: I don't.

GARY: What kind of claims were you able to make with it, not having the research?

SPRING: Oh, we wouldn't make any claims.

GARY: You would just say happy muscles?

SPRING: Yes.

GARY: That's clever, a way to get around it.

SPRING: Well, there's no claims, right?

You have to be really, really careful.

GARY: Of course.

SPRING: And I still am very careful.

You can't make any claims about pain.

Sore muscles is something that we can help with.

We work with athletes, and the athletes are the ones that know that it helps them the most.

And so when you start to see the athletes carrying around our product with them without any type of payment.

GARY: That's an endorsement.

SPRING: That's an endorsement that we didn't have to pay for.

So that's, and you just start to see the photographs come in.

And when you're on the homepage of the New York Yankees.

GARY: Oh wow.

SPRING: That was pretty cool.

And the emails just flood into your inbox when that happens.

It's kind of crazy.

GARY: What were the circumstances of being on the Yankees homepage?

You gotta tell me that story.

SPRING: Right?

Like, we are just part of that community.

GARY: So baseball players and the Yankees were using this product.

SPRING: Yes.

GARY: Wow.

♪ What is the philosophy behind the look and the feel and the brand?

SAMUEL: I want to bring her passion.

I want to bring her excitement to the product.

And she choose the color orange, and I want to make that prominent.

And I just want to bring her personality into the packaging.

People know us because of orange color, right?

GARY: Sure.

SAMUEL: So, it's in the products, and so we want to bring the same consistency in everything.

So even from afar, sometimes people see us from a TV, when they watch a football game or something like that, and they saw an athlete just holding a piece of tiger tail, they can see it from afar, or that's a tiger tail because of its orange and black and everything.

GARY: Where are things with the company right now?

How many different products, SKUs do you have, and how are sales going?

SPRING: We have a library of about 30 massage tools.

GARY: Wow.

SPRING: Yeah, and sales are going strong.

I wrote a book.

GARY: Okay, tell me about the book.

SPRING: It's called Happy Muscles Fast, and it's a self-help guide to unknot your muscle pain.

GARY: Wow, is it kind of a guide on how to use the tools too?

SPRING: It'll point out which tools you can use.

GARY: Right, but it's not a sales pitch for the tools.

SPRING: Subtly it is, selfishly it is.

But mostly it's a guide to teach you where muscle knots are located and the referred pain patterns that they are.

GARY: I need that book.

SPRING: It's super helpful.

GARY: Yes.

SPRING: And I wrote the book because there's these volumes of books called, well, they're written by Travell and Simons, who are these researchers on muscle knots, well, called trigger points.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: The challenge with these books is they're literally volumes of a lot of really big words.

When I would go to these trade shows, I would bring these books, and people would ask me, "What's causing this pain?"

I was like, "I don't know.

Let's look it up."

And I would flip through all these words to get to the pictures.

So I kept waiting for everybody, you know, somebody in this world to write a very simplified version of this book.

No one ever did.

No one ever would.

So I was like, I'm going to do it because I need something that I can take to these trade shows and do it in a very simple way.

GARY: Your tenacity is inspiring, and I think it's brilliant that you you see you see a problem and you just attack it.

You address it.

SPRING: I do.

And so that's- that's one of my products.

So educating is a huge component of what we do.

♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: How do you go about curating the store with the right products that are going to be meaningful for runners?

TARYN: I guess because it has been my whole life and so a ton of trial and error, like what works and what doesn't.

That's where my head was at when I was trying to fill the store.

It's like, let's just get the best stuff and also have options.

GARY: Tell me about the first time that you learned about Tiger Tail products.

TARYN: This is the one you see everywhere.

This is the one where you see at all the expos and you see, and you don't just see it like it works really well.

You know, it's not gimmicky.

It's like, no, this is the kind of stuff that, like I don't have any other recovery products in the store because like this is covering all the bases.

You know, like, it's just good and it works.

GARY: What would be your go-to if somebody walked in the store and wanted some help with recovery?

TARYN: Oh, the little book.

Like, say you have a hip injury, then you go to that little page and it'll show you which tools.

So it, like, really helps us because we're not PTs, you know?

So that's like, yeah, it's just, it's a good little guide.

♪ GARY: Have you been affected at all by the tariffs?

SPRING: Yes.

GARY: You have?

SPRING: Yes.

GARY: Tell me about it.

SPRING: It's gone from a zero percentage of tariffs because our products are manual massage devices.

And at one point it was 145% tariffs.

So a container that would normally have a zero percent tariff cost $85,000 in tariffs.

GARY: Wow.

SPRING: Yeah.

And that's not money that we had budgeted for, nor do we have in a bank account for.

Yeah, that was a big bullet to bite.

So we actually held off on purchasing that container of product.

By the way, I'm okay with paying the tariff.

I'm not opposed to paying a tariff because that helps level out the human labor component that is being subsidized by the Chinese government.

And it's an unfair advantage that they're able to apply to products that are sold.

So the tariff actually helps level that out, even though it is a tariff that I have to pay.

GARY: I'm fascinated by it the first time that someone who's being affected negatively by the tariffs is pro-tariff.

Is it a perspective to try to bring more labor to, back to the US?

SPRING: I think it's actually a perspective to bring more manufacturing back to the US.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: Because I actually want more choices here in the US.

I don't have them.

GARY: It's a chicken before the egg thing because if you impose the tariffs, you start the factory, you don't have the staff to do it.

So is it more based on a slow progression of building a workforce before imposing those tariffs that could potentially hurt people like yourself and other people?

SPRING: Well, the tariff certainly gets the conversation moving faster.

GARY: It does get it moving faster.

I'm not going to disagree with you on that.

♪ I believe that failure is where all the value is.

I want to hear your laundry list of failures.

SPRING: Well, there's a massive one.

The product that I thought was going to sell a million of and didn't.

And it was right before the Tiger Tail Roller.

All of the money and all of my heart and soul went into this product called SoundFlips.

GARY: SoundFlips?

SPRING: SoundFlips.

Which are ear warmers that open for sound.

And then I did some research and there was a really popular ear warmer that was selling millions.

And I was like, ooh, this is going to be the next big thing.

And this is going to be so cool.

Oh, my God.

I spent like $180,000.

GARY: Oh, ouch.

SPRING: Oh, yeah.

It took all my money.

It took everything.

So now I have this $250.

(laughs) GARY: That's how you ended up at the $250.

You chased the earmuffs.

SPRING: Yeah, I chased the earmuffs.

GARY: How did you deal with the loss of $180,000?

SPRING: That was a, it was gut wrenching.

GARY: Yeah, still?

SPRING: Well, yeah, a little bit, but I've come to terms with it.

It's like, it's still painful, but I can tell you the reason why I haven't washed my hands of it is because those ear warmers were my MBA for Tiger Tail.

GARY: No ear warmers, no Tiger Tail.

SPRING: Correct, 100%.

GARY: As you sit right now, if you could go back to the very beginning of Tiger Tail, what would you say to yourself, your younger self?

SPRING: Continue believing in yourself.

GARY: Awesome.

So you'd do it again.

SPRING: I would do it again.

And the grit that you, it's all about grit, I think, in terms of what is required to stick with it.

And it will pay off.

GARY: Is it doing well right now, the company?

Profitable?

SPRING: It is.

GARY: Doing well, sustaining?

SPRING: Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's never easy.

GARY: Right.

SPRING: It's never a... GARY: But you're making money and doing well.

SPRING: It's never zeros on a paycheck.

GARY: Yeah, yeah.

SPRING: In fact, I sacrificed paychecks multiple times, especially during COVID.

And even now, as we're trying to figure out how tariffs will go, you know, the sacrifice always exists, but the payoff is that I get to be me.

GARY: Everybody has their brilliant million dollar invention idea.

At least a lot of people do.

SPRING: Yeah.

GARY: Right.

What advice do you have?

SPRING: Build a prototype.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: As crude as you have to have it, you have to have a prototype.

You have to be able to test the concept.

GARY: That's number one.

SPRING: Number one.

Number two, if you can build it, do it.

GARY: Okay.

SPRING: Companies like mine won't buy your idea.

They will buy a product, which means you have to get out there and sell it.

You have to have proof of sales.

So as much as it really is, as hard as it is to get that product idea off the table and off the ground, you've got to get out there and start selling it.

And it's not that hard anymore with 3D printing and with the places you can go to get actual products done.

I mean, look what I did.

It's not easy to find that type of product where you can just build it in the aisle of a local hardware store.

But as close as you can come with a 3D printer or, you know, and there's companies out there that will help you get parts and things done overseas if you have to.

But that's, you know, it's kind of two steps.

Number one, get a prototype.

And number two, get some products so you can sell it.

GARY: Make it.

Sell it.

Repeat.

SPRING: Bingo.

GARY: I really enjoyed my time with Spring.

She's a free spirit who's full of energy.

And we hit it off from the moment that we met.

And as a new distance runner myself, who's a bit youth-challenged, let's say, injury is definitely my biggest concern.

In fact, since I started running in July of 2024, I've pulled muscles, sprained ankles, and even had knee surgery as a result of said running.

So I'm definitely on the lookout for anything that can help me stay on the road and out of the hospital.

So learning about Tiger Tail couldn't have come at a better time.

I learned about the importance of proper stretching and how using the right tools in the right way can help relieve muscle soreness and speed up recovery.

For me, this type of product is a game changer.

And Spring found a real problem that affected her personally.

And then she created a solution.

And she wasn't afraid to roll up her sleeves and do whatever it took to make this happen.

Including sitting in her garage making tens of thousands of Tiger Tails all on her own.

Hopping from trade show to trade show and creating her own opportunities on her terms.

And it doesn't get any better than that.

So I challenge all of you watching at home, if you have an idea for a product or a business, what's stopping you from rolling up your sleeves and just giving it a try?

Spring did it, and so can you.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for Tiger Tail.

♪ Next time on Start Up, we head to Dearborn, Michigan to meet up with Danny and Anthony, the founders of Detroit Jiu-Jitsu Academy, a martial arts school that's created a community centered around discipline and respect.

Be sure to join us next time on Start Up.

Do you want to learn more about the show?

Or maybe nominate a business?

Visit us at StartUp-usa.com and connect with us on social media.

♪ ♪ We've got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ Got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ Before we pay our dues ♪ We've got a long GARY: You're not my father.

CAMERAMAN: He's not your father.

♪ (Gary screams) ANNOUNCER: Running a business isn't easy.

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NANCEY: I would love to leave the legacy of a household name worldwide.

Better fitting stylish eyewear for everyone.

More than 60% of sales in Amazon's store come from independent sellers like Nancey at Vontélle.

Amazon, a proud supporter of Start Up.