Cold immersion is not an entirely latest concept. In fact, it’s quite an old method: cold water immersion has been practiced in various cultures for 1000’s of years, and skilled athletes have long faced icy baths after competitions. But currently it has been getting more publicity than ever before – reaching out to people outside the big leagues like Ryan Duey and Michael Garrett.
“Mike and I both have backgrounds in the health and wellness field,” Duey says. “We played sports, but are we athletes at the highest level? NO. We were interested in holistic health – body and mind.” Now they have turned that interest into a groundbreaking and market-leading home cold immersion company, Drop by.
Before Plunge, Duey and Garrett were in similar boats. Each ran their very own float spa therapy center – Garrett in San Francisco, Duey in Sacramento. They connected through the industry, organized a successful fundraiser together and quickly became friends. So when the pandemic forced them to shut their operations and drain their pools in early 2020, it made sense that they might potentially join forces.
Ryan Duey and Michael Garrett
Photo credit: Courtesy of Plunge
Duey and Garrett became fascinated with the ice bath trend, led by charismatic figures akin to Dutch motivational speaker Wim Hof and praised for its advantages by podcasters Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan. And with their backgrounds in wellness, Duey and Garrett were higher prepared than most for the dive.
With time—and available tubs—Garrett began working on an initial prototype. The design needed work, but the concept was too strong for Duey to show down. He joined Garrett and began building a brand that might strengthen their groundbreaking latest concept. The first query he desired to answer: What were they going to call this thing?
“The term ‘ice baths’ was used back then,” says Duey. “We conducted a study on Google Trends. In fact, “ice bath” was searched about ten times more often than “cold immersion.” We decided to go for a “cold jump”. We purchased the domain coldplunge.com and immediately landed on the first page of Google search results with no expenses in the first eight weeks. We didn’t have to spend any money on marketing.”
But there was another excuse for this move. “It was always our goal to have a company called Plunge,” Duey adds. “Because of course it is related to our product. But it has all these meanings. It’s a noun, it’s a verb, it’s a motto – “immerse yourself”, “immerse yourself in life”. And this can apply to anything you do, whether it’s training or doing something difficult. After difficult negotiations with a jazz band from New Orleans, we were able to set up dive.com and suddenly people knew us as Plunge.”
Shortly thereafter, the company gained national prominence for the first time with a memorable performance Shark Tankduring which the shark Robert Herjavec plunged into the icy waters of Plunge. Later, Duey and Garrett found themselves in skateboarding legend Tony Hawk’s backyard, preparing him for a dive. Thanks to Plunge’s high visibility, rapidly growing segment and superior design and quality of its products, the company achieved revenues of $100 million in 2024. All this made Duey and Garrett the finalists of our list of Entrepreneurs of the Year 2024 – progressive leaders.
Tell us about Plunge’s recent development.
Two and a half years ago, if we were coming out at 80 a month, we thought, “Oh yeah, we’ve blown it.” Now we wish to do these numbers in one day. So the most vital thing we did last 12 months was create the infrastructure to sustain that growth. For us, it comes right down to team culture and product innovation.
Let’s start with innovation.
Bright. We conduct our own research and development work, which is a huge advantage for us. With all our latest products, we get feedback from tens of 1000’s of people that say, “Hey, it will be great if we could replace the filter with This corner” or “Could it be a little quieter?” or “Is there an eco-friendly button?” We just give that feedback to our internal engineering team and we will start developing it and actually have it. We don’t have to go to a third party to design and develop it. We can collect consumer feedback and act on it.
Our goal is to make cold dipping as easy as possible, whether that is controlling it via our phone app or receiving notifications when your filter needs to get replaced or what your flow rate is like. We wish to make it so that you may just step into the cold water – which is already very hard. Do your thing and get rid of all the stress beyond that. I think this is one of our key benefits. I think by being a pioneer, we have been capable of develop a lot of relationships in this space. So now we are starting a completely latest category: the sauna. So to go from mainly two SKUs that we had in the market to where we are now has been stunning.
Let’s talk about these beginnings. Of course, the domain name win was huge – and free. Haven’t you handled marketing in another way?
Our first six months [Garrett and I] he had this plan. We asked: “How do we reach these very influential people with whom we are connected from a philosophical point of view, from a point of view of interest and character?” We made a list of all the individuals who influenced Mike and me. We had a board and wrote down forty names – people influencing culture, health and well-being: [endurance athlete] Rich Roll, [neuroscientist and podcaster] Doctor Andrzej Huberman, [biologist and health educator] Dr. Rhonda Patrick. And the crazy thing is that inside three to 4 months we visited all their homes. We finally get to Tony Hawk’s backyard and get him able to dive.
We went with a gift-oriented approach. It wasn’t about a contract or saying, “Hey, we’re going to make this product for you and you have to do X, Y and Z.” It went like this: “Hey, if you like this, share it. That might mean sharing it on social media, but it might also mean telling your mom about it.” We just knew there can be a big return if they fell in love with the product and modified their lives.
What are your development plans for the future?
We understand that the percentage of people that will buy Plunge is exponentially higher if they have fallen into cold water and actually experienced it. There are few things in this world that make you are feeling this good. So we will sign a very large nationwide agreement with a retail outlet promoting cold dipping on a very large scale. We predict that roughly 10 million people will freeze in these facilities over the next two years. If over time we will get these people into a cold mood, it would make sense that they may buy such equipment for their home.
We are also approaching a partnership with Swimply, the Airbnb of swimming pools. We could tell our customers, “Hey, put your Plunge online, make money, get people in your area who don’t have a place like this to try it.” And so it becomes a community activity. So it’s sort of a snowball effect that – especially next 12 months – could possibly be exponential. Because having the ability to try Plunge and actually experience it for yourself makes your decision a lot easier.
You mentioned company culture. Where does it matter?
Work is how we spend a large a part of our time. It higher be well spent. We want people to be truly pleased and feel appreciated. It never has an end state. Sometimes we will handle it much higher. Other times, no. It’s a collective system. If people aren’t pleased here, we discover change and help them move on. It improves our morale and I think it helps the bottom line as well.
First, Mike and I created a set of company values and then hired an executive coach. We wrote our values on the wall and he looked at them and said, “This is bullshit.” So we spent six months as a leadership team analyzing what really matters in our company and developed five core core values. They are on our website and guide every part we do. During the job interview, we ask questions about them. When we join a team and do reviews, they are guided by them. They help us do higher and help us do higher as a company. One of them is “Go for it.” It’s about full commitment and giving every part you have that is associated with our name and our culture.
It was definitely not lost on me that I got out and saw our team, the scope of operations and the challenges the team faces, and how far and wide we will now go. I’m just getting began.