#97 - From $250 to $30 Million: DadGang on Building an Iconic Brand & Global Community For Dads
Choose Hard with Cody McBroom
Cody McBroom
4.9 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 94 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when three friends in a group text decide to turn a shared passion for fatherhood into a business? You get Dad Gang, a brand that started with just $250 and has since sold over $30 million in hats. In this episode, I’m joined by co-founders Bart and EJ to pull back the curtain on one of the most inspiring entrepreneurship stories I’ve heard in years.
We dive deep into the "origin story" of Dad Gang—from selling out their first 100 hats in 36 hours to building a community of over 14,000 dads who support each other through the "forever marathon" of parenting. Bart and EJ open up about the hard transitions they made, including the moment EJ realized his daughter needed his presence more than his paycheck, leading him to resign from a 15-year career with no backup plan.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The Power of the Niche: Why they ditched "corny" dad gear to create a streetwear-inspired brand for the modern father.
- Operational Excellence vs. Marketing Magic: How staying in their "lanes" allowed them to scale to a million hats sold without the typical friction of a partnership.
- Fatherhood as Training: Using the challenges of parenting as a catalyst for personal growth and spiritual discipline.
- The "If You Know, You Know" Philosophy: The meaning behind their iconic side-hit and why community is the real product, not the apparel.
- The Lean Startup Model: Why they prioritize efficiency and profit over head-count and ego.
Whether you're an entrepreneur looking for the blueprint to scale or a dad trying to be the best role model for your kids, this conversation is a masterclass in choosing the hard path to build a life of alignment.
Connect with Dad Gang:
Website: dadgang.com
Instagram: @dadgang.co
Facebook Group: Dad Gang VIP (14,000+ members)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Choose Hard podcast. I'm your host, Cody McBroom, and today with me in studio, I have |
| 0:05.4 | Bart and EJ, who are two of the three founders of the one and only brand, Dad Gang. Dad Gang started |
| 0:12.6 | as a cool idea between three friends and $250. They just got done selling $30 million in hats. |
| 0:20.8 | They have been crushing milestones and reaching goals that they never imagined. |
| 0:24.7 | And of course, they had to choose hard quite a bit along the way like any start-up or entrepreneurship journey is going to have. |
| 0:31.6 | But the coolest thing, at least to me, about Dad Gang, is that it was built on the foundation of just representing dads and supporting |
| 0:39.1 | dads and making being a dad really, really freaking cool. And these guys did an amazing job |
| 0:45.2 | about that. They are huge supporters of the dad community. They are huge supporters of the community |
| 0:50.2 | around here too. Two of them actually live in my community. One of them goes to church with me. |
| 0:54.6 | One of them lives where I grew up and started the Tacoma Run Club, which is a massive run club |
| 0:58.6 | every weekend now. So they are big influences in our community, but they're also huge |
| 1:02.5 | influences around the world to dads everywhere. People from NBA and NFL stars all the way to |
| 1:08.2 | other celebrities and just everyday people that I run into at the |
| 1:11.0 | grocery store every single day. It is an iconic brand that is blowing up and behind the scenes |
| 1:16.7 | are just three dudes who love being dads. And it is the coolest freaking entrepreneurship story |
| 1:22.2 | that I've heard in a long time. So I'm really excited to dive into their journey, dive into |
| 1:26.4 | their story, talking about |
| 1:27.6 | how they had to choose hard to create this and how the three of them as friends were able to |
| 1:32.7 | build a business that is impactful, it's efficient, and it's systemized to just keep growing. |
| 1:37.0 | And you're going to see a lot more of them in the future. So without any further ado, let's talk |
| 1:41.2 | with Bart and E.J. from Dad Gang. |
| 1:49.1 | The greatest things in life all start with a challenge. |
... |
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