His Business Made $120K on Kickstarter, Then $2M in 6 Months — And Could Save Your Thanksgiving

As a father of four boys of various ages attending different schools, Gabe Coyne faced a common predicament in the mornings: It was difficult to keep breakfast warm for everyone across the 90-minute departure period.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Host Modern. Gabe Coyne.}

“I  had the option to make breakfast once, and only the first kid got hot food, or make breakfast three different times,” Coyne recalls. “All the while, I’ve got my Yeti thermal coffee tumbler that’s keeping my coffee hot until lunch. I was like, Why don’t I have this for food?“

Coyne was already well-versed in building brands. He ran a creative studio in Seattle, Washington, for about a decade before one of his clients recruited him to be a technical co-founder in his startup. Then he joined a venture studio where he focused on digital products. After that, in 2019, he and co-founder Collin Duff started the direct-to-consumer golf brand Stix Golf.

Coyne’s breakfast dilemma would lead him and Duff to partner on another venture in 2024: cookware and serveware brand Host Modern. Coyne is the company’s CEO, and Duff, who is also Coyne’s brother-in-law, is COO

Coyne’s initial research for Host Modern revealed that double-walled, vacuum-sealed containers are the best thermal options on the market, yet no one had applied the technology to larger products.

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A deep dive on some Reddit boards explained why: The containers would be heavy and not as durable as, say, a typical cooler taken camping — one dent or puncture would compromise the thermal layer.

So Coyne opted to scale down a bit. One of his early concepts was a bento-box-like design: stackable circles.

However, as someone who prioritizes validation, testing and iterating before moving forward, Coyne solicited feedback — and received the same response from nearly every person: “Can I put my casserole dish in that?” Of course, because of the circular model, the answer was no.

Coyne didn’t want to launch a product without demand, and unlike some entrepreneurs who can’t let go of their initial vision, he wasn’t opposed to a pivot.

So many people get so obsessed with their idea, or they think they have such a great idea and they immediately just go start building it like it’s going to be magic,” Coyne says. “Never believe that if you build it, they will come. Go make sure somebody wants that thing.”

Related: She’s Using 3 Revenue-Doubling Secrets to Grow Her Mother’s Decades-Old Business

Ultimately, the co-founders figured out how to make the casserole-sized dish happen, acknowledging that it was “more complicated” — but also a potential safeguard against copycats.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Host Modern}

With a supplier in China secured and production underway, Host Modern launched a Kickstarter campaign in September 2024.

Host Modern hoped to raise $10,000 but significantly exceeded the expected demand. The campaign pulled in $120,000, and the business launched on Shopify by the end of the year — then saw another $600,000 in pre-order sales. Those pre-orders grew to $1.5 million before the product shipped the following spring, totaling $2 million in sales in just six months.

The golf brand has raised over $12 million, surpassed 75,000 sets sold and $50 million in revenue, and is growing more than 30% year over year, per the company.

When Coyne began with Stix five years ago, he came from a digital background and had no experience with physical goods or global manufacturing.

As a result, Coyne learned a lot about warehousing and delivering to customers. In building Host Modern, Coyne married that knowledge with his tried-and-true digital advertising playbook to capture an even larger market.

Recent estimates suggest that the golf equipment market is valued at about $7 billion, while the combined cookware and serveware market is roughly $43 billion, per Grand View Research.

What’s more, Host Modern’s lower price point — a $100 thermal serving dish versus a $1,000 set of clubs — appeals to an even wider swath of potential customers.

“[The product] is also smaller, so it warehouses and ships well,” Coyne adds. “So many things have been more efficient [this time around]. We designed this business out of the gate to be optimal end to end, from the cost of goods to the warehousing, digital marketing and the actual market we’re approaching.”

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