Background
Matt Butler, Founder Rollors, Active Duty Air Force Officer
Matt Butler is the founder of Rollors Game Company and inventor or the Rollors Outdoor Game. He grew up in Minnesota and enrolled in the Air Force ROTC Program while in college. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force where he still serves today. As of this interview, he had served over 17 years on active duty.
Entrepreneurship
Outdoor games were very popular in Minnesota when Matt was younger. Bocce ball and bag toss were often played at the family cabin. He came up with the concept for Rollors while on deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He could not physically build the product so he began educating himself on business and entrepreneurship. After returning from a deployment, he built a prototype. He started to get interest in the game after someone offered to buy his only prototype. Matt had 50 games built to test the product. He brought it to a church craft fair and it sold out in a matter of hours. He reinvested the profits in the business and had an additional 100 units built. His story was featured in a local family magazine. After the story, distributors and wholesalers began to show interest. Next he had to tackle the challenge of Manufacturing overseas. The success of the game continues to grow. It has been featured on the Today Shot, Wall Street Journal, Mens Journal, and many other publications.
Quotes
You can always refine a product or service
There are times where I knew I was speeding in my business … I felt like I was going a little too much. I had to pull the reigns back to slow down
I think all entrepreneurs are really wanting people to succeed and do we well. They are willing to help out quite a bit
Resources
You can hear the interview below or on iTunes and Stitcher Radio, don’t forget to Subscribe to the weekly SITREP
