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[ Brian, Hopper ]
Some might say it was destiny. Introduced to each other through their wives, who were best friends from high school, Brian Brasch (CEO) and Erik Hopperstad (President) were forced to become partners to stay in good with the wives. Just kidding.
Brian, a certified CPA and serial entrepreneur with a background in diverse industries such as automotive, software, and accounting, and Erik (aka Hopper) with a background in property development and specialty building materials and a common love of CrossFit – became business partners with an idea forged over a campfire and a couple of beers (pure speculation at this point, folks). As legend has it, Brian and Erik started discussing a CrossFit Equipment Manufacturer's marketing campaign urging people to give up a garage stall for gym equipment and forcing them to park in the street. What?! Crazy.
Brian and Hopper, residents of North Dakota/Minnesota respectively, were not willing to give up that much protected-from-the-elements space. So being the creative, entrepreneurial guys that they are, the two came up with the idea of the wall-mounted folding squat rack (among many other product ideas – so many product ideas!).
As the story goes, Brian and Hopper (and wives) were attending a wedding of a mutual friend and texting company names back and forth before the wedding started. PRx Performance got tossed out and by the time the wedding was done, Brian had purchased and registered the url. PRx was officially registered as a company in 2013.
How did Shark Tank happen? Our intrepid founders were scheduled to attend a CrossFit Competition in Miami and Hopper came across information that Shark Tank auditions were being held a couple days prior to their arrival. He called Brian up to get his thoughts on auditioning and Brian had their flights changed while they were still on the phone! Their pitch got them to the second round and then on through to the live taping. The rest, as they say, is history.
Our original episode aired on Sunday, February 21st, 2016. You can read more about that here. We scored a deal with Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O’Leary! Things really took off after that. PRx Performance had two full-time employees in addition to Brian and Hopper when Shark Tank aired and by February of 2017, when Shark Tank sent a film crew to Fargo for a follow-up ‘where are they now’ episode (read more about that here!), our team had grown to six full-time employees and a couple of temps.
Fast forward to today. Steady growth has allowed us to grow our team into the solid group we have today. Still small enough to be agile, but big enough for each of us to take time off if we need to…perfect!
As we continue on our journey, we remain devoted to our founding Core Values, which are the defining principles by which we operate as individuals, and as a company.
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