The business of Dad Gang is far from child’s play. Nearly two decades ago, Dad Gang founders Bart Szaniewski and Grant Eastey met when they were classmates at Washington State University. Ejay O’Donnell was introduced to Szaniewski during a business deal shortly after. The trio struck up a strong bond as their lives hit similar milestones involving fatherhood, career choices, and relocations, with Eastey working in personal training and sales in California, Szaniewski serving as director of marketing at a DTC startup in Washington state, and O’Donnell 45 minutes away from Szaniewski, serving as the VP of customization for a global drinkswear company. In 2022, the three decided to take an encouraging phrase they often texted each other—“Dad Gang”—and print it on baseball hats for themselves. That first custom creation has grown into Dad Gang Co., a fatherhood-focused social media community and apparel and accessories brand that recently announced they sold their 1 millionth hat, hit over $35 million in revenue, and added marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk as a partner and active strategic advisor. “With Dad Gang, it’s just a real business. This is not a thesis, it’s not a pitch deck,” Vaynerchuk told Founder Brew in an interview. But Vaynerchuk’s decision to partner with Dad Gang went beyond the business fundamentals. “One of the things that was important when I was looking at Dad Gang is their dynamic,” he told Founder Brew. “When push comes to shove, that’s what’s left, not how good of a brim is the hat, or how good of an idea it was.” In early June, O’Donnell, Szaniewski, and Eastey joined Founder Brew at the Morning Brew Inc. headquarters. Over a long, laughter-filled conversation that demonstrated just how aligned they are with their thinking—they often finished each other’s sentences—the trio discussed how they started their growing brand, inherently trusting each other to make decisions, running a startup remotely, and why they invited another partner into the company. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. How did Dad Gang go from an idea to a company? Bart Szaniewski: It wasn’t like, “Okay, so let’s put ‘Dad Gang’ on a hat and start a business, and let’s get the margins right, and let’s do all this stuff. Let me make sure there’s a distributor.” None of that. It was just like, “Let’s make some hats.” Ejay O’Donnell: I think, though, we intentionally did that because we didn’t want to bring on unnecessary stress, where there’s a lot of people. Getting started is the hardest part, because people overcomplicate, they got to do some pitch deck, got to get your LLC, you got to talk to your lawyer, then you see all the costs add up. They’re like, “Well, I don’t have enough money to start the business”... We all have full-time jobs. We’re like, “Let’s just see what happens. Let’s not create all this chaos. Just start a business, because I wasn’t trying to start a business. Read more about how Bart, Ejay, and Grant balance fatherhood, friendship, and business.—MM | 
