Backcountrycorp, Company

Backcountry.com resulted from a series of brainstorming sessions in which the site's founders, Jim Holland and John Bresee, were trying to figure out a link between a love of backcountry skiing and making money on the Internet. After extensive research (and tons of backcountry skiing), they determined that it really was possible to sell outdoor gear online.

Backcountry.com was founded in 1996 with a $2,000 out-of-pocket (literally) investment. Backcountry.com has enjoyed sustained growth every year since. Over the past 14 years, Backcountry.com has expanded, adding a slew of focused, niche online stores (four full retail, one closeout, and 5 one-deal-at-a-time or ODAT stores) in the outdoor, action sports and bike industries.

Backcountry.com and its sister sites now sell nearly 1,000 brands and see an average of 13 million unique visitors each month.

Backcountry.com was named the 2009 Backpacker Magazine/SNEWS Online Retailer of the Year. It has made the ranks of Internet Retailer Magazine's Best of the Web Top 50 Retail Sites in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009. In 2009, it earned the #65 spot in Sporting Goods Business Top 100 Retailers Report. And in 2003 and 2006, Backcountry.com secured positions in Inc Magazine's Inc 500.

"We started with baby steps, however, and never spent more than we had," said Jim Holland, the company's co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Board. "We don't take our growth and our situation for granted and recognize that we must always be evolving. The only constant is change."