Expert Interview #3 I Joost Hultink from Wildride
Wildride’s founder Joost Hultink on building a 700% traffic growth brand, one real problem at a time.
Wildride’s founder Joost Hultink on building a 700% traffic growth brand, one real problem at a time
When Joost Hultink launched Wildride in 2020, it wasn’t because of a market trend—it was because of a walk to the beach. Four kids, two arms, and one too many "carry me" moments later, he started designing a toddler carrier that actually worked. Since then, Wildride has grown into a global brand stocked in 7,000 retail locations, with online traffic increasing by almost 700% in 2024, according to Conway Brand Radar.
We sat down with Joost to explore how that growth happened—not just the brand story, but the decisions behind it.
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Let’s start at the beginning. Wildride launched in 2020 right?
Yes, in 2020. I had a young child who already weighed a lot by his second year. We live near the beach, and I’d walk there every day with the kids. Like many parents know, halfway through the walk, one of them would want to be carried. And it was heavy. That’s when I realized: there wasn’t a good carrier for toddlers.
So Britt—one of my co-founders—and I started developing a product that would solve that. We spent two years refining it, testing it with physiotherapists, safety labs, and parents. And we made a very deliberate decision to make it something parents would want to wear—not just a functional baby item, but a lifestyle product.
What stood out to me is that Wildride wasn’t just about motherhood—it was about parenthood. Was that something you were intentional about from the beginning?
Definitely. Most baby products are designed with mothers in mind. But as a father, I also want to carry my kids. So we focused on a design and aesthetic that would appeal to both parents. And we didn’t want to follow seasonal product trends—we wanted to build something more timeless and sustainable.
Back in 2020, people’s lifestyles were shifting. Did you see a signal others missed—a deeper shift in parenting or values that gave you an edge?
Not really. It wasn’t a trend insight. It was just our need. Having four kids means your day starts at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m., and it doesn’t stop. You’re always looking for things that make life easier. That’s what this product did for me. Only after talking to others did we realize it was our shared problem,
“It wasn’t a trend insight. It was just my own need. Only after talking to others did we realize it was our shared problem.
How did you validate that others felt the same? I know you went to fairs and spoke to people. Was that your main approach?
First, friends. Then strangers. Then fairs. We didn’t want to become a “fair brand”, but those early fairs helped us understand the psychology of the buyer. Grandparents were often the first to say, “You’ll need this, you just don’t know it yet.” That was a good signal.
You’ve continued to evolve the product since. Do you use community feedback to guide that?
We built the customer care team slowly. In the beginning, I did all of it myself. Now we document every incoming question and push those insights to product and content. One example: we added a safety slider to the carrier. Internally, it was obvious—it works like a backpack strap. But customers were confused. So we changed our videos, FAQs, everything.
It’s also about listening at scale. We turned feedback into macros, and macros into changes.
Is customer service the main feedback loop, or are you building broader community engagement too?
Customer service is our sharpest signal. But our retailers also contribute. We recently redesigned our packaging based on retailer input. In-store, you have about ten seconds to get someone’s attention. That’s very different from a D2C website, where you can explain everything. So we adjusted.
We also started sending stores point-of-sale displays with embedded screens playing our social videos. It helps people understand what the product is and how it works—immediately.
I imagine all this retail and online growth adds complexity. How have you managed that side of scaling?
By simplifying everything. We’ve stayed on Shopify from the start. Every time we enter a new market, we ask: does this still work? So far, yes.
We now run 9 or 10 different localized Shopify stores, operated by local teams. Japan, South Korea, UK. Each one runs like a mini-branch. We just copy the global template, translate, localize the visuals, and we’re live.
“We’ve built localized, independent stores that we can hand off to teams in Japan or the UK in a matter of days.”
With all the hype around AI, what’s your take? Have you used it inside Wildride yet?
We use it for text—blogs, product descriptions, content drafts. It’s a no-brainer there. Same for customer care automation. But we’ve decided not to use it for visuals. We sell to parents. It’s a real, emotional purchase. Using AI-generated photos doesn’t fit. We’ve seen copycat brands doing that, and it feels fake. Parents can tell.
What about operational AI—fulfillment, logistics, backend?
Not yet. We have plans, but our team’s still small. We have a long list of priorities, and we focus on what has the most impact first. But yes, we’re looking at it.
So how do you prioritize what to work on next?
We discuss it across teams—marketing, content, ops. What do customers need? What will make the biggest difference? For example, delivery estimates on-site: we’re working on that now. It’s about weighing effort vs. impact and deciding week by week what we can realistically improve.
Have any tools really surprised you in terms of value?
Gorgias has been great for customer service. Easy to implement, constantly improving. And Shopify—still the key enabler of our speed. We’ve built localized, independent stores that we can hand off to teams in Japan or the UK in a matter of days. That’s been huge for scaling without losing control.
What would you say to other e-com brands trying to go global or go omnichannel?
Stay focused. Be brave. And don’t overcomplicate. There are too many tools that people use just because someone said they should.
Also, bootstrap if you can. It gives you freedom. No investor updates, no chasing growth to satisfy a spreadsheet. You decide what tools you actually need. Most SaaS tools people use don’t give you anything new—they just wrap existing data differently.
“We’re bootstrapped. That means no investor updates, no pressure to chase vanity growth.”
Would you do anything differently if launching today?
Hire earlier. Especially in customer care and fulfillment. We did it all ourselves for too long. We had trucks showing up in the middle of Haarlem asking for a loading dock we didn’t have. You hit a ceiling fast when you try to control everything yourself.
Final takeaway?
Just start. Once you do, there’s no way back. So you might as well go all in.