Background

Reach International Outfitters (RIO) began long before a product existed. Founders Trent and his wife Sarah spent three years traveling the world as adventure-focused content creators, partnering with airlines, cruise lines, and tourism boards to uncover the best bucket-list experiences. Inspired by how shared adventures foster stronger relationship bonds through connection - not just entertainment, they realized their audience needed more than simple inspiration on a screen. That insight sparked RIO’s signature product: beautifully designed scratch-off adventure bucket lists featuring 50 curated experiences for each state or major city. With the mission to help people get off the couch, reconnect, and build core memories with those they love.

Challenge

When RIO launched its first product, the Minnesota Bucket List, in November 2022, the response was overwhelming. They sold 6,000 units in six weeks, generating over $300,000 and revealing massive potential. But behind the scenes, the business was still operating like a small, scrappy venture. Trent described it as “a cash-flow business” - focused on money-in, money-out without true financial visibility. As they scaled rapidly, especially during high-spend seasons on Meta, they lacked a reliable way to measure contribution margin, understand the real impact of daily ad spend, or make confident decisions about when to push and when to pull back. This gap became more pressing as they began spending $200,000–$400,000 per day on ads, where even a shift from a 1.6 to a 1.62 ROAS changed profitability materially. RIO needed a clearer financial foundation, otherwise they’d risk scaling blindly.

Discovery

RIO’s accounting firm, EcomCPA, immediately recognized the need for deeper visibility and recommended Iris as a core part of their financial stack. Although Trent hadn’t known a tool like Iris existed, he was drawn in by the promise of daily, reliable contribution margin visibility. Insights he’d never accessed before. Once inside Iris, the team quickly realized the platform not only had metrics, but also displayed the underlying drivers of their business. With a high-velocity, physical-product brand scaling aggressively on Meta, Iris became the missing link that connected their ad strategy, product margins, and bottom-line performance. For the first time, RIO could make decisions rooted in real-time financial truth instead of instinct or end-of-month reconciliations.

Results

With Iris, RIO finally gained a daily north star: accurate, trustworthy contribution margin tracking, updated every morning before a single advertising decision was made. This visibility transformed the way the team approached scale.

• Strategic ad spend optimization: Instead of chasing top-line revenue, Iris helped RIO understand exactly when high spend was boosting the bottom line, and when it was quietly eroding profit. On several occasions, Iris exposed days where top-line revenue looked strong but contribution margin told a different story. Using this insight, RIO confidently pulled back spend and preserved margin that would have otherwise been lost.
  
  
  

• Clear, measurable goals: RIO now sets firm contribution margin targets for key periods like early November, enabling them to decide whether to “push harder” or “run lean.” This level of control was impossible before Iris.
  
  
  

• Better forecasting & planning: By grounding decisions in real financial data rather than delayed reporting, RIO can plan ahead for major sales cycles, scale more intentionally, and avoid the volatility that early-stage brands often face.
  
  
  

• A unified lens for decision-making: Iris became the filter through which Trent and his team evaluate all ad performance across platforms. With spend as high as $400k per day, even small shifts have massive implications. Iris provided the accuracy needed to act decisively.
  
  
  

Iris helped RIO evolve from “running a cash-flow business” to operating like a disciplined, data-driven brand capable of scaling to eight figures and beyond. Trent shared that the team can “now actually set out contribution margin goals instead of just seeing how it all shakes down.”

Reflection

“Iris has really given us a true daily north star with the contribution margin being able to track it daily so we can make confident decisions on all platforms.” — Trent Anderson

With Iris, RIO now runs its business with clarity, precision, and confidence. They’re scaling faster, protecting profitability, and making smarter decisions every single day.