Josh Smith of MKC: Getting Sued, Scaling Culture, and Taking on Giants

 EP 677 Josh Smith - MKC 

What's up! This week on the Rich Outdoors Podcast, I'm sitting down with Josh Smith—founder of Montana Knife Company and honestly one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in the outdoor space right now. This is a podcast I've been wanting to do for a long time, and we did not disappoint.

Josh went from being a lineman for the power company, making knives on the side in a 200 square foot shop in his horse pasture, to building one of the most beloved brands in the hunting industry from the ground up. No investors, no conglomerates, no selling out. Just a guy who refused to quit and built something that hunters actually care about.

We talk about the origin story of MKC, why he saw a massive hole in the hunting knife market, and how he quietly infiltrated the hunting community like a Green Beret special ops team before anyone even knew he was there. We get into the Benchmade lawsuit and why his entire team cheered when they found out they were getting sued. We dive deep into building company culture at scale, hiring the right people, why listening to your customer beats watching your competitor every single time, and why most people have no idea how many hunters have never even heard of a brand they think everyone knows about.

But this one goes way beyond knives. We talk about Bridger Watch, building a product in a category dominated by giants, the parallels between what Josh built and what we're trying to build, and the advice he gave me that I'm going to be thinking about for a long time. We also talk about legacy—knives that get passed down, stories behind the blades, and why sometimes the most important tool isn't the most impressive one, it's the one that means something.

This is one of those conversations that reminds you why you started. Whether you're a hunter, an entrepreneur, or both—this episode is for you. Let's get into it.

Interested in the Bridger Watch?

If you heard us talk about the smartwatch we're building for hunters and want to be the first to know what we're up to—head over to bridgerwatch.com and get on the list. Three years in the making and we're just getting started. Go check it out.

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Episode Sponsors

Tricer Tripods - They make gear that's fast, light, and simple, from amazing tripods to bino mounts, panhead truck mounts, and now even bipods. Trier just dropped their new updated AD and BC tripods, and I got to test the new Tritech technology this year. The center post is now a T-post, which makes it pack down smaller and cleaner—Drew is a mad scientist and he just keeps innovating. If you want to use code TRO, it'll save you 10% at checkout. Go support a great company. Head over to tricer.com.

Stone Glacier - If you're in the market for a new pack, I ran the Sky Archer 6400 this year and packed out a lot of animals with it including a couple of elk. What I love about Stone Glacier packs is they work great whether you're on a 10-day backpacking trip or day hunting from the side-by-side. Minimalist, tough, and they work. You don't need to own multiple packs—this thing does it all. Check it out at stoneglacier.com and use code TRO for a discount.

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Chapter Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro & Sponsors
• 3:45 - Welcome Josh Smith: Driving Across Montana for a Podcast
• 6:30 - Why Josh Started Montana Knife Company
• 10:15 - Seeing the Gap: What Was Missing in the Hunting Knife Market
• 14:00 - Authenticity from Day One: Building Community Without Money
• 18:30 - Sending Knives Out with No Ask: How Word Spread
• 22:00 - From the Horse Pasture to 11 Employees: The Growth Timeline
• 26:15 - The Green Beret Strategy: Quietly Taking Over the Hunting Space
• 30:00 - Getting Sued by Benchmade (And Why the Team Cheered)
• 34:30 - Don't Watch Your Competitor, Listen to Your Customer
• 38:15 - Scaling Fast Without Losing Culture
• 42:00 - Hiring Doers: What Josh Looks for in Employees
• 46:30 - The Pizza Rule: Why You Can't Manage Too Many People
• 50:15 - How MKC Uses Transparency to Build Employee Buy-In
• 54:00 - Taking on Giants: Parallels Between MKC and Bridger Watch
• 58:30 - Most Hunters Have Never Heard of You (And Why That's Exciting)
• 1:02:15 - The Legacy of a Knife: Stories Behind the Blades
• 1:07:00 - Building a Family Heirloom vs. Building a Gadget
• 1:11:30 - Josh's Advice for Bridger Watch
• 1:15:00 - Don't Quit Your Day Job Yet: How to Chase a Dream Responsibly
• 1:18:30 - The People You Surround Yourself With Matter Everything
• 1:21:00 - Final Thoughts & What Josh is Most Excited About

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Three Key Takeaways

1. Listen to Your Customer, Not Your Competitor - One of Josh's most powerful pieces of advice: don't open your competitor's website every day and react to what they're doing. Your product roadmap should be driven entirely by what your customer is telling you they need—not by what the big brand is doing. By the time you react to a competitor, you're already behind. The companies that win are the ones so locked into their customer's needs that by the time the big guy realizes what happened, it's too late.
2. Most People Don't Know You Exist—And That's the Opportunity - MKC ran surveys recently and the percentage of hunters who had heard of them was shockingly low. Most companies would find that depressing. Josh and Brandon found it energizing. If you've built something great and most of your target market still doesn't know you exist, you have an enormous runway in front of you. Stop assuming everyone knows your story. Tell it again. Tell it to the 3,000 people in that gymnasium down the road who've never heard it.
3. Culture Is Built Intentionally or It Isn't Built at All - From bringing employees to trade shows as a reward, to reading the Attaboy box out loud at company meetings, to bringing in bankers and health insurance reps to teach employees about life—Josh has built a company where people feel cared about. That doesn't happen by accident. It requires intentional decisions every single day to treat your people the way you'd want your own kids to be treated. And when people feel that, they go the extra mile and they keep the culture alive even when you can't be in every room.