Staying out of the Hobby Zone: Dryad Cookery

Staying out of the Hobby Zone: Dryad Cookery

“The nice thing about having a side-hustle is that my livelihood doesn’t depend on it. The pressure to succeed doesn’t directly affect my ability to take care of my family. But sometimes that can take the fire out from under you. You really need to constantly motivate yourself and hold yourself accountable, otherwise you’ll never leave the hobby zone.”

Brian McKee is the founder of Dryad Cookery, adventure-driven cooking tools, based in Strasburg. Dryad Cookery came to life through a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2020 and continues to design thoughtful and durable cooking tools. Dryad’s titanium products are designed to be the perfect spatula for cast iron cookware. The full product line includes a full-size spatula, a mini-size spatula, skillet handle covers, and a chain mail scrubber. If you follow Dryad Cookery on social media, you’ll find beautiful images of sleek spatulas and mouth-watering dishes, but it wasn’t a quick and easy development process. 

Treat your business like a business, not like a hobby.

Dryad Cookery’s crowdfunding campaign allowed Brian to build a fanbase early on which – according to him – is key in getting your business up and running. “If your goal is to make $100,000 per year, then you need 1,000 customers who spend $100 per year. Once you have identified and built your customer base, you can scale according to how much time you have. What I’ve learned over the last three years is this: If I don’t take the time to treat my business like a job, it slips into the ‘hobby zone’. I have to take it seriously and make time to work on it productively, not just playing around with it. Even if it’s only from 6 to 8 a.m.,  give yourself that accountability.  If you block off the time and treat it like a job, you can turn this side-hustle into something you want to scale.” 

Hone in on the problem you’re trying to solve. Don’t be afraid to ask yourself “What if?” and take action on these items. 

Brian went through Startup Shenandoah Valley (S2V), an acceleration program by the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund, as part of cohorts two and three. “It took a lot of trial and error, I spent almost an entire year just trying to find a domestic manufacturer,” said Brian about his experience starting up his business. Despite the trials and tribulations of trying to find a manufacturer, Dryad Cookery has managed to establish a national customer base, “About 80% of my customer base is from the West Coast. It’s just a different demographic there in terms of the food culture. But the Shenandoah Valley is my home. The East Coast is a mecca for outdoor hobbies, and I think the outdoor food culture is starting to catch up here.” 

Brian is passionate about creating more community around food culture and outdoor cooking with his business, “It’s not just a spatula, there’s a social element to it as well. It’s really about creating a relationship between the product and the experience. My long-term goal of the business is to become profitable enough to quit my day job, and also to show that it’s possible to bring manufacturing to the Valley. I want to have a more local feel, cook things, and build a community!” 

Check out Dryad Cookery’s website and learn more about its products, or follow them on Instagram to see some beautiful cooking shots, and join the adventure cooking community! If you’re ready to turn your hobby into a business, and need a work space to do so, check out the various coworking spaces in the Shenandoah Valley!