Entrepreneurs face many obstacles in starting a new business, but the founders of Slyde Handboards face a particularly daunting one: how to create a market for a product most people have never heard of, and for a sport they know nothing about.
Yet over the course of five years, Slyde Handboards has grown into a robust company through the use of creative marketing tactics that tap into a world where GoPro videos celebrate unusual sports and start-ups can harness social media — and their fans — to spread the word.
Image: Steve Watts with a handboard in the surf near Dana Point, Calif., photographed using a camera attached to his wrist. Credit Carlos Gonzalez for The New York Times
