The best ideas come to Paige and Eric Fitzgerald when they are floating down the river on a hot, sunny afternoon. When the Whitefish couple got into paddleboarding, they quickly realized there wasn't a great place on the paddleboard to hold a drink.  

"You know, our drinks were tipping over. We were buying what was on the market and none of them worked very well. And so somewhat naively, like any new business owner, we sort of stumbled into it and were like 'Why don't we make one?'" Paige Fitzgerald said.  

That conversation on the water kickstarted a years-long journey to create their own product, learn how to market it, and sell it in stores across the country. The Floatsup cup utilizes bungee cords to stay planted on a stand-up paddleboard. These days, Floatsup sells anything related to a paddleboarder's needs, like dry bags, bungee cords, carabiners and some fun T-shirts.  

When designing the original cup, Fitzgerald said they asked a friend to make some basic ideas come to life with his 3D printer.  

"That led to filing a patent and finding a product designer to help us take it from an ugly 3D-printed [product] to something that was branded, functional and made with a material we wanted," Fitzgerald said. 

They launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2022 and were selling cups in local stores by 2023. Learning how to manufacture a product was one of the first hurdles. Fitzgerald said, "through a lot of Googling" they found a website that platformed freelance product designers and facilitators.  

The woman they ended up contracting with put them in touch with a factory for manufacturing and was excited to help a small business with a paddleboard-related product.  

"She supported us in a way that was a little different than how she works with her bigger corporate clients, like how she's educated us and billed us, because she's also worked with much larger companies," she said.  

They looked at manufacturing their products in the U.S. but ultimately decided to go with a factory in China because of the cost savings it allowed. 

"It's so expensive and this is all bootstrapped by us, like when you're writing all those checks at the beginning, you're like 'Oh my gosh, we can't afford that.' So, you can see how things end up not being made in the U.S., unfortunately," Fitzgerald said.  

Finding a factory to manufacture their products in the U.S. could be possible as the business scales, she added. But for the new small business, it wasn't feasible to make the product expensive for consumers to cover the cost of manufacturing at home.  

In addition to learning more about manufacturing, Fitzgerald said they didn't know exactly how to get their product on shelves. So, they started by contacting local stores to gauge interest. Sportsman & Ski Haus was one of the first places to give them the green light.  

"It was a lot of cold calling and asking about who buys their paddleboard products. They asked us to come in and show [the cup.] We had no expectations and he's like, 'Cool, I'll take 50 of them and we'll see how they go.' And we're like, 'Wait, what?' We were so excited," Fitzgerald said.  

That sale came just a couple of weeks after their first shipment of cups arrived from the manufacturer, and soon, Sportsman & Ski Haus was followed by a deal with REI in Kalispell, then The Toggery. 

Floatsup went on to be sold in stores across the U.S., like Scheels Sporting Goods. Fitzgerald said they also sell paddleboard accessories in other local stores, including Westside Market in Whitefish, Whitefish Liquor Store and most recently, Snappy Sporting Goods.  

As their success grew, Fitzgerald and her husband started to seek out other entrepreneurs. The company had a good first couple of years, but they hadn't found a network of people or anyone who was in the industry around here. Fitzgerald first heard about the Small Business Development Center at a Whitefish Chamber of Commerce event, where she heard the center's Director Rob Driscoll speak about the services offered to up-and-coming businesses.  

"We just didn't know if we were like doing things right or if we were doing things well ... and  just feeling a little bit lost on next steps," Fitzgerald said. "So it was really a relief at the time to be able to go in and open up our books, like here's our accounts, here's our profit and loss and ask 'are we doing OK? What should our next steps be?" 

The Small Business Development Center is located on the Flathead Valley Community College campus. It's a resource for small businesses, where experts help people find the best path for their company, find efficiencies and connect them with loan opportunities.  

Fitzgerald said the impartial advice was refreshing. Driscoll helped clarify where their efforts should be spent and made them feel better about their progress so far. She said they only wish they'd learned about it sooner. 

"I feel like that could have saved us a lot of stress," Fitzgerald said.  

Floatsup has sold tens of thousands of products to date, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are finding huge financial success just yet. Fitzgerald said they are continuing to find their community of fellow entrepreneurs and learning new ways to improve on their already successful business venture. Eventually, she said they would love to work for Floatsup full-time.  

Outside of the craziness of creating new products and starting a business, Fitzgerald said there is always a reliable way for her and Eric to unwind. They can grab their paddleboard and bike down to City Beach in Whitefish, then take to the water for "a business meeting." 

After all, that's how they got to where they are today.  

"That is kind of how that all came to be, by basically drinking on our paddleboard," Fitzgerald said with a laugh. 

Learn more about Floatsup at floatsup.com.  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4440 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support. 

    The Floatsup cup holder utilizes bungee straps on a stand-up paddleboard to stay firmly in place while paddling. (photo courtesy of Paige Fitzgerald)
  

    Floatsup owners Eric and Paige Fitzgerald paddle on Whitefish Lake. (photo courtesy of Paige Fitzgerald)
  

    Floatsup sells paddleboard accessories of all kinds. (photo courtesy of Paige Fitzgerald)