The Sufferfest Part II: There Is No Try

Welcome to part 2 of our Sufferfest feature. We continue with our interview with David McQuillen, founder of The Sufferfest, to hear more about the ‘Fest and what it holds in store for us.

In part 1, we were discussing about Sufferfest being a ‘one man show’, we close this interview with more about what makes Sufferfest special to Dave, and to its customers.

Dave McQ: I do everything man.

TGP: Okay when you meant everything, you really mean everything…

Dave McQ : I stuff envelopes. Also, from a small business angle, Sufferfest is entirely self-funded. So I don’t have any investors, so I always have to be really careful with money. So I couldn’t go and hire big order fulfillment to do my stuff, I don’t have the money, so… I think…yeah. Just learned a lot doing it myself, I feel I’m more in touch with my customer. Somehow, this feels comfortable.

I love dealing with customers. I got an email yesterday in which a guy wrote to me saying:

“I know you probably get a lot of emails that your videos are good, but I just wanted you to know that your videos are my fave! I’m a big cyclist and I used to go out all the time on outdoor rides, but my wife has stomach cancer, so I can’t leave the house to go for a ride. So the only time I have to train is indoors, and your videos are escape for me. It’s the one hour of the day where I am not fighting cancer, where I am not trying figuring out how to get through another day. When I’m on Alp d’Huez, battling Alberto Contador for the victory”. 

You get emails like this which are just awesome. I can’t imagine anyone else touching my emails. And this is where I feel so good about what the Sufferfest does.

I always say, Sufferfest is not about making people suffer, it’s about making people feel proud of themselves, ’cause that’s when you come off.  When you get off that bike after that hour and you knew you stuck with Alberto Contador on the ride to Alp d’Huez down to that sprint, you feel good right? That’s what it’s about, it’s how you feel after the workout. During the workout you feel awful (laughs) but afterwards, you think, ‘yeah man, I pushed myself, I didn’t give up, didn’t give up on that interval’.

And you see people on Twitter…like there’s a guy this morning who comes on Twitter to check Downward Spiral. And tomorrow he’s gonna do it twice.

This concludes our interview with Sufferfest founder Dave McQuillen. We thank Dave for taking the time to chat with us, to share his thoughts and plans for The Sufferfest. It is always a pleasure to sit down and talk with someone who is extremely passionate about what he does.