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Brian Darling, co-founder of Ugly Rabbit Golf, is the guest on The Range.

Brian and Ari recorded this one three days before Ugly Rabbit's shop opened. Brian earned the nickname "the Rabbit" in his stock trading group, then saw an Ugly Rabbit shirt on his LinkedIn feed and messaged the man behind it, Tim Havens. "By the end of the Google Meet, you know, we were partners." Since then the two have bootstrapped the brand while both still work day jobs, and they've built it for the everyday golfer who plays a few times a month and doesn't want to pay over a hundred dollars for a polo.

Ari and Brian talk about getting free shirts into the right hands when there's no marketing budget, a golf outing that started as a fundraiser, why Brian makes decisions on data and Tim tells him he's boring, trading a load of firewood for a pig, and why the only failure is not getting started.

Guest:
Brian Darling, co-founder of Ugly Rabbit Golf
Ugly Rabbit Golf: https://uglyrabbitgolf.com/
Instagram: @uglyrabbitgolf TikTok: @ugly.rabbit.golf

Read the stories behind every episode: https://therangegolf.club

Listen and follow The Range:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-range/id1782962002
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1fFYZLzmvMvcXC1LPktk98
Instagram: @therange_pod TikTok: @the.range.pod LinkedIn: The Range Podcast

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Grayson Gordon, founder of Bogeys Beef Jerky, is the guest on The Range.

Grayson found the jerky in a bowl in his company's break room. The maker was his co-worker, Doug Bogumill, who said he didn't have the time. Grayson kept getting him to make batches anyway, sold it to the parents in the basketball league he was teaching, and was "selling it out of sandwich bags." Sea Island came next, then Whistling Straits reached out, and Grayson put everything else on the back burner to go after the Top 100 golf courses in America.

Ari and Grayson talk about polite persistence, why the executive chef is the person to win over, the accounts you win and the ones you lose, and what Grayson calls pounding the stone.

A note on the picture: Ari Ratner's camera cut out at 10:42, so from there to the end he appears as an animated version of himself.

The conversation is all real; only Ari got the cartoon upgrade.

Guest:
Grayson Gordon, founder of Bogeys Beef Jerky
Bogeys Beef: bogeysbeef.com
Instagram and TikTok: @bogeysbeef

Read the story and get each new one in your inbox: therangegolf.club

Listen and follow The Range:
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-range
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show
Instagram: @therange_pod TikTok: @the.range.pod LinkedIn: The Range Podcast

#TheRangePod

Season 3 of The Range opens with an honest one. Host Ari Ratner is joined by his Mully's co-founder and longtime friend Chris Houghton, making his third appearance on the show, to talk about why they're closing Mully's, at least for now, and what they learned along the way.

Chris has been on The Range twice before: the intro episode, and the Season 2 episode about launching Mully's, their golf-inspired beverage brand. This time they sat down to talk about closing it, at least for this season.

The Range is about golf and entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship isn't always the highlight reel. Ari and Chris talk through what they got right, what they got wrong, and the decisions they'd make differently. That includes betting most of their focus on a THC beverage while federal rules were changing underneath them, leaning too hard on a sales partner, not spending enough time on direct sales, and how much their time and capital really mattered.

They also get into the part that mattered most to both of them. Before they started, they agreed their friendship came first. It still does.

For anyone thinking about starting something, especially with a friend or in a regulated space, this one is worth a listen.

Topics covered:
- What Mully's was supposed to be, and what they got right from the start
- What they got wrong: time, focus, and being in different cities
- Building around a THC product while the rules kept changing
- Holding on to the original strategy too long, and whether Range Finder was the better bet
- Relying on a sales partner instead of doing the selling themselves
- Capital, runway, and how much skin in the game really changes your behavior
- Going into business with a friend
- Regrets, lessons, and whether Chris would do it again

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:30 Season 3 starts, and Chris's third time on The Range
01:49 What Mully's was supposed to be
03:57 What they got right
05:23 What they got wrong
07:21 Betting on the THC side of the business
11:23 The biggest challenge: time and focus
15:18 Did they hold on to the THC strategy too long?
18:14 What they should have obsessed over: sales
19:21 Capital and runway
22:45 When Chris knew it was time to close
24:15 Chris on wearing the entrepreneur hat
28:25 Going into business with a friend
32:02 Would you do it again?
33:45 More or less interested in entrepreneurship?
35:22 Skin in the game
38:03 What they hope to remember
39:20 Walking off eighteen with their heads held up

A note on timing: this was recorded on October 1, 2026, while federal rules on hemp-derived THC beverages were still changing, so some details may have changed since.

Guest:
Chris Houghton, co-founder of Mully's
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischoughton/

Earlier episodes with Chris:
The Range: Intro Episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2429904/episodes/16209310
Season 2, Episode 9 - Mullys: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2429904/episodes/17896074

Read the story and get each new one in your inbox: https://therangegolf.club

Listen and follow The Range:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-range/id1782962002
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1fFYZLzmvMvcXC1LPktk98
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRange-Podcast
Instagram: @therange_pod TikTok: @the.range.pod LinkedIn: The Range Podcast

#TheRangePod