Hi, I'm James Friedrich
I own Ambler Mountain Works, a premium outdoor accessories brand sold across North America.
Before Ambler, I founded businesses and led a $60M product portfolio at MEC, Canada’s largest outdoor retailer.
I know what it takes to build brands that last. And I believe entrepreneurship shouldn’t be a lonely guessing game.
Connect with me on LinkedIn to see what I’m building next.
What People Are Saying
Brent Firkser, GOSO Cookware
"I can't emphasize enough how great it has been working with James. He is organized, kind, and wildly experienced, and he is 100% committed to your team. It's obvious that James is passionate about helping people succeed and possesses the skills and experience to help businesses grow. Hands down, working with James has been one of the best business decisions I've made.”
Daniel Henderson, Mudbutts
"What sets James apart is his empathetic approach, addressing the emotional aspects of the journey alongside the technicalities. A true motivator, James provides valuable guidance, making him an invaluable asset to any business.
Working with James will not only set you up for success in the long run, but will accelerate your trajectory to get there while saving you from some classic pitfalls. Highly recommend working with him.”
Steven Mulcahy, Passage Hats
“In one of the first sessions we spotted the opportunity to accelerate my company's growth by moving onto the traditional retail calendar and hiring a retail sales rep. Both of these things were something I thought about doing "one day". However, James showed a clear path to get there now and we quickly decided to focus on this as an immediate goal. From there it was all action to quickly move Passage onto the traditional retail calendar and hire a sales rep, a change that will result in tens of thousands of extra revenue in the next 12 months.”
Ben Brough, Deorum
“James is super professional, really insightful and all in all a great person to work with. I would recommend working with James in the early stages of business to anyone, especially in the outdoors industry. He has a huge amount of knowledge from past experience that can save you massive amounts of time and cut out a bunch of trial and error, and is just a great mind to collaborate with.”
Samantha Rayner, Better Basics
“James brought a scientific approach to analyzing our product strategy and building out recommendations to improve sell-through, manage inventory run rate and margins. He is thoughtful, thorough and creative. By diving into our past data and asking for some clear and specific insights he understood our brand and industry quickly, and was able to provide an actionable product roadmap to improve our product strategy.”
Michelle Beauregard, Quietly
“Being an entrepreneur can feel isolating and overwhelming. You have a million decisions to make, and self-doubt creeps in. James has been such a great mentor and coach to my business. In three months, I’ve made more headway than I could’ve ever done alone, keeping me focused on the top priorities so that I’m on track to reaching my goals.”
John Sears, GM Gregory Mountain Products
“James can clearly see where energy should be spent, and more importantly where it should not be spent, which makes the difference between success and failure of a small business.”
Adam Ketcheson, Ex MEC, North Face & Arc Teryx
“James has been in the trenches and understands how to make hard decisions as you bootstrap a new business.”