Riding the Wave of Innovation: Lessons From Surfline’s 40-Year Business Evolution

Run the Numbers

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Riding the Wave of Innovation: Lessons From Surfline’s 40-Year Business Evolution

CJ Gustafson

May 05, 2025

Transcript

How does a surf forecasting platform evolve into a multi-pronged company with B2C subscriptions, advertising, B2B SaaS, and even some hardware? Dustan Berg, former equity analyst and current VP of Finance at Surfline Wavetrak, Inc., joins CJ to discuss the evolution of Surfline's business model and the nuances of running this 40-year-old startup. Dustan explains the role of data as a moat and how Surfline navigates retention and increasing wallet share in a business model that’s tied to user identity. He also talks about some of the frameworks he uses to maintain focus on strategy and what he learned about asking the right questions from his days as an equity analyst.

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LINKS:

Dustan Berg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustan-berg-cfa-b7a58634/

Surfline:

https://www.surfline.com

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

http://mostlymetrics.com

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