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Dick Dreissigacker

Co-founder, Concept2 · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderathleteengineerconcept2.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Dreissigacker represented the United States as a rower in the coxless four at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. In 1976, he and his brother Pete co-founded Concept2, transforming the sport by inventing carbon-fiber composite oars and the globally dominant indoor rowing ergometer.

9statements → 4claims → 2claims resolved → 3.89/5average certainty → 1.33/5average debate potential → 2said about them ↓

1 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 assertions · 3 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Dick argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Harvard Ordered Concept2 Oars Only After Losing to Yale
“After Yale beat Harvard, We got an order from Harvard for the oars.”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 25:20 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Dick Dreissigacker on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Dick Dreissigacker said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Concept2 Priced Early Products Based on Future Manufacturing Costs at Scale
“We tried to price it at what we thought we could eventually make it for. So we were projecting ahead that we could, you know, eventually get to the point where it was more profitable. And, you know, we use that philosophy all the time with other products now, …”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 27:18 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Insight
Concept2 Built Its Most Successful Products to Serve the Founders' Needs
“Most of the products that we've worked on and been successful with are products that That we want to use ourselves, you know, and the theory is that if we, you know, like the idea of having some way to train specifically for rowing without having to get to the…”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 28:36 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Disclosure
Concept2 Chose Direct Sales Over Giving Retailers 40 Percent Margins
“I mean, I think when we first started out, you know, stores or retailers were demanding very large margins, you know, they had to have a We didn't want to raise our price so that we could give them a 40% margin.”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 41:19 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Concept2 Generates More Than $100 Million in Annual Revenue
“We'd be a little bigger than that.”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 54:28 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Insight
Reducing Oar Blade Weight Determines Competitive Rowing Race Outcomes
“First, when you're rowing at a high stroke rate, you're having to move, swing this, rotate this oar back and forth. Through this wide arc, and because there's weight, particularly the weight out at the end where the blade is, it takes effort to accelerate that…”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 18:07 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Assertion Supported
Harvard Ordered Concept2 Oars Only After Losing to Yale
“After Yale beat Harvard, We got an order from Harvard for the oars.”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 25:20 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Concept2 Sold Out Its First 50 Indoor Rowers at a Regatta
“Well, at that point, we had, we were doing our first batch, I think it was like, 50, and I think we sold most of those, if not all of them, at that Masters, yeah, Championships regatta.”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 33:45 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Assertion Partly supported
Concept2 Launched Its First Rower at $400, Undercutting $3,000 Competitors
“400 dollars. Well, these rowing machines that the colleges would use, that they couldn't really afford to have a whole bunch of them in their gym, but they maybe have one or two, they were over 3000 at that point. Maybe 3500.”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 35:02 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Disclosure
Concept2 Is Exploring Patagonia-Style Purpose Trusts for Company Succession
“We're studying that right now, actually. And, you know, we've looked at things like what Patagonia has done, and, you know, they become kind of this poster child a little bit for this idea of the purpose, trust.”
Dick Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 56:27 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker

The other half of the tape: Dick Dreissigacker's own voice is left out of every number here. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Statements about Dick Dreissigacker, by other people (2)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
North Face Paid the Dreissigackers 35 Cents an Hour in Backpack Royalties
“They did actually produce it for a while, and they licensed some of the components that we were getting royalties from them... We figured the royalties, when all was said, amounted to about 35 cents an hour for our work.”
Peter Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 11:59 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Disclosure
Concept2 Co-Founders Chose Their Rural Location Before Their Business Plan
“We had a clearer vision of the place that we wanted to move to live, to do this business than we had of what the business was going to be.”
Peter Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 ▶ 19:59 Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker May 27, 2024 12m
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