Stephen Regenold

Background

About Stephen Regenold

I help companies scale through high-impact content strategy and audience growth. My work focuses on building editorial strategies that drive engagement, revenue, and differentiation in a crowded media landscape.BIO: Stephen Regenold is the Founder of GearJunkie, which he launched as a newspaper column at age 25 in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Regenold cut his teeth producing a quarterly 'zine (Vertical Jones) at the University of Minnesota's Journalism School and then as a reporter for a business magazine (first job out of college). Regenold launched GearJunkie.com in 2006, and for years he covered the outdoors and adventure space, including as a correspondent for the New York Times. With NYT, Regenold published 50+ articles, writing first-person accounts from remote geographies spanning from northern Ontario to the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave in Belize.He leaned into the lifestyle and traveled the world, building a résumé as an experiential journalist filing stories from expeditions and events like the Ironman and the Primal Quest adventure race. In 2011, he trained as an endurance athlete for months and then raced to the tip of South America in a renowned wilderness event, the Patagonian Expedition Race. His semi-pro team then won the U.S. Adventure Racing Championship in 2012. Regenold trekked to Mount Everest and climbed the highest volcano in Iceland. He staked first-ascent climbs in Canada and also (hilariously) won the 2013 Brompton U.S. Championships on a tiny, fold-up British bike. After the New York Times and years on the move, Regenold found a business partner and bootstrapped GearJunkie to a staff of 20+. Over five years, they built GearJunkie to become a top media brand in its vertical with millions of readers and significant revenue.GearJunkie was acquired by Lola Digital Media in 2020, a successful exit after years of growth. In 2021, Regenold helped Lola raise a $40M financing round to continue growth. He built a pipeline of acquisition targets and ushered multiple deals to reshape the company. In 2022, he led a corporate initiative to re-launch Lola as AllGear Digital, which today owns a diverse set of media properties. The business units include GearJunkie, Switchback Travel, The Inertia, Bikerumor, iRunFar, ExplorersWeb, and WildSnow.Beyond work and the outdoors, Regenold is the father of five kids and serves as a coach on their school's NICA mountain bike team. He and his wife, Tara, live in Minneapolis.