How An 8-Figure Door to Door Solar Business Survived Collapse & Made Full Recovery

“There was just something in the air,” Riley Traveler reflected at the start of his conversation with Sam Taggart on the D2D Podcast. That “something” was the dawn of the solar boom, a wave he caught right after his early days in door-to-door alarm sales. Riley, now the CEO of the massive solar company Boundless, shared an unvarnished look into his journey – from being a “young rookie” at Pinnacle to navigating the volatile early days of SolarCity, and ultimately founding Boundless. It’s a story of recognizing pivotal moments, enduring extreme entrepreneurial challenges (including nearly three years of unprofitability and an $8 million debt), and making game-changing decisions to build a company that has installed over 20,000 accounts since 2020 and donated significantly to charity. This isn’t just a success story; it’s a playbook on resilience and leadership.

Overview

Key Outcomes

• Built Boundless into a major solar company, installing over 20,000 accounts since June 2020.

• Successfully navigated Boundless from near financial collapse (losing $200k/month at one point, $8M in personal guarantee debt) to sustained profitability.

• Pioneered early solar sales strategies during his time at SolarCity, contributing to the industry’s foundational growth.

• Championed significant charitable giving, with Boundless donating over $1 million to the Give Power Foundation.

• Engineered a crucial culture shift at Boundless, moving from a risky lead dependency back to a robust “eat what you kill” sales philosophy, which dramatically improved company performance and morale.

Professional Profile

• Name: Riley Traveler

• Industry: Solar Energy (Door-to-Door Sales, Leadership, Business Ownership)

• Focus: Building and Scaling Solar Sales Organizations, Leadership Development, Strategic Business Turnarounds

• Location: Northeast USA (Boundless operates extensively here; Riley is based in Massachusetts)

• Years in D2D Sales/Related Fields: From college summer sales (alarms, circa mid-2000s) through current role as Solar CEO (approx. 15+ years).

• Business Scale Before Boundless: Experienced sales representative and leader in the alarm industry (Pinnacle) and a key player in the early growth of SolarCity.

• Business Scale with Boundless: CEO of a company achieving over 20,000 solar installations and a significant national footprint with installation partner Freedom Forever.

Challenges Faced

Initial Situation (The Early Days & CEO Plunge):

Riley’s journey began like many in the D2D world – a college student at Utah State seeing others flash cash from summer sales. “I saw all these dudes and girls…driving nice cars and having money,” he recalled. He jumped in, “sucked for a little while,” then found his footing. His move to solar was a leap of faith, driven by the fear of looking back and wondering “what would have happened.” Starting Boundless in June 2020 meant building during COVID, but the deeper challenges were yet to come.

Impact Analysis (The CEO Crucible):

The Unprofitability Abyss:

Boundless didn’t make money for nearly three grueling years. Riley recounted, “My first Christmas as a new business owner…we’re in the negative. Christmas two comes around, we’re still losing money. Christmas three rolls around, we’re still losing money.” At one point, they were losing $200,000 a month.

Crushing Personal Risk:

Riley had a personal guarantee on company debt that climbed to around $8 million. “We are one bad situation away from everything that I had saved and earned…being just gone.”

The Lead Dependency Trap:

An initial boon of high-quality, low-cost leads from their install partner, Freedom Forever, inadvertently created a company culture dependent on being fed. When these leads dried up due to external market changes (like Apple’s impact on Facebook ad tracking), Boundless was in trouble.

Identity Crisis & Spiraling Costs:

To combat the lead shortage, Boundless veered from its D2D roots, spending heavily for two years on an internal call center and buying various leads. “We spent money to try and solve that problem for two full years…Never one time making money,” Riley admitted.

The Mask of Leadership:

Through it all, Riley had to project confidence. “I’m putting on a face every day that things are great and we’re building something. And in the back of my mind, I also know that we are [in trouble].”

Objectives and Goals (The Boundless Turnaround Mission)

Short-Term Goals (During the Crisis):

• Stop the catastrophic monthly financial losses.
  
• Drastically reduce reliance on expensive, underperforming purchased leads.
  
• Realign sales team compensation and motivation with activities that actually generated profit.
  
• Steer the company away from potential bankruptcy.

Long-Term Goals:

• Build a financially sound and sustainable solar enterprise.
  
• Forge a resilient sales culture founded on self-generation, accountability, and an “eat what you kill” mindset.
  
• Establish Boundless as a respected leader in the solar industry.
  
• Continue and expand their impactful charitable work with organizations like Give Power.

Strategy Implementation

Unique Approach to Success: Back to D2D Basics

Facing potential ruin, Riley didn’t look for a complex new-age fix. Instead, he orchestrated a return to the foundational principles of door-to-door sales, emphasizing self-reliance and direct accountability. This was informed by his own D2D DNA and lessons from bold business moves he observed, like Elon Musk’s radical restructuring of Twitter.

Phase 1: The Illusion of Easy Growth & The Subsequent Fall (2020-2022)

The Initial Surge:

Boundless launched in June 2020, and as Riley described, Freedom Forever’s marketing engine was incredible. “We’d wake up in the morning and we’d have a hundred appointments pre-booked…they were incredible.” This fueled explosive growth but also a dangerous complacency. “We just became lead dependent,” Riley confessed, a stark contrast to his D2D background.

The Lead Engine Sputters:

By early 2021, the landscape shifted. Apple’s privacy changes hit Facebook’s ad targeting, drastically reducing lead quality and increasing costs for Freedom Forever, and in turn, for Boundless. Sales began to tank.

The Costly Detour:

For the next two years, Boundless tried to buy its way back to growth, sinking significant money into an internal call center, various lead generation strategies, and building a canvassing team. “My thought process at the time was when we had a lot of leads, we were winning…So we’re going to do that again.” This strategy, however, only deepened the financial hole.

Phase 2: The “Eat What You Kill” Revolution (New Year’s Day 2023)

The Epiphany:

Riley realized the core issue: “We abandoned our identity. We stopped being an organization that went out and created business.” Inspired by leaders making tough calls, he convened his five partners on New Year’s Day 2023.

The Hard Reset:

Shutdown & Layoffs: The call center was shut down, and staff were laid off (with severance – “I sleep much better at night knowing that we took care of people”). All purchased lead generation ceased.

Setter Comp Overhaul: The setter program compensation was radically changed. Instead of paying for appointments, they moved to paying for signed deals or allowing setters to take half of the install commission, splitting the M1 with the salesperson.

Empowering Sales Reps: Closers working setter-generated deals received half the commission they’d earn on a self-generated deal, incentivizing self-reliance.

Unleashing Autonomy:

Riley stopped the company from centrally managing and distributing leads. “We’re not scheduling anything. Like you give your leads to who you want to give them to…The best setters know who the best sales reps are.”

Phase 3: The Renaissance & Return to Profit (2023 Onwards)

Immediate Vindication:

The results were startling. “January 2023 was our most productive month in company history for deals from our center program,” Riley shared, the very month after the drastic changes.

Trimming the Fat:

Much like Sam Taggart’s own past experience of cutting staff yet maintaining sales volume, Boundless found that the changes eliminated inefficiencies and those “gaming the system.” The most productive people thrived.

The Road to Black:

These decisive actions stanched the financial bleeding and realigned the entire company towards profitable, sustainable practices. By his fourth Christmas as a business owner, Riley proudly stated, “We’re making money and we’re profitable and we’ve paid down debt and like, life is pretty good.”

Resources Utilized

Key Mentors & Strategic Partnerships:

Early guidance from his brother-in-law Brian Timms; being recruited into solar by James Allred; a crucial financial and strategic partnership with Brett Bushey, CEO of Freedom Forever (whom Riley called “the single most impactful person in my career”).

Learning from External Leaders:

Drawing inspiration and courage from bold business decisions in the wider market (e.g., Elon Musk’s restructuring of Twitter).

Informative Media:

Keeping abreast of business trends (Riley mentioned being a fan of the “All In Podcast”).

Internal Leadership Team:

Collaborative decision-making with his partners was key to navigating the turnaround.

Core D2D Philosophy:

The foundational “eat what you kill” mindset ultimately became the company’s salvation.

Results Achieved (Post-Turnaround)

Quantitative Outcomes:

• Transformed the company P&L from losing $200,000 per month to achieving sustained profitability.

• Systematically addressed and began paying down an $8 million debt burden.

• Shattered previous records for internally generated sales in the first month following the strategic overhaul.

• Significantly improved the cost-per-acquisition by focusing on higher-intent, internally cultivated leads.

Qualitative Outcomes:

Revitalized Company Culture:

Successfully re-anchored the company’s identity to the D2D principles of self-generation, accountability, and rewarding true performance.

Increased Operational Efficiency:

Eliminated wasteful spending and processes, ensuring efforts were directed at revenue-generating activities.

Empowered Top Performers:

The shift towards autonomy in lead distribution naturally favored the most effective setters and closers.

Restored Leadership Confidence:

Riley and his partners moved from a state of high stress to confidently leading a thriving, healthy business.

Boosted Morale for High-Achievers:

Team members who embraced the “eat what you kill” ethos were validated and saw increased opportunities.

Final Analysis

Success Factors:

Decisive & Courageous Leadership:

Riley’s willingness to make incredibly difficult decisions—like significant layoffs and radical changes to compensation and operational models—when the company faced collapse.

Reclaiming Core Identity:

The profound realization that straying from their D2D “eat what you kill” ethos was a root cause of their struggles.

Learning Agility:

His ability to observe and apply lessons from other business leaders and market events (like Elon Musk’s actions at Twitter) to Boundless’s specific situation.

Resilience & Unwavering Belief:

Enduring nearly three years of significant financial losses and immense personal risk, while maintaining a belief in the eventual success of the venture.

Valuing True Contribution:

Restructuring the company to explicitly reward sales and installations that were profitable and sustainable, rather than just superficial activity metrics.

Lessons Learned:

The Siren Song of Easy Leads:

While externally sourced leads can fuel initial growth, over-reliance without a strong internal generation engine is a significant vulnerability, especially when lead quality, cost, and availability are outside your control.

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast (and Lunch, and Dinner):

A sales culture built on true accountability and rewarding genuine production will always outperform one that allows for “gaming the system” or relies on unsustainable inputs.

The Unavoidable Pain of Necessary Change:

Delaying or avoiding tough decisions regarding costs, personnel, or core strategy can lead to far more devastating outcomes than the short-term pain of implementing those changes.

Trust Your Foundational Principles:

Riley’s deep D2D background provided the intuitive understanding of what truly drives sales success, which was critical in steering the company back on course.

Autonomy Fuels Excellence:

Empowering your best people and allowing natural performance-based hierarchies to emerge can be far more effective than rigid, top-down control, especially in sales environments. “The leads find them [the best closers],” as Riley noted.

Riley Traveler’s Testimonial

“For almost three years, Boundless wasn’t making money. We were chasing a model that, frankly, wasn’t true to our D2D roots. I had an $8 million personal guarantee on our debt, and we were losing $200,000 a month at one point. The absolute turning point was New Year’s Day 2023. We decided to shut down the expensive, ineffective lead-buying machine, overhaul how we paid our setters, and essentially go back to an ‘eat what you kill’ philosophy. It was a terrifying decision. But that January, right after those changes, became our most productive month ever for deals from our internal setter program. You can’t just spend your way out of a hole if the fundamentals are wrong. We had to get back to our identity as creators of business, and that’s what saved us and set us on the path to where we are today.”

Conclusion

Riley Traveler’s candid story of building Boundless, shared so openly on The D2D Podcast with Sam Taggart, is more than just a business case study; it’s a testament to entrepreneurial fortitude. It vividly illustrates that even companies experiencing rapid growth can veer off course by chasing unsustainable models or becoming disconnected from their core strengths. Riley’s journey showcases the critical importance of courageous leadership willing to dismantle failing systems—even if it’s painful—to save the entire enterprise. His return to the foundational, gritty principles of door-to-door sales and self-reliance didn’t just rescue Boundless from the brink; it forged a stronger, more resilient, and ultimately more successful company. For any business owner or sales leader feeling the pressure of a challenging market or a flawed model, Riley’s experience offers a powerful and hopeful blueprint: sometimes the most radical changes, especially those that take you back to your roots, are the ones that lead to your brightest future.