41 - From Ski Bum to American Knife Maker: How Morgan Keenan Built Cudaway by Hand

What does it take to build a premium, made-in-America knife brand entirely by hand — no overseas factory, no marketing budget, no AI? In this episode of Innovator Insights, we sit down with Morgan Keenan, founder of Cudaway and co-founder of the fast-growing CPG brand Empress of Ghee, to hear how he did exactly that.We cover:His winding path from a cross-country dirt-bike trip to head knife maker to launching Cudaway in 2020Bootstrapping the brand one 20-knife batch at a time, tested and sold at farmers marketsThe craft and minimalist design philosophy behind the flagship Sanrok 7The realities of scaling a manufacturing business and managing cash flowWhy he sees AI as a powerful tool but a dangerous crutch for foundersHow Empress of Ghee grew from a single farmers-market batch into 29 retailers in just over a year