This October, Xtrema Cookware turns 19 years old.
That is a pretty incredible milestone and honestly, a little hard for me to wrap my head around.
I have spent more than 17 of those years inside this company. I started part-time, doing whatever needed to get done and trying to figure out Facebook and ecommerce as we went.
There was no master plan that ended with me becoming CEO. Trust me!
Actually, there was not much of a master plan at all. 😂
There was a family with a big idea, a product we believed in and a willingness to keep working when the path forward was anything but clear.
Nineteen years later, Xtrema is still here.
We are still family-owned.
We are still scrappy.
And we still believe that what you cook your food in matters.
The Idea That Started It All
When Rich founded Xtrema, “non-toxic living” was not the mainstream conversation it is today.
He had spent decades working with glass and ceramic products, and he saw a gap in the cookware market. There were plenty of metal pans and plenty of coatings, but there was no complete cookware line made entirely from ceramic.
So he decided to build one.
Not ceramic-coated metal. (that wasn’t a thing)
Not a metal pan with a ceramic-sounding name.
Cookware made from ceramic, all the way through.
It was an ambitious idea. Some people probably thought it was a crazy one.
However, Rich believed families deserved another option, and he refused to take the easy route or blur the meaning of what we were creating.
That conviction became Xtrema.
Growing Up Inside a Family Business
I have had the privilege of watching this company grow from the inside.
I have also seen how hard building a business can be.
People usually see the finished product. They see the website, the cookware, the photos and maybe a social media post announcing something exciting.
They do not always see the years of work behind it.
They do not see the products that never make it to market, the supply-chain problems, the rising costs, the marketing ideas that completely flop or the conversations where there is no obvious right answer.
They do not see a small team trying to compete against companies with significantly larger budgets and resources.
They definitely do not see all the family conversations that somehow turn into business meetings.
That is probably for the best. 😂
But those experiences are part of the Xtrema story too.
We did not build this company because it was easy. We built it because we believed the mission was worth fighting for.
A New Chapter for Xtrema
This anniversary feels different because Xtrema is entering a new season.
Rich has stepped back from the day-to-day leadership of the company to focus more on his health and family. After spending so many years learning beside him, I now have the responsibility of helping lead Xtrema forward.
Rich recently told me I was the CEO now.
CEO is a pretty big “C” word, and it is not a title I take lightly.
If I am being honest, I would still rather be called Coach.
Coaching is where I feel at home. Whether it is high school lacrosse, my son’s flag football team or working beside the Xtrema team, I love helping people grow, pushing them when we need more and getting down in the work with them.
I do not want to lead from a distance.
I want to be a playing coach.
That means listening, making hard decisions, admitting when something is not working and continuing to fight for the mission that got us here.
It also means being more visible and more open with the people who have supported this company.
That is why I am starting this blog.
What I Want to Share Here
After 17-plus years, I have collected a lot of stories, lessons and probably a few opinions.
It is time I started writing some of them down.
I want to share what it is really like to help build and lead a family business.
I want to talk about Rich, Xtrema’s history and the lessons I have learned while watching someone refuse to compromise on a vision.
I want to answer the practical questions we hear from customers: how we use our cookware, how we clean it, what pure ceramic does differently and what I wish every new Xtrema owner understood.
I also want to take you into our home.
My wife, our two kids, our Golden Retriever Scoop and the meals we make together are a huge part of why this work matters to me. My daughter loves to cook with me, and some of my favorite moments happen when we are making something simple, talking and probably creating a much bigger mess than necessary. She’s the messy one! 😂
We recently built a guest cottage on our property as well. It has an Xtrema kitchen, of course, and I want to share what we learn from hosting other families and creating a place where people can slow down, gather and enjoy time together.
There will be stories about family, cooking, faith, leadership, failure, perseverance and the reality of competing as a small company in a very noisy industry.
Some posts will be useful.
Some will be personal.
Some may be a little messy.
That is okay. I am not interested in turning this into a polished CEO column filled with safe answers and corporate language.
That would not sound like me, and you would know it.
Why I’m Starting Now
Nineteen years is worth celebrating, but an anniversary should be more than looking backward.
It should also make you ask what comes next.
Where can we improve?
What should never change?
How do we protect what made Xtrema special while continuing to move forward?
Those are questions I am wrestling with right now.
I do not have every answer. Anyone who tells you they have every answer probably is not being completely honest with you.
What I do know is that Xtrema still has an important place in the world.
Customers are asking better questions about the products they bring into their homes. Families want greater transparency. People want to understand what their cookware is actually made from, not just what a marketing label implies.
We have spent nearly 19 years fighting for those conversations.
We are not done.
Thank You for Getting Us Here
A family business does not reach its 19th anniversary by itself.
It happens because customers take a chance on a product that is different.
It happens because they tell their friends, send an email, leave a review, ask hard questions and occasionally give us feedback we did not particularly enjoy hearing but needed to hear anyway.
It happens because team members care enough to keep solving problems.
It happens because families welcome our cookware into their homes and make it part of their own traditions.
If you have purchased Xtrema, recommended us, followed our journey or simply believed in what Rich set out to build, thank you.
Seriously.
We would not be approaching this anniversary without you.
As we head toward October and the beginning of Xtrema’s 19th year, I am grateful for where we have been, humbled by the responsibility in front of me and excited about what we can build next.
I’ll use this space to bring you along for that journey.
The real version.
Not perfectly polished. Not always easy. But honest.
Let’s get after it.
— Patrick Bergstrom
Husband, Dad, Coach, CEO and Teammate
