Why GoWild is Retiring Our Recipe Functionality

A letter from our CEO & Co-Founder, Brad Luttrell

When we started GoWild, I was determined to build a place where people could learn. That has always been the goal—to have a community where we could help each other get better at whatever our outdoor pursuits may be.

It’s why we have things like our Podcast Log, Gearbox (where you can discover and purchase new gear), and Trophies. These features encourage us all to share what we’re learning, and they have all become increasingly popular as the audience scaled. 

As we’ve built out GoWild, one of these kinds of features, while incredibly cool, has not kept up in terms of community engagement, and I am sad to say it’s the Recipe Log. With this feature, you could share your wild game recipes, and they were pinned to your profile. This feature has always been a part of the platform, but today, we are sunsetting it. 

Or in other words, the Recipe Log has been removed from the GoWild platform. 

Recipes was a pet project of mine, as I am incredibly passionate about wild game. We created this functionality to help people find new ways to enjoy their game meat. But there were a few challenges that have just been too much to overcome, and at the end of the day, are challenges that aren’t GoWild’s to solve for. The biggest of challenges is that, quite frankly, uploading a recipe ingredient by ingredient via your phone is a crappy experience, no matter the app. 

What we’ve noticed over time is that most of you prefer to just share the handwritten family recipes you have, or to type in your recipe on your own. It doesn’t make sense for us to hold onto a functionality purely out of my own nostalgia or enthusiasm for the feature when it’s not how the community wants to share. With that in mind, we’ve sunset the product to focus on the features you all clearly love—Gearbox, Trophies, Time Logs and Podcasts. 

Our team’s dedication to building the best community for the outdoors is steadfast. But we are a small team, and determined to put our attention towards features the community wants. So while some of you are surely sad to see this feature go, just know it’s an overall commitment to what the community as a whole needs. 

I hope you’ll all continue sharing your wild game pursuits. I know I will. Nothing will stop me from sharing my weekend smokes of venison hams or my favorite ways to utilize turkey legs. I don’t expect it to stop you either. 

Stay wild,
Brad Luttrell
Cofounder, CEO
GoWild