Our Wefunder campaign closes in less than 2 weeks: March 20th. That is just around the corner folks!
This Wefunder campaign certainly has been an interesting part of our journey! When we kicked off the Wefunder campaign I wasn’t sure what to expect. I am now overjoyed (and humbled) by the support of nearly 400 investors who have decided to join our business journey. Incredible people are joining our community as customers or investors (or both) every single day and it is amazing for us to see this company grow and become something worth talking about...
When Danielle and I started AmmoSquared in 2015, we really just had an idea about a new way to purchase ammunition. It was actually more a “put it out there and see what happens” kind of thing…
In 2015, I was working in corporate America and was regularly funding my 401k without much conscious thought. During that time, I was also coping with the ammo shortages and was having trouble finding ammo locally or online. At some point that year, I had a "lightbulb moment" that eventually became AmmoSquared: I wanted to buy ammunition with every paycheck and store it “online”, just like I did with my 401k investment money, until I needed it.
Nobody was doing it, so we started our little "mom and pop" venture five years ago. Over the years we’ve evolved that simple idea… and it continues to evolve today. In the beginning it was just Danielle, myself, and our three teenage daughters working in, at first our garage, and now a leased warehouse, answering calls, shipping boxes and putting stuff up on the website...
Some photos from 2016:
Today the team isn’t much bigger, with Chris, Clay and now Ramin doing much of the work on the future product and design while Danielle and I “hold down the fort” and continue to work on the daily operational stuff or getting out shipments and answering calls and emails.
It is hard work in the service of others and something much bigger: an idea about how to add value to the world. To paraphrase Steve Jobs: "to put our dent in the universe."
This is the American Dream in action folks...
1) a vision about how to do something better, 2) the willingness to put everything on the line and possibly fail, and 3) sheer amounts of plain ‘ol hard work. Add those together and you have the nucleus of something greater.
Once you have that “nucleus” you start adding mass and systems: People, Product, and Process as Marcus Lemonis would say.
That is where we are today.
We have a small core team that understands the vision and has the capability to make it a reality (People).
Next we have a service (Product): a unique way of buying, storing, exchanging and shipping ammunition to customers. Granted, it is a little rough still but we’re working on refining it and smoothing out the edges. It was good enough to get us started and prove out my initial idea, now we just need to make it easier for people to sign up and manage their inventory.
Finally, we have the internal systems (Process) that pull everything together and make the magic happen. I’ll be honest here... a lot of our current process is either non-existent, requires manual intervention, or at best, is inefficient. But you know what? That’s okay. Because we’ll improve our operational efficiency as we go, which will allow us to serve more customers and improve our margins. Which means more money for the business, which means more resources and more growth.
We’re at the start of the next phase in AmmoSquared Inc.’s journey and it is exciting to be here and write about it!
This year, 2020, will mark our FIFTH year in operation! I believe this year also represents a “tipping point” for us that is taking us from a small “mom and pop” with a novel approach to buying ammunition to an iconic, innovative, brand that is poised to disrupt the firearms industry and change how people think about and purchase ammunition online today.
It is an incredible time to be part of AmmoSquared and I’m excited for the nearly 400 investors that have jumped in with us. To have that kind of community and support is amazing.
I know many of you are customers as well, which is even more of a vote of confidence in what we are doing. We’ve come a long way from our little black boxes with spray painted logos and vacuum sealed partial packs of ammunition (if you were around in 2016, you know what I’m talking about), and we have so much more of a journey to take together!
Also from 2016:
With the funds from our Wefunder campaign we've set the wheels in motion for AmmoSquared 2.0. We're getting the right people on the bus and have begun the process of improving our systems and processes.
We've also been able to purchase ammo direct from manufactures in larger quantities and have already seen an improvement in our margins.
Our marketing campaigns, though aimed primarily at bringing in new investors, have brought many new faces to our virtual front door and they have become customers.
In short, we're poised for huge growth in 2020! I can't say where we'll be in a year exactly, but I know it will be incredible to look back at this moment and see how far we've come. It will be like looking back at those photos from 2016 and seeing how much of a change we've experienced. The only difference is that I expect we'll do in one year what we did in four before as our momentum increases and we see a tipping point in the adoption of our service.
If you aren't part of our story yet, I want to invite you to join our journey...
Hosting an equity crowdfund so that ANYONE could invest in AmmoSquared was important for me personally. I wanted a way for our customers and supporters to get in early and participate in our growth. Unfortunately, if you haven't jumped in yet, time is running out. After March 20th, our ability to accept new investments from small investors will close and we won't legally be able to bring on anyone except accredited investors.
So be part of the AmmoSquared story, invest in a company driving innovation in the ammunition industry, and help support the 2nd Amendment with your investment dollars. We'd love for you to join our community!