Before you can even begin to think you know me and you must know the story of what I’ve been doing the last few years.
To fully understand how the company ended up starting you have to know what was going on just before me and Marcus (Business Partner/Friend) even met. In 2005-2006 it was my junior year of high school and through endless talks with my best friend Dan I had begun to earn the trust of technology teacher Mr.Grimm (a guy I would come to have complete respect for) due to my vast knowledge of computers and a/v equipment. As the year progressed it was clear I was the front runner to replace Dan & Kâräñ who were in their senior year and part of Grimm’s student a/v team. Kâräñ began to train me on some of the equipment around the school for a job at the time I did not want, at same Dan trained me to take over the high school race team website. At the time I assumed I would be stuck doing the job solo but what I didn’t know was Marcus (2 years younger then me) was also being trained at the time as well.
2006-2007 The first day back to school I meet Marcus who would be working with me. Marcus a religious person someone who I hated at first but we quickly became somewhat friends due to our shared annoyance, Mr.Grimm and its hard to really hate someone you’re stuck working with 5 days a week. Over the year we realized we had far more in common and became very good at the events we were tasked with putting on, becoming invaluable to the school. We took full advantage of the perks of that, Grimm had even bought a refrigerator for us to use as thank you for all the extra work we were doing.
During this time I was also working on a start up with Dan called “GFX Web Solutions” which never got off the ground and we ended it May of my senior year. That failure would eventually lead me to comfortably take on a challenge years later. In April me and Marcus took on the biggest event of the year the Fashion Show and I meet Eric (yes I hated him too for awhile), a lighting guru. During the event we successfully rose the standard/production value of the event and it briefly had me reconsidering my career path.
Friday May 27th 2007: Me and Marcus had been asked to take a paying job djing a dance for someones senior project at a church just down street. It was our first event outside of the school. Sitting up on stage with the sound equipment I casually mentioned to Marcus that we should be doing this as our job but I wasn’t serious after having “GFX” just end but the idea stuck with me.
After high school I was dead set on my path to become a pc/network technician through a technical but multiple things keep postponing that, car troubles, sickness, ect. During the next 2 years I worked a dead end job keeping in contact with Marcus who was still in school and occasionally coming back assist with events. Also during this time I continued to assist Marcus with various events at his church. In April 2009 Marcus and Eric in their senior year blew the Fashion Show out of the water setting a standard we would go by every year and it got me thinking.
May 2009: That little thought 2 years ago was looking more and more possible. My dead end job really helped to understand more about business, the failure “GFX” and the fact Marcus was going to be graduating was pushing me to write the idea down on paper. I met with Marcus at Denny’s and told him my idea which he at first shrugged off but I was determined to make happen. I joked I always wanted a name with the word “Production” in it…thus the name “Aaron & Marcus Productions” which was perfect. I then approached my best friend and master web/graphic designer and in ten minutes on his porch with his laptop had created a logo and rough outline of the future website. I showed it to Marcus just 3 day after our first meeting who was shocked to see it come it come together like that. He was on board from that moment.
It took just one week for us to get the website together and write a business plan. Just 3 days after our launch we had our first job booked thanks to Mr.Grimm at Hartwood Elementary school.
Notes:
When happened my senior year I could fill this whole post I just summarized it. I may go into depth later.
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Aaron
Posted by Aaron M Zaffuto 
