Altanx 1.0 started when I was 17 years old in 2011 and my dad gave me the idea to sell football kits to my school after I complained about how expensive buying new uniforms were. While on my side it was simply something to do outside of school, my dad hoped by going through this experience, I’d get my first taste of running a company and understanding how business works. The idea and business model was simple, to reach out to my previous football contacts in Hong Kong, Guam and Saipan and sell high quality, low cost football uniforms that would be produced in one of my family’s factories.
Story
This started in the spring of 2011, culminating in six orders that were manufactured and delivered in the summer. While Altanx’s first and largest order got off to an unfortunate start with a late delivery, mismatched sizes and colors topped by printing peeing off; the other five orders went relatively smoothly and proved there was a market for the product.
As time went by, things got better. I learned how to do proper sales presentations, standardize intake forms and handle customer expectations and relationships. Beyond that, we expanded our customer base from Hong Kong to Guam and Saipan as well. While none of this happened quickly, it resulted in solid YoY growth, topping out at $250k revenue with a healthy 30% gross margin with minimal expenses. In 2014 though, we hit a bottleneck because the factory couldn’t take any more custom orders and eventually shut down in the same year leading to Altanx 2.0.
Why was this important
Altanx means a lot to me because it gave me something to focus on. At the time, I was going through a relatively low phase in life. Between giving up a dream to play football professionally, struggling to fit in with friends/relationships and doubting the importance of schooling, I had a lot of negative emotions at the time and Altanx provided concrete positive validation that I couldn’t find elsewhere. Even though I couldn’t help but feel a sense of impostor syndrome, it was encouraging to see tangible results and created something that would not have otherwise happened.
Beyond that though, building a business was a new experience for me and that meant confronting weaknesses. Growing up I was a shy kid but because I had to meet prospects and sell, bit by bit I learned how to overcome some of my own shortcomings and gain confidence in myself.
Most importantly though, for the first time in my life, Altanx showed me that I could influence the direction of my own life. I started to see how life didn’t have to be done in the high school to college to corporate job lockstep path, and that there was potential for more than that. A new reality can’t be created unless you can first envision it and so I’m glad that Altanx did this for me.