Our Story – Happy 10th Anniversary AeroCom!

 
Today, May 1, 2013, AeroCom celebrates 10 years in business, a really cool milestone that I am very proud of accomplishing. On a deeper and more important level, it also means that we are celebrating 10 years of helping thousands of businesses improve their companies, 10 years of helping many service providers increase their sales, 10 years of providing a livelihood for our AeroCom employees and their families and 10 years of fun and excitement. A huge thank you to all of the people I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the last decade. Many outstanding people have worked very hard to help AeroCom get this far. This milestone belongs to all of us.

As a fun look back, I thought it would be interesting to give you my perspective on our story thus far…

On this very day, a decade ago, you might have thought I was crazy. You wouldn’t have been alone. My wife, Carrie, and I had just found out she was pregnant with our first daughter…. and what did we do? Within 1 week, we agreed that I would leave a very good sales position (that I had held for 4 years at a very good telecommunications service provider, with great pay and great benefits), to start a company that (as everyone told us), had only a 10% chance of survival beyond 2 years. Looking back, it looks like a great decision but I assure you, it didn’t look so hot then and going to $0.00 income was not exactly calming.

Carrie and I made that decision, however, because we had a vision (cooked up on a couch over countless nights and glasses of wine), of doing something businesses would enjoy and I would enjoy doing. That vision was to create a company that would provide businesses with a service that didn’t currently exist but was definitely needed: A reputable company with knowledgeable, no-cost experts on pricing and products from every communications technology service provider in the country. I never wanted to own a business but we could not shake this idea or live with ourselves if we didn’t at least try it.  We knew it made sense but we were still very scared of starting a business and all of the risks that came with it. Ironically, I think Carrie had more confidence than I did…

On our first day, May 1, 2003, I woke up at 6:00 AM and put on a shirt and tie and walked down the hallway into my new office – a spare bedroom in our condo in Orange, CA., that I had equipped with some used office furniture that I bought at a discount store. I sold our first customer that month and we were off and running. I continued that morning routine, (including the tie) for at least a year. Within 2 years, my wife and I had moved the business to Huntington Beach (to be closer to family), had another daughter on the way and were ready to hire our first employee – a second salesperson. Again, I was scared to death.

Nevertheless, we signed a one-year lease on a shabby 400 square foot office space and we bought some used cubicles and jammed them into the tiny spot. I posted the open position on some local college websites and within a couple days, I received my first call from a qualified candidate, scheduled my first interview and ended up hiring him. Who hires the first person they’ve ever interviewed? That person, Daniel Mocny, had no work experience and was just finishing his college baseball career but he just seemed like a good person that I could trust and that was ready and open to learn. I later found out that when we hired him, he eventually wanted to be in the FBI but (while he waited to get into the police academy), he needed a job and it came down to either AeroCom or a box boy job at Costco. AeroCom won… because we were only 1 mile from his apartment… no other reason. Wow! So much for all that philosophy on how to coax good talent into your organization. Well, it worked out and Daniel became our first (hired) employee, is still with our company today and has been our most successful salesperson in the history of our company. His first few days were spent working with me in my home office because our phone system wasn’t installed yet!

Quickly after hiring Daniel, we started hiring more salespeople and soon outgrew our tiny office space. We moved the business to nearby Costa Mesa, into a bigger and better office space, where we spent the next 6 years growing AeroCom into a substantial name in the industry.

Last August, AeroCom once again outgrew our office space and this time, we decided to move into an office space that was enjoyable to work in and that rewarded our team members for their hard work. We settled into an incredible office in Newport Beach, where we plan to write many new chapters in this story.

Today, 10 years (and 4 kids), later, through the hard work of everyone involved, AeroCom has garnered many industry awards and accolades for our success and for ultimately, the service we are providing to our clients, employees and suppliers. We have hundreds of clients, nationwide and I feel we are doing what Carrie and I thought we could: Providing a great service to businesses, one of the best places to work and quickly earning our spot as one of the top companies in our industry. Thanks again to our clients, employees, suppliers and vendors. You are the people that make this company special.

Happy 10th Anniversary to all!