Always make your future bigger than your past.

Dan Sullivan once said, “Always make your future bigger than your past.”

Even if your past was gigantic.

In the spring of 2005, a handful of twenty-somethings from Austin, Texas rejected the rigid road their degrees dictated and decided to embark on an entrepreneurial endeavor that would otherwise be deemed by the business community as really, really stupid:

They were going to bootstrap an online print shop, snag a cheap domain name, call it BuildASign.com, and let the customer do the work.

For months, it was in fact, really, really stupid. No customers would bite, no company would buy. Shop after shop told those twenty-somethings, as if they were in some kind of blind alliance, that no one  would want to order custom signs and banners online; consumers demand the physical, visceral experience. It’ll never work. Sorry, no sale.

A decade later, those twenty-somethings are now thirty-somethings, BuildASign.com has been bootstrapped into an ecommerce powerhouse, and the company is armed with an arsenal of sharp and fast teams – all dedicated to disrupting the way people consume, one customizable sign (or canvas, or t-shirt, or banner, or business card, or…) at a time.

So now, as the spring of 2015 approaches, my co-founders and I can proudly look back on the last ten years of accomplishments, and brim with excitement as we look forward to the next ten.

After all, you should always make your future bigger than your past.

So, in the spirit of gigangic pasts and even gigantic-er futures, I am very excited to announce that after ten years of bootstrapped bliss, “Sorry, no sale.” has transformed into “You’ve got a deal,” and BuildASign.com has officially taken an outside investment from PWP Growth Equity, a global, independent advisory and asset management firm,  to help fuel our growth fire for the next decade of badassery.

By transacting this equity sale, we are able to remove risk from our aggressive growth strategies; allowing for more of our teams to seize more opportunities and grab even more wins. This strategic financial partnership will equip our aforementioned arsenal with the resources they need to rise above our competition and I feel strongly that this investment will help us completely command the world’s print space. What’s more, PWP has incredible strength in offline marketing and sales, which will come as a great compliment to our existing online marketing expertise.

When you look back on the last ten years, and all the things we were able to achieve with just our bootstraps, you might be impressed. But when you look forward on the next ten years, and all the things we will be able to wholly dominate, well, then you might just spontaneously combust. This is the beginning of a very cool chapter, and I’m ecstatic to continue working alongside all the talented, innovative, and hungry teams  that make up the very fiber of BuildASign.com’s being.

On to the better, faster future; on to the next ten years!