Tag: Startups

This week’s release of the HammerHead housing represents 2+ years of hard work with my dad, lots of money spent, a few arguments, many meetings, 6 cars we sold, sleepless nights, thousands of mile traveling, and thousands of hours of development and testing. The HammerHead project originally started as an idea by my Dad who had some racing friends that needed a stronger rearend for the C2 & C3 Corvettes and he wanted to build one based on the old school 12 bolt GM rearend. Since he was life long hot rodder and retired patternmaker, he started working on the CAD design phase of that project. Then the 5th generation Camaro came out and was a huge hit right out of the gate (Thanks to Michael Bay and Bumble Bee of the Transformers), so Dad decided to refocus (pivot) and design for the Camaro first (The LX Chrysler and C2-C3 Corvette are coming next). As prototype fabrication work began, Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was completely unexpected and really scary but he got through that and has been very healthy for over a year now. Ultimately this HammerHead project helped him get through the cancer by keeping him focused on the project and family. My working closely with him on HammerHead has really brought us closer together as a father and son.

In late 2010 I quit my job as Internet Director at IHRA/Feld Motorsports to help Dad with HammerHead on the marketing and business end of things and around the same time (before leaving IHRA) I also started up a mobile/internet restaurant marketing company called 7Specials with my friend Ryan Maturski (co-founder of RacingJunk.com). So for the last two years, in probably the worst economy of my adult life, I dove headfirst into the World of Startups, focusing on different markets, and with physical and digital products…while also freelancing to pay the bills. Both businesses have had their highs and lows, and these past two years of my life have been both terrible and amazing at times with 80+ hour work weeks and sometimes just getting by financially. So I first have to thank my wife Sarah for being so understanding and supportive through the building of two companies.

We are also very thankful for family who were patient and believed in us. And for everyone in the racing and auto aftermarket industries who have helped us along the way, especially Frank Rehak of The Driveshaft Shop, Thomas Hendrix of Hendrix Engineering, Claude LaPlante of DTS, Wesley Rice of RL Cast Tech, Andy Schelke and the guys at NFCA, Zan and Randy Martin, and Kevin Shaw of Martin & Company Advertising, Eddie Safadi of Eaton, Pete Basica of Pedders, William Witt of Witt Buick, Horace Mast of Mast Motorsports, Scott Parker and Justin Cesler of GM High Tech Performance Magazine, Vic Edelbrock Jr. of Edelbrock, Tim Irwin, Kip Hayden and Rob Moser of Moser Engineering, Jim Barber of CARS, Doug Lane, George Lane, and John Sheskey of Motor State Distributing/Lane Automotive, Brian Thomson of Thomson Automotive, David Hamburger of SLP, Brian Lohnes and Chad Reynolds of Bangshift.com, Bobby Bennett of CompetitionPlus.com, Kevin Cradduck of NitroPlate, Tom Millen and Andy Ricketts of Livernois Motorsports, Bob, Andrew, and Justin Cutler of Muskegon Brake & Corvette, Tray Walden of Street Shop, Dale Aldo and Marty Wilson of MOPAR, AJ Berge and Eric Hruza of ShopHemi.com/Arrington Performance, our life long racing buddies Craig and Bret Saurbaugh, my partner in 7Specials Ryan Maturski and all the guys at RacingJunk.com, Kenny Robinson of Pro-Werks/Chassis Shop, Jeff and Tammy Mayes of the Music City Camaro Club, Phil Brewer and Jeff Georges of BRP Hot Rods/Muscle Rods, and a special shout out to Robert Kibbe of the MuscleCar Place and Dan Kahn for their great podcast: Cars for a Living and interview with John Hotchkis of Hotchkis Performance and other industry figures. And to anyone else I may have forgotten who has helped or encouraged us along the way! We’ll even thank the haters and the naysayers who said we would never get it done because for better or worse, we have learned a lot from everyone we’ve met and they have all ultimately pointed us in the right direction and made the HammerHead into a better product, and put us into a better position as we launch HammerHead as a product and brand.

Starting a business is very hard, but it is also very rewarding. We’re excited to bring HammerHead to market, and we really learned a ton during this product development phase of the business.