The first 18 years of my career was spent on the creative side of big advertising agencies. I created big national tv campaigns. I led and managed the creation of even bigger international video, out-of-home and digital campaigns. I was fortunate to work with amazingly talented film directors and photographers, along with amazingly talented and smart co-workers. I spent a lot of time in customer research– focus groups, one-on-ones, message testing, pre-message testing, post-message testing, and did that all over the world. I pitched and presented thousands of ideas to CEOs, CMOs and lots of other client and industry partners. I worked with huge technology brands, startups, startups that became big brands, big beer brands, wine brands, sports brands and sports franchises.In 2009, I realized it was time to stop working for someone else. I accumulated a wealth of knowledge, but more importantly I finally believed enough in myself to do things the way I think they should be done.I started my first company in 2009, called SA-5. Our clients included Logitech and Yahoo, and in our first year we generated over $2 million in revenue.Four years later I merged SA-5 with a larger company, Teak, whose roots were in tv/video production and post-production. I led a re-brand of Teak as a “branding and content studio”- merging Teak’s historic strengths and my passion for branding. In our first year together our revenues increased by almost $2 million.Teak’s mission today is to partner with companies that inspire us to develop long-term value for their brands. We describe what we do as a combination of the visual design of a branding firm, storytelling of a production company, and innovation of a digital agency. We work with startups and established brands across the spectrum from brand strategy & positioning to visual identity development to marketing content and distribution. Our focus is aligned with our passions– technology, outdoor/active lifestyle and travel brands.