So big shout out them! Welcome to the show and I'm so happy we get to talk about your G.A.S. system. Tom Rauen So I like to say to move forward, to get momentum in your business and grow it, you've got to step on the gas, and that's our Growth Acquisition System. And we've been implementing that for I think right now... we're at six acquisitions in the last seven years, and that's enabled us to reach the Inc 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America the last three years. And it's just been an amazing ride so far. Marshall Atkinson Let's start with your origin story, Tom. So how did you get into this business? And then what markets are you focusing on sales? And I think that kind of dovetails into what you're doing with the G.A.S. system. Tom Rauen Yeah. So I started in 2005 in my parents' basement. We started off with BallStars heat press, making Christmas ornaments and custom sports photo balls. Then we got a Stahls’ clamshell press and started ordering in transfers -- that's present t- shirts with transfers. That only lasted about three months and I knew I had to get out of the basement into a storefront with high traffic locations. So we moved there, and upgraded to 2,000 square foot space, got a single head embroidery machine and the six color manual press. And we were open for business like, it was, ready to rock and roll. So the first two or three years was just cutting our teeth and learning the hard way, making a lot of mistakes, pulling all-nighters, working six-seven days a week, whatever it took to, you know, keep moving forward. And our goal always has been to build a solid foundation for our business, reinvest in equipment, reinvest in technology. And then as we began to grow, reinvest in our team and people. Over that course of time, we've grown. We moved out of a 2,000 square foot facility to the 7,000 square foot building in 2012. And thenmost recently we just expanded into a 35,000 square foot facility for operating four automatic presses, two manuals, about 50 heads of embroidery, a laser bridge, a couple of laser engraving machines, and a couple of large format printers. So gone quite a bit. But with that, what's helped fuel that growth has been the acquisitions and the model we've had behind it. And I'll say through six acquisitions, we've learned a lot, learned our sweet spot, and learned what works and what doesn't work. And I can go over a few of those with you right now. Number one, the biggest mistake I've learned is you want to make sure the equipment aligns with what your current equipment is. So if you have all M&R equipment in the business and you're looking to acquire some other brand, it's really tough to sync everything up because you have different squeegees and flood bars at different platforms, different parts, and different service.
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