1. Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located, and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
- Magma Industries wants to make your Volcano active! We’re all about improving upon the experience and incredible vapor quality provided by the Volcano Vaporizer. While the intrinsic quality of the vapor from the Volcano is leaps and bounds ahead of any competition, we felt we could make it better by introducing an integrated percolation solution that mates directly to the native Volcano hardware. We are headquartered in Pasadena, California.
2. Kindly give us a brief description of yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
- I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and went to college in the beach town of Isla Vista in Santa Barbara. In between attending classes and enjoying the beach, I always tinkered with my Volcano Classic finding new and innovative ways to connect the Herbal Chamber to different water pipes. This was the idea that seeded the Magma journey.
3. What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
- As a sophomore in Santa Barbara, I shared a Volcano Classic with my roommate Casey, and when not arguing over some heady topic from whatever classes we were taking that day, we would always talk about ways to improve upon the Volcano experience. We would always try different ways to connect our Volcano bags (and sometimes homemade whips from our Silver Surfer vaporizer, foreshadowing the future Volcano Hybrid perhaps?) to different percolation systems in a never-ending search for the perfect breath of cool, fresh, and tasty vapor. We always knew there had to be a way to get one of our traditional pipes on the top of the Volcano, and we didn’t understand why it wasn’t a readily available product, as almost every other vaporizer on the market had some way of passing the vapor through the water. Why not the Volcano?
4. What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
- Perform your due diligence: Market Research
- Find your niche
- Always be flexible
5. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
- Communication
- Solution-oriented thinking
- Perspective
6. How many hours do you work a day on average?
- Magma Industries was my first business, and it occupies a share of 3 other ventures I own and manage, but I still put in a minimum of 1-2 hours daily, and some days are fully occupied and can run 8+ hours.
7. To what do you most attribute your success?
- Support of the community
8. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
- Social media outreach and education, as well as meaningful interaction with the community, whether it be through online forums, in-person demonstrations, or presenting at tradeshows.
9. Where did your organization’s funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
- Self-funded with small investments from family and friends who are now strategic advisors. Whenever business problems require solutions I may not immediately know the answer to, I always know I have a versatile support system to reach out to.
10. What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
- Design and build/offer a quality product for a fair price. I like to focus on products that solve specific problems or offer tailored solutions for niche services.
11. Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
- On top of every Volcano
12. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
- Any company that has built their brand on quality, and has gained the trust of their customers to deliver on that expectation of quality and service. Apple, Craftsman.
13. How do you generate new ideas?
- Drawing inspiration from nature. Getting out of my mental comfort zone through either adventure or travel, always open to learning and hearing/getting input from people with differing viewpoints.
14. How do you build a successful customer base?
- Deep, meaningful engagement with the community. Answer questions directly and be open to critiques.
15. What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
- The ability to be creative on my own terms.
16. What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
- Seeing the ideas that I brought to fruition praised by the community for which I intended them to help. Nothing makes me happier than seeing someone I’ve never met have their lives and experiences improved by something I made.
17. What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
- Risk Tolerance and performance under pressure and high stress.
18. In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
- Dynamic
19. If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
- Nope
20. How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
- While it’s difficult to split time between work and personal life, it makes me appreciate the time I have with my family.
21. How can you prevent mistakes or do damage control?
- Mistakes are never preventable, they can only be minimized. The only bad mistakes are the ones you don’t learn from. Successful Damage control comes from one’s ability to keep cool under pressure and to be open-minded and flexible in the ways that you approach solutions to the problem.
for more information visit us at https://www.magma-industries.com
