The Magi Group

In the early 90s, I was an owner of a digital design agency with a business partner that started to only do digital design work. We both saw the digital revolution coming, the launch of our company coincided with the beginning of multimedia in marketing, the explosive dot.com boom, the rise of CD-ROM as a medium for digital asset distribution, and the beginning of digital video. 

We started small, 2 guys in a room, subletting from a local software replication company, Isomedia in Redmond. Demand drove growth, we began to build our creative and technology teams, providing services of graphic design, information architecture, UX design, and content strategy. We ultimately brought on more developers, a technical consultant from Oracle, and began doing more sophisticated development. Over 10 years, we grew to more than 12x in personnel and revenue, delivering marketing tools, creative design, content strategy, and production.

We prototyped interactive media concepts, built websites, built user interfaces using Macromedia Director for a variety of clients. Our shop was even an authorized developer and trainer of Lingo, the object-oriented programming language in Director. It was a fun ride, we even ballooned up to 24 full-time employees.

Being a part of building that business was invaluable, and I'm grateful for that "Chinese Hot Pot" experience, as it only grew my confidence, helped me learn and understand how important both business and personal relationships are, how to run a business, and how to navigate a business partnership. The Magi Group was a springboard for what I would do next at Microsoft, AT&T, and Amazon.