Built to Last, Not Built to Sell

Why I'm building AmmoSquared for legacy, not an exit.

AmmoSquared is not a copycat company, and we never will be.

I remember years ago, when I was first struggling to get AmmoSquared off the ground, having a conversation with a high school friend of mine who was in a similar situation with his business.

For both of us, the goal was to build a business so we could have freedom from a regular job. He had already built a successful marketing company and sold it, while at the time I had a string of false starts and unique business failures to my name. AmmoSquared was still an unproven business experiment that looked like it could go the way of the dodo bird at any moment. In other words: extinct.

Our conversation revolved around what I call a "me too" business, or a copycat business. He was on the side of copying a proven business model—something that already had a formula you could follow and be successful. I was on the side of building something unique and unproven.

Pioneers get arrows in their backs and fail, while fast followers or "settlers" take the prize. It's a very common idea in the startup world.

His argument was that I was taking a much more difficult approach to entrepreneurship, one filled with failure. Instead, he argued, I could find a need in my community or online and fill it with a cookie-cutter business. A business that would help me get out of the soul-sucking corporate job I had at the time. It would accomplish my goal of "being my own boss" and possibly give me financial freedom in the process.

Yes… but.

There was something wrong with that approach, and I couldn't put my finger on it back then. Now, looking back, I know I had a deeper goal. A goal to build something that didn't already exist. To bring something to life and add value to the world where none existed before.

The article above would call it ego. I just see it as a need to be contrarian. Anyone who knows me would say I’m not driven by ego, but on the other hand they would also say I definitely don't like doing what everyone else is doing!

Building for Legacy

Fast forward about eight years.

The original conversation happened roughly a decade ago, when AmmoSquared had been around a few months, even before we had any customers.

Part two of this conversation happened a couple of years ago, after AmmoSquared had seen some significant success and could clearly be valued in the tens of millions of dollars.

Now the conversation was different and framed around his suggestion that I should "just take the money and run." This is when I finally realized the true "WHY" behind what I was doing and why I didn't build a copycat business.

I'm not building a company for the money. I'm building it for legacy.

"Legacy is great in theory," he argued, "but you can't eat it if you wind up poor. Why not sell now so you don't have to worry about something coming out of the blue and tanking your business? Then you'd be left with nothing."

He had a good point, and one that plenty of entrepreneurs would agree with. But looking back, I realize those two conversations were really about the same thing. I didn't want to copy someone else's successful business model, and I didn't want to build something just to sell it.

I wanted to create something new, something that made a difference, and something that would continue doing those things long after I was gone. That's a different motivation than simply trying to make money. I believe that motivation influences nearly every decision we make as a company.

We have a saying in my house: "Do what everyone is doing and you'll get what everyone else gets." In some cases, there is nothing wrong with that. In the business world it has made plenty of multimillionaires, to be sure.

But I believe that mindset has also contributed to the destruction of some genuinely great companies.

The Problem With Building to Sell

This has become even more abundantly clear to me as I interview candidates for a financial leadership role we have open.

We received nearly 300 applicants, and I've personally interviewed at least two dozen people.

In these conversations, I'm noticing a very common thread: Many of these folks work at companies that were bought by private equity firms or larger corporations, which then proceeded to dismantle the very things that made those companies successful in the first place.

These candidates are attracted to AmmoSquared because it is still founder-led and not owned by private equity or a parent corporation.

For those who don't know, private equity is a type of institutional investment that frequently involves buying controlling stakes in existing companies, improving their financial performance, and eventually selling them for a significant profit.

How some firms go about generating that profit is the issue.

It can involve drastic workforce cuts, squeezing customers, decreasing quality, offshoring jobs, piling on debt, and generally anything and everything your typical cigar-smoking evil cartoon businessman can think of.

At their worst, private equity firms are the proverbial hyenas chasing down and ripping to shreds the small company gazelle in the wilds of the American business landscape.

It isn’t just private equity either, large corporate acquirers can be just as destructive. I know because I've experienced it firsthand.

I've Watched Great Company Cultures Die. Twice.

Before founding AmmoSquared, I worked at two successful technology companies: MarkMonitor and TSheets. Both were growing businesses with innovative products, great company cultures, and employees who genuinely enjoyed being part of something special.

MarkMonitor was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2012. At the time, it had more than 400 employees and was a leader in online brand protection. I was there eight years from 2010 to 2018 so I had a front row seat.

TSheets was acquired by Intuit in 2018. It had roughly 260 employees and was one of Idaho's great entrepreneurial success stories. I started in 2018 just after the Intuit acquisition, early enough to hear the stories and see the amazing culture that had been built there. I only stayed for nine months and left so I could focus on building AmmoSquared full time. It was my last corporate job.

Keep in mind, these weren't failing businesses that needed rescuing. They were successful companies that had built something valuable. Within a few years of being acquired, the cultures that made them special were largely gone.

It didn't happen overnight. In both cases, it was a gradual process that played out over two or three years. Corporate policies started drowning the previously innovative ways of doing things. Decision-making changed. Leadership changed. The freedom and entrepreneurial spirit that had made these companies great slowly disappeared.

Eventually, the companies became cogs in another much larger corporate machine. Like so many other companies after they sell out. They just fizzle and die a slow death.

TSheets lost its name, eventually becoming QuickBooks Time. MarkMonitor still exists after changing hands a few more times. In both cases the original companies I knew and loved are long gone. 

To be clear, I'm not suggesting these acquisitions were financial failures. They were excellent deals for the founders, investors, and acquiring companies but financial success and building a great company aren't necessarily the same thing.

But that’s exactly the problem because they are the definition of what success in business looks like. 

They are just two examples in my past that shaped my view on what happens when a great smaller company sells out.

And I have no intention of letting that happen to AmmoSquared.

I literally built this company from our kitchen table, our garage, and countless coffee shops while on lunch break from my corporate job. I've put too much on the line to give it away to someone who steps in with something as banal as money.

What Is the Purpose of a Company?

This brings me to a philosophical question that every founder needs to ask for themselves:

What is the purpose of their company? Why does it exist?

Is it to make its owners rich? To maximize profits? To build something that can be sold to the highest bidder?

I have my answer. 

In my view, the sole purpose of a company is to improve the lives of the people it touches.

This includes not just its owners, but also its customers, employees, community, and even other businesses it interacts with and buys from. Everywhere a company touches should see an improvement from that business existing. Otherwise what’s the point?

It should not leave a trail of broken promises and unhappy lives in its wake.

One of the most influential and destructive ideas in modern business is that a corporation should focus on "maximizing shareholder value." This idea was put into print by Milton Friedman (whom I generally agree with on economic matters). In his famous 1970 article, "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits," Friedman argued that corporate executives should pursue the interests of their shareholders, generally by increasing profits while operating within legal and ethical boundaries.

His broader economic philosophy was that businesses pursuing profits in a competitive free market would create benefits for society along the way. I agree with a lot of that line of thinking.

But I do think we've taken the idea of maximizing shareholder value too far.

Somewhere along the way, increasing shareholder value became the ultimate goal rather than the result of building a successful business. We’ve all seen when maximizing financial returns becomes the main objective for a company, good companies turn to crap. Things become expendable or lost:

Employees. Customer service. Company culture. Values. Long-term vision. Even the company's original mission.

I like Jim Collins' perspective better. In "Built to Last," Collins wrote:

"Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself."

I love this book because it explores how companies with deeply held values and a clear purpose can last through the ages. It is like a blueprint for how to build a great company.

I believe changing the world in some positive way is the most important thing a company can do. This is (hopefully) its stated mission.

Of course, a company needs profits and cash flow to survive and achieve its objectives. Without them, the mission eventually dies, but there is a big difference between making money to accomplish your mission and making money your mission.

That is a huge distinction that most companies miss.

You Can Copy the Business Model, But You Can't Copy the Company

So how does all this relate to AmmoSquared and my original desire to build something unique?

When I started AmmoSquared in 2015, I was creating a business model that didn't have an established playbook. We had to figure out everything ourselves.

How could customers purchase ammunition automatically? How would we store it? How would we do the accounting for customer inventories? How would we manage shipments? Would people even want this service?

We didn't know if any of it would work. There was a lot of trial and error in those early days. There was no proven formula to follow. Just like I told my friend, we were building something that had never existed before, something unique.

Today, we have competitors offering services that look remarkably similar to what we created. Even down to the marketing copy on their website. They have tried to copy our business model almost exactly.

I suppose that's the price of doing something innovative. If you create something valuable, eventually someone else is going to try to copy it. And that's fine. Competition provides options in the market and is good for customers. Plus they are helping us with educating the market about the benefits of the stored ammo model! 

But here's what I think our competitors don't understand.

The business model isn't what makes AmmoSquared special.

Anyone with enough money and technical ability can build a website, create an ammunition purchasing program, and rent some warehouse space. Especially today with AI doing most of the heavy lifting.

What they can't duplicate is the company we've spent more than a decade building. They can't copy our history, the mistakes we've made and learned from, the institutional knowledge we have, the trust we've earned from customers, the uniqueness of our brand, or the amazing culture we’ve built.

We're not building yet another business someone can flip for a quick profit then walk away, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. 

We're building a company that will serve American gun owners for generations.

There is a huge difference.

How We're Building AmmoSquared Differently

We Are Focused on Our Mission

We believe we’re here to improve the world and the lives of the people we touch, we do that through our existence and focus on the the mission:

Our mission is to build an ammunition safety net for America by storing one billion rounds of ammunition for our customers by 2035.

Sounds great but as my business professors would ask, “So what?” For that you need the “why” behind our mission: “So that Americans will always be able to protect themselves, their families and their communities no matter what market or political winds blow.”

In other words we want to end ammunition shortages once and for all. This is so much more meaningful than hitting an arbitrary revenue target so we can increase the company's valuation.

I want to build something that matters to America and will continue long after I’m gone. That’s legacy. That’s what my friend doesn’t understand.

We Have Built a World-Class Culture

I believe my top three responsibilities to the company are protecting our brand, building our culture, and well… paying its bills on time.

That's it: Brand, Culture, and Financial Stewardship

Culture is something many companies don’t give a hoot about. This is like trying to bake bread without adding salt. Sure might look great but it will be bland and boring.

The culture we have at AmmoSquared is what makes it fun to go to work everyday. Employees want to stay and grow with us as the company grows, they think like owners, they don’t think of it as just another job.

I know firsthand how easily that culture can be destroyed when the wrong people get control of a company.

That's why protecting it is one of my highest priorities.

We Have Strong Values That Aren't Just Corporate Window Dressing

Every employee knows our values, and we use them to make the hard decisions:

Integrity, Transparency, Ownership, Innovation, Patriotism, and Fun.

These aren't just words we came up with over lunch to put on a fancy poster and forget about. Though we do have them on posters. ;)

Our company values actually mean something. 

Sometimes following those values means making a decision that isn't the cheapest, easiest, or most profitable in the short term. That's the whole point. Values that never cost you anything aren't really values.

We Don't Exist Solely to Generate Profits

Financial success is important. We have bills to pay, employees and their families who depend on us, and customers who trust us with their money and ammunition. We take those responsibilities very seriously. 

Maximizing short-term profits isn't our focus, building a lasting company that adds value to the world is. Honestly, we probably do things that other companies would take an axe to in 30 seconds flat, all in the name of "profitability."

We believe taking care of our employees and customers is one of the best ways to build a financially successful company over the long term.

We Innovate

We created a whole new category in the ammunition industry, if that isn’t innovation I don’t know what is! 

Others are now trying to copy it, but they lack the elements that make our company successful.

I didn't start AmmoSquared because I saw someone else making money with the idea. I started AmmoSquared because I believed there was a better way for Americans to purchase, accumulate, and store ammunition so they will always have it there when they need it.

Imitators can copy the “how”, but not the “why”. The “why” is in our DNA just like innovation. 

We Won't Sell Out. Ever.

We don't have a parent company or private equity firm telling us what to do or how to run our company. As President, I can make decisions based on our values, our mission, and what is best for our customers and employees rather than simply increasing profits or maximizing shareholder value.

Does that mean every decision will be popular? Of course not.

Does it mean we'll never make mistakes? Anyone who has followed our company for very long already knows the answer to that one. We make mistakes all the time. That’s how we learn.

But it does mean we get to make decisions for the right reasons. Not purely to hit some nonsensical quarterly EPS goal or make a parent company happy.

Instead, we get to build and operate the kind of company we believe should exist.

Building Something Worth Keeping

The conventional wisdom in business is pretty straightforward: Start a company, grow it as fast as possible, maximize its value, and eventually cash out.

Then do it all over again.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that approach. It has made a lot of people very wealthy. Somewhere along the way, we've confused building a valuable company with building a great company.

They aren't necessarily the same thing.

A valuable company can be bought and sold. Its employees can be replaced, its customers can be squeezed, and its culture can be dismantled. As long as the numbers work, someone will call it a success, exactly like companies I’ve worked at in the past.

A great company is something different.

It's an organization that creates value for everyone it touches. It has a purpose beyond enriching its owners. Its employees believe in what they're building. Its customers believe in what it stands for and its founders understand that their responsibility is to build something bigger than themselves.

That's what we're building at AmmoSquared.

We're not just trying to build a copycat company so we can cash out some day. No, instead we're building a company that will last a lifetime and ultimately bring peace of mind to a generation of Americans by helping to eliminate ammunition shortages in the future. 

That’s a mission worth fighting for. 

Will we make money along the way? I certainly hope so. We have bills to pay, employees to support, and a pretty ambitious mission to accomplish.

But money is the fuel, not the destination.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the conventional wisdom is right and I should just sell out and spend my days reading detective novels on the beach.

Nah, I've never been particularly interested in detective novels or for that matter doing what everyone else is doing …and I'm not about to start now.