We recently connected with George Garro and have shared our conversation below.

George , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

In 2015-2016 I had really taken a liking to a show called “forged in fire” where people compete in making blades and then having them tested. One day while watching knife making videos I started looking for axe making videos. Going down that rabbit hole I stumbled upon some videos of people doing competitive axe throwing in. Canada. I was very intrigued by the sport and saw the potential in it although at the time it looked a little rough around the edges. I kept tabs on the progression of the sport in specific the world axe throwing league and bad axe as I started running numbers and looking at what it would take to implement in Upland Ca which we had moved into in 2013 and also seemed like a great city with lots of potential but not much to do. My wife and I lived walking distance to downtown upland and we loved area but thought it definitely needed some life. I started telling my wife I believed a brewery would do great and within a year Rescue brewery opened. This gave me the mindset that rather than talking about what should come in I should take an active role and be a part of the change I believed the city needed. Time passed and I started practicing axe throwing in my backyard. One day I invited my buddy Franky to come try it and we thoroughly enjoyed the sport over a beer. My wife pregnant at the time came out back to try it and after successfully sticking the axe she took the axe from my hand after I retrieved it and I knew then she understood. I had my doubts about what and how I could make a business happen but could not shake the gut feeling and after expressing these feeling to my wife she said she had my back and believed I could do it. At this point I was about 50% committed. One evening over dinner with my wife at a restaurant I saw cornhole on ESPN. This was the final push I needed as I thought if cor hole could make it to a competitive platform it was only a matter of time until axe throwing did. I finally was able to acquire a building and open the doors in November of 2018. A couple of months after opening Axe throwing premiered on ESPN 2.

George , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I can say I’m truly living the “American Dream” . I was born in July of 1985 in Mendoza Argentina. (Shout out to World Cup champs, VAMOS ARGENTINA CARAJO!) We immigrated to California July of 1986. I was only a year old along with my mom, dad and 2 older brothers. My sister was later born in December of 1992. My parents didn’t speak the language and to the is day struggle a bit. Nevertheless persevered and made a decent life for us. I grew up primarily in Hacienda Heights. My freshman year of high school my parents and brothers decided we would move back to Argentina and give it another go. I found this out when my dad picked me up from my last day of my first semester of high school. At the time this was slightly devastating but I chose to adapt to my new environment and look at the bright side. I would be reunited with family. Unfortunately the economy tanked in the early 200’s and my dad stifled to find work. After 2 years we decided to make the move back to California where we lived with my aunt for a bit while I went to Downey high them eventually made my way back to Wilson High in Hacienda Heights. This would prove to be a very important decision as it is where I would meet my wife. We are high school sweet hearts and after our ups and downs finally got married in 2012. This constant change and adaptation to challenges is also what helped give courage to the journey of becoming an entrepreneur. I believe the road you travelled is what prepares you for the road ahead. You don’t necessarily have to have experience in what you want to dive into you can simply look into your life resume and see what aspects of that you can apply to what you are going to do.

I still maintain a full time position as a manager for team of aviation mechanics where I learned how to lead a team and sharpen my skills in customer service.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

After being laid off in the recession of 2008 and knowing of the many people I worked with lose so much money in their 401k’s I began to think the system was broken and there had to be a better way. I also had a friend/coworker that died 2 years after his retirement. This made me want to take retirement into my own hands. I was always a decent saver so once I knew what I wanted to do I used my personal savings as well as a loan from my 401k

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

In 2020 I was met with one of our toughest challenges when we were forced to deal with the pandemic. We shut down for months but still had to pay our monthly lease and received little help from the COVID relief plans. Luckily I continued to be an aggressive saver and was able to weather the storm.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.axelairupland.com
• Instagram: Axe_lair
• Other: Will need to provife Facebook and TikTok later

Image Credits
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