We were lucky to catch up with Matt Mangiameli recently and have shared our conversation below.
Matt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
My wife is actually the first entrepreneur between the two of us. She runs an Etsy page called Evergreen Pressed Plants which she started when she was working at the Missouri Department of Conservation. She had eventually began to appear at events with a pop-up booth so she could talk to people and explain her process and it was quite successful. We had wondered if that same success could translate to a very different niche, but the wondering didn’t last long. Once I started Ace16, she started finding events for me to appear at and I was uniquely able to interact with golfers in a way that an online store just doesn’t allow for. I have since sought out as many events as I can attend to be able to meet new people and show off the brand.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started playing disc golf in 2021 just before my daughter was born. As I tend to do with most things, I dove headfirst into my new hobby and I didn’t slow down. My area has tons of courses around, and I was really enjoying experiencing all the different lines and layouts. I did, however, run into a common issue amongst anyone starting something new, I didn’t know where to start.
I had a beginner set that my dad had got me a few years before, but I always struggled to throw those discs and I wasn’t sure why. I had found a different beginner set of discs and tried those and suddenly I was able to throw better. Unfortunately, being brand new to the sport, I had no idea what truly changed. All I knew was this disc was different than that disc for some reason. I was pretty lost and it took me a good while to learn the ins and outs of this new sport, but the process was pretty daunting. This was especially the case when I walked into a on of two disc golf stores in my area for my first time. I walked in the door and was immediately overwhelmed by the selection. I found myself sifting through already familiar discs and ended up purchasing some familiar discs in different colors and plastics because that’s what I knew. And this went on for a while until I was confident enough to step out of my comfort zone and experiment with new brands, new plastics, and just new discs altogether.
I then had the idea that I wanted to create a more local, centralized, and personal means of obtaining new discs.
In June of 2022, I found myself without a job and signs were pointing to no prospects any time soon. For a bit, I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself, but my wife encouraged me that if there were a time to do something about this idea, it’d be now; and Ace16 was born. We aim to bring an ease and a comfort to purchasing discs in the Kansas City area, but we also want to be beginner friendly, and make sure that every golfer has a personal experience when they shop with us.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
We only sell on our website, mostly due to distributor preference. Being that they also sell their products own their website, I imagine they prefer to control how many avenues customers can access their goods. For us, this is totally fine because it limits how much inventory we need maintain, which is great for a startup, but it also minimizes the channels that we need to monitor. We can throw everything into our one site and really customize the Ace16 experience to the best of our ability.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I don’t imagine that I am unique in this experience but it is perhaps comforting to anyone who is starting a business themselves. Plain and simple: starting, owning, and maintaining a business is tough. Especially if you’re trying to do the one man show, all the creative and monetary assets have to come from your noggin. For me being completely online right now, its incredibly difficult to start from zero customers and no following and try to build that up. It can be incredibly discouraging to go extended periods of time with no orders and no activity on the site. But every time I’m able to speak with someone about Ace16 and every time I get to attend an event, it is so reinvigorating and encouraging to know that my customers are out there, and I do have something to offer. I just have to stay patient, stay confident, and continue putting in my best effort to build up what I know can be a great resource to others.
Contact Info:
- Website: ace16discs.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ace16discs/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086705233956
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-mangiameli-a2725211b
Image Credits
Hannah Mangiameli