Hi, I’m Dave Applegate. I create products and services that make people happy. Sunny Southern California is not only a blessing to call home, but also where I work as CTO of WrestlingMart, the world’s best wrestling store. Between giving my all to WrestlingMart and taking long walks on the beach, I am putting a hour a day towards building Rawr! for a Reason, a mobile game development company that uses 50% of its advertising profit to support causes that make the world a better place.
About This Blog
This is both my personal blog and the official blog of Rawr! for a Reason. See posts under the Rawr! for a Reason category for all official Rawr! for a Reason posts.
I have two goals in maintaining this blog. First and foremost, I’d like to hold myself accountable for making progress and practicing lean startup principles, particularly with Rawr! for a Reason. I’d also like to share my lessons learned, mistakes and successes with both WrestlingMart and Rawr! for a Reason in a way that helps others achieve the success I strive for.
Getting To Kno
w Me
I’ve had the entrepreneurial itch for as long as I can remember (edit: my girlfriend read this and said “Itch? More like a case of hives!”). I must’ve got it from my pops who runs TimeValue Software. At age 14, I started my first big business, a coffee stand in my community, where I made more than my current salary. I got shut down because of HOA rules and then fought the association by leading a successful press campaign. I used that money in high school to start an eBay company where I imported bulk products through Alibaba.
I spent the next few years getting my Associate’s Degree in Business and trying to figure out how to top that coffee stand income—it’s hard when you realize you peaked at age 14. I split my time between learning corporate software sales and playing professional poker. After discovering more about my goals and who I wanted to become, I decided to go back to school. I graduated from Cal Poly SLO in 2013 with a degree in Business Administration: Entrepreneurship where I fell in love with starting lean companies.
After graduating, I signed on to grow the eCommerce side of WrestingMart, the world’s largest wrestling store. Now, I’m CTO and spend my days solving the challenges of a high growth company with my business partner.
I believe education is a lifelong process and try everyday to be a stronger person. Every week, I read a book about business (goodreads). I recently just became a Certified Scrum Master.
I believe in being the be the change I seek. I want to increase individual liberty, decrease poverty and empower people to meet their own education and entrepreneurship goals. So far, I’ve started a college fund and am an avid loaner on Kiva. My desire to be the change led to the creation of my current project, Rawr! for a Reason. I’m spending an hour a day creating this mobile game development company that uses advertising revenue to support great causes.
Besides entrepreneurship, I am very passionate about:
- A lean lifestyle: I believe living lean is more than just focusing on eliminating waste in my life and living simply. Living lean is about continually improving the areas that truly make me happier and stronger and measuring these improvements quantifiably.
- Food: I love the art of cooking, the way good food brings people together and how healthy food makes me feel. This year I’m trying to master these dishes: The perfect grass-fed steak, chicken marsala, chicken tikka masala, and osaka pressed sushi. Feel free to share your favorite recipes with me, and I’ll try to keep you updated on my progress!
- Dogs: I grew up with the best dog ever, Maddie the Vizsla. I really want to welcome another puppy (I can’t decide between another vizsla, a silver lab or a wiemeriner) soon!
- Travel: I believe traveling is invaluable…the people you meet, the beauty you see, the culture you learn from, and of course the food. I’ve been to Europe, China, Japan, Bora Bora, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, and the Caribbean—and can’t wait to add to the list!
- Sushi: I am going to open a sushi restaurant. I love details around creating joyful customer experiences and want to combine it with my dining experiences experiences and lean thinking to create an amazing sushi bar.
For more about how I got to where I am today and what I stand for check out my personal development blog category.
Contacting Me
Feel free to head on over to my contact me page if you want to get ahold of me.
I enjoy interacting with fellow entrepreneurs, have a serious love for other bloggers and reporters and even enjoy the people who just want to say “Hi”. Also, I’m all for continuous improvement, let me know if something is wrong so I can make it right!
How this site was built
This site was built on WordPress and is currently hosted by Media Temple. My server is running Nginx with PHP-FPM & MariaDB. I’m using APC, Reddis & Varnish as my server side caching and Cloudflare to serve a flexible SSL cert, cache a little more, ensure 100% uptime and help keep the bad guys out.
The blog was roughly designed by me and programmed and polished by the highly talented and affordable Stepan Stepasyuk. I’d highly recommend him for his web development skillset, work ethic and love for agile development. Feel free to contact him at: [email protected].
Notes:
- Pictures of me laughing