More and more high-tech prognosticators are predicting that the compact disc may soon go the way of the vinyl LP. But for one Eagle company, the CD and the growing interest in DVDs is proving profitable.
David Fish, 34, one of two partners in the Gold Link Media, says the company had its strongest month ever in February, and over the last year revenues jumped by 400 percent. Gold Link has since doubled its employees from two to four and hopes to add more.
Fish and his partner Josh Mercaldo, 30, operated Gold Link out of their homes, garages and via a UPS mailbox just a year ago.
They met in 1999 at a Boise marketing and advertisement firm and kept in touch after going on to different ventures. Mercaldo has worked primarily in marketing, and Fish has more than 10 years experience in CD and DVD industry.
Gold Link Media is a CD and DVD manufacturer. It takes a client's data - everything from video to music - and transfers it to disk or DVD. The company completes the package with high-resolution artwork and a case, leaving the client a ready-to-sell product. Gold Link has also partnered with the inventor of a technology that can print artwork on CDs at a super-high resolution.
Gold Link has worked with advertising agencies, video production companies, musicians and big tech companies. Gold Link's new office and manufacturing location is at 347 S. Edgewood Lane, Suite 180, Eagle.
What prompted you to start this business?
Fish: What I've seen in the 10 to 15 years I've been in the business is a trickle-down effect of technology from larger corporations to smaller companies. When I first started, the larger corporations were the only ones doing CD duplication, and then as time progressed more, smaller, independent businesses were adapting to the same marketing tactics larger companies were using. We're now doing DVDs and CDs for one- or two-employee places to big companies like Apple, HP and Microsoft.
Mercaldo: It's a technology people understand. Everyone has CDs in their cars or DVDs in their home libraries. It's so commonplace that there is not a large technology barrier that companies have to go through. They already know what they want.
What is it like to make that jump and start your own business?
Fish: Financially it's always hard, but with the real estate boom I had a lot of equity in my house, so I took it out. But it's still very nervewracking, especially when both of us left very good-paying jobs. Plus we both had brand-new children in the house, and you really start second-guessing what you're doing. But you have to keep going. It's a constant struggle to figure out the balance between being a successful entrepreneur and a successful dad. My wife has been very supportive, but we sometimes have discussions about the amount of hours I put in. But Josh and I both have our kids in training to assemble CDs and DVDs.
You started your company without a location. What was that like?
Mercaldo: We didn't know it at the time, but one of the first things we did out of convenience was to get a street address at the UPS store in Eagle. That turned out to be the best thing for us because we had an address on Eagle Road and a suite number and that gave us some credibility. ... Even though we now have a location, we still deliver to some customers.
Your company was self-funded from the beginning, but now has a small business loan. Why didn't you pursue that earlier?
Mercaldo: We didn't go and get small business financing right out of the gate because we knew that at the end of the day the numbers would speak for themselves. Being entrepreneurs, we thought, "Let's give it a year and then commit to a plan when we have the numbers and records that the banks want to see."
Some industry experts say the days are numbered for CDs. How could this affect your business?
Fish: Recent market research forecasts the demise of CDs in four years. That research is based mainly in the music industry, but the music industry maybe accounts for 2 percent of what we do. CDs are still the most economical storage for distribution you can get. But DVDs are starting to have a slight edge over what we do. We need to progress, and that's how we're going to keep ourselves from going extinct. We are already positioned with the equipment to start offering things in the Blu-ray format. With Blu-ray, we'll be good for 10 years at least.
What are the long-term plans for your company?
Fish: I'll speak for myself when I say I don't have a long-term exit strategy, mainly because this is what I love so much, and I guess I really can't see myself doing anything else, so why would I stop. But that said, I'd like to play a lot of golf with my kids when they get old enough.
Mercaldo: It's the same for me. I'm not working toward big payoff or whatever. The growth of the company will come naturally, and in next six months to the next year we'll ramp up the facility and grow the number of employees by expanding our service offering into Pacific Northwest. Ultimately we'll just keep looking at what's around the corner to see what's there.
Ken Dey: 672-6757
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