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Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated by everything that could shoot. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t really understand my passion and didn’t want to support me by buying me airsoft guns. As a kid, I didn’t have enough money to buy them myself so I started to construct things that could shoot various objects. My first project was a simple bow that was made from a pair of old skies which I found laying around. It wasn’t too powerful but for me, it was perfect. I’m sure that most guys attempted similar projects themselves so you can imagine how excited I was about building one that actually worked. I didn’t want to stop there and built catapults, potato guns, railgun - anything that could shoot and could be built with simple items - you can bet, that I made it in my childhood.

When I was 14 years old, we were wandering throughout a city and we came across an airsoft shop. It was truly a paradise! I was so captivated by those guns and their function that right then and there I knew that I had to get one for myself. But again, the problem was that my parents didn’t really like the idea of me playing around with guns. I was pretty crushed by the fact so I created a plan involving writing a list of why I should be allowed to have one. This list included things like “I would be able to go outdoors more often” and “I could have fun with my friends”. And it worked! After much arguing, I was finally allowed to have my very first airsoft replica. Soon after we started hosting our own public games with more than 80 participants. Back then, Airsoft was my whole life but at one point I decided to travel throughout Central America for three months with my best friend Dominik

Travelling was so fascinating to me that I knew I want to combine it somehow with my other passion - Airsoft. But plans changed again when I enrolled in the Austrian military as a sniper. I completely stopped playing Airsoft because I was in the field for days and I didn’t really want to put on my uniform and go out to the field in my free time. I even started to think about selling my airsoft rifle but luckily I didn’t do it. Even though it was fun at the military and I learned a lot, I left in the same year. I got a new job which allowed me to travel and I immediately took the opportunity and went to China for half a year. It was an exciting job, I met a lot of new people and got to know the Chinese culture. In China, Airsoft, as well as youtube, are banned so I could not continue to follow my number one passion.

In the meantime people kept asking me about my gun, how is it that it shoots this well, about the internal parts and about airsoft gear in general. Soon I realized that there is no airsoft sniper rifle on the market that would be perfect out of the box. I understood the hassle that players had to go through when upgrading their guns to shoot well and I recognized the gap in the market that needed to be filled. Therefore, I made the riskiest decision in my entire life. I left everything in China, I broke up with my Chinese fiance and went back to Austria to pursue my passion - Airsoft. I didn’t know if I can sustain myself just by making videos. I didn’t know if I’m not making the biggest mistake of my life but I decided to take the chance and go for it!

That was 7 years ago and since then, my life changed completely. Now I have my own company, I’m traveling the world, visit airsoft fields most players would dream of and I develop new guns and accessories. At least, that’s what other people think. Don’t get me wrong, it is all true but in reality, there is much more to it than just having fun and doing airsoft related stuff.

I don’t have my own flat. I live in the office where I have a small private room for myself. As soon as I wake up and make a step outside of my room, I’m in the office. My usual day starts at around 7 am when I get up from the bed, I take a shower and have breakfast. Then I get to my computer and start replying to emails. Most of the communication is with manufacturing partners in Taiwan, China, and the US. A large portion of my day is also dedicated to my social media and youtube which require constant attention. Even though the company grew quickly from just me to 11 employees at the time of the writing, it’s still a lot of work to keep it going and expanding. Monday mornings are dedicated to the company’s meetings in which we discuss ongoing projects and tasks for the week. We also make sure that everybody is up to date with the latest news concerning the company. After lunch, we discuss new videos with my media team and we make a plan for upcoming releases. In the meantime, more emails need to be answered. Once we have the release plan, we go to the studio and film whatever we have in the pipeline. Also, we make product photos and thumbnails for the videos if necessary. Then all of the material needs to be processed, uploaded and scheduled for release on our social media.

To be honest, I’ve never planned it to be a business like it is now but in order to provide the best services, a strong company structure is needed. Since the number of employees is constantly growing, more and more of my time is now dedicated to meetings in which we discuss the company’s strategy and development. These usually take about 30 to 60 minutes depending on the topic. In the evening I mostly find myself in the studio testing new products, improving the current products or preparing for the upcoming game which I’m gonna be attending. Saturdays and Sundays are mostly filled with traveling to the game fields and then playing airsoft. Since I like to use my time efficiently and since the travel time can take many hours, I usually attend two events in a row meaning that I’m playing one day after one another. 

Sometimes it can be quite stressful since I always have to make sure that I have all the gear ready to go, that the cameras and power banks are charged and running all the time so that we have enough footage for the videos. As you can imagine, there is a lot of things that can go wrong. If one camera is not recording, if my gear doesn’t work or if I simply don’t play well enough we won’t have enough footage to keep the youtube channels going. There’s still a lot of pressure even at times when most people think I’m only having fun. But don’t get me wrong, after many years of airsoft I still really enjoy playing as it is a nice and exciting balance to the office job during the week.

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I don’t have my own flat.  I live in the office where I have a small private room for myself.

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Since I started developing my own products, the biggest struggle has been the communication with suppliers. Just the fact that there are about 6 hours of time difference between Austria and Asia makes it hard to communicate quickly and efficiently. Sometimes I exchange 40 emails with our manufacturing partner thinking that nothing can go wrong but the result may be completely different. Also, there are things that cannot be done just by email alone. Sometimes, it’s necessary to visit the factories in person to ensure the highest standards and quality control.

Therefore, I get to travel to these factories a lot. I spend months in the meeting rooms and production plants overwatching the production and taking care of the whole process. That’s the reason why we don’t have so many new product releases at the time but we’re working on that! Another problem that we’re facing right now is the logistics. Shipping companies just don’t like to transport guns in general but it’s getting better over time mainly because our partners already know what we do and that it’s not real guns. Since we have multiple partners in Asia, I usually travel to all of them in one trip just like I’m doing it with Airsoft events. Speaking of airsoft events, when I’m traveling for work, there’s always a time window for local gameplay. When I’m already there, I want to use my time to the fullest. The other side of spending so much time in Asia is that I’m feeling detached from my family and friends back home. Also, the food is not my favorite by any means.

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Speaking of airsoft events, when I’m traveling for work, there’s always a time window for local gameplay.

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Besides all of this, I’m constantly in touch with other airsoft players that are seeking a piece of advice, asking me for a product recommendation or just want to talk about airsoft in general. I really like interacting with my audience and I always try to help people that are just starting out or have some unusual problems. However, there are more and more messages and emails and I simply cannot reply to everyone anymore. I hate this fact but I need to find a balance between work and private life somehow. In reality, this is probably the single most important thing that I’m struggling with. I dedicate so much of my time to work and Airsoft that there is not much left for other things in life like going out with friends or even for my family. I don’t party, I don’t watch movies, I don’t drink and I don’t spend too much time with people outside of the company in general. Yet I don’t see it as a problem, I just love what I do and enjoy working on new, exciting projects that hopefully will make the lives of other fellow airsofters easier and more enjoyable.