Ask a guy that started Bodybuilding.com anything...

[Pyro05]

If you give me a t-shirt, I'll advertise bb.com ^^

[Nitric Oxide]

this thread was a good idea for the moment but he's probably got to get back to the busy life. We're just misc peasants

[swa513]

Originally Posted by Pyro05

If you give me a t-shirt, I'll advertise bb.com ^^

x2

also: have you ever been mod negged?

[mirmark]

Am I wrong in guessing that the last time "Admin" signed into this thread was page 8?

[Gmoney23]

Originally Posted by mirmark

Am I wrong in guessing that the last time "Admin" signed into this thread was page 8?

Yep, he's posted recently actually. I think page 25. Doing a pretty good job at keeping up with it when Im sure he has some important stuff he could be doing. Very excited to see part 4 also..

[weswes]

Did you use an Investment Bank to help with the buyout? If so whom and what was your personal opinions on the level of service and attitude of the bankers?

Being a self made man were/are you suspicious of Wall St P/E, IBer types who often are aided to their positions through family prestige and connections?

Do you personally manage your stock portfolio or have a private client services do it?


If you personally manage a stock portfolio - what is your investing approach? Do you only invest for the long term or do change positions regularly?
(daytrade/technical analysis)


***I have read every page of this thread. Great to have such an involved CEO managing such a fantastic company. Appreciate the honesty and openness*

[mindraper]

ttt

Someone should email ryan

[XAA]

y do you have such low rep power?y didnt you just make it say infinity?

[Mr. Wacko]

What I got emailed to me today from EliteFitness news:


Many people have already heard that the world?s largest bodybuilding company, bodybuilding.com, sold a huge controlling stake to Liberty Media, parent of QVC, for $100 million. However, what some people don?t know is that there are those who are panicking for various reasons and some even believe that the sale could cause the sport of bodybuilding to die off!

Find me a person with a TV and I?ll find you someone who?s seen countless commercials for those ridiculous work-at-home guides and plans that promise you?ll be making hundreds of thousands of dollars in no time, all from the comfort of your own home. And there?s a good reason why so many of these ?fabulous? work-at-home products exist. It?s because people are dreamers.

They dream of waking up at their own leisure, working from their home desk, taking brakes whenever they please, and ending their workday when they see fit. In these visions money comes easy, vacations are frequent, and life is easy. But in the end, these cheesy plans and guides are nothing more than an illusion standing in the way of hard work and the people who buy them are still, well? dreamers.

However, one man who?s not a dreamer is bodybuilding.com CEO Ryan DeLuca. The 30 year-old head man of the largest bodybuilding site in the world made himself who he is now from the ground up. Starting in a two-car garage just eight years ago, DeLuca began selling supplements until he could afford a real warehouse to store his stuff in. Today, he heads a multi-million dollar company that looks to top the 100 million dollar mark in sales this year. There were no get rich quick schemes here, just pure, hard work.

But Ryan DeLuca has been getting rich quickly as of late. Especially after the Liberty Media Corporation purchased a controlling stake in bodybuilding.com for $100 million on January 7th from the DeLuca family. As the most visited bodybuilding and fitness site in the world with over 100,000 unique visitors every day, the chance to purchase a big majority of bodybuilding.com was irresistible to Liberty Media who already owns QVC, expedia.com, backcountry.com, and the Atlanta Braves.

The deal was well received by both parties as Liberty Media Senior Vice President Michael Zeisser said, ?We are pleased to welcome entrepreneurs of the caliber of Ryan DeLuca and his team into the Liberty family. We look forward to driving collaboration among Bodybuilding.com and Liberty's existing e-commerce and television companies.? DeLuca, whose family still owns a minority stake in the company, returned the favor by saying, ?We are thrilled to join the Liberty Media family and to partner with their other top-notch commerce companies.?

From the looks of things, one would think that this is simply an amazing story of perseverance and determination ending with a person finally getting their well-deserved due. But, as with any great story, it is not without controversy.

And much of the controversy stems from speculation and rumors that have arisen ever since bodybuilding.com sold a big stake to Liberty Media. Strewn across Internet sites and forum boards are claims that bodybuilding.com must remove anything even remotely controversial from their site as part of the deal. That means anything to do with steroids and other hardcore bodybuilding topics must be axed in order to suit Liberty Media.

To put this into a better perspective, I spoke with a longtime forum member of bodybuilding.com named Matt Hawryliw about some of his thoughts on what many people have been hearing with regards to changes on the site.

When asked of any changes he had noticed on the site, Hawryliw said, ?The biggest change I have seen was the steroid section being moved to the IFBB section. They claim it was to help to keep "noobs" (beginning users) from asking stupid questions. We all know the real reason was to take the steroid section off the front page to avoid any negative light. Ironically, steroids were prohibited from being talked about in the IFBB section before. Now, steroids are a sub-section.?

If the rumors of bodybuilding.com removing controversial material is true, he also said it would affect him heavily stating, ?I enjoy increasing my knowledge on all types of issues, steroids included. And if they take that away then I may want to leave. If censorship takes over then without a doubt I will have to find a new board.?

Besides the displeasure by certain members of some hardcore content being moved around on the site, many bodybuilding proponents have worried that the actual sport of bodybuilding could take a huge hit as well in the aftermath of the sale. It has been well publicized in the past that Ryan DeLuca and his company have been instrumental in helping bodybuilding?s growth through the financial sponsorships of many amateur and professional contests.

Now some fear a more commercialized entity like Liberty Media taking over such a large chunk of the company will mean a decrease, or even total cease, in the amount of contests put on by the site. That could be detrimental to a sport that has been trying to make a comeback after falling so far from its glory days of the 60?s and 70?s.

I knew that there was only one way to dispel all of this gossip and rumoring and ask the man himself, Ryan DeLuca. After communicating with him, I was absolutely shocked to find out that so much of what had been said by various other sources was complete garbage.

As far as bodybuilding.com continuing to put on contests, fans and participants of the sport can rest easy as Ryan exclaimed, ?Yes, we are going to continue doing this for sure. No changes in our overall strategy are planned. This decision is aided by that fact that nothing will change with regards to the way the company is run.?

DeLuca made this clear in stating, ?We are still 100% in charge of the business and strategy. They are allowing us to continue our current strategy and they are not asking for any type of changes. I am still the CEO, no new people are being added to the company by Liberty, and nobody is leaving. Things will stay the same!?

And he told me what is really going on with the issue of controversial material being moved or removed due to the Liberty Media deal mentioning, ?This is not true. They have not asked us to remove anything or change anything on our site. Of course, with more national media watching what we are doing than ever before, we have to be extra careful with what we do or say so we don't end up on Dateline.?

There certainly is more national attention being focused on bodybuilding.com than there ever was in the past and that should only increase in the coming years. Sales are projected to keep going up with estimations of 116 million in 2008 and with Liberty Media having stocks in so many mainstream companies; bodybuilding.com should see more and more average gym visitors checking out their site.

Not bad for an eight year-old operation that began with most of its merchandise being stored on top of jet skis in a garage. And there are lots of people who couldn?t be happier for Ryan DeLuca and his company including the forum member I talked to, Matt Hawryliw, who said, ?I want to say congratulations to Ryan Deluca for getting what he deserves after all his hard work. Ryan Deluca is a good guy and truly has put his heart and soul into this company.?

DeLuca?s hard work doesn?t look to be stopping any time soon though as he?s still in charge of a vast, growing company. And as bodybuildng.com continues to further grow, let?s all hope that the sport of bodybuilding continues to grow along with it.

[Sqwivivol]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wacko

What I got emailed to me today from EliteFitness news:


Many people have already heard that the world?s largest bodybuilding company, bodybuilding.com, sold a huge controlling stake to Liberty Media, parent of QVC, for $100 million. However, what some people don?t know is that there are those who are panicking for various reasons and some even believe that the sale could cause the sport of bodybuilding to die off!

Find me a person with a TV and I?ll find you someone who?s seen countless commercials for those ridiculous work-at-home guides and plans that promise you?ll be making hundreds of thousands of dollars in no time, all from the comfort of your own home. And there?s a good reason why so many of these ?fabulous? work-at-home products exist. It?s because people are dreamers.

They dream of waking up at their own leisure, working from their home desk, taking brakes whenever they please, and ending their workday when they see fit. In these visions money comes easy, vacations are frequent, and life is easy. But in the end, these cheesy plans and guides are nothing more than an illusion standing in the way of hard work and the people who buy them are still, well? dreamers.

However, one man who?s not a dreamer is bodybuilding.com CEO Ryan DeLuca. The 30 year-old head man of the largest bodybuilding site in the world made himself who he is now from the ground up. Starting in a two-car garage just eight years ago, DeLuca began selling supplements until he could afford a real warehouse to store his stuff in. Today, he heads a multi-million dollar company that looks to top the 100 million dollar mark in sales this year. There were no get rich quick schemes here, just pure, hard work.

But Ryan DeLuca has been getting rich quickly as of late. Especially after the Liberty Media Corporation purchased a controlling stake in bodybuilding.com for $100 million on January 7th from the DeLuca family. As the most visited bodybuilding and fitness site in the world with over 100,000 unique visitors every day, the chance to purchase a big majority of bodybuilding.com was irresistible to Liberty Media who already owns QVC, expedia.com, backcountry.com, and the Atlanta Braves.

The deal was well received by both parties as Liberty Media Senior Vice President Michael Zeisser said, ?We are pleased to welcome entrepreneurs of the caliber of Ryan DeLuca and his team into the Liberty family. We look forward to driving collaboration among Bodybuilding.com and Liberty's existing e-commerce and television companies.? DeLuca, whose family still owns a minority stake in the company, returned the favor by saying, ?We are thrilled to join the Liberty Media family and to partner with their other top-notch commerce companies.?

From the looks of things, one would think that this is simply an amazing story of perseverance and determination ending with a person finally getting their well-deserved due. But, as with any great story, it is not without controversy.

And much of the controversy stems from speculation and rumors that have arisen ever since bodybuilding.com sold a big stake to Liberty Media. Strewn across Internet sites and forum boards are claims that bodybuilding.com must remove anything even remotely controversial from their site as part of the deal. That means anything to do with steroids and other hardcore bodybuilding topics must be axed in order to suit Liberty Media.

To put this into a better perspective, I spoke with a longtime forum member of bodybuilding.com named Matt Hawryliw about some of his thoughts on what many people have been hearing with regards to changes on the site.

When asked of any changes he had noticed on the site, Hawryliw said, ?The biggest change I have seen was the steroid section being moved to the IFBB section. They claim it was to help to keep "noobs" (beginning users) from asking stupid questions. We all know the real reason was to take the steroid section off the front page to avoid any negative light. Ironically, steroids were prohibited from being talked about in the IFBB section before. Now, steroids are a sub-section.?

If the rumors of bodybuilding.com removing controversial material is true, he also said it would affect him heavily stating, ?I enjoy increasing my knowledge on all types of issues, steroids included. And if they take that away then I may want to leave. If censorship takes over then without a doubt I will have to find a new board.?

Besides the displeasure by certain members of some hardcore content being moved around on the site, many bodybuilding proponents have worried that the actual sport of bodybuilding could take a huge hit as well in the aftermath of the sale. It has been well publicized in the past that Ryan DeLuca and his company have been instrumental in helping bodybuilding?s growth through the financial sponsorships of many amateur and professional contests.

Now some fear a more commercialized entity like Liberty Media taking over such a large chunk of the company will mean a decrease, or even total cease, in the amount of contests put on by the site. That could be detrimental to a sport that has been trying to make a comeback after falling so far from its glory days of the 60?s and 70?s.

I knew that there was only one way to dispel all of this gossip and rumoring and ask the man himself, Ryan DeLuca. After communicating with him, I was absolutely shocked to find out that so much of what had been said by various other sources was complete garbage.

As far as bodybuilding.com continuing to put on contests, fans and participants of the sport can rest easy as Ryan exclaimed, ?Yes, we are going to continue doing this for sure. No changes in our overall strategy are planned. This decision is aided by that fact that nothing will change with regards to the way the company is run.?

DeLuca made this clear in stating, ?We are still 100% in charge of the business and strategy. They are allowing us to continue our current strategy and they are not asking for any type of changes. I am still the CEO, no new people are being added to the company by Liberty, and nobody is leaving. Things will stay the same!?

And he told me what is really going on with the issue of controversial material being moved or removed due to the Liberty Media deal mentioning, ?This is not true. They have not asked us to remove anything or change anything on our site. Of course, with more national media watching what we are doing than ever before, we have to be extra careful with what we do or say so we don't end up on Dateline.?

There certainly is more national attention being focused on bodybuilding.com than there ever was in the past and that should only increase in the coming years. Sales are projected to keep going up with estimations of 116 million in 2008 and with Liberty Media having stocks in so many mainstream companies; bodybuilding.com should see more and more average gym visitors checking out their site.

Not bad for an eight year-old operation that began with most of its merchandise being stored on top of jet skis in a garage. And there are lots of people who couldn?t be happier for Ryan DeLuca and his company including the forum member I talked to, Matt Hawryliw, who said, ?I want to say congratulations to Ryan Deluca for getting what he deserves after all his hard work. Ryan Deluca is a good guy and truly has put his heart and soul into this company.?

DeLuca?s hard work doesn?t look to be stopping any time soon though as he?s still in charge of a vast, growing company. And as bodybuildng.com continues to further grow, let?s all hope that the sport of bodybuilding continues to grow along with it.

cliffs?

[Mr. Wacko]

Originally Posted by Sqwivivol

cliffs?

Just read what I highlighted.

[OTG]

No more sticky?

[smackshosh]

i think he forgot about this thread

[admin]

I'll answer more from this thread questions soon. It's been busy, which is a good thing!

Also, I didn't have much time to write part four today. I spent about 1 hour writing it but I figured it was better than nothing. More coming soon!

PART FOUR

Imagine being strapped into an old wooden roller coaster with a blind fold on.

At first the ride starts out deceptively slow, climbing the first huge hill... "click, clank, click clank, click clank"... moving up, up, up for what seems like forever. Eventually, you reach the top and the clicking sounds stop and the silence is deafening.

Then it's a freefall into the unknown. All you can do is hold on tight to the rickety handle in front of you and hope that you don't get thrown out like a crash test dummy in a 1979 Ford Pinto.

In my life, I had reached that exact point. I was strapped in and had no idea what was in store next, but I was ready to take it on, head first, with nostrils flaring.

April 14th, 1999 was a Wednesday, and Bodybuilding.com had been open for one night. It was the next step in my journey that would eventually teach me more about the world, business, and myself than anything else. It would either bankrupt me at the age of 21 or make me a multi-millionaire. I would not accept anything in the middle.

That first morning I groggily went to my computer to check if we had any orders. We knew that the Bodybuilding.com domain was already getting 500 visitors per day from people typing "bodybuilding.com" into their browsers to see what was there, so we knew we had a good chance to have some orders on the first day.

I typed in the URL to get into our shopping cart admin area. The first message that greeted me was "New Orders Available". Sweet! I clicked the message to see how many we had.

To my disappointment, we only had one. I don't know why, but I naively hoped we would have at least 100 the first day. I know now that with our limited product selection, bare bones site, and low traffic levels, that was extremely unrealistic, but back then I had no idea what to expect. I've always been an optimist.

I clicked to view our first order, and immediately recognized the signs of fraud. This wasn't a real order. It was some thief in Nigeria using a stolen credit card. So in reality, we didn't have any orders at all.

I hid my disappointment when I broke the news to my brother Jeremy and my cousin Travis. It was okay. It was only the first day and we have a lot of work to do to build it up, one day and one web page at a time.

Over the next few days, weeks, and months we added more and more content and products to the web site. Those days were spent furiously writing articles, adding new features like message boards and chat to our site, filling orders in my garage, ordering supplies, answering customer e-mails and phone calls, and marketing our site all over the Internet using free methods like link trading, search engine optimization and more.

Slowly but surely, we started to get some orders. At first, it was just one or two a day, but would slowly and consistently grow, like a snowball rolling downhill. We would celebrate our first "10 order" day, then 20, then 30 and on and on.

Every month brought a new milestone, along with the pressure to keep up. That pressure has not stopped to this day. As I write this on February 26th, 2008, I'm happy to report that we just had a record order day yesterday with 4356 orders. I know this is just the beginning of what is possible.

To get from 10 orders per day to where we are now had many ups and downs, sleepless nights, fights with family and friends, big celebrations and big letdowns, lost friendships, lawsuits, fear of losing it all, a failed attempt to sell part of our business, and much more which I'll detail in the coming chapters.

One moment in our history I will never forget.

I was working in one of our first real offices outside of my house a year after we started Bodybuilding.com, when I saw five police cars pull up out front. Our warehouse was in the "meth lab" part of the city (hey, the rent was cheap), so I figured they were busting somebody in the trailer park next door.

Imagine my surprise when federal agents wearing bullet-proof vests busted into our office with their police dogs, demanding that we stop working and stay off the phones. Ten minutes of shock and fear went by as they secured the entire building and brought all of our employees into one area. What was going on? Was there some type of misunderstanding or did we do something illegal without knowing it? Was I going to jail?

Click below for part five...

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpo...&postcount=929

[Nitric Oxide]

Originally Posted by admin

I'll answer more from this thread questions soon. It's been busy, which is a good thing!

Also, I didn't have much time to write part four today. I spent about 1 hour writing it but I figured it was better than nothing. More coming soon!

PART FOUR

Imagine being strapped into an old wooden roller coaster with a blind fold on.

At first the ride starts out deceptively slow, climbing the first huge hill... "click, clank, click clank, click clank"... moving up, up, up for what seems like forever. Eventually, you reach the top and the clicking sounds stop and the silence is deafening.

Then it's a freefall into the unknown. All you can do is hold on tight to the rickety handle in front of you and hope that you don't get thrown out like a crash test dummy in a 1979 Ford Pinto.

In my life, I had reached that exact point. I was strapped in and had no idea what was in store next, but I was ready to take it on, head first, with nostrils flaring.

April 14th, 1999 was a Wednesday, and Bodybuilding.com had been open for one night. It was the next step in my journey that would eventually teach me more about the world, business, and myself than anything else. It would either bankrupt me at the age of 21 or make me a multi-millionaire. I would not accept anything in the middle.

That first morning I groggily went to my computer to check if we had any orders. We knew that the Bodybuilding.com domain was already getting 500 visitors per day from people typing "bodybuilding.com" into their browsers to see what was there, so we knew we had a good chance to have some orders on the first day.

I typed in the URL to get into our shopping cart admin area. The first message that greeted me was "New Orders Available". Sweet! I clicked the message to see how many we had.

To my disappointment, we only had one. I don't know why, but I naively hoped we would have at least 100 the first day. I know now that with our limited product selection, bare bones site, and low traffic levels, that was extremely unrealistic, but back then I had no idea what to expect. I've always been an optimist.

I clicked to view our first order, and immediately recognized the signs of fraud. This wasn't a real order. It was some thief in Nigeria using a stolen credit card. So in reality, we didn't have any orders at all.

I hid my disappointment when I broke the news to my brother Jeremy and my cousin Travis. It was okay. It was only the first day and we have a lot of work to do to build it up, one day and one web page at a time.

Over the next few days, weeks, and months we added more and more content and products to the web site. Those days were spent furiously writing articles, adding new features like message boards and chat to our site, filling orders in my garage, ordering supplies, answering customer e-mails and phone calls, and marketing our site all over the Internet using free methods like link trading, search engine optimization and more.

Slowly but surely, we started to get some orders. At first, it was just one or two a day, but would slowly and consistently grow, like a snowball rolling downhill. We would celebrate our first "10 order" day, then 20, then 30 and on and on.

Every month brought a new milestone, along with the pressure to keep up. That pressure has not stopped to this day. As I write this on February 26th, 2008, I'm happy to report that we just had a record order day yesterday with 4356 orders. I know this is just the beginning of what is possible.

To get from 10 orders per day to where we are now had many ups and downs, sleepless nights, fights with family and friends, big celebrations and big letdowns, lost friendships, lawsuits, fear of losing it all, a failed attempt to sell part of our business, and much more which I'll detail in the coming chapters.

One moment in our history I will never forget.

I was working in one of our first real offices outside of my house a year after we started Bodybuilding.com, when I saw five police cars pull up out front. Our warehouse was in the "meth lab" part of the city (hey, the rent was cheap), so I figured they were busting somebody in the trailer park next door.

Imagine my surprise when federal agents wearing bullet-proof vests busted into our office with their police dogs, demanding that we stop working and stay off the phones. Ten minutes of shock and fear went by as they secured the entire building and brought all of our employees into one area. What was going on? Was there some type of misunderstanding or did we do something illegal without knowing it? Was I going to jail?

Stay tuned for part five?

o really

[boilermaker06]

Originally Posted by admin

I'll answer more from this thread questions soon. It's been busy, which is a good thing!

Also, I didn't have much time to write part four today. I spent about 1 hour writing it but I figured it was better than nothing. More coming soon!

PART FOUR

Imagine being strapped into an old wooden roller coaster with a blind fold on.

At first the ride starts out deceptively slow, climbing the first huge hill... "click, clank, click clank, click clank"... moving up, up, up for what seems like forever. Eventually, you reach the top and the clicking sounds stop and the silence is deafening.

Then it's a freefall into the unknown. All you can do is hold on tight to the rickety handle in front of you and hope that you don't get thrown out like a crash test dummy in a 1979 Ford Pinto.

In my life, I had reached that exact point. I was strapped in and had no idea what was in store next, but I was ready to take it on, head first, with nostrils flaring.

April 14th, 1999 was a Wednesday, and Bodybuilding.com had been open for one night. It was the next step in my journey that would eventually teach me more about the world, business, and myself than anything else. It would either bankrupt me at the age of 21 or make me a multi-millionaire. I would not accept anything in the middle.

That first morning I groggily went to my computer to check if we had any orders. We knew that the Bodybuilding.com domain was already getting 500 visitors per day from people typing "bodybuilding.com" into their browsers to see what was there, so we knew we had a good chance to have some orders on the first day.

I typed in the URL to get into our shopping cart admin area. The first message that greeted me was "New Orders Available". Sweet! I clicked the message to see how many we had.

To my disappointment, we only had one. I don't know why, but I naively hoped we would have at least 100 the first day. I know now that with our limited product selection, bare bones site, and low traffic levels, that was extremely unrealistic, but back then I had no idea what to expect. I've always been an optimist.

I clicked to view our first order, and immediately recognized the signs of fraud. This wasn't a real order. It was some thief in Nigeria using a stolen credit card. So in reality, we didn't have any orders at all.

I hid my disappointment when I broke the news to my brother Jeremy and my cousin Travis. It was okay. It was only the first day and we have a lot of work to do to build it up, one day and one web page at a time.

Over the next few days, weeks, and months we added more and more content and products to the web site. Those days were spent furiously writing articles, adding new features like message boards and chat to our site, filling orders in my garage, ordering supplies, answering customer e-mails and phone calls, and marketing our site all over the Internet using free methods like link trading, search engine optimization and more.

Slowly but surely, we started to get some orders. At first, it was just one or two a day, but would slowly and consistently grow, like a snowball rolling downhill. We would celebrate our first "10 order" day, then 20, then 30 and on and on.

Every month brought a new milestone, along with the pressure to keep up. That pressure has not stopped to this day. As I write this on February 26th, 2008, I'm happy to report that we just had a record order day yesterday with 4356 orders. I know this is just the beginning of what is possible.

To get from 10 orders per day to where we are now had many ups and downs, sleepless nights, fights with family and friends, big celebrations and big letdowns, lost friendships, lawsuits, fear of losing it all, a failed attempt to sell part of our business, and much more which I'll detail in the coming chapters.

One moment in our history I will never forget.

I was working in one of our first real offices outside of my house a year after we started Bodybuilding.com, when I saw five police cars pull up out front. Our warehouse was in the "meth lab" part of the city (hey, the rent was cheap), so I figured they were busting somebody in the trailer park next door.

Imagine my surprise when federal agents wearing bullet-proof vests busted into our office with their police dogs, demanding that we stop working and stay off the phones. Ten minutes of shock and fear went by as they secured the entire building and brought all of our employees into one area. What was going on? Was there some type of misunderstanding or did we do something illegal without knowing it? Was I going to jail?

Stay tuned for part five...

haha i would pee my pants for sure.
waiting on part 5

[OTG]

Originally Posted by admin

I'll answer more from this thread questions soon. It's been busy, which is a good thing!

Also, I didn't have much time to write part four today. I spent about 1 hour writing it but I figured it was better than nothing. More coming soon!

PART FOUR

Imagine being strapped into an old wooden roller coaster with a blind fold on.

At first the ride starts out deceptively slow, climbing the first huge hill... "click, clank, click clank, click clank"... moving up, up, up for what seems like forever. Eventually, you reach the top and the clicking sounds stop and the silence is deafening.

Then it's a freefall into the unknown. All you can do is hold on tight to the rickety handle in front of you and hope that you don't get thrown out like a crash test dummy in a 1979 Ford Pinto.

In my life, I had reached that exact point. I was strapped in and had no idea what was in store next, but I was ready to take it on, head first, with nostrils flaring.

April 14th, 1999 was a Wednesday, and Bodybuilding.com had been open for one night. It was the next step in my journey that would eventually teach me more about the world, business, and myself than anything else. It would either bankrupt me at the age of 21 or make me a multi-millionaire. I would not accept anything in the middle.

That first morning I groggily went to my computer to check if we had any orders. We knew that the Bodybuilding.com domain was already getting 500 visitors per day from people typing "bodybuilding.com" into their browsers to see what was there, so we knew we had a good chance to have some orders on the first day.

I typed in the URL to get into our shopping cart admin area. The first message that greeted me was "New Orders Available". Sweet! I clicked the message to see how many we had.

To my disappointment, we only had one. I don't know why, but I naively hoped we would have at least 100 the first day. I know now that with our limited product selection, bare bones site, and low traffic levels, that was extremely unrealistic, but back then I had no idea what to expect. I've always been an optimist.

I clicked to view our first order, and immediately recognized the signs of fraud. This wasn't a real order. It was some thief in Nigeria using a stolen credit card. So in reality, we didn't have any orders at all.

I hid my disappointment when I broke the news to my brother Jeremy and my cousin Travis. It was okay. It was only the first day and we have a lot of work to do to build it up, one day and one web page at a time.

Over the next few days, weeks, and months we added more and more content and products to the web site. Those days were spent furiously writing articles, adding new features like message boards and chat to our site, filling orders in my garage, ordering supplies, answering customer e-mails and phone calls, and marketing our site all over the Internet using free methods like link trading, search engine optimization and more.

Slowly but surely, we started to get some orders. At first, it was just one or two a day, but would slowly and consistently grow, like a snowball rolling downhill. We would celebrate our first "10 order" day, then 20, then 30 and on and on.

Every month brought a new milestone, along with the pressure to keep up. That pressure has not stopped to this day. As I write this on February 26th, 2008, I'm happy to report that we just had a record order day yesterday with 4356 orders. I know this is just the beginning of what is possible.

To get from 10 orders per day to where we are now had many ups and downs, sleepless nights, fights with family and friends, big celebrations and big letdowns, lost friendships, lawsuits, fear of losing it all, a failed attempt to sell part of our business, and much more which I'll detail in the coming chapters.

One moment in our history I will never forget.

I was working in one of our first real offices outside of my house a year after we started Bodybuilding.com, when I saw five police cars pull up out front. Our warehouse was in the "meth lab" part of the city (hey, the rent was cheap), so I figured they were busting somebody in the trailer park next door.

Imagine my surprise when federal agents wearing bullet-proof vests busted into our office with their police dogs, demanding that we stop working and stay off the phones. Ten minutes of shock and fear went by as they secured the entire building and brought all of our employees into one area. What was going on? Was there some type of misunderstanding or did we do something illegal without knowing it? Was I going to jail?

Stay tuned for part five...

Holy $4!+ way to leave us at a cliff hanger! You're a great writer, will be checking in for more!

[Amanda76]

Originally Posted by admin

Imagine my surprise when federal agents wearing bullet-proof vests busted into our office with their police dogs, demanding that we stop working and stay off the phones. Ten minutes of shock and fear went by as they secured the entire building and brought all of our employees into one area. What was going on? Was there some type of misunderstanding or did we do something illegal without knowing it? Was I going to jail?

Stay tuned for part five...

Do you have any clue how much I think you suck at this moment? It's safe to assume you didn't get into any real trouble (if any at all) but GEEZE, MAN!

This is pretty good writing. You should publish a "how to" or "self-help" book of some sort. You've already got a good 1st chapter introducing yourself.

[Shike]

Oh man... you can't keep us hanging like that!

[ColdasIce18]

strong cliffhanger

[user87459310247]

Can you get bodyspace admin to reply to my PM?

[curt_james]

Originally Posted by admin

Ten minutes of shock and fear went by as they secured the entire building and brought all of our employees into one area. What was going on? Was there some type of misunderstanding or did we do something illegal without knowing it? Was I going to jail?

Stay tuned for part five...

I'm joining the "You got my attention!" brigade.

Looking forward to the next installment.

[disbeast57]

i relized today, in highschool if i competed in PL equipped i could have totaled around 2000-2200lbs at 175lbs ( end of highschool).

Does that give me potential to be the best PL ever?

( just started training again)

[disbeast57]

Also is cell-tech a steroid???

[Gmoney23]

Ten minutes of shock and fear went by as they secured the entire building and brought all of our employees into one area. What was going on? Was there some type of misunderstanding or did we do something illegal without knowing it? Was I going to jail?



So I unknowingly turned around and yelled.. yea fuking water!

[curt_james]

Can I field this one?

Originally Posted by disbeast57

Also is cell-tech a steroid???

No.

[cjcane]

This thread is awesome.... couple questions:

1. How is the technology behind the scenes scaling and changing? How many people work on all that? I built AA.com, amazon type websites since 99. Went into the sales world... but, love whole picture. Still curious what makes this baby tick.

2. If you started BB.com today... and there was already a 'BB.com' with such a headstart... do you think you could compete? Would you do it differently? Would you keep the same customer centric focus? Could you do it if you didn't have bb.com domain name? (Know that's way big) I ask because this is the issue facing any baby.com's in today's competitive market.

3. Mark Cuban claims that the internet medium has already reached maximum growth. As, I remember from his blog. And that pretty much... like the great gold rush or land rush, whatever.. the winners have already staked claim. By, laying claim to valued domain names. He also thinks most everything that can be done has been done.. and that the internet is now a proven stable medium limited by bandwidth to end users. Thoughts?

4. How do you compensate authors for content and articles? Has that always been the same? Or is some it sponsorship too? I think the articles really sets bb.com apart.

5. I like your passions... lol... went off to work for 'the man'. It's so funny how someone else turns a passion into a dream.. and reality. I look back and look at how my first home made mp2 player in the 90s or even an e-commerce site could have lead to an interesting life. Very inspirational! Thank you.

cheers!

[smackshosh]

Are you mormon?

Answer to above poster, cell tech is the most powerful steroid available

[bmt424]

And I thought I could write!!!!....LOL

[curt_james]

I am curious about bandwidth and BodySpace. I wonder what it costs to keep this web community up and running. Are you accepting donations or do you have it covered? I definitely wouldn't want to lose this online community.