After graduating, my father, who has been in business his entire life, approached me and asked to help him start a brand of kitchen gadgetry with a focus on cutlery. It is rather unclear how he decided on that specific product, but it had a lot to do with ceramic cutlery and how much it was growing as a category. Those products were factory made in China. So we did that for awhile, but I wasn't too stoked on it. No part of me wanted to peddle generic Chinese stuff. Then we found an "in" for this small foundry in Russia. That was entirely by chance, fostered by being in the cutlery world. Myself being Russian there was a lot of history there for me. On top of that, selling something truly artisan is much much better. I love seeing people pick up a knife and instantly understand why it costs $400 (they're not all that expensive). So I masterminded the Olamic Cutlery brand, it was founded on 10/10/10. We're still going strong and growing, and my faith in the product is higher than ever before. The type of feedback I receive from my customers is absolutely outstanding. There are many many exciting things happening as well, so I'll keep r/knives posted.