Despair’s planned, big catalog drop in Q4 2003 prompted our move to Interchange, a proper warehouse, during the summer of 2003. We still had some years left on our lease at Guerrero, but we needed the larger warehouse space for our operations. And the new space served us well that peak season. Fulfillment and customer service had moved over to Interchange while everything else stayed at Guerrero.

It was in this context of a steady footing at Interchange that the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), later Livestrong, came on board in 2004. In partnership with Nike, they had a new initiative, a yellow wristband, that they were launching, and they needed fulfillment. This is a big story, and I’m not the one to tell the story of the Livestrong wristbands. I’m not the one to tell the story of Amplifier’s relationship with LAF. I’m just going to tell some stories from my experience during this time.

It made all the difference that we were established in our new warehouse when the LAF opportunity came along.

My wife, Morgan, finished her Masters in Social Work at The University of Texas in May of 2004, and she’d done a concentration in non-profit administration. One evening, early on in the LAF phenomenon and soon after Morgan finished school, I went home for dinner and said, “if you want to see me over the next few weeks, you need to come work at the warehouse with me.” I explained that we needed to hire about 100 people, and I asked her if she could do that for us. She asked me some clarifying questions about our HR policies and procedures, and I just looked at her with a blank stare.

Morgan went back to the warehouse with me that night and became Amplifier’s first HR director. She established policies and procedures and helped us bring on the hundreds of folks we needed for the LAF work.