Adam22dotcom

It would be impossible to even begin to consider all of the crazy stuff that has happened over the years both in videos and in front of my own eyes. But here's a memory that stands out:

When I was 15 I became obsessed with a rider named Edwin DeLaRosa from New York City. Anyone who rides will tell you that Edwin essentially brought style and speed to street riding at a time when street wasn't really taken seriously by the majority of riders. Not only was Edwin's riding unbelievable but he was always just a really stylish dude. There was a Zoo York ad that I had on my wall where he did a 360 barspin to fakie (a trick I'm pretty sure he invented) on the bank at The Brooklyn Banks wearing this striped sweater and I just remember thinking that Edwin, that trick, that spot and that sweater were all fucking awesome.

The first time I ever went to NYC to ride, my friends and I were pedaling around lost trying to find The Brooklyn Banks. A rider pedaled by and told us to follow him. We pedaled a few blocks and as soon as I pulled up to The Banks (probably the most famous BMX/skate spot on Earth) there was Edwin DOING THE EXACT SAME TRICK WEARING THE EXACT SAME SWEATER. It was literally the first thing I saw as I pulled up.

I think I fell a little bit more in love with BMX at that moment, just realizing that not only was BMX absolutely fucking amazing but that it was going on all the time and that if I was lucky enough, I could be part of it.

When the site started to make money, I suppose the first thing I spent that money on was just paying myself back for all of the web development that I had paid for out of pocket.

But once the site started to actually make a significant amount of money the first thing I did was start paying my rent with it so that I could quit playing online poker and start spending all of my time on the site.

Once the site reached another level financially I hired a full staff of bloggers to make sure that we were able to get stuff posted to the site before any of our competitors and we started buying original video and photo content from contributors. I think that our huge push into original content has been the biggest change in the site in the past few years, both in terms of keeping our users happy but also just because it changed the way the BMX community as a whole perceived the site. Buying video or photo content rarely pays for itself but we think it's important to support videographers and photographers whenever possible.

My biggest challenge was definitely just mastering the business side of running a blog. There were so many overwhelming things to be done. I had to learn how ads were bought and sold online (which was quite a bit more complicated in 2006 than it is today) and I had to figure out how to work with all of these brands who wanted to advertise. It took me a little while but I ended up hiring someone (my good friend and fellow BMX rider, Alfredo Mancuso) to take over the more technical and financial side of the business.

Reading that, it might sound like a cop out. My way of dealing with a problem was to hire someone else to do it, who was more suited to it. But delegating responsibility is the most important thing in any business. I was inspired when I read about Michael Aarington (the founder of TechCrunch) and how he hired a young, female CEO to run the business when they were only bringing in a couple 100,000 a year. I think it takes a lot of courage to accept that even though you started a business, that doesn't mean that you're the best person to run the business. I had to really put my ego aside and it was hard but it was probably the smartest thing I've ever done.

I don't think there is a "morally right decision" when it comes to what kind of shoe you wear. DC were a big company that sponsored a huge team of my friends for many years, why on Earth would I have ever said no to working with them? The fact that the BMX community disliked DC was a product of bad marketing on their part and I was really excited about the opportunity to help them do a better job, I'm still bummed they dropped out.

Everyone else in the world > Adam LZ in a fight.