Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Ciesiun.
Paul, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Blue Island, on the south side of Chicago. At 18 I didn’t have money for college, so I enlisted in the Air Force. I did well in the Air Force and served as a C-130 Loadmaster out of Pope AFB, North Carolina. I was with the 41st Airlift Squadron all 4 years and proudly earned combat time by flying 96 combat sorties in the middle-east.
After four years and an honorable discharge, I opted to come back home to Illinois to take advantage of the Illinois Veteran’s Grant and go to college. When I arrived home, I had an ambition for problem-solving, and found myself in an industry I grew up loving, paintball. There I began to invent new products and negotiated license agreements for IP that I had developed. After earning my first 2 patents, I was accepted to Illinois State University, where I studied business.
Over the course of my 4 years at ISU, I managed to work on a business plan for a new encapsulation technology and process I invented. I graduated with a business degree and took my business plan to find funding. In 2009, I was able to secure $6Million from a private investor and started a company called HydroTec. The company was poised to command the paintball industry and be a leading manufacturer of paintballs, globally. However, the partnership failed and I took my IP to do work for an aerospace company for several years. During that time I invested in opening a paintball park in Lockport (Legacy Paintball). As I developed the 80-acre site which needed heavy reclamation and cleaning, I realized I had nothing to populate the fields with that was not repurposed trash.
So, as I had done previously I innovated. I found a way to introduce a product to paintball that would permit theming. I invested in equipment, with another partner, and formed Legacy 3D FX in 2013. We began to create themed pieces and environments for paintball parks. However, I quickly found that the theming/scenic industry was immense and having the right contacts I stumbled into a contract to produce props for the major motion picture, Jurassic World.
With that success, our name got out fast and before I knew it we were in the paintball, haunted house, movie, television, theme park, water park, and family entertainment industries (just to name a few). The company doubled in size from 2013 to 2014, and again each year since, including 2016 to 2017. Legacy 3D FX became L3DFX in 2017 when I was able to buy out my other partners whom I also sold my ownership in Legacy Paintball Park to. As of today, L3DFX is a multi-million dollar company, with 35,000 sq. ft. of production space, 35 full-time employees and started with just $200K investment. We are positioned to double in size again in 2018 and are now recognized as an award-winning theme/scenic company. We have produced for clients such as ESPN, Disney, Paramount Pictures (Transformers 5), Universal, Red Frog Events, Lollapalooza and many more.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Not. At. All. It has been hard. At times, impossible.
HydroTec failing as a $6Mil startup because of a bad partnership was the most difficult part of my business career so far. I had to start over, completely. That said, it landed me with L3DFX which has taken hard work every day. I would say owning a business is a struggle the whole way, but for me, I find strength in being challenged.
Please tell us about L3DFX.
L3DFX is an award-winning creative studio that specializes in theming, props, structures, immersive environments and interactive experiences. We create new worlds, whether on the big screen or at an event. We are known for our work in movies like Jurassic World, Transformers 5, ESPN’s The Drone Racing League and other projects we have done globally.
I’m most proud at our creative power. That we have never avoided a challenge, instead we go at it head on ready to overcome. I think we’re different than other firms because of our unique perspective on ways to create new themed experiences. We innovate, and if we need to, invent, all in the effort to bring someone that goose-bump raising experience.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have taken a vacation at the beginning of all of this. In all seriousness, nothing. I think the mistakes and missteps are all part of helping to build what I have. I don’t know how else I would have learned some lessons.
Contact Info:
- Address: 650 S. Schmidt
Bolingbrook, IL 60440 - Website: www.l3dfx.com
- Phone: 8157275454
- Email: paul@l3dfx.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/L3DFX/
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