1. Aaron Way
206 612 3902
hexuslexusnexus@gmail.com
Educational Experience.
University of Idaho 2011 – 2012
4.0 / Honors – chemical engineering
Seattle Central Community College 2008-2009
4.0 – general studies
Professional Experience.
Dark Matter House Factory, LLC DBA Blackbird 2013-2016
• Owner
-Legally listed as 10% owner of company, though in reality I am personally responsible
for closer to 50% of company responsibilities, generated revenue, and business growth.
• Overall Company Success
-Blackbird is regarded as an industry leader in the independent perfume industry, niche
home fragrance industry, and modern grooming/cosmetics industry.
-Blackbird is regarded as a brand with a heart, soul, and personality that customers
(both businesses and end consumers) feel directly connected to and care about to an
extent that is extremely rare for a small corporation.
-Blackbird is respected as being a constant innovator within the realm of lifestyle/art
products and the early ideas presented by the company are often copied and replicated
by other companies for profit.
-Profitability, brand popularity, and growth potential are at an all-time high at the time of
my departure from the company.
• Business Development
-Participated and guided all business development decisions in terms of direction and
methodology.
-Carefully considered past performance data and market information to gain an
informed understanding of the likely success or failure of a given business decision.
-Collected data and built and ran calculations to determine overall profitability of
individual products and of the company as a whole.
-Scouted employees who would excel in open positions.
2. -Sought out, discovered, and proceeded to secure low cost short and long term funding
from various sources.
-Utilized reporting to better understand company successes and failures.
• Wholesale Sales
-Opened and maintained 200+ wholesale accounts worldwide over 2.5 years starting
from zero accounts.
-Sold roughly $500K of Blackbird products wholesale (this does not include a significant
amount of retail sales through the Blackbird e-commerce site) at an exceptionally good
margin.
-Complimented often by my clients as “their favorite brand to work with.”
-Maintained engaged and close relationships with customers through monthly or more
frequent email, phone, and face-to-face communication.
-Set up and executed in-store events to build exposure for clients and Blackbird.
-Constantly analyzed sales data on an overall and individual customer basis to provide
accurate feedback and effective methods to ensure ever-increasing sales.
-Offered in-depth support including comprehensive Skype training on our products and
brand history and constant availability to address any and all questions my accounts
would have.
-Worked 7 days a week including evenings to maximize available opportunities and
improve efficiency.
-Worked with shipping department (for 2 years the shipping department was me) to
ensure timely order shipment, which would help the products arrive sooner, sell faster,
and produce reorders more quickly.
-Applied for, prepared for, traveled to, and ran booths at tradeshows both domestically
and internationally to sell our products, including multiple trade shows in New York City
and a trade show in Dubai, UAE.
-Negotiated, established, and carried out large partnerships with distributors for our
products in China, Japan, Europe, and Russia.
• Perfumer
-Extensively researched the niche perfume industry including identifying some of the
most successful perfumes, what led to their success, common structures found
throughout this product/art category, and customer habits and their general likes and
dislikes in terms of how they need to be talked to and the actual nature of their
preferences in regards to scent.
-Taught myself how to design and produce fragrance starting with one or two ingredient
combinations but increasing in complexity to 30+ ingredient blends that can be applied
to personal fragrance (i.e. perfume, cologne, eau de toilette), candles, incense, bar
soap, liquid soap, or virtually any other substance that bears an odor.
-Received recognition in terms of numerous interviews, prominent features printed in
GQ and Details Magazine, other prominent features in the digital versions of these
magazines as well as Vogue and numerous other highly reputable sources.
-Received glowing reviews for my work in fragrance from perfume industry experts who
were able to recognize and appreciate my intent of provoking thought and pushing
3. through boundaries to carve new paths and explore new ground rather than restating
obvious or otherwise conventional ideas.
-Successfully collaborated with several stores including Free People (partner company
of Urban Outfitters), musicians, restaurants, and other brands to design custom
fragrances tailored exactly to their aims, wishes, and overall vision for their fragrances.
• Management
-Directly issued commands/orders/tasks to staff in shipping, production, graphic design,
sourcing, sales, marketing and more.
-Trained employees on shipping, production, and sales.
-Well liked within company as a passionate and intelligent but sensitive and considerate
leader.
• Accounting / Bookkeeping
-Entered expense and income data into Quickbooks.
-Recorded and paid taxes (state and federal, sales and payroll).
-Managed and processed payroll.
-Built and used paper filing system.
-Monitored cash flow alongside incoming expenses to suggest optimal payment
strategies.
-Negotiated successfully with Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and company
owners from other companies, as well as with government officials.
-Regularly assessed and broke down debt and pending income to present to business
decision makers.
-Controlled all payments including remittance and deposits (responsible to manage
money).
-Reconciled multiple bank accounts dating back several years without error.
• Shipping
-Shipped items with varying sizes, weights, fragility in orders ranging from small to
hundreds of pieces both domestically and internationally, including properly shipping
hazardous goods and working with both freight carriers and common carriers.
-Arranged for both incoming and outgoing shipments domestically and internationally
including preparation of any relevant customs documents and assignment of a customs
broker.
• Marketing and content creation
-Managed newsletter, blog, and all social media accounts by working with my team to
identify areas of marketing opportunity and adhering to a set schedule to ensure a
constant flow of branded content was hitting customers.
-Wrote marketing content to clearly convey the voice of the brand.
-Identified and assigned marketing related photography requirements to team members.
-Sought out and found high quality, relevant, and unique imagery from the Internet for
marketing.
4. • E-commerce description writing
-Identified common standards for describing various types of items for sales including
household furniture, men’s clothing, perfume, artwork, vintage goods, and more,
including both quantitative or empirical details as well as qualitative or less readily
apparent details.
• E-commerce customer service management
-Responded to customer service ‘help’ email address and assisted customers with any
and all questions to ensure they were each completely taken care of.
• Retail merchandising
-Designed and constructed original, attractive and cohesive displays to maximize
available space and materials with the goal to boost sales and redirect customer focus
in specific ways to assist with the sales process.
Blackbird, Inc. DBA Blackbird 2011 -2013
• Modeling
-Walked in runway show.
-Modeled for e-commerce clothing product photos.
• Retail sales
-Used clienteling to generate sales and build engaged, loyal customer relationships.
-Excelled at face-to-face and email sales.
-Learned and implemented CRM software to efficiently manage customer-base.
-Set and met constantly growing sales goals.
-Collaborated well with teammates.
-Excellent brand ambassador.
• Accounting/ Bookkeeping
-Entered expense and income data into Quickbooks.
-Recorded and paid taxes (state and federal, sales and payroll).
-Managed and processed payroll.
-Built and used paper filing system.
-Monitored cash flow alongside incoming expenses to suggest optimal payment
strategies.
-Negotiated successfully with Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and company
owners from other companies, as well as with government officials.
-Regularly assessed and broke down debt and pending income to present to business
decision makers.
-Controlled all payments including remittance and deposits (responsible to manage
money).
-Reconciled multiple bank accounts dating back several years without error.
5. • Marketing and content creation
-Managed newsletter, blog, and all social media accounts by working with my team to
identify areas of marketing opportunity and adhering to a set schedule to ensure a
constant flow of branded content was hitting customers.
-Wrote marketing content to clearly convey the voice of the brand.
-Identified and assigned marketing related photography requirements to team members.
-Sought out and found high quality, relevant, and unique imagery from the Internet for
marketing.
• E-commerce description writing
-Identified common standards for describing various types of items for sales including
household furniture, men’s clothing, perfume, artwork, vintage goods, and more,
including both quantitative or empirical details as well as qualitative or less readily
apparent details.
• E-commerce customer service management
-Responded to customer service ‘help’ email address and assisted customers with any
and all questions to ensure they were each completely taken care of.
• Retail merchandising
-Designed and constructed original, attractive and cohesive displays to maximize
available space and materials with the goal to boost sales and redirect customer focus
in specific ways to assist with the sales process.
• Business closure, dissolution and liquidation
-Liquidated all assets including merchandise and all backend supplies over a successful
two-month sale period.
-Notified all relevant institutions and filed all required paperwork to finalize business
dissolution.
-Tied off all remaining loose ends of a wide variety of natures to result in a clean ending
to the company.
Via Tribunali 2011
• Waiter
Blue Star Café & Pub 2010-2011
• Waiter
6. Basic details.
Languages spoken: English, Spanish (conversational)
Relevant tools already owned: car, laptop, smart phone
Computer software experience:
• all web browsers
• all social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest)
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Quickbooks Online
• Shopify (e-commerce)
• Constant Contact (email marketing)
• Mailchimp (email marketing)
• Dropbox
• Highrise
• Basecamp
• Skype
• GIMP (basic graphic design / image editing)
• Microsoft Powerpoint (some)
• Quickbooks Desktop (some)
General Skills and Qualifications:
• Excellent written and verbal communicator and negotiator.
• Excellent phone, email, and face-to-face salesman.
• Fast learner.
• Data analysis and opportunity identification.
• Strong mathematician (studied through Calculus 2).
• Highly creative in art, business, and quantitative areas.
• Refined artistic sense.
• Strives to understand job tasks, goals, and routes to and requirements for success
and growth.
