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Flying High at 25
At 25 years old, most people are just figuring out what they want to do with their lives and their careers. Not 25-year-old Cody Murray, president of Raw Talent, Inc., Bethlehem, Ga. He's moved way beyond that. Murray and his partner, Corey Bramblett, Raw Talent's chief financial officer, started the screen printing company six years ago in Bramblett's house, armed only with a computer and a telephone for making cold calls.
At 25 years old, most people are just figuring out what they want to do with their lives and their careers. Not 25-year-old Cody Murray, president of Raw Talent, Inc., Bethlehem, Ga. He’s moved way beyond that. Murray and his partner, Corey Bramblett, Raw Talent’s chief financial officer, started the screen printing company six years ago in Bramblett’s house, armed only with a computer and a telephone for making cold calls.
That hard work paid off, and Raw Talent has since turned it into an $8 million company. Murray was recently named the 2008 Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Georgia by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the company just won a Pacesetters Award by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of the 50 fastest-growing, privately held companies in metropolitan Atlanta.
Raw Talent moved out of Bramblett’s house long ago, upgrading into larger spaces over the years as needed. It is currently housed in a 13,000-square-foot warehouse, with room for 35 employees and two 16-color automatic presses, and the company is currently building a 40,000-square-foot facility.
“Raw Talent has grown 1279% since 2005,” says Murray. Most of its work now comes from inbound calls and word of mouth. Murray notes that the company primarily caters to larger clients who have a need for its large-scale capabilities, but says that it also has relatively small customers. “We have about 700 clients in 10 countries,” he says, “although most are in the United States.”
Nominated by the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Athens, Ga., Murray will receive the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award on May 22, 2008. The ceremony for the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Pacesetters Award is in April.
Murray credits the company’s success to working smart and practicing humility. “We had a vision of what we wanted, but we still have a long way to go.”
And just think what the next 25 years will bring.
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