Before starting his own shop, Ian designed and prototyped custom camper van interiors for a large shop in LA, designed and built mechanical stage illusions for John Gaughan, toured full-time as a bass player, ran A&R/ sales/ marketing for Marco Bass Guitars, lead Education related market research efforts at Microsoft as a Senior Market Research Manager, and did some strategy work as a Senior Consultant at Hitachi Consulting. Before Ian's corporate career, he managed a waterfront hotel on Orcas Island, started and ran a kayak tour company, and spent some quality time absorbing construction fundamentals working for his brother as a custom home builder.