HISTORY
2001 2003: Fraternity The roots of Kotis began back in a small fraternity room at the University of Washington
where Jeff made tees for his fraternity. He was introduced to Nic as the "designer he should have used" on an order where
the customer wasn't satisfied. James joined in and began "pushing shirts" while Daniel was convinced to get involved on the
tech side (thank goodness for that). The core team was in place.
2004: University House After graduating college we decided to throw caution to the wind and pursue our start-up full
time. Jeff and 7 friends lived in a nine-bedroom house where Kotis operated out of the one bedroom left. The tiny space worked
well and even boasted 270 degrees of windows, which, unfortunately, made the summers extremely hot. Oh, and we also had our first intern.
2005: The Basement Nic's uncle owned a building near UW so we set up shop in the basement and consequently had our first
real office. The proximity to the football stadium didn't hurt as we met more clients tailgating than any other year (plus we found
Adam, the head of our warehouse/operations). The space was 10 times the size of the University House yet it only took 9 months to out grow.
2005 2007: Lake City For 2 good years we called Lake City our home, but soon enough our shelves were full, our neighbors
were angry at the maxed out parking lot, there was no room for extra desks, and when trucks came with large deliveries we would block
our entire street while unloading packages into the parking lot/lawn. It was time for another upgrade.
2008 Present: Lynnwood & University Ave For the first time we have two locations. The Lynnwood location is home to
both our warehouse facility and corporate headquarters while the University Ave is naturally where the college team works. We
sell to over 400 campuses across the nation and the Puget Sound Business Journal recently named us #21 on the fastest growing
private companies in Washington. We tend to outgrow our spaces quickly
but how soon we move again depends on how many of you
decide to work with us.
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WHAT'S NEXT
We're built to handle large volumes of orders efficiently and creatively. We have a support staff that
can easily manage several times the business we are currently processing with only minor modifications.
For the last several years we've been focusing our use of technology to enable more aggressive growth.
We're experimenting with satellite sales offices in various cities throughout the country, and are
looking to acquire small businesses nationally to increase our sales in existing and emerging markets.
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