Why I Hit Pause

My company had grown big—the wrong kind of big. So to survive, I had to strip it all down.

- Matt Cimaglia

When I graduated college in 2002, I knew I didn’t want to work for anyone else. So I founded a video production company called Cimaglia Productions. Did I go to business school? No. But I loved making videos, so I went on a campaign to impress every client I could—and, I suspect, won my first contracts by underbidding bigger agencies. Hey, I was just a kid with a camera.

The next 10 years were about growth. I worked with major clients like Mercedes-Benz and Lavazza Coffee, and I created the first-ever high-definition segments for NBC’s Dateline. I said yes to basically every job and hired dozens of full-time cinematographers, editors, and producers. I doubled my company’s size every year for five consecutive years, and I leased an office in Chicago’s bustling downtown.

In 2012, an investment firm asked whether I was interested in a multimillion dollar seed fund. I could merge with several competitors, dominate the local market, reduce our collective overhead—and be CEO. It seemed like the culmination of my labor. But instead, it made me come to terms with what I had built. Because frankly, I wasn’t happy.