About Us

The story of Digital Dynamite starts with two dumb kids with stars in their eyes. I am one of those “kids”. Both with musical backgrounds and experience performing, we figured, “How hard could the other side of the industry be?” We laugh now, realizing we had no idea what we were in for. 

We purchased our first “big” sound system, which was going to give us opportunities for “big shows”. Mind you, this sound system could fill an ENTIRE… local bar. A friend of ours heard we were starting this business, so they asked us to provide production for their annual house party. Austin hand-built the stage from plywood and Uni-strut and we painted the sections ourselves. We had some basic LED pars, which we thought to be a complete lighting rig. We used our friend’s pool skimming pole to focus the lights. The manager of the band that played that night asked for our information and, much to our surprise, called to book us. The band was playing a casino show and wanted us to provide the audio and lighting. We were over the moon. The show actually overlapped with our honeymoon, which we were very upfront about. They told us whatever we needed to do to make it work, they’d accommodate. 

The date of the show came and we rolled up in our motorhome that we were taking on our honeymoon, a trailer with “Just Married” on the back, packed floor to ceiling with wedding decor. We didn’t think ahead when we packed everything, so all the production equipment was buried. We had to practically unload the entire trailer in the parking lot of the casino for load-in. How we not only pulled off this show, but somehow turned that casino into one of our most loyal clients, I’ll never know. 

I know that I’m making it sound like we were a complete disaster, but there had to have been something that people were responding to. Since our gear wasn’t anything fancy yet and we clearly weren’t doing things in the most conventional way, I know that people could feel our passion. We were newly married, so in love, excited to build our future together, and so happy to be building a business doing something we loved. 

We signed up to go to the NAMM show in the beginning of 2015. We didn’t know it yet, but this would be the turning point for us. We immersed ourselves in our business, handed out cards, networked with brand reps, and did research on how we could break into the industry. Austin knew the future was LED video. I was nervous about making such a big purchase, especially when we knew very little about the product. To put it into perspective, everyone knew very little about the product. We talked about it at length and decided it was the only way to propel ourselves to the next level. It was exciting, as we would be one of the very first in Northern California to offer this service. The problem was, the manufacturer wouldn’t ship to a residential address. We tried shipping to someone else, a virtual address, and basically any other thing we could think of to get around it, but we were at a crossroad. 

We took a big leap of faith and signed a lease on a small shop space. This was the real beginning of Digital Dynamite. Now we were official. Now we were legitimate. In the most serendipitous way, the panels arrived the same day we got our keys. Now that we had a shop to pay for, we really started pounding the pavement and networking. In only four short months, we had another problem. We had already outgrown the shop space that we just moved into. Thankfully, our landlord was willing to work with us to fill our space so we could move into a bigger unit in the same building. This was when I really started to believe we could do this. If that much growth happened in such a short amount of time, who knows where we could take this. 

Now that you know our backstory, I’ll spare you the details of every show between then and now. However, we have grown to have a pretty well-rounded portfolio with a fairly impressive client deck, if I do say so myself. If I look back on how we started, it’s almost laughable. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but now that we are here, this is absolutely what we were meant to be doing.

Austin’s mind is made for this business. He has an ear for audio, an eye for lighting, the creative mind for design, the technical knowledge to engineer, and the skills to build and execute all of it. He blossomed in ways I never expected because this line of work finally connected the dots between all the unique skills he possesses. 

For me, this business is all about the relationship with our clients. I love networking, meeting new people, learning how we can provide the best product and customer experience tailored to them, and even making friends along the way. My goal is to make every customer a repeat client. 

Now looking out into a packed warehouse and a workforce of over 40, we always want to honor our roots. We are a family-owned company. We want to treat our employees like family, as good employees are the heartbeat of any business. We always say that we want to provide corporate-level work with small-town customer service. 

• Taryn Jansen

              Chief Experience Officer