This Small But Powerful Company Grabbed AMC's Attention

Andrew encourages other entrepreneurs to keep the passion and faith about what they do and what they believe in. In First My Family's case, one couple's passion for keeping families safe led to a fulfilling business and has created jobs for many hard-working people.
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Andrew and Angie Torres are passionate about safety. This husband and wife duo spent the majority of their careers caring for the safety of others - Andrew as an expert in emergency preparedness, and Angie as a nurse. In 2011, they founded First My Family, a company that creates safety kits for families and communities.

Turns out, the rest of us aren't as concerned as we should be about preparing for a disaster. According to a FEMA survey, nearly half of the US population surveyed on preparedness is categorized as "Not on their Radar." Unfortunately, disaster can strike when we're least expecting it - which is actually how First My Family was born.

While Andrew was giving a presentation in Singapore to a corporation about preparing for the Avian Influenza H1N1, one of the senior leaders expressed his gratitude for keeping his office safe, and then posed a life-changing question. "But what about our families?" the man asked. This stuck in Andrew's mind. In his heart, he knew he had to find a solution.

When Andrew returned home to the US, he immediately bought the domain name to First My Family and began designing what he thought would be a great survival kit. The company officially incorporated in 2011 and already turned a profit by 2012, helping hundreds of families in the process. As the First My Family grew, they partnered with Hope Services, an organization that provides jobs for the physically and mentally disabled. These individuals are the added magic that helps make the family preparedness kits.

In 2013, the company took an unexpected turn. One night, Andrew and Angie were watching The Walking Dead, one of their favorite shows. During The Talking Dead, the "president of Zombie University" came on the screen and talked about the importance of being prepared during a zombie apocalypse, listing out several items one should have on hand. Angie leaned over to Andrew and pointed out that they had most of the items in their First My Family survival kits.

"I got up out of bed and sent AMC a twitter post, Facebook message and email and the very next day," recalls Andrew. "They called and wanted to talk about the idea. It took about 9 months of contract negotiations, lawyers, and upgrades to how and who built out kits and we finally received our signed license agreement in December of 2013."

First My Family launched their first The Walking Dead Survival Kit in February 2014 during a live giveaway and presentation of the kit on The Talking Dead during the mid-season premier. Interesting enough, this was the same time they started talking to AMC about our second product idea: AMC The Walking Dead Zombie Preparedness Apocalypse Kit (ZPAK). A year and a half later, that product is now available for sale.

"We are excited about that kit because the price of it is much lower, there is nothing on the market that links the AMC brand for TWD and a fully useful product like it," says Andrew.

Andrew encourages other entrepreneurs to keep the passion and faith about what they do and what they believe in. In First My Family's case, one couple's passion for keeping families safe led to a fulfilling business and has created jobs for many hard-working people.

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