Jeff Sandine

The rest of the story…

Education

My 2 mentors were my dad and The Gorilla.

My dad taught me most of the skills and attitude required to start and operate a business, he's the reason I began working with computers when I was just 13.

In my mid-twenties The Gorilla took me under his wing and showed me how to play no nonsense hardball in the retail sales and service of heavy industrial and construction equipment in the Reno and northern Nevada area. We called him The Gorilla because he looked and acted like one, but when he wanted to charm you, he just looked at you with a big sly infectious grin and twinkling blue eyes. He was always chomping on a cigar.

My introduction to computer technology and security businesses

It's my dad's fault. Fred Sandine was born in Coos Bay, OR in 1925, he was a CPA by trade and 1/3 owner in a wholesale candy and tobacco business in the San Francisco Bay Area, which distributed these products to many of the grocery stores in the SF Bay Area. Not only did he teach me about the wholesale distribution business beginning at a very young age, but he also told me that going to school was a waste of time. I took his words to heart, went to work, and have never looked back.

Computer Technology

I began working with computers in my dad's business in my teens, where I learned to program and operate big gray IBM analog computers that filled entire rooms like herds of elephants. These machines whirred and sorted 80 column punch cards, clanked and clattered and spit out streams of invoices and reports. That was before the advent of the microprocessor. I did not have a clue at the time, but this early introduction to technology and business paved the way for the next 4+ decades of my sales and support of computer technologies.

One of the 1st technology companies that I started was in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard in 1984. This start up business rapidly went on to become the largest, most successful, most profitable retail computer business in the Pacific NW. Besides good luck and great employees, I attribute some of the success of this business to my obsession with doing it right the first time, underpromise and overdeliver.

Security Industry

That warehouse full of cigarettes and other tobacco products was a tempting target. At the time a case of Marlboro cigarettes had 60 cartons, each carton had 10 packs, @ 25 cents per pack = $150 per case. For security, we had a state-of-the-art, ADT tripwire security system. When the crooks broke into the warehouse in the middle of the night to haul away cases of cigarettes, sometimes they would not see the black tripwire system near ground level that surrounded the tobacco products.

When the tripwire worked, an alarm was triggered, ADT would respond to the incoming alarm, call the police and my dad. He would jump out of bed and drive down the warehouse to meet the police. When I was in my late teens, my dad decided I should be the one to meet the police at the warehouse when the alarm had been triggered. He presented me with a .357 Colt Python to take with me to meet the police at the scene of the crime when ADT called me in the middle of the night. I've been working with security hardware and software ever since.

For Fun

I'm a Certified Real Deal rhythm guitar player in the Jacque Taylor and The Real Deal Band. We play Motown, Rock N Roll, etc.