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Origin: AXT / Axe Haus

An idle Costa Mesa warehouse became a permitted axe-throwing venue, and a sale that COVID cut short.

I had a warehouse in Costa Mesa sitting underused. Axe throwing was growing in other cities, and Southern California had nothing like it yet. The city code had no category for it, so there was no permit to request. The one way to test the idea was to host a handful of parties, put real people in front of targets, and build the brand and the market before building a company around it.

We started trading in October 2018. After that I stood before the city myself and took heavy pushback in the meeting. Costa Mesa approved the reconsideration packet anyway, issuing a first-of-its-kind use permit.

Real revenue arrived in the first months, from a standing start. In March 2020, a Riverside buyer agreed on a handshake to purchase all of it: brand, concept, units, equipment, website. That was a Friday. COVID landed the next Monday.

I never meant to run Axe Haus indefinitely. My aim was to prove that an idle asset could become a destination, and to keep the business small enough to sell once proven. Staying open out of sentiment, only because you built the place, is how good operators become bad ones.

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