Meet Marc Aptakin | business

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marc Aptakin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marc, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
As a fine art photographer, I fell into graphic design through the printing industry. In fact, my first agency was born from a failed print shop. Eventually, a lifelong love of tech and a passion for innovation led me to launch Mad twenty-two years ago – it was just me and my laptop. Since then, the company has grown to include over 100 employees, comprising Mad Agency, Mad Studio, Mad Dev, Mad Arts, and MadLabs, with multiple locations across the U.S. and one in São Paulo, Brazil. Our end-to-end creative agency handles everything from branding to immersive, mixed-reality concepts for our clients. We’re constantly working to raise the bar on connected brand experiences.

Leading a business as a creative professional is wildly different from a businessperson leading a business. We think about things differently. Where a businessperson might try to make the most money out of a product – i.e. cutting costs for materials, aesthetics, etc – we’re always trying to figure out how to give the most value to our clients, making it better, more creative, and more beautiful. It’s not just about profit for us.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
How do we overcome challenges? We welcome and fight through them, as that’s part of how we grow and succeed. Everything is a challenge. Every new client and project is a challenge. What makes us different at Mad is a natural curiosity about things and the guts to go for it when opportunities come our way. In conversation, clients will casually tell you about their problems. We don’t wait for them to come and ask for help directly; we anticipate their needs and bring them solutions. If someone says, “I have a problem here,” then we’re already trying to evaluate whether we can do it better or find a smarter way to tackle it.

Ultimately, if you believe you can do great work and you surround yourself with incredibly smart people, your chances of succeeding are great. I always want to be the dumbest person in the room.

Looking forward, we’ve got some exciting projects coming up. We’re currently working on expanding the MadLabs division – which encompasses Mad Arts – into a 20,000 sq. ft immersive museum that will be driven by creativity, intelligence, and the get-it-done attitude that lives here at Mad. The goal is to open in three cities within the next three years.

Amazing in its own right, the museum is really an undercover R&D lab for everything we do here for our clients across all the different industries. Set to debut in January 2024 as part of Broward’s fourth annual IGNITE art, light, and projection mapping festival, the Mad Arts museum will feature immersive and tech-based exhibits from artists all over the world. It will officially open in February as one of the larger spaces in the country that hosts this type of art.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
OB House is by far the best breakfast in town. Be sure to try the pancakes or the Mahi Omelette, as those are two of my personal favorites. If you’re a music lover, don’t miss Sweat Records in Wynwood or My Mama’s in Dania Beach. Los Pinareños is my go-to cafecito spot. And then to round out the day, for dinner, you can’t go wrong with Garcia’s Seafood or Chimney House.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My love of tech can be attributed to reading too much William Gibson as a kid. After reading his books, I’m always going to feel like we’re super far behind where we should be technology-wise, when it comes to VR, AR, and the other cutting-edge tech stuff we do at Mad. It helps keep us on the move, as we’re always trying to incorporate cutting-edge tech and stay ahead of the curve. We completed our first AR experience on a direct mail piece in 2008, and we’ve been pushing the boundaries of innovation ever since.

On the Mad Arts side of things, the seed planted early in my career came from Brook Dorsch. As an up-and-coming creative, I was given the opportunity to use the space of what was then known as Dorsch Gallery — a beloved gallery with underground, punk rock vibes that catered to local artists. It was here that I was able to develop not just my talents, but also a sense of community.

Brook regularly provided space in his gallery for workspaces, accommodations, and some of the best bullshitting and conversations – ones that would prove to be a long-lasting inspiration for many South Florida artists. This championing of the community inspired me to continue paying it forward, eventually acquiring a warehouse of my own where we could provide that kind of creative space for local artists.

Today, Mad Arts strives to continue supporting the community by helping artists facilitate their initial ideas and adding our agency expertise and resources to help them create experiences that may have otherwise been out of reach. It’s become an outlet for the likes of Jen Clay, Richard Vergez, David Carson, Cory Van Lew, Edison Peñafiel, and other prominent artists who continue to leave a mark on the South Florida scene.

Website: : https://www.yeswearemad.com/

Instagram: : https://www.instagram.com/yeswearemad/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/yeswearemad

Twitter: https://twitter.com/YesWeAreMad

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YesWeAreMad/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnOVCN-hiCYqMgyuJhH5hAA/featured?view_as=public