Today we’d like to introduce you to Suren Seron.
Suren, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started Stray Angel Films out of my apartment when I was around 23 years old using credit cards for startup expenses. It took around twenty years for the company to fully mature. It was a slow and steady process, with plenty of pitfalls along the way, but mostly it was a combination of hard work, determination, a refusal to accept defeat or an unsatisfactory outcome, and finding great people to add to the team along the way.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The only people who in my opinion have smooth rides are the ones with a rich uncle or another form of nepotism bailing them out whether they have a problem. For my company, we experienced the most pain during periods of growth where we did not have enough supply to meet demand. Although we found ways of solving it to keep our growing customer base happy, our net profits took a hit for many years until we were able to acquire all the resources and inventory we needed in-house to finally solve that pain point. The biggest struggle that continues to occur is simply the cost of living and doing business in Los Angeles and in California for our employees and for the business itself. We pay our staff more than many competitors and we pride ourselves on paying everyone here a fair wage. This issue is so crucial right now as California is now facing with a massive lack of retirement crisis in terms of a total lack of financial planning for both individuals as well as a burden on the state’s resources that is only getting significantly worse every year. Despite varying levels of financial education, many workers on all levels simply find themselves unable to save anything for the future.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Stray Angel Films is a Los Angeles-based digital motion picture rental house and production services company founded in 2003 by CEO Suren M. Seron. With a background in filmmaking, a fantastic crew, and an onsite soundstage, our company collaborates with a diverse array of professional clients today, including independent filmmakers, ad agencies, multi-channel networks, television & film studios, and Fortune 500 brands.
We have the experience and the professional studio capacity to manage your productions from start to finish, and no matter your creative vision, we’ll work side by side with you to develop the right strategy. With the rare combination of equipment rentals, production services, and turn-key content producing, let us live up to our mantra and work miracles for your next digital media project.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
The weather was nice, but lately it’s too hot and erratic now with climate change. There’s considerably less cloud cover and atmospheric diffusion now and UV radiation is far more intense than it used to be. Much less time in direct sun is having a much greater impact on the body. The city has gone from an endless summer paradise to an endless roller coaster where you can expect the next week to be 110 degrees or 60, and you’ll never know which one is coming regardless of the time of year.
The best thing is the history and the magic that was once here. If you look in the right places, you can still find the remnants of great dreamers and even greater dreams. The worst thing is that LA is still mostly made up of people stuck chasing this same shared fever dream that’s sadly been long gone for well over half a century. In the last two decades, we have only made negative process towards home ownership for almost everyone here with most people spending even more of whatever they make on rent. Many who do own often have little savings and are just barely able to maintain whatever level of lifestyle they have now.
The nagging dichotomy of needing to be here to operate a modestly successful small business coupled with the intense desire to own something affordable out of state is a millstone around the neck of many small business owners.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.strayangel.com/
