A. I started making and designing t-shirts out of my truck between my window sales appointments. Now Diamond MMA is designing some of the most innovative apparel and gear for the exploding MMA market. I have interest from some of the big companies in my market for deals but I want to hold out and continue to develop my brand.

B. Launching as an unknown company with no $ especially in this recession meant that I used passion, persistence and fierce networking, to build my team of Stanford designers, patent attorneys, athletes and about 10 of global design firm, IDEO's top young talent all to work on my project for basically free. I remember reading a past Inc. issue about all the great innovations to come out of the worst recessions and figured I'm crazy enough to do it. During this project, we created a first to the market complete fight short. We are now developing the world's first "super cup" a cup so advanced you could get kicked in the nuts by a horse and keep on going. This product will change the old plastic cup and elastic straps forever.

C. How I would use the Alibaba cash is easy! I still have raised no seed money yet, my only partners are American Express and Visa. I would use the cash to keep my dream alive by paying down some bills. I'm 30 with a 5, 4 and 3 year old, so it's been really tough. When you love what you're doing it's worth it. Check out www.diamondmma.com to see what I've been up to!

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