It all seems pretty surreal to me. As you read this, over 140,000 young adults throughout 31 states are receiving this November 2005 issue of brass. However, it hasn't always been this way.

Three years ago, I had just graduated high school and was working two jobs - one as a janitor at an athletic club and the second as a host at a restaurant. With the idea of creating a lifestyle money magazine that talked to people our age, rather than at us, I incorporated brass on March 19, 2003.

Two years ago, after being blown off more times than I can count, we raised money from our investors, a group comprised of farmers, brokers, a school teacher, a retired doctor, a real estate developer and a former bus driver. We had no patents, no intellectual property and no copyrights, yet they invested in brass and believed in our dream. We printed our first prototype and began looking for credit unions to partner with to launch brass. Last year we finished our first year of being in print, having launched our first issue in February 2004 to just under 30,000 readers. We finished 2004 with close to 60,000 readers.

With the conclusion of this year, not only has our circulation increased to over 140,000, but we have been fortunate enough to meet and feature some amazing people in the magazine. We featured a philanthropist/entrepreneur from Toronto, a very dynamic street ball player from the middle of Oregon, two award-winning documentary producers from Brooklyn's projects and the Israeli-born "hip hop violinist."

Just one month after featuring The Professor in our May issue, he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. In our February 2005 issue, Jennifer Corriero talked about the importance of youth getting involved in their communities and by July she was being quoted on the side of Starbucks coffee cups all across the country. Look for her - she's quote #48.

It has been a crazy year and while we're always trying to improve and we're just getting started, I have a hunch that by this same time next year brass will be in a whole new realm. Just think - you'll be able to say you knew about brass before it was brass…

Thanks for your support.

Bryan Sims, CEO