Page 19 - CMA PROfiles Summer 2018

Their confidence and skill launched Chris Danielsen and
Brandon Picanzo out of a borrowed garage and into a “real”

business venture. They credit their success to honesty, putting
the business first and always looking to the future.

While we’ve all heard the saying, “So that weekend, we went and rented
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” a shop and moved all of our tools in,”
it’s also true that a single story can Danielsen says.
speak volumes. There are so many things to like about
In interviewing Chris Danielsen about this story.
Danzo Group, the company he and First, there’s the fact that two guys
Brandon Picanzo launched in 2005, we working out of a borrowed garage didn’t
heard one of those singular stories that hesitate to throw their names in the hat
captures the boldness and creativity of for a $150,000 job.
the friends and business partners.
And of course there’s the way they
In 2007, after doing mostly small jobs rose to the occasion when faced with
out of Danielsen’s father’s garage in the possibility that the designer might
Temple City, California, for a couple of discover that their infrastructure didn’t
years, Danielsen and Picanzo bid on a exactly match up with their skills and
huge job building cabinetry for a house ambition.
in the Pacific Palisades.
Finally, they managed to make a decision
The story then took a “good news, bad that was both fast and sound — all these
news” turn. years later, they’re still working out of the
“It was a $150,000 job, and we got it,” space they rented that weekend. They’ve
Danielsen says. “Then the designer said, now expanded to encompass spaces
‘Can I come to your shop and go over above and next door to the original space
the plans?’” they call home base.

A pretty routine request – unless you SHOP CLASS SUCCESS STORY
don’t have a shop and are working out of If you rewind to the beginning of the
the family garage. Danzo story, you’ll land in the high school
Danielsen and Picanzo panicked a bit, shop class where Picanzo and Danielsen
knowing they stood to lose the job if the met at age 14.
designer realized that they didn’t have
the kind of shop that a company hired
“The attention to detail, staying true to the project timeline,
for a $150,000 project would
generally have.

and the amount of time spent with the client is where
a lot of our value comes from.”

CABINET MAKERS ASSOCIATION 17