Who/What is HuntWorks®Outdoors and Team Swarm™?

We are a company of outdoors enthusiasts that invents and manufactures killer hunting innovations and outdoor products that will take your next adventure to new levels. We are based in the USA and proudly build our products here and support the American workforce.

My name is William Boren. I am the Founder of HuntWorks®️, LLC and its principal, product inventor. I’ve been on this journey for about 11 years and I have no quit in me. The COVID-19 pandemic has only brought out more hustle. I was born, raised, and have resided my whole life in Mississippi. I’ve always been an avid outdoorsman. I have no interest in football, baseball, basketball, etc. Other than God, my family, and friends, I really care only for hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping. Aside from being able to help people regain a better quality of life, I chose a career as a medical massage therapist in order to have flexible hours and be able to set my own schedule. I book appointments around the Lunar calendar! At 39, I met the love of my life. We married in 2009 and now have two wonderful children. My wife is truly my best friend and I am blessed beyond measure.

On opening morning of the 2010 deer season, I was in my lock-on deer stand and saw movement. Yep, the meat wagon was on the way. As several deer were easing down the trail, they stopped just out of shooting range to let a young, dumb male go first—typical behavior. Now, I’m 25 feet up, I hadn’t walked anywhere near the trail, and the wind was in my favor; however, that young buck stopped parallel to me, turned his head and looked up straight into my eyes. I was on a big pine and there was nothing visible but my silhouette. No matter how hard I leaned into that tree, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was busted! He started blowing and in a moment, they were gone. The hunt was over.

As I sat down, I got a crystal clear mental image of an ideal tree blind…but for the life of me, I could not remember where I had seen it. For the next two months, I searched everywhere for this specific hunting blind and then I realized that it was not on the market—it was only in my mind’s eye.

How did such a clear, detailed image get in my head? I slowly realized that this was a design that the Lord had given me. So, I started building what I envisioned. It took 5½ years to fully and effectively translate the image in my mind to what is now on the market as The HotSpot® 4-n-1 Hunting Blind.

I’m constantly amazed at how things work out. Initially, one of the names I considered for the hunting blind was “The Hornet’s Nest Hunting Blind” but the trademark search came back indicating that Hornets Nest® was owned by a guy in Arkansas so I came up with The HotSpot®.

There was something about the original name, however, that kept nudging me to reach out to the guy in Arkansas. I finally did and that’s how I met Lane Williams. I showed him the HotSpot® Blind and the first thing he said was, “Man, that would work great built out of my Hornets Nest® camouflage.” I agreed and over the next year, I kept him up to date with my progress. We ultimately negotiated a deal to become business partners. Now, HuntWorks® Outdoors has a 100- year exclusive license for HornetsNest® Camo. I’m also proud to say that Lane has become one of my dearest friends, as well as a founding partner.

Lane Williams is an outdoors enthusiast who literally knows how to live off the land. He was born, raised, and resides in Arkansas. He works on average, 70 hours a week at a paper mill. If he’s not there, he’s outdoors. Years ago, he had the idea that a hornet’s nest would make great camouflage, so, he found a hornet's nest, took it to a professional photographer and had hundreds of pictures made of it. Lane then had a graphic artist further manipulate the image to Lane’s liking and create a file that could be sent to textile companies. A lot of people have great ideas and come up with all sorts of concepts but it’s the tenacity to follow through that leads to success.

Another interesting part to our journey is that Lane brought us together with Andy Johnson, an incredible graphic artist. Andy is the graphic artist Lane used initially to move forward with the Hornets Nest® concept. Andy subsequently spent months with me and the textile manufacturers’ graphic artists to do several things, including improving the Pantone® colors and scale of the hornet’s nest, without losing authenticity. Andy also works 70-hour weeks on a crazy swing shift at the paper mill. He is absolutely amazing—working a more than full-time job supporting his family and has still been “Johnny-on-the-spot” getting everything done graphics related for HuntWorks®. I’m proud that Andy Johnson is a HuntWorks®Outdoors founding partner and our official graphic artist.

When I started this journey, “faith” was how I answered questions as to why I was doing a lot of things. My wife and I bought a house close to water and woods. Initially, I was too busy to meet our new neighbors. Later I found out that the guy next door was a pastor! (I was secretly hoping for a Ted Nugent or Hank Williams Jr. type.) His name is Bryan Wilson and over the next few months, I noticed that he was always tinkering with something in his shop. Through short conversations, I found out that he loved to hunt and fish. As I got to know him better, I found that he was the real deal. Pastor Wilson was one of the first people to whom I showed my hunting blind concept. He strongly encouraged me to move forward with it. When I had a finished product, I was too scared to put it on the market, as the patent for the HotSpot® was still pending and I had heard nightmare stories of inventors’ products being taken overseas and knocked-off, with no viable recourse.

After talking it over with Pastor Wilson, we decided to build another one of my concepts to test the market. This was called The Stand Guard™, which Pastor Wilson morphed into what is now known as The Gator Jaw™. It is made of solid steel and if you don’t possess the key to it, your deer stand becomes impossible to quietly hunt. Pastor Wilson has numerous skills; one of those is welding steel. He made The Gator Jaw™ look just like that—a wide-open alligator jaw. He is the first founding partner of HuntWorks®Outdoors and has helped me build several more inventions that we do not have on the market…yet. This man stands about 6’6", his hands look like group of bananas and he’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. He also has zero quit in him and has been one of the best influences in my life. It’s one thing for someone to say they believe in you, but it’s another to get down and put one’s own blood, sweat, and tears into realizing an image that someone else saw in his head. God knew that I needed a preacher living next to me…not “Uncle Ted.” I could not ask for a better neighbor, partner, and friend.

If you noticed all of the trademark and copyright symbols behind product names, it’s because of another founding partner, Kyle Jennings. He came on with us at the end of 2017. He saw a video of The HotSpot® Blind and after seeing it and other products up close, immediately told me that he wanted in. Kyle is a successful book editor and publisher. He also owns an intellectual property management business and worked with large companies in Human Resources and Labor Relations. He also spent several years working internationally. He’s very efficient reading/vetting contracts. Because of his legal background, he writes all of our contracts and then sends them to our attorneys for final review and distribution. This process saves tremendously on time and fees. He also has a successful construction company and has personally helped build all of our trade booth sets. That means after both of us had been working all day, he would meet me at 9 o’clock at night and we’d often work past 1 the next morning. (I should mention that this was typically in 30° weather and he’s wearing jeans and a T-shirt…and still sweating!) I am so proud to have him on the team because, among many other things, I know that he won’t quit until the job is done properly. That’s a true partner and friend.

Alicia Drake is our accounting and business consultant. She has been an adviser to me for more than 15 years and is a founding investor as well. She owns and operates Drake Accounting and Consulting, LLC. She “hawk-eyes” all of my accounts and keeps us on the straight and narrow. She loves being outdoors, particularly fishing. She has caught every mistake that the bank has made and has stopped several fraudulent charges worth thousands of dollars on company and personal accounts. She is one of the first people I told about my hunting blind idea. She remembers me saying, “Alicia, I’m building a hunting blind. I see the picture in my head.” And she didn’t run off! She stayed with me and has been as consistent as always.

I believe, one hundred percent, that all of these people have come together to work with me by Divine Appointment and all of the designs, both still in my head and the ones that have been built, are Divine Designs. I give all the credit and glory to God Almighty, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Together, we make up Team Swarm™.

© 2020 HuntWorks, LLC.