Joe Crouch's story does not start with lasers or firearms training. It starts with a life he describes as chasing sex, drugs and rock and roll, and a moment of what he calls divine intervention that pulled him out of it and pointed him toward California and, eventually, Hollywood.
In the film industry Crouch worked on 24-frame playback and other technical production work, including projects like Agents of Shield, learning skills that would later matter more than he expected. That Hollywood background is what eventually led him to invent iTarget Pro, a laser-based firearm training system he built and brought to market around 2016. A Kickstarter campaign raised roughly $50,000 to get the product off the ground, and at its peak the company sold about $7 million worth of units in a single year, a run that also brought a patent fight as competitors tried to enter the space he had opened up.
From California Back to Sarasota
Crouch now runs the business from right here in Sarasota, and he is candid that the same instincts that got him through Hollywood, reading a room, iterating fast, protecting the product, are what let a firearms safety company outgrow a garage-stage idea into a seven-figure operation. He is matter-of-fact about being the original innovator in the laser training space, even as bigger companies have since followed his lead.
Roundabouts and Rapid Fire
Asked about Sarasota's roundabouts, Crouch does not hold back, saying he dislikes them outright and singles out the newer one near the Ringling Bridge as a particular source of frustration for local drivers. The hosts move him through the Rapid Fire Gauntlet to close things out, but the arc of the episode is really about how a near-total life reset in his twenties eventually produced a Sarasota manufacturing success story.
For listeners who assume every entrepreneur's origin story is tidy, Joe Crouch's is a useful corrective: a rock-bottom stretch, a spiritual turn, a decade in film, and then a laser system that changed how firearm owners train, built and sold out of Sarasota. It is also a reminder that the city's entrepreneurial reputation is not limited to restaurants and real estate, but extends into manufacturing and product invention as well, with iTarget Pro standing as one of Sarasota's more unexpected export stories.
What you'll take away
- iTarget Pro's Kickstarter raised about $50,000 and the company later sold roughly $7 million in product in one peak year.
- Crouch's technical film background, including 24-frame playback work on projects like Agents of Shield, informed how he built the product.
- He describes a period of substance use and a subsequent faith-driven turning point as the pivot that led him west.
- Crouch considers himself the original innovator in the laser firearm training category, ahead of later competitors.
- He dislikes Sarasota's roundabouts, especially the newer one near the Ringling Bridge.
“I was the original innovator.”
“I don't like the new one by the Ringling Bridge.”
Places mentioned: Ringling Bridge