A central coast start-up founded in 2019 by two college students.

Armadillo Designs was founded by Sam Hunt and Fabian Araujo, two Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CA alumni who started this venture in the 2019 summer accelerator, hosted by Cal Poly's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Both Sam and Fabian had an obsession for cars and tinkering with projects from a young age. From watching movies, working on project vehicles, riding motorcycles, and attending car shows, it was a given that they would one day find themselves in the automotive industry.

Originally starting with the idea of a truck shell with a retractable roof, the two found themselves gaining traction for a serious need in the truck industry. While bootstrapping the company and eventually saving up enough money to fund a small warehouse in SLO, they developed a strong prototype and applied to SEMA Launchpad in 2022. After applying the previous year and not hearing back, the two were skeptical on submitting a second time around. In June of 2022, their lives changed when Fabian received a call back, naming them a top 15 semi finalist for the 2022 SEMA Launchpad.

Although they didn’t win the competition, while attending SEMA in November, they met Jon Parrella, owner and CEO of Texas Fabrication Company. Together, a mutual partnership was formed which led Armadillo to move to Texas and work alongside TXFabCo to solve their fabrication and scalability obstacles.

Today, Sam and Fabian focus on creating new products, making engaging content, and solving the needs of their customers on a daily basis. Armadillo Designs isn’t only an automotive accessories company, but a company you can follow, engage, and trust as they hear all and any recommendations made to them.