About Us

Aaron Ware

Founder and CEO

In 1992 Aaron Ware began an exciting and rewarding career in the rare coin and bullion industry. He began working in a small local coin shop as counter help and within 18 months had formed his first partnership.

Aaron and his partner opened Classic Coin and Bullion operated in Reno, Nevada for five years. During this time Aaron architected and built a small software system that posted his own inventory to an internal website. Eventually a decision was made to merge with a store in downtown Carson City, right across the street from the old United States Mint, appropriately named Old Mint Coin and Bullion.

After several years at Old Mint, Aaron decided to look for new opportunities in the coin industry and sold his interest in Old Mint Coin and Bullion and went to work for Northern Nevada Coin. Over the next 8 years the small two man operation grew to over 10 employees, quadrupled its annual sales and developed a fully fledged retail operation with one of the finest websites in the business.

During his years as Director of Operations Aaron was responsible for all of the day to day operations including technology development. In the beginning this consisted of Aaron implementing the core software system he had built for himself at Classic Coin and Bullion. The database was designed to handle the complex and dynamic rare coin market on a FrontPage website. To maintain the premier status this system it was eventually redone on another platform.

Although this company was small in terms of staff; sales were tremendous and a great deal of product and money flowed through. The role of Director of Operations also encompassed Chief Financial Officer, managing well over $15 Million annual sales, several million dollars in active inventory, cash flow and credit lines.

Aaron brings a diverse wealth of knowledge in technology, accounting, financial analysis and the art of negotiation.

Now through Ware Consulting, Inc. Aaron has been able to bridge two talents, technology and the rare coin industry, thus creating the First Shot system.

Alan Cunningham

Partner and IS Project Manager

Alan Cunningham brings over 20 years of technical knowledge to the First Shot team. A native of Scotland, Alan has an extensive background in Information Technology and proprietary software. Through the early 1990's he managed the inventory system and client management database system for an international company. After years of system configuration Alan found a niche market in developing and managing high level medical software systems. Working with specialists such as Neurologist, Alan was able to develop systems that were needed to better serve the Doctors, clients and interface with main frame hospital systems. This specialized field was the result of years of industry knowledge and raw talent. Today Alan travels the country extensively; however he and his wife Beth have made their home in Reno, NV. Alan enjoys competition motorcycle racing and outdoor adventures.

Alan's background with high level Systems Project Management and packaging proprietary software was the final piece needed to get First Shot into your hands.

Heather M. Ware

Director of Product Development

Since 1993 Heather has been working with state of the art technology and proprietary software. Working as a Production Analyst for several years for a leading Health Care Consulting firm based whose roots stemmed from John Hopkins University. As a Production Analyst Heather was responsible for taking vast amounts of raw hospital dbase files and converting them into overhead graphs and charts which were presented to the Board of Directors for hospitals across America.

During the late 1990's Heather worked as a Software Trainer and then started her own consulting firm. During this time clients included local law enforcement agencies, title and escrow companies, small businesses and state agencies. Services ranged from small training classes to complex database design, technical writing and intricate documentation challenges. Heather was able to work extensively with First American Titles IT Manager and navigate the company through a software conversion.

In 2000 Heather moved to San Diego, CA and was offered a position with a cutting edge General Insurance Agency. This company was launching a web based platform to support their multiline insurance business. Heather managed a team of several Business Analysts who programmed rating algorithms and designed HTML user interface for new online insurance systems. She worked with department Vice President regarding budget planning as well as plan annual department goals. As a Project Manager her duties included: gathering and creating requirements and supporting documentation, organizing project meetings with senior staff, establishing project timelines using MS Project, creating system diagrams using Visio, determining resource allocation as well as identifying risks and presenting solutions to executives. She used various iterative cycles for testing software systems as they were being developed. She was responsible for business side reports that broke down web based customer traffic by specific demographics. She has extensive knowledge of Crystal Reports and used it to retrieved data from an SQL Database.

In 2004 Heather returned to Nevada working full time and going to school at night. She was able to use her Project Management background and parlay that into Construction Project Management. This experience enabled her to learn the complex world of bids, change orders, delays and budget issues which have been an asset to clients across many industries.

In 2005, Heather married her old sweetheart Aaron Ware. They purchased a home in Carson City, NV and had two children. The need to keep a fluid schedule with two small children and a traveling husband lead Heather to return to software consulting. In 2008 she opened an office in Carson City, NV. Together with her husband, Aaron, they began to build a new business that would change the course of their future bridging their natural talents and industry knowledge.

Through this "marriage" First Shot was born.