How it all Started

    Hello, my name is Brady Brisson. Growing up, I faced my fair share of adversity. My parents divorced when I was 7 years old. My dad worked to support me as much as he physically could, while my mother was less fortunate. My mom suffered from opioid addiction following a car accident. From the ages of 7-13 I lived with my mother a couple days out of the week and with my father the rest.

    At my father’s house, life was the average middle class childhood. Nice ranch style home in a nice community in a small Michigan town. Around age 13, I was really into playing iPhone games. This was the era of Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. Late at night I would stay up thinking about how I could make the game better and add my own twist. Apple at the time required apple app developers to have an Apple computer to create apps on their platform. I remember deeply wanting an Apple computer my freshman year of high school. For my 14th birthday I got just that. It was the new Mac Mini. I stayed up every single night skipping homework to figure out how to release my own ios game. Eventually, I did just that. My first game was called Obama Pong as it was around the time of the Obama election. The satisfaction I felt when I walked into the cafeteria at high school and a student that I had never met before was playing my game is something I will never forget.

    At my mom's house, life was interesting to say the least. We lived on my Grandma's horse farm way out in the country with no internet. My mother would eventually get tangled up with some sketchy men. One memory that jumps out at me was when we were living in an apartment. My mother’s boyfriend locked himself into the bedroom and was cooking a meth lab. It was late at night and I was sleeping on the couch as I did not have my own room. A police officer broke into the apartment building and was pointing a firearm in my direction. One of the neighbors had called the police as my mother and her boyfriend were fighting uncontrollably.

    Had I never been exposed to life at my fathers house, I have no idea where I would be today. There are so many individuals in similar situations that do not have the fortune I had. This is the purpose for creating Tech to Smiles. I want everyone to experience the satisfaction I felt when creating my first iPhone game. Whether that be making a phone application, video game, website, online blog, etc.

    Today, I enjoy owning and operating a small I.T. company in Grand Rapids, MI with one of my best friends. I hold zero remorse towards my mother and am actively working to better our relationship. Life is hard and millions of people suffer from all kinds of addictions daily. I feel good giving back in a way that I can. I hope anyone reading this is able to give back in their own way.

Thank you,

Brady