Nathan Zeleznick
Huntsville, UT (USA)
Role(s):
C-Level Executive (CEO, CFO, etc.)
MP USA, Inc.
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Startup
Location:
Huntsville
Industry:
Sports/Recreation
Year Founded:
2000
Number Employees:
1-10 people
Description:
MP USA, Inc. is a health and fitness business specializing in martial arts. The business began in Ogden in 2000 specializing in Adult programs in the Indonesian Royal Family’s proprietary Martial Arts, Meditation and Energy Work. At this time, the business wishes to purchase land, erect a new facility and add new programs.
Although martial arts and fitness instruction is very prevalent in America, the Merpati Putih methods of martial arts, meditation, internal energy work, breath training and rehabilitation are unique to the MP USA school and found nowhere else in the Western Hemisphere. MP USA is the chief American representative for not only the Merpati Putih system but also the World Pencak Silat Federation (known as PERSILAT which is the main and only international organization of Indonesian martial arts, currently representing over 800 individual martial arts systems) and has been charged with the expansion of both of these organizations throughout all North and South American countries.
Eight years ago Nathan and Mike Zeleznick became aware of the Merpati Putih system’s ability to help the visually impaired to sense the atomic vibrations of matter around them via skin sensation, with over 1,000 blind Indonesians having been trained at the time, as well as the most concrete demonstrations of internal energy seen in any martial art outside of Asia. After hosting the first public demonstration of Merpati Putih in America at Weber State University in August 1999, they were given permission to begin their training under Dr. Heru Hendarto, M.D., MS-SSLP, a former Indonesian special forces trainer who was attending the University of Utah. This was the first time Caucasians had been authorized to learn the Merpati Putih system. In September 2000, they sponsored another visit from the two 11th generation heirs of the Merpati Putih system who personally tested Nathan and Mike Zeleznick and inaugurated MP USA as a legitimate teaching school of this system and as its chief representative for the Western Hemisphere. MP USA was limited at that time to teaching only adults age 15 or older.
During their latest visit to Indonesia in February 2007 for testing and training, permission was given to train children as young as 5 years old, though only in the physical aspects of Merpati Putih, not the energy aspects. Due to this additional permission, two new programs will be added as MP USA moves into their new facility. These programs include TASma (Transported After School martial arts) and children’s martial arts classes. For additional information about these two programs see the Operations section of this business plan.
MP USA is currently organized as an S-Corporation in the State of Utah with Nathan and Mike Zeleznick each having 50% ownership. MP USA, Inc. is the longest-standing Better Business Bureau (BBB) member martial arts school in Utah and has been for the past 7 years, with not one complaint in this time. As well, MP USA is a member of the Martial Arts Industry Association.