A lifelong Rhode Islander, Dave Ricci spent the last 14 years as a high school social studies teacher before becoming a founding partner of Eleven Design, a marketing and media production company, in 2016. The concept for "The Craft" stems from a convergence of interests for Dave — entrepreneurship, history and politics. He holds an MA in political science and is an experienced researcher and educator. While Eleven largely focuses on traditional commercial production and marketing, filmmaking and storytelling remains a guiding passion for Dave and Eleven’s three other founding partners. "The Craft" marks Dave’s directorial debut.