I had a great interview with a young entrepreneur: Giuseppe Frustaci, who is in the process of launching his website, prestorent.com.
This 25-year- old entrepreneur is from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts (USA), a small suburb of Boston. He has a Bachelor of Art in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Boston University (BU).
Giuseppe likes to cook. So, if I had to write a recipe that would describe him, it would not only be, clear and to the point, but its main ingredients would be: ambition, passion, enthusiasm, good humor, resourcefulness, friendliness… I’ll let you complete the list as you read the interview…
So, put on your glasses –or not- and enjoy the interview.
Note: PrestoRent is currently accepting Resumes for internship positions. If you are interested, please contact PrestoRent at info@prestorent.com.
What is your product/service?
I created a web site: www.prestorent.com. PrestoRent.Com is a web-based toolkit that eliminates the pains of renting and managing apartments. With applications for advertising, paperwork, listings management, messaging, and more, PrestoRent.com helps professionals cut costs, increase revenues, and work more efficiently, all while reducing the time and effort they invest in managing and leasing apartments.
How did you get the name “prestorent”?
One day, I was watching TV with my friends and the name just jumped into my head. You know how a magician makes things appear in front of your eyes; you don’t know how he did it… it just happens… and it was quick and easy. So, that’s the idea behind the business: quick and easy.
‘Entrepreneurship?’ Why did you choose this path? Is this something you always dreamed of doing?
It was inevitable. I always knew I’d be running my own business, although I didn’t expect to start something like this immediately after college.
I grew up in the real estate industry: my mother was a real estate appraiser. But, I actually did not want to get into real estate.I wanted to experience something different. However, the opportunity presented itself and I thought that it was worthwhile. I saw a need worth exploring.
Is this your first business?
No. I started my first business when I was fourteen, mowing lawns and got into landscaping and all sorts of other things. I worked afternoons after school and during the week end (approximately 20 to 30 hours a week). What I found interesting was that I actually made more money per hour, and in total, just mowing lawns than doing the “glamorous” landscape design and installation work. So I concentrated on just mowing.
How did you get the idea for your business? Tell us about it.
Looking back on how it all started, it is funny, but let me assure you that at the time, it was not. I was a senior in college and I got my first apartment. It was the most painful experience of my life.
Why?
Agents took me to units I didn’t like. I submitted applications for units that I wasn’t going to qualify for or that were already taken. I’d see an ad online and go to see the unit only to find out that it looked nothing like what the ad showed. It was a lot of running around and poor service.
This was all during my final semester of college at Boston University. Ironically I had previously signed up for a class called “Opperations Management for Service Industries.” 25% of our final grade in this class was to research a service business and identify how to improve its operations. Coming out of my apartment-finding experience, I saw a huge opportunity for improvement. The main problem, I saw, was that real estate agencies waste a lot of time redoing the same work over and over again, which is very inefficient. As a result, they cannot provide the level of service they would want to give.
When I graduated from college, I got my real estate license and ‘lived’ in the industry for about a year. I worked for a landlord, a property manager and a real estate agent. I tried to wear different hats and put myself in different situations. I did this for a few reasons. First, there were numerous websites and softwares targeting the apartment rental industry, but apartment leasing professionals just weren’t using any of it. So I needed to see first-hand why. Second, I needed to see how professionals were working to understand how the software or website should be designed. When it comes to software and websites, you have to design it around how people work. You can’t expect them to change what they are doing to match your software.
I started writing the business plan and developing the website in the fall of 2007. While I’ve certainly made progress I know that the plan will never truly be “finished.” We’re constantly updating it and adjusting it to account for the things we’re learning.
Your site looks very professional. Did you design it yourself or hire somebody?
While I know enough about websites and code to manage the process, I knew from the beginning that I did not have the skills to develop it myself. So, I have a really good tech team who helps me with that aspect of the business. They do all the development and design.
Can you describe your typical day?
I start working everyday at 10 am and work until 7pm and sometimes till 8-10 at night. It is not always sitting at my desk; a lot of it is going to meetings or networking events. There’s definitely at least one meeting or phone call with my CTO (Chief Technical Officer) who is in charge of managing the development of the site. I talk to my lawyer at least once every other day. I spend at least an hour every day working through marketing, either projections or planning. The development of the site has its own momentum, so right now I need to focus on growing usage once the site is up and running.
As a young entrepreneur, what challenges do you face?
Money, as always, is one of the biggest challenges. So far I have been fortunate to not need funding beyond my own resources plus Friends and Family. We’ve started developing relationships with investors (VC’s, Angels, and private investors). Whereas 5 or 10 years ago you needed at least $500,000 in startup money to launch a site, today you just don’t need that much. Developers are less expensive and there are many tools for the Do-It-Yourselfer. And once we have customers we will be able to get a much better valuation than if we got funding pre-launch.
Another challenge is trying to provide great customer service. At the beginning I will do most of it. I look at customer service as an opportunity to find out, from my customers, what’s working and what’s not working. At the end of the day I’m really in the customer service industry. Whether its widgets or real estate, we’re all in the customer service industry.
I am also looking for individuals to add to the strategic advisory panel. Strategic advisors are people who can expose you to new ideas and opportunities, who can ask questions, and who can help make sure that the plan is as robust and strong as possible.
What is the best thing about being an entrepreneur?
I can stay up as late as I want and wake up when I want! I am just kidding, that’s just part of it. The best thing about being an entrepreneur is being totally committed to what I am doing. When you work for someone else you have to follow their priorities. This often means the things that need attention don’t receive it. Now, I don’t have to live with problems; if I see something that’s inefficient, I can do something about it.
What motivates you?
Trying to find solutions to problems that I see and/or discover. Although I want to be rich, its not about the money. When I see something that doesn’t make sense, I want to make it make sense. If I saw a leaky faucet I would want to fix it. It wouldn’t matter if the leak had no negative effect.
“I would like to start a business similar to yours. Where do I start? What ‘things’ should I be aware of?”
The first thing that you need to do, for whatever business you want to get into, is to live in that business. You need to experience what your customers are experiencing; you need to live in their worlds. You need to create your product or service from your customers’ perspectives. You need to know what their needs are, what they want, how they think, how they spend, etc…
If I want to start a fashion label, for example, the first thing that I would do would be to work at fashion store or a fashion house or something in fashion. I would want to know who the customers are, where they are, how they think, how they live,etc… I guess it is my background in psychology doing the talking here! You cant develop your offering in a bubble.
For my business, the big question was “how do I create a web site?” I knew nothing about technology so I had to look for resources outside of my skill set.
When you start a business you need to know your weaknesses and the things you cannot do yourself and immediately start finding people who can help you. You need to find people who will be invested in the business as mush as you are and who don’t need all of the money up front. Look for the solutions that don’t cost money. There are a lot more of them out there than you would think.
What advice would you give to people who want to be entrepreneurs and what resources help you the most?
- First of all you need to turn yourself into a human billboard: everybody needs to know what you are doing – starting with friends, family, professors, etc…
- You have to not be afraid to look silly or have people laugh at you, because, if you hold back, you’re going to miss that person who could have connected and helped you. You’ll probably feel obnoxious. Get over it.
- Also, most of the time when people give you advice, it is based on their experience and their bias. You have to take it with a grain of salt. You need to figure out why the person is saying what s/he is saying. If someone tells you your idea wont work when they’ve only been listening to your idea for 5 minutes, more than likely they are just a negative person.
- It is also very important that know and clearly explain what you are doing and what your business is all about. I’m amazed at how hard it was to write my two-page executive summary.
- Some of the resources that I use are: marksguide.com, Boston Young Entrepreneurs, web innovator group, and so many more. Although the internet is great for networking, the best thing to do is in-person networking. Also, get a great lawyer! Lawyers do so much more than incorporate you or write contracts. Skimp wherever you want, but not on your lawyer.
What does the future hold for Giuseppe?
Ah! Who knows?
I don’t know what the future holds… I use to be much more certain of the future when I was younger. Ironic, I know. Now, I am leaving it completely open to whatever may come my way… who knows what will happen… One of the things that I like about starting this business is that it will get me into other things. So we’ll see what doors this one opens up. I definitely have goals. But how the future looks, well, we’ll see.
But, right now prestorent.com is my thing, my baby; I am completely invested in it. Once I get to point where I see that it has its own momentum, that it is solving the problem it was designed to solve and that I have a team who doesn’t need me anymore, that’s when I will do the next thing. I will be the CEO as long as it makes sense – may be in three years. Believe it or not having the title of “CEO” doesn’t really matter to me. All I care about is that the website is successful. So I guess my title should be the “CWNO” or the “Chief What’s Next Officer.” I want to focus on where we’re going with the business, and on what opportunities are out there for PrestoRent.
