Something in the Water
About this episode
Exclusive Deals from Our Sponsors:
- AWESOME CX by Transcom provides high touch, personalized customer experience services to consumer brands of any size! Email Lee at lee@stairwaytoceo.com to learn more about their award-winning services and Awesome Coffee Chats.
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
- [03:54] How Sandro’s upbringing in diverse central New Jersey as a child of immigrant parents helped foster his entrepreneurial spirit (and what his first entrepreneurial venture was).
- [12:48] What he loved about his first job as a delivery boy for his then girlfriend’s family’s deli.
- [15:51] The valuable lessons that he learned during his years at Villanova University, particularly as editor-in-chief of the college newspaper.
- [19:49] Sandro explains the motivation behind his decision to get a corporate engineering job when he graduated from college and when he realized that wasn’t the path for him.
- [23:26] The app that he developed while working on the trading floor at JPMorgan and how it altered the trajectory of his career.
- [30:00] Myths that have left many people feeling intimidated about founding businesses.
- [34:15] The culmination of factors that inspired Sandro to found Sanzo (and what the business was like in the early days).
- [40:35] The worst and best Sanzo flavors that have been created to date.
- [42:36] Why Sandro believes a beverage company requires a different funding strategy to many other types of businesses, and his advice for fundraising successfully.
- [51:33] Some important things that you should know if you are thinking about taking the leap into the entrepreneurial world.
To Find Out More:
Quotes:
“Before I even really appreciated what a job was, I just enjoyed the idea of ”Hey, I sell something and I then get additional money and it gives me a sense of freedom.” — [0:12:06]
“I really appreciated the humanity in a small mom-and-pop business.” —[0:14:08]
“What really set the foundation for me was I had the opportunity to be the editor-in-chief of our college newspaper…[and] we had the ability to run it like a business.” —[0:16:33]
“I knew pretty early on that being a traditional engineer was really not it for me. I wanted something a little bit more exciting.” —[0:21:01]
“We’ve done a disservice over the last however long in empowering people to take control of their careers and their lives.” —[0:30:47]
“It’s important when you're doing R&D to measure your taste and aroma because a lot of times those can differ.” — [0:41:47]
“The world of beverage in particular tends to be quite capital intensive.” —[0:42:21]
“If you can operate a business profitability and never have to take a dime in investor capital, I would be the first one to say, ‘Go and do that.’ There’s a lot less stress to it in many ways and you are really much more in control of your own destiny.” —[0:43:25]
“I don’t think you can self-finance a beverage company unless you have generational wealth. Maybe you can get off the ground in five, six figures, but to really get it moving, in my experience, it takes seven figures worth of capital.” —[0:43:46]
“The biggest thing that I’ve learned about fundraising [is that] it all comes down to storytelling.” — [0:44:12]
“Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. It is a taxing journey. It is a taxing life. There are a lot of sacrifices that you end up having to make, especially in the earliest days. And I think it is important to demystify that part.” —[0:51:45]
“You really have to have a bias towards action. Do something each day, something to push the ball forward. It’s not just reading something on the internet or reading a blog about how to start a business. It’s going out there and actually starting a business. It’s going out there and talking to prospective customers. It’s going out there and trying to build something and if and when it fails, finding an entrepreneur who is willing to give you some feedback.” — [0:52:48]
More Episodes
Sharing the Gift of Yoga and Growing Through Grief
Silicon Valley, AI, and Solving Customer Service
