Dancing all night in high heels can be a tiring and painful experience for many bar hoppers. That discomfort was an alluring opportunity for HBA 2011s Brandon Pizzacalla and Will Richman as they were working on the Ivey New Venture Project. Their solution was Bar Hoppers, a vending machine through which ladies could purchase inexpensive, comfortable flats.[PS1]
“The economics were reasonable but there was no passion to take the idea forward,” said Richman.
A lack of passion is not something you can associate with GrowthGenius, however, a data-driven B2B sales development tool that was co-founded by Pizzacalla and Richman in 2016. “We wanted to build a platform with our knowledge, to create an all-in-one marketing agency software,” [NTD: This quote doesn’t really fit. WILL -> want to create a new one since this is yours?] said Richman.
GrowthGenius was born through the pains Pizzacalla and Richman were trying to solve in their own careers. Together, they created a digital platform that can not only help users find ideal customers who are ready to purchase using buy signals, but also offers the ability to draft personal messages and follow-ups to help seal connections, automatically. All their users have to do is handle all the sales meetings they are getting. Within 6 months of coming together once more, they were able to build a prototype and slowly started to automate pieces that the pair would be doing all the time.
The technology has helped Pizzacalla and Richman meet their own internal services. With the mantra of ‘if it works for us, it can work for others,’ they are certain GrowthGenius can provide marketing solutions for small and mid-size businesses.
“When the right software is attached to the right business, it can provide a 10x return on investment,” said Pizzacalla.
Twin journeys in entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a family affair for Pizzacalla, and he doesn’t doubt the calling for a moment. He led a few small ventures, including an auto detailing business, while studying at Western University.
And while Pizzacalla enjoyed the finance work on the M&A team at Bell post-graduation, he knew that wasn’t his true passion. He joined a Toronto startup and was smitten by the pace, the environment and the daily rigours of startup life. Even more, the experience made him eager to create something that was his own. [PS2]
Richman also took the finance route after school. He had tried out numerous entrepreneurship opportunities within the safety of the classroom and was even able to raise a few thousand dollars with light-up t-shirts during a two-week long project and a $50 budget.
“Combine the right ingredients and you can create something out of nothing,” said Richman. Despite the amusement, his not too enamoured with flights of fancy.
“It's all about real, painful problems, not fancy ideas. And is it painful enough for people to pay to solve it?”
Following graduation, Richman helped co-found Bitmaker Labs, a tech skills accelerator that provides full-time and part-time courses in web development, data analytics, digital marketing etc. Having served multiple roles, he helped transition the company’s leadership to Craig Hunter, QS’16. Bitmaker Labs was later acquired by General Assembly.
The Ivey Experience
Having spent plenty of time working together at the old Ivey building, Pizzacalla and Richman had plenty to take away from their Ivey experience.
For Pizzacalla, one of the major contributions was that it helped him become comfortable with standing in front of an audience. “It was forced into us at Ivey but I’m glad,” said Pizzacalla.
Another major learning experience was the numerous 48-hour group assignments that often combined different personalities with various strengths and weaknesses into a highly pressurized team project; it was a dose of the ‘real world’ that’s helped Pizzacalla adapt quickly to similar situations.
Staying true to their time at Ivey, Richman and Pizzacalla continue to keep an eye out for problems to solve. Richman recommends students to keep an idea journal and keep track of problems their friends and family run into as well as personal musings.
“If you can come up with something better than the solutions available, you could have a business,” said Richman.
The pair encourages young entrepreneurs to get out and validate those ideas with peers and experts, who could potentially become integral partners in the future.
“There’s a low cost, simple way to see if your idea works. You don’t need to spend a year in a basement working on a product in a silo. Talk to people. Run mini-experiments. Validate each step of the way. And once you know you’re solving a real problem for people, just go for it,” said Pizzacalla.