Welcome to Future Sharks Alex! Tell us a little about yourself:
City where I’m from: Tiburon, CA
I was the Global Student Entrepreneur of the year for Orange County and rated a top-25 student entrepreneur in the US by entrepreneurs Organization in 2016. Also Ulyngo was rated top-10 eCommerce startup by LAUNCH Festival in 2016.
Hobbies: Playing and listening to music, (I DJ and play 4 instruments) being active (running, playing basketball and baseball, etc.) traveling, drinking coffee, finding awesome craft beers, and thinking about new ideas.
Favorite quote: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there” – Will Rogers
Twitter : twitter.com/ajekowsky
Background
Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?
I can tell you that I didn’t wake up one morning thinking, “Today seems like a great day to be an entrepreneur.” Entrepreneurship in my life has appeared when I had a passion that I wanted to share with people or when saw a problem that I thought I could fix. I think that anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur should focus more on solving problems that society face, than being able to call themselves an entrepreneur. For this reason, I resonate greatly with Waze founder Uri Levine, who says, “”Fall in love with the problem not the solution, and the rest will follow.”
Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life?
Someone who I admire and who has really inspired me is Tony Hshieh, current CEO of Zappos. His book on delivering happiness illustrates the true power of cultivating happiness in life while creating a meaningful workplace. I’m not sure if it was a defining moment, but he showed me how to integrate wellbeing and productivity into a highly successful company/work environment with inspired and valued employees.
I’m also lucky enough to come from a family who has found success in many different fields and to whom I look as role models. Whether it’s my father who’s a Grammy-nominated musician and businessman, my mum an accomplished life and executive coach, my brother who was in The Playbook – Magic Johnson’s 32 under 32, or my sister who has a masters degree in Counter Terrorism and who now runs Deutsche Telekom’s Accelerator in Tel Aviv. My family are sources of inspiration daily – they make me look like a slacker!
Now
What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?
I’m the founder of Ulyngo, which gives Universities access to the market of used goods on campus through a student-to-student marketplace that increases engagement, revenue, and campus safety. The ideation of Ulyngo started when I was in high school, but it really took hold when I was a student at Chapman University. As a student, I tried to use various avenues to sell goods – Platforms like eBay, Craigslist, even Facebook, and nothing provided me with an easy solution! I discovered there was no real serious attempt at solving the problem on my campus.
How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision?
Universities presently use campus stores to sell new products. By not offering a solution that can capture the ’used goods market’ of student transactions, universities push student dollars off campus, causing significant revenue losses and safety issues.
Our marketplace is unique because we’ve built our entire platform from the ground up for students, universities, and technology partners in the HigherEd space. Our platform is able to offer customization and integration options that are simply unmatched to the competitors in the space. For more information about our universally accessible platform, I invite you to check out http://ulyngo.com.
My BHAG (big-hairy-audacious-goal) and vision is to eventually grow Ulyngo and work with universities across the globe.
Who are your customers? How do you find them?
Our customers are universities who are currently detached from the eCommerce side of student life. We do outreach and are contacted by universities through our marketing and sales efforts, as well as our partnerships with the leading campus technology providers.
Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it?
I once had a phone call with a prospective investor and whenever he asked a question, I had a quick answer. In my mind this was a positive, but in his I came across as a know-it-all, and someone who didn’t want to be coached. It was a turning point in the way I’ve approached every pitch/meeting since and I learned that when building a business, being eager to learn from others is sometimes better than having the answers yourself.
But failure is all part of the journey, say if one were to interview 100 entrepreneurs, you’ll hear 1000 stories of failures. I think entrepreneurs have to be excited and not fearful about failure because it simply means you tried to do something. Keep going, keep trying, and keep failing until you find that success. As Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Value-add questions
Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.
Focus on the problem you’re solving and obsess over it. Become an industry expert and know your customers, competitors, and value proposition like the back of your hand. What makes successful entrepreneurs isn’t their drive to be successful entrepreneurs, but their passion to create technology, art, media, anything that will generate value in the world.
Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic?
In my opinion, one of the pillars of raising capital is, “Ask for investment get advice, ask for advice get investment.” Going into a pitch/meeting acting like you have all the answers can backfire severely and actual destroy the deal – find the balance between being an industry expert in addition to being coachable and ready to learn. Remember, your goal in the beginning of raising a multi-million series A or even a small seed round, is to demonstrate credibility, develop relationships, and learn.
My last advice on fundraising is that it’s not rocket science, the better the numbers, the less of a pitch you’ll have to make, so focus on getting the best metrics before going out to raise the capital.
What should an entrepreneur focus on?
Simply follow YCombinator‘s tagline: “Make something people want.” Entrepreneurship isn’t about what you want, throw egos out the window. Every feature, marketing campaign, design, etc. has to be focused through the lens of what your users want and need.
What are some of your favorite books?
Things a little bird told me – Biz Stone
Delivering Happiness – Tony Hshieh
Freakonomics – Stephen Dubner
Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?
In a couple of years I hope to still be running a venture with a team of passionate, diverse, and driven people who share the goal of building solutions that enhance people’s lives.
Whether it’s Ulyngo or another company, I cannot wait for what the future holds!
It was a pleasure interviewing you today Alex, best of luck in your future endeavors!
