Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Zameer Upadhya > www.babyspot.com

Zameer Upadhya, CEO & Co-Founder, BabySpot, Inc.

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur needs “Ganas”. He or she needs that deep, down fire and passion to pursue their dreams with full vigor.

What did inspire you to start your business?
A very good friend of mine, James Rivera, had his first son, Danny, two and a half years ago. He kept sending me picture after picture of his son for over two months. Danny, is adorable, but one day I was joking around with James and told him that with the 5,000 pictures he had sent me of his son, he could buy a website, call it
http://www.babyspot.com/, and put his son on it. The next day James called me and told me he bought the domain name. Turns out that James and his wife, Monica, did not feel comfortable putting their son's picture on MySpace or Facebook as they did not consider these sites to be safe and secure. We created a site for Danny and the next thing we knew we received many requests from other parents who shared similar concerns. Thus, James and I, started a social networking site for new parents and it’s been a dream ride ever since

How did you finance it?
Thus far our company has been financed internally. We received an initial infusion of seed money from James' parents and everything else has been on us. We took a major risk, but because we believed in what we were doing, it was well worth it.

Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
My background is very diverse. Sharing heritage from Spain, Cuba, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Saudi Arabia I value many culture and moral values. Each of these cultures places a strong emphasis on family. Family is the most important thing in this world to me. With it you are everything, without it you are nothing. In business, we operate as a family. My business partner, our members, and our advertisers are all treated as family. Placing them in this regard pushes us to give them all the best service - the type of service we would give our own family. This is a Hispanic value and one that helps separate us from the rest.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Life is a journey - it has many peaks and many valleys. The road is guaranteed to be bumpy. I think that every successful entrepreneur has to have faith in something, whether it’s God, the universe, or whatever - they must have faith that things work out as they should. This faith when combined with passion is what drives me to keep climbing the mountain. Remember the old saying: “If the mountain was smooth, you could never climb it.”

What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
Our biggest challenge has been establishing our brand with limited resources. Since we are self-funded we have not been able to engage all of the PR and Marketing efforts that we would like to. We take this as a challenge and push ourselves to think of innovative ways to reach the market.

If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
Truthfully I wouldn't change one thing. The journey has been tough, challenging, fun, rewarding, and a blessing. I can't see myself doing anything else.

What was your childhood ambition?
To play baseball for the Chicago Cubs or to own the team.
Mi ambición de niño era jugar pelota para los Chicago Cubs o ser dueño de este equipo de pelota.

Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire?
Richard Branson - One of the most innovative entrepreneurs ever. His willingness to think beyond the box and do things that most people would not is encouraging for all entrepreneurs.

Steve Jobs - Possibly one of the greatest marketing entrepreneurs of our time. He has built a loyal brand that always reinvents itself. Amazing

Ahmed Mohamedali - My grandfather passed away in 2003. His whole life was spent on the entrepreneurial journey. He had many ups and downs, but at his funeral was remembered by hundreds for his kindness and willingness to go the extra mile for all.

For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
None. I prefer to save meals for personal time - breakfast, lunch, and dinner for personal time.

What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
Whenever you pursue a dream you do have to make many sacrifices. I have lived on planes and out of suitcases for the last few years and taken on debt to reach a goal of imminent success. It’s been tough to balance a social life with a personal drive for success. Initially I probably sacrificed too much, but over time learned to balance it all as best as possible.

What is your favorite quote?
"Within every difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein

Is it difficult to be unconventional?
No. It is only difficult if you don't have faith in your beliefs and convictions. I heard once if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything. Going against the norm is only difficult if you don't believe deep within your heart that what you are striving for, what you are trying to accomplish, is worth it. If it is, then being unconventional is as normal as breathing.

Biggest mistake made?
By no means am I perfect, however, I don't regret any decisions that I have made. Mistakes are but opportunities to learn and grow. Every step that I have taken has brought me closer to my next goal. I have stumbled, fallen, and gotten back up through every mistake that I have encountered.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
Yes. I think every successful entrepreneur is an innovator. They have to be in order to succeed. Often they have to come up with innovative solutions when there is no clear answer.

About the Company
www.BabySpot.com and http://www.babyspotlatino.com/ are free, safe, and secure social networking and informational sites for new parents to share pictures, videos, and parenting tips in a community specific to their needs. They were established in 2006 in response to James and Monica Rivera's desire to share their son, Danny's, pictures with family members online in a safe and secure manner.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Ray Hernandez > www.MyBabyOurBaby.com

Ray Hernandez, Founder and CEO

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
You need to be able to finish things on your own. There will always be people saying they're willing to help, but if you can't make things happen on your own. It's going to be hard to get your business rolling.

What did inspire you to start your business?
All of my friends were starting to have children. Since I was the "web designer guy" I kept getting asked to design and build websites for their kids. Instead of doing it one at a time, I decided to build a system where parents everywhere could have a free website for their kids.

How did you finance it?
With all the change I found in my couch. Which wasn't much.

Being Hispanic?Does it have any influence on your business?
Yes it does. Hispanics tend to be very family oriented, and my business is all about bringing family and friends together.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
My family is always my inspiration. I want to make a better life for them, so I always push forward.

What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
Finding resources to grow. It takes a lot of time, money, and code to keep a site like this alive and growing.

If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
I would have looked at venture financing, from the beginning. When you're financed you can focus on the goal.

What was your childhood ambition?
I was going to either be a major league baseball player or a famous artist in New York City.

Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire?
Mark Cuban - He's living the dream. He built a site that he knew could work. A major company saw the potential, bought the company. And now he has a wiffle ball field in his living room, as well as be the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. What could be better?

Kevin Rose - Founder of Digg - He has created a career on ideas. He sees what's going on on the net, and what needs to be fixed. From there he turns his ideas into web applications that we all use today.

Matt Mullenweg - Founding Developer of Wordpress - Open source guru. He's built one of the largest blogging platforms, that my business uses as it's backbone. Thanks Matt.

For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Dinner for me. I know meetings with me turn into brainstorming, so they tend to go long. I'm a night owl.

What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
Financing my own company, meant not spending any time with my friends and family. I had to put my head down and just focus on my goal, which was launching
www.MyBabyOurBaby.com

What is your favorite quote?
"There's no time like the present"

Is it difficult to be unconventional?
I've always been unconventional. I've started little companies since I was a little kid. I always knew I'd only be happy if I was working for myself.

Biggest mistake made?
Not sure, but there is plenty of time to compile a list of my mistakes. You gotta make mistakes to figure out what needs to be done better.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
I would. I'm always trying to figure out how to fix the problem. There always has to be a way to fix things. All you have to do is make something to fix it.

About the Company
My Baby Our Baby
Plenty of other sites allow parents to create online scrapbooks and keepsake photo albums, but no other site makes it easier for busy parents to collect and organize memories from invited family members and friends.

In today's world, almost everyone has images gathering dust on their hard drives. Instead of devoting hours to tracking all these images and memories down on your own, let us help you with the legwork. You'll end up with tons of memories you didn't even know you had and a whole lot more time for creating new ones.

Contact the Company here:http://www.mybabyourbaby.com

Friday, July 4, 2008

Anthony Aldaño > www.theamarugroup.com

Anthony Aldaño Co-Founder The Amaru Group

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
You need to have a burning desire and passion to do whatever it is that is in your heart.


What inspired you to start your business?
My first company (LatinosStep.com) evolved organically as I was coordinating College Step Shows as a hobby. During my second New York City show I looked out over the amphitheatre at the 1,000 attendees and realized I had stumbled upon something. After working for myself for so long and having an entrepreneurial spirit I want to continue creating unique media properties under my own direction. The Amaru Group is an extension of what I have been doing since 1999, creating media & event properties that reach the New Generation Latino market.


How did you finance it?
LatinosStep.com was financed on credit cards and my Partner Jesus Diaz's dad (for our Miami show.) We produced national college Step Shows for the Latino college market, we usually broke-even with ticket sales. Within three years of launching LatinosStep we were acquired by LatCom Communications, in an equity buy-out. In 2006, LatCom was acquired by Batanga.com a Latino music portal. My latest company The Amaru Group is being financed with our own working capital.


Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
Being Latino has everything to do with my business. All my relative business success is due to my cultura. All my business models have revolved around the Latino culture and demographic, how to reach them, understand them, market to them and create event properties that cater for them. All of this is relatively easy to do when you are marketing to yourself.


In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
It's important to surround yourself with a solid, smart and hardworking team of people you can trust. Although this isn't easy to find it is always the goal. With these things in place you are better equipped to handle any adversity that comes your way. Knowing that provides the drive to keep going and follow your heart.


What was your childhood ambition?
My childhood ambition was to be a chemist. Then in High School I realized how numbers & formula driven it is, I crossed chemistry off my list.

Tell us about an entrepreneur that you admire?
There are so many I admire Robert Johnson (BET) created the first African-American cable network when no one believed it would succeed, Russel Simmons (Def Jam) pioneered the billion dollar hip-hop industry through managing one of the first commercially successful Rap groups RUN-D-MC and starting a clothing line.

For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
None of the above, I prefer to get straight to business rather than clutter a meeting with a noisy restaurant or little table space.

What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
The money isn't always immediately there as an entrepreneur, but if you're good at what you do then there are some potential big payouts along the way.


What is your favorite quote?
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great". - Mark Twain

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
I consider myself someone who has followed their heart and has made sound business decisions.

About The Amaru Group:
The Amaru Group has over 30 years of combined experience in launching and managing, media and event properties catered to the Latino College markets. We have developed an expertise in creating unique solutions for thisdemographic.


Find out more about us by visiting www.TheAmaruGroup.com

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