Marathon Mindset - John Fazzolari & Anthony Serina - Not Another CEO Podcast - Episode #3

Aug 6, 2024

John Fazzolari and Anthony Serina, co-founders of Revivin, discuss their inspiring journey from a makeshift office in a storage unit to leaders in IT hardware recycling. They emphasize the importance of resilience and a 'marathon mindset' in facing setbacks. With insights on culture building, they advocate for transparency and adaptability in team dynamics. They also highlight the freedom that bootstrapping offers, allowing them to grow their company on their terms while embracing personal experiences that shaped their entrepreneurial spirit.

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Intro

00:00 • 2min

Navigating the Post-Pandemic Workplace

02:24 • 10min

Building Resilient Office Culture

12:24 • 19min

A Makeshift Office: Lessons from Storage Space Struggles

31:23 • 3min

Navigating Product Market Fit and Bootstrapping

34:28 • 12min

Transformative Power of Technology and Personal Upbringing

46:54 • 3min

Entrepreneurial Journeys: Challenges and Inspirations

50:20 • 16min

Joining the show this week are two individuals who embody the idea of perseverance and grit, who’ve bootstrapped their way to become a leader in the electronic waste industry. This dynamic duo is none other than Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Revivin, John Fazzolari and Anthony Serina.

John and Anthony join host David Politis to discuss their journey from storage unit offices to industry leaders. John and Anthony reflect on how their upbringings affected their entrepreneurial mindsets and their struggles to find product market fit. Discover their insights for creating a strong office culture, building and maintaining customer relationships, and the impact of staying bootstrapped throughout their growth.

Takeaways:

A company’s values evolve as the company continues to develop. You should have your values written down and communicated to everyone, but expect them to change over time.
Don’t let rejection slow you down. Instead, use it as motivation to keep going. John and Anthony faced plenty of rejection when starting out, but they persisted and found their place in the market without significant support.
Bootstrapping provides freedom to grow your company how you want. John and Anthony weren’t able to secure funding, and if given the chance they prefer the freedom that it provided as there are no boards to answer to when making big decisions.
Having a marathon mindset can be a great help to push through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Building a business doesn’t always go exactly how you expect, so focus on your goal’s destination rather than how you get there.
Making Co-CEOs work isn’t for everyone. While most contemporaries have advised against it, John and Anthony have known each other for decades and were able to split duties while staying aligned on the same overall goal to become successful Co-CEOs.
When you’re starting out, go the extra mile to build relationships with your clients. Show them you care and that their feedback is valuable, as it can lead to customer loyalty.

Quote of the Show:

“Great companies have been built without capital, but not without people.” - John Fazzolari
“No matter how much we communicate something, we could always communicate more of it.” - Anthony Serina

Links:

John’s Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fazz
Anthony’s Twitter: https://x.com/antserina
John’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-fazzolari-5b94b62b/
Anthony’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-serina-ba656121/
Website: https://www.revivn.com/

Ways to Tune In:

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