Interview with Entrepreneur Rob Castellucci
Rob Castellucci first encountered entrepreneurship in his basement. “Growing up, my dad had his own company, teaching martial arts in the dojo.” Castellucci is a black belt as well as a practiced salsa dancer, among other things. However, Rob’s main hobby: his job.
Castellucci works as the internship director for a venture fund company that partners with medical technology companies, providing them with capital as well as business analysis, product development, and market research. Castellucci has been with the company for three years.
“I started back in the Summer of 2006 as an unpaid intern,” said Castellucci. “I had heard about it through the Bridge program.” Castellucci spent only one summer at Synogen LLC before asking to take over the recruiting for the company.
“The internship was very unstructured. They all had a lot of other responsibilities. I only asked to manage recruiting, but ended up taking over the entire internship program.” Castellucci was still unpaid at this time. By 2007, he was offered a full-time job as the internship director.
“Before I started at Synogen, I really didn’t have any super clear goals,” Castellucci said. “I focused on Synogen as a leverage point to get a more corporate job.” Castellucci was interviewing with GE and Google at the time for full-time positions. Synogen was considered a spring board. However, with more experience at Synogen, Castellucci acquired the innovative spirit of entrepreneurialism.
“When I was an intern, I knew it wasn’t about the technology. Halfway through the job, I knew it was about the people. They had a plan, but it wasn’t dependent on the larger industry,” said Castellucci of Synogen. “Synogen is bringing technology to people to save lives.”
Synogen, to Castellucci opened up an entirely new mindset. “The work we do at Synogen is both scalable and personal. A new medical device is going to have an impact on a lot of people’s lives,” said Castellucci. “At the same time, Synogen is self-actualizing for me in that it helps me to become the person that I see myself becoming.”
Since working at Synogen, Rob has started his own company, Roombug, a facebook device that supplies roommate matching technology to University of Florida students living in dorms and apartments.
“I worked as a leasing consultant for Lexington Crossing,” Castellucci said. “Everyone has a perspective where they see the world through a lens. My lens is facebook. I had already experienced it firsthand, and I had worked in the industry. I knew the process, and I knew how facebook worked.”
Castellucci has three other partners in the company who handle the programming, accounting, finances, and the website. Castellucci handles the sales, marketing, and public relations of the company.
“We have the business model and the plan. Now it’s just building the business around the technology,” Castellucci explained.
“Our main setback so far has been the economy right now. A lot of apartment complexes are afraid to take a chance on the company, and a lot of our investors’ portfolios aren’t as strong as they used to be.” Roombug is also feeling the effects of the student admission cuts at the University of Florida.
Roombug, however, will persist. “It’s just slowing down the development. It makes you focus more on your business for the long run,” said Castellucci. “It makes you want to succeed in the long run.”
Castellucci uses everything from motivational tapes to salsa classes to keep the ambition running. “You start to have this mindset of ‘how can I kill two birds with one stone?’ When I’m cooking breakfast, I have my headphones on listening to something, either music or a motivational lecture,” said Castellucci. “It’s never a lack of resources, only resourcefulness.”
Castellucci referred to Maslow’s hierarchy, a pyramid of human needs required to feel a stable emotional state. “I’m extremely healthy. I eat healthy, and I make sure that I get my sleep. It makes your brain awake and able to come up with these ideas. You’re limiting your full potential if you’re not healthy.”
Castellucci also emphasizes the importance of surrounding. “You have to put yourself around these people in order to be successful. Immerse yourself in the environment, whether through audio, video, or text. Live it. Breathe it.”
Related posts:
How did you get involved with Synogen and how did working there affect where you are at in your business career at this point?
How is it that you managed to be a founder of an upstart such as Roombug? What kind of financial commitment, and time commitment did you have to put in before the project took off?
I really liked the article Katy. Do you know any of his plans for expansion or his next step if Roombug succeeds? What about plans if it does not succeed?
Truthfully, I think he intends to stay with Synogen as long as possible, even if Roombug doesn’t succeed. Plans for expansion include selling it to more apartment complexes to get a wider market for roommate matching.
Katy, wonderful article! I apologize, I just came across this now as an associate keyed me into it. I wanted to address some of the posts below:
1. How did you get involved with Synogen and how did working there affect where you are at in your business career at this point? —- I heard about it randomly through UF, one of those chance run-ins that worked out. I think everyone has those great opportunities they come across, you gotta be able to stick with them when they’re diamonds in the rough. Without Synogen, I would not have started my own company, at least not until I was 35 or 40. It sped up the process and gave me the confidence. Being around those people makes it seem real and possible to do.
2. How is it that you managed to be a founder of an upstart such as Roombug? What kind of financial commitment, and time commitment did you have to put in before the project took off? —- It was very much where the opportunity seemed just too good to pass up. I couldn’t say no. Financial commitment is all depends on how you structure it, remember, never a lack of resource, only resourcefulness. I wont go into the details, but lets say it would have been a lot more time and $$ if I hadn’t brought in co-founders. The time is the biggest thing, because you dont have anyone else telling you to go out and do it, you have to set DAILY self-imposed hurdles and tasks to achieve, and just have that motivation to see things through. One more thing, opportunity recognition is big. Being able to look at things from multiple angles. I recommend to lots of people to watch Demetri Martin, an excellent comedian who looks at the world differently than most. You can learn alot from just listening to his jokes, heres a starter, pay special attention to his weekly checklist which is a good example of daily self-imposed hurdles – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKnzPHtf9u4
3. I really liked the article Katy. Do you know any of his plans for expansion or his next step if Roombug succeeds? What about plans if it does not succeed? —- My mind is totally set on RoomBug becoming a national presence. that’s where my focus lies. We have some exciting things planned for the near future, hopefully Katy will be able to keep everyone at Greenback in the loop as we progress. Synogen is of course a place that I truly enjoy being a part of and I see myself staying involved with them at some level for a long time.
Thanks for all the questions and feel free to e-mail or Facebook me if you have additional questions, rob@roombug.net, or if you have questions related to your entrepreneurial endeavors.
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