February’s Wicked Starter of the month is Oscar Pedroso: co-founder of Osnick, the iphone app equivalent of a”tour-guide in your pocket” and founder of MBAWritersBlock, an online tool that provides MBA applicants with free and valuable resources. Oscar has been a long supporter of Wicked Start and he finds Wicked Start’s roadmap useful for providing a long-term perspective so entrepreneurs can better “organize, allocate and reserve” startup funds. Read his startup story below:
What Is Your background?
I graduated with a degree in economics and French at the University of Rochester. After that I worked at the Rochester General Hospital and while working as a project manager I started having a little “rebellious” voice in the back of my head that said “hey, things can be done better this way or that way” in terms of efficiency. That’s when I began thinking like an entrepreneur. I eventually dove in into full-fledged entrepreneurship when I started an iphone app together with a friend. To help develop our app, I took a entrepreneurship class that taught us how to “carry out” a business idea and that really was a turning point.
What Businesses Are You Currently Working On?
The iPhone app, Osnick which is what I’m working on with my friend, Nick Shippers. It’s essentially a tour-guide in your pocket that makes recommendations for places to visit based on your personal interests. To find out your interests, we ask questions that are exciting to answer. For example, if you answer “yes” to enjoying board games and coffee then we could recommend a local cafe that offers board games. My other project is MBAWritersBlock, which is a tool that provides MBA applicants with free resources. It’s an alternative to spending thousands of dollars hiring an admissions consultant. The only paid resource is my MBA essay guide.
What Are Your Business Goals for 2012?
Our goal for Osnick is to get six to seven people to test the app and towards the summer we hope to launch our beta version of Osnick. As for MBAWritersBlock, I plan on starting to sell my essay guide, creating strong partnerships with MBA companies, and launching video content to help users maneuver the admissions process.
What are the most common issues that entrepreneurs run into? And in your opinion, how can using Wicked Start help the “startup journey”?
Most entrepreneurs have to bootstrap and it’s not always easy to know how to organize, allocate and reserve funds. It’s difficult to know when you have to spend to grow and when to save so you’ll have enough later on to keep your new business afloat. With MBAWritersblock, I had issues. It can be discouraging to invest in the beginning because it can be an indeterminate amount of time until you make that return back. Even when it’s very small amount of money that they’re investing, bootstrappers still need to learn how to manage their funds. They struggle with how to invest – In spurts? All at once? You have to look at the business in a “bird’s eye” view to best know how to manage your startup cash. Wicked Start helps by mapping out a comprehensive timeline for entrepreneurs. The roadmap is great because its gives you a realistic perspective of your business down the road.
Most entrepreneurs have to bootstrap and it’s not always easy to know how to organize, allocate and reserve funds. It’s difficult to know when you have to spend to grow and when to save so you’ll have enough later on to keep your new business afloat. With MBAWritersblock, I had issues. It can be discouraging to invest in the beginning because it can be an indeterminate amount of time until you make that return back. Even when it’s very small amount of money that they’re investing, bootstrappers still need to learn how to manage their funds. They struggle with how to invest – In spurts? All at once? You have to look at the business in a “bird’s eye” view to best know how to manage your startup cash. Wicked Start helps by mapping out a comprehensive timeline for entrepreneurs. The roadmap is great because its gives you a realistic perspective of your business down the road.