Andrew Gazdecki
Founder @ MicroAcquire. Inc. 30 under 30
About
I’m Andrew Gazdecki and I’ve been an entrepreneur for longer than I can remember. I like to build stuff, mostly companies, and try to tell a story that goes beyond what the company does to how it’s changing markets. I started my first company, Bizness Apps, while still in college. We made mobile app development affordable for small businesses, and initially, raised around $100,000 in funding. By the time Bizness Apps was acquired by private equity firm Think3, we had grown to $10M in annual recurring revenue, operating in 40 countries, and employing over 100 people. Now, $100,000 isn’t a lot of money, so we needed a story that resonated with our target market so we could scale before the cash ran out. What was the bigger picture? What positive change did our business enable? In the end, we had the perfect David vs Goliath tale. We helped small businesses compete against their larger rivals through mobile marketing – and this struck an emotional chord with our customers. My second business, Altcoin.io, was a decentralized exchange (DEX) for trading digital assets. The story here was simple: by trading on our decentralized, non-custodial platform, traders could protect their assets. Altcoin.io became a champion of security in a market dominated by custodial platforms that put users’ funds at risk. By challenging the status quo, we were defending the rights of traders everywhere – a story that our prospects loved. This eventually lead the company to be acquired by global investment firm BnkToTheFuture. A good brand story elevates companies above the competition. While someone can copy your product or service, they can’t copy your brand. So tell stories that excite your customers and align with their goals.