“I want to build another startup, basically that solves a problem that a lot of people are having and that’s a lot easier to scale and a lot bigger than what I’m currently doing…”

Interview by Mike Sullivan

Mike:
Hi, I’m Mike Sullivan for MO.com, where we feature entrepreneurs and small business owners and then bring you hints, tips, perspectives, and insights on what it takes to be successful.

Today we have a young entrepreneur and student, Giancarlo Massaro, who is the founder of AnyLuckyDay. Giancarlo, thanks for joining us. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started so early?

Giancarlo:
So, I’m 21 years old. I go to college at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. I’m actually graduating in about three weeks. May 15th, I’ll be graduating. I basically got into online stuff back when I was around 14 years old and my soccer team was ranked top 10 in the nation and I wanted to raise some money for us so we could go to tournaments. So I made our own little website using just a free website builder, and then I started putting videos together of our team and things like that and ended up raising $5,000 through the website for our team so we could go to tournaments and stuff.

So that’s kind of how I got into the online business area, and then from there I just doing small little websites related to MySpace. I had a MySpace friend adder that made a few thousand dollars. Then I moved on and made a desktop widget for Woot.com. Basically what it would do is it would pop during Woot-offs letting you know of the new product. And from there, moved on to AnyLuckyDay, which I started as a sophomore in college, in 2009, and have been growing that ever since.

Mike:
That’s great. It sounds like you were pretty focused very early on. Can you tell me what is AnyLuckyDay? What it is and how it operates?

Giancarlo:
So AnyLuckyDay is an online marketing platform for businesses to promote their products and services through contests. And when you purchase a day to be featured on AnyLuckyDay, you receive a contest. You receive a video, which I create for you. You can kind of see the studio behind me where we create the videos for you. And then you get a ton of social media exposure through Twitter and Facebook, and then you also get the ability to interact with potential customers who are entering the giveaway.

Mike:
This is really a cool concept you have? Where did you come up with the idea?

Giancarlo:
So back in 2009, as a sophomore, I was trying to figure out a way to make some money online again, because ever since I started college I kind of got sidetracked and forget how to manage my time, was too busy with school and going out with friends. So I started trying to think of an idea for a new online business, and while laying on the couch one night, I just saw an infomercial on TV and I thought it would be cool if I could try out the product that was on TV. And I kind of got an idea in my head of maybe I can try out these products and give them away on a website.

Then so all of 2009, that’s all I did. I just contacted companies, got them to send me some products. I would review them and give them away. I did that for an entire year for free. I made no money off it whatsoever. And then in 2010, I introduced a pricing model and started charging companies for the service that I was providing, and I’ve been growing that ever since.

Mike:
You do have quite a few sponsors. Who are the sponsors that come to market on you site?

Giancarlo:
There are tons of sponsors to be honest. Basically, it’s one new contest every single day for the entire year, so there are 365 contests per year. We’ve had some big name sponsors, Snyder’s of Hanover, a pretzel company. We’ve had Radisson Hotels. Back in 2009, we had a Flip video. Griffin Technology, so we’ve had a ton of companies, but a lot of them are small businesses who are looking to get their new product, their new service out there to an audience for a very low price.

Mike:
So you really have two groups that you market to. On one end you have the consumer front where you’re trying to get people to come to the site to see what you’re giving away, and then on the other end though, you have the sponsors that you need to attract as well. How do you go about marketing to each of these groups?

Giancarlo:
So on the consumer aspect; basically just through social media and there’s a ton of contest websites out there that actually list contests every single day. So back in 2009, when I first started, I would just be hitting up those sites every single day, posting the new giveaway that I was doing every single day. And that’s how I started getting some traction and started building an audience, because people realized that I was doing one new giveaway every day so they would keep coming back every single day. Another aspect of that is growing your e-mail list. That’s a major part of what’s made my business grow so fast is that capturing people’s e-mails so they do come back every single day to check their e-mails.

Then on the sponsor side; for the past two years I pretty much just cold called or e-mailed companies that I thought were interesting and their products that I liked. And I would just pitch them and tell them what I would do and the cost of my service and that’s how I sold a lot of days that way.

Mike:
If I understand it correctly, you had not only AnyLuckyDay as your business, but you’re also working on another business, PriceKnock. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Giancarlo:
I’ll actually tell you about it right now, what happened with it. We actually dissolved the business. So we came up with the idea for PriceKnock back in September of 2010. There were probably only 20 or 30 daily deal sites, Groupon and LivingSocial obviously being the largest. And so our idea was to focus on a small niche or portion of that, which would be online retailers only and allowing people to choose based on their interests rather than subscribing based on where they live. So you would come to the site, you would pick categories that you’re interested in receiving, and you would get those deals in your inbox.

So the goal was to launch in November of 2010, but with me being in college and with my partners being in college, we actually got pushed back all the way until March of 2011, so last month. We launched the site and by that time, right now there are over 400 daily deal sites in the space, and it was just way too crowded and we decided it wasn’t what we wanted to do anymore. So we just kind of dissolved that business.

Mike:
You had the insight to pull out of an idea that no longer seemed like the right fit for you, so that’s good. You’re still a young guy, in school. I imagine you have a social life. How much time do you put into the business every day?

Giancarlo:
So basically, it’s one new promotion every day, so every single day I have to do a new blog post about the company and about their products. I have to create a new video for the company, film it, edit it, upload it, and then throughout the day I’m also promoting that company and the giveaway to my audience. So I do everything one day ahead. So today I’ll be creating the content and the video for tomorrow’s giveaway, which starts at midnight Eastern time. It takes me about two to three hours to do all the content and film a video, edit it, and upload it. And that’s what basically what goes into creating the promotion for the day. In terms of getting new sponsors, replying to the hundreds of e-mails I receive per day, things like that, I’d say in a full day, if I’m working the full day, about six or seven hours goes into just working on the website. But I can work on the website anytime I want. I basically just spend two to three hours a day building the promotion for the company that’s coming up the next day. And if I have other things to do that day, I can do whatever I want.

Mike:
You’ve managed to accomplish a lot so far as a young entrepreneur. You’ll be graduating soon. What’s you ultimate long-term goal?

Giancarlo:
So my ultimate goal is to, I want to build another startup, basically that solves a problem that a lot of people are having and that’s a lot easier to scale and a lot bigger than what I’m currently doing with AnyLuckyDay. I have some ideas in the works, and I’m going to have a lot more time once I graduate to focus on my ideas. So for right now, I’m just focusing on this business and focusing on graduating within the next month. Once I graduate, I’m going to go to the drawing board, put some of my ideas down, and see how I can build some of them out. But my ultimate goal is just to have a better startup, a bigger startup, and something that solves a problem for the masses. So I’m not really sure I’m going with that right now, but that’s my ultimate goal.

Mike:
Okay. Giancarlo, you’ve got a great business. Thanks for taking some time to talk with us. I appreciate it. Take care.

Giancarlo:
All right, great. Thanks for the opportunity.