Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Forschino.
Hi Brandon, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey to entrepreneurship is one that began as early as age 10. I have fond memories of walking my lawn mower, weedeater, and gas can strategically placed around my neighborhood, where I would spend summers mowing lawns to help my parents buy school clothes and shoes for the upcoming school years. In addition, my grandfather worked at a nursery in town that was famous for growing hibiscus plants. Occasionally, I would inherit extra plants and set up a hibiscus stand at the end of my driveway for passing cars. When I left for college, I planned on becoming an Architect. In addition to business, I always had the itch to build something. Naturally, Architecture seemed like the best fit to satisfy my desire. However, in my first semester, I saw a need I believed I could fill. I started a blog site in my dorm room that allowed current, prospective, and past students to share their college experience in six main categories; Academics, Athletics, Dorms, Social Life, Clubs & Organizations, and Fraternity/Sorority life. Eventually, an angel investor took heed of the idea and offered to invest in the concept. It quickly outgrew my dorm room. We had a great team of developers building a state of the art software that would show real-time where the hot spots were on and off campus. Today, you would recognize this feature in Snapchat.
I decided to leave the School of Architecture and focus on growing this business. I traveled the country visiting and implementing this app with some of the top colleges and universities around the country. After three years, we went through a merger and acquisition with another software company. I spent a year as VP of Marketing & Business Development before finding my next career. Leaving entrepreneurship behind, I tried several careers, from staffing and recruiting to nonprofit marketing. Eventually, I found myself back in business when my first son was born. Also birthed was Out of Dust Marketing, a full-service marketing and communication agency that provided digital marketing and public relations services. Today, I proudly serve as the CEO of Out of Dust Marketing. I have intentionally scaled back the agency to focus exclusively on social media marketing and multimedia. In addition, I provide personal and professional development/consulting for startups and small businesses. I enjoy coaching, speaking, and leading others to bring their ideas to life.
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