The Hustle
Years in Tampa Bay
8 years.
Hustle (job)
Co-founder of Shoot to Thrill Media
What do you do?
Web development for start-ups in the St. Petersburg Community. Help small businesses, medium-sized businesses accelerate business growth online.
Why do you do it?
We both had partners who were web developers, and we were dissatisfied with the services some web developers were providing. We taught ourselves to code and we realized we were not the only ones with this problem and that there was a growing market of people who needed these services.
What was your Catalyst? (How did you get started?)
The Catalyst for my skillset was a start-up weekend. Events like Tampa Bay Start-up Week were a big part of it. The Catalyst for Shoot to Thrill Media was that Matt and I both studied Entrepreneurship at USF-St. Petersburg and we felt we had been taken advantage of because we were lacking a skillset in development.
What’s a common misconception or unknown aspect of what you do?
People think the technology is hard and that’s not the case. The people part is hard.
What’s the most challenging part of your Hustle?
Setting the expectation is hard. Making sure you have the right relationship, you have the right understanding, and that you know enough to predict the outcomes and define success the right way is the hard part. The computers listen every time.
What’s the most valuable piece of business advice/insight that’s helped you?
It changes throughout time. I typically have words that will lead me through the year of things I need to spend time on. Last year it was patience and focus, this year is consistency. The best advice comes to, life is 10% what happens and 90% how you react to it, making sure you’re always reflecting your best self and not putting anything off to others. Making sure you’re always understanding your values and not compromising who you are for a dollar.
Why St. Pete?
St. Pete is absolutely home, I went to University here, and it was a total fluke. I didn’t even know what St. Pete was even though I was only from 2 hours away. I actually planned to leave. This was circa 2010, and the community was so warm and so welcoming, and so much growth was happening. 8 years later its been such a great opportunity to stay here.
What's next?
We just released a new offering at Shoot to Thrill Media for $99/month we’ll spin you up with a total website package, maintenance, all US-based. We’re really trying to emphasize the start-up community and get that going.
