From PC Gaming Geek to Tech Entrepreneur with John Esposito | Episode 005

Episode Information

Show Notes

In this episode of Career Downloads, host Manuel Martinez sits down with John Esposito, a tech enthusiast turned entrepreneur, to explore his fascinating journey from building computers for gaming as a kid to founding a innovative loyalty rewards app. John shares invaluable insights on career pivots, the art of pitching to investors, and the importance of resilience in the face of rejection.

Meet John Esposito: Las Vegas native, tech enthusiast, and co-founder of Loyal Unlimited

• John’s early start in tech: Building his first computer at 12 and dominating video games.
• The unexpected path: From journalism major to IT recruiting in Chicago.
• Mastering the art of translating tech-speak for non-technical clients.
• The birth of Loyal Unlimited: A game-changing loyalty rewards app.
• Securing startup funding: Leveraging networks and learning from rejections

Key takeaways for aspiring entrepreneurs and job seekers:

• The power of networking and building relationships
• Embracing failure as a learning opportunity
• The importance of clear communication in tech
• How to handle tough questions during pitches and interviews

Quotes: “Learn from those noes, that’s all I can say. There’s a reason why people are saying no. There’s a reason why someone is going to say yes. Go through all the noes and then implement the yeses and then you’ll eventually win.” – John Esposito

“Technology is another language in itself, right? So trying to translate that is definitely a skill.” – John Esposito

“Just because someone has money doesn’t mean they’re going to like your idea or just throw money at you, right? You have to find someone that’s going to, I guess, like the idea that you have and continue to go with it and be your mentor and try to make sure that the money that they’re giving you is actually going to get a return on their end in the long run.” – John Esposito

Resources Mentioned:

• Loyal Unlimited app

Connect with John: https://www.linkedin.com/in/espo702/ Espo Consulting (espoconsulting.com)

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Transcription

Manuel: Welcome everybody, my name is Manuel Martinez and this is Career Downloads where I basically hit the refresh button every episode, bring on a different guest to really learn about their background, their career, tips and tricks that they’ve probably learned along the way through their journey and really get a chance to learn from them how they’ve managed their career and hopefully you pick up some useful, actionable advice as part of the conversation. So for today’s episode I have with me John Esposito. So welcome John.

John: Hey everybody. Thanks for having me.

Manuel: Hey, pleasure to have you. So we’ve been talking earlier and you’re kind of curious like why I would want to go through and interview you and once I started looking at your resume, right, I knew a little bit of kind of what you had done, asked you before and once I saw your resume I was like, oh my gosh, there’s so much that I was curious about, so many items that I was like, man I could learn so much me personally. So I think that hopefully other people will get benefit out of this as well. So to kind of start off, can you just give me, again, we don’t have to go into super detail, but just a brief description of kind of where you kind of grew up and.

John: Yeah, born and raised in Las Vegas, went to Bishop Gorman High School, I got three siblings. Actually none of my siblings grew up with a tech family at all. So I kind of had to learn the kind of tech around on my own just by being familiar with computers growing up. I grew up with AIM and AOL back in grade school, absolutely loved coming home from school every single day and trying to figure out how to type 100 words minute after I just got done talking to all my friends for a couple hours a day. But by 12 years old I built my very first computer from scratch and that was like a hands-on learning experience for me, wanted to understand exactly how computers worked, got into video games when I was younger and just kind of snowballed from there really, got into high school and I had a better computer system than all my friends. So it was like one of those things where everybody wanted to come over to my house and try to see what kind of equipment that I was using and why I was always better. My parents didn’t really understand anything until I kind of got addicted to the whole tech field and the computer went out the window because I was spending 10 hours a day on video games. Well, now I had to build another computer at 16 and that’s where I guess the tech spark actually ignited. Went off to college, actually have a journalism degree in media studies and educational technology so I kind of got a minor in teaching people how to do specific things within the technology sector while using technology so it’s kind of a convoluted subject but it actually kind of worked out. With the journalism major, I found out that technology and content rule the web and I didn’t really understand it myself until I realized that Google on how you get ranked to get any single website up on the high algorithms is you must have relevant content. And I started my career right after school with a company called Ultius Incorporated and Ultius.

Manuel: So when you picked up your understanding of, you know, content and journalism, what year was that? Was it while you were in school? Was it after school? Kind of when did you learn that part?

John: It was actually definitely after school. Honestly, I went to college not really understanding exactly where my future was going to bring me. I went to San Diego State. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s a party school, I’m a desert kid myself, grew up in Las Vegas. I wanted to go someplace warm but I knew I wanted to get away from Las Vegas. So I went to the beach, picked a major which I thought kind of interesting, but I kind of want to go into sports journalism, grew up playing baseball, volleyball, and didn’t really knew where I was really going to go. But it wasn’t until after I graduated where I realized that content really rules everything in regards to the web sites. When I graduated in 2011 from school, 2012, I started working for Keller Williams Realty as a lead generator for a realtor. He wanted to be able to post specific things online to generate lead sales for the housing industry. Well, coming out of journalism, I had no idea what I was doing. This realtor, he also wanted a website, hired somebody to come into the office where I was doing these lead generations. I saw him building these websites for this particular player that I was working for. I was really interested in it. We ended up sharing the same office, we started talking back and forth, and the next thing I know, I started working for this guy.

Manuel: Building websites.

John: Building websites for a company called Ultius Corporation. And Ultius is Latin for revenge, that’s what it means. But the person who I was working for, he ended up being a college dropout, didn’t really have a, I guess, direction, but he was extremely tech savvy, he was a coder, a developer, and he built a platform that allows college students to be able to submit their papers towards you can have that paper written for you and then turn it in for a grade. Well, next thing you know, I’m a journalism major, next thing you know, he’s got a website that caters to this kind of service, and next thing you know, I’m writing papers for college students.

Manuel: Making a little extra side money.

John: Little side money, right? So, not only now am I starting to learn how the website content creation works, but I’m also learning how actual content is actually relative in the industry where people will actually pay for it. It’s not just for college students as well, it’s for businesses that want to do blogs, it’s for social media posts, for companies that actually want content out there so they can get recognition for their brand or company or whatever it takes. Yeah, that was really interesting for me to know that I was writing college papers, not knowing exactly what I was doing in this so-called journalism field that I went for for sports journalism and ended up in the realty and housing market.

Manuel: That’s pretty crazy. It’s funny, I’ve had a couple