Rome
15°
Iker’s dream to become an entrepreneur has come true.
“My desire to become an entrepreneur sprung from a class I had with Professor Fitzimmons at AUR, whereby we discussed Amazon. I remember being fascinated by the drive and creativity required to launch a new venture, and became inspired to do the same. And AUR’s career services office helped me snag a job at Venere – at the time an internet startup in Italy – a foundational experience that set me on my present course in the industry
I was studying my MBA at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology when I decided to do my last semester at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Besides the academic punch that NYU packs, I wanted to live in New York so that I could work on a business idea that my brother Yago had come up with during the summer. One day, it hit him:
“Wouldn’t it be awesome to freeze this moment in time, in this place, so that when someone else passes by this same spot they can find it and experience it themselves?”
That question is what drove the idea of Wyst forward. Wyst is like a new message in a bottle, an iPhone app that allows users to share experiences by tagging photos or text notes to their location. Through Wyst people would be able to share their thoughts, their feelings, their ideas and their experiences – as they happened, where they happened. It would also enable them to capture a moment in a note or a photo, and leave it behind for others to find in that same exact place.
So Yago and I got to work. He would be the Chairman and I would be the CEO. Balance of power and balance of decision. We raised a seed round from friends and family to finance the product development and the incorporation of the company. Through one of my best friends from the MBA we engaged the services of a proven Brooklyn-based digital development firm called HappyFunCorp, which prepared the initial designs and would build the product based on our specifications.
Iker (right) and his brother and business partner Yago (left).
5 months later, and Wyst is a reality. With the product available for free from Apple’s App Store, we have reached downloads from over 30 countries and are slowly but surely gaining traction in this industry. There have been 3 versions of Wyst in the App Store already, based on user feedback, that have prompted us to develop new features and continuous improvement. In order to fuel Wyst’s growth, we have just begun an angel round of financing that will enable us to kickstart development for an Android version and finance other
marketing efforts.
We don’t know where Wyst will take us, but the only way to find out is by doing. If worse comes to worse and we fall, we can always pick ourselves up again”.
For more information, please look us up here:
- Website: www.wyst.it
- Facebook: facebook.com/wystit
- Twitter: @Wystit”
