About Dean...
It all started at the lemonade stand under the mulberry tree.
As the fourth of five kids, I grew up to be a quick study and a fast learner. My father ran a NYC ad agency and was a creative “madman” who taught me how to sell anything and everything. Hard work has always been part of my life. I became an entrepreneur at 8 with my first lemonade stand located under the mulberry tree. I quickly figured out that giving “free” cups of berries sold gallons of lemonade. At 12 as a newspaper delivery boy, I experienced customer satisfaction when I had to collect payment and tips weekly from 37 houses. In college, I sold the most lightbulbs at the fundraiser, which later got me elected to President of the Fraternity. I have always been a doer, and learned early on that attitude, hard work, and creativity are "must have" requirements for success in life.
I started my first full-time job at a Madison Ave Ad agency where I was taught the art of copy, creative, and design from some savvy old timers. From there, I followed my heart, turned entrepreneur, moved to client side, became a true marketeer, and learned the rest from the school of hard knocks.
Early on, I discovered technology was the future, and that learning to leverage it was the pathway to prosperity. As an outlier, I quickly embraced the Mac with its low support overhead and it rapidly became the catalyst to my success. I’ve always believed in continual learning and “kaizen”, as there is always a better more efficient way to do things.
Along the journey, I learned to be a manager, work collaboratively, and how to vet quality team members and vendors. My leadership skills got me elected to President of the National Sunroom Association.
When it comes to projects, I’m hands-on and I lead by example. That includes realistic objectives and timely deliverables. I’m a bootstrapper and know how to find resources to stretch the budget and get projects done.
My creative mantra has always been to develop content so products are simple to learn about and easy to buy. On the tech side, I developed a CRM prior to Salesforce and designed a custom 3D modeling e-commerce platform that sold online sunroom kits with an average ticket price of close to $ 12,000. I can sell anything.
