Anthony Sarandrea is recognized as one of the top customer-generators in the world, specializing in financial services and insurance. His team drives over a million customers a year across a profitable portfolio of websites, ranging from e-commerce to content blogs. The ultimate goal is to meet the ever-evolving financial saving needs and insurance coverage of the average American family.
Sarandrea has consistently ranked as one of the top entrepreneurs “under 30” and was recently featured alongside Snapchat’s founder Evan Spiegel as one of the Entrepreneurs Changing the World.
Can you tell us more about what you do?
I run a series of websites aimed at helping Americans with their finances and insurance. We provide solutions to everyday problems, whether it’s affordable insurance, attainable credit, or budgeting tips. We’re one of the largest online lending marketplaces in the United States. We connect Americans with multiple financial products. We do this so they can find the best deals on insurance, raise their credit, budget better, and more. The end goal is helping American families save money.
How did you create your brand?
My family was very religious, and I spent the first few years of my life dreaming about becoming a priest. In later years, I shifted to health and helping people lose weight or achieve their fitness goals. All these professions are focused on helping people, which was my goal above all else, but I soon realized that money/finances are the root cause of a lot of problems.
We live in a throwaway, consumer-obsessed society, one where people spend what they don’t have, accumulate debts they can’t afford, and spend the rest of their lives in a cycle of credit, debt, and misery. This is ultimately why I switched to financial services. Today we connect thousands of Americans to different financial and insurance products. This ultimately helps put more money in their pockets and have better peace of mind.
How does your brand work?
In many ways, we’re a conduit for essential financial services. We connect people who have debt, need insurance, or require low-interest credit with the companies that can help. Our websites educate consumers on the perils of high-interest debt while providing tips on saving money, comparing policies, and forgiving loans. When they’re ready to take the next step, we point them in the right direction.
What advice can you offer to aspiring entrepreneurs?
The best piece of advice I can give to aspiring entrepreneurs is not to fear failure, but to embrace it. Everyone wants to hear how great their business is and how well they’re doing, but insincere praise doesn’t help anyone. You need to look for the negative reviews and comments—seek out the complaints. Negativity is great for growth and essential for survival. Without it, you won’t fix the issues dragging your business down, and your competitors will innovate and grow ahead of you. FAIL FAST
It’s difficult to read negative reviews. You’ve put a lot of time and effort into your business. It’s your pride and joy. The last thing you want is for customers to trash it or get negative opinions on your startup idea. But, if you can dig into that negativity and listen to learn, dive deep into where the person’s reservations are, it’ll benefit you in the long run.
What challenges did you go through while creating your business?
The problem with the financial services sector is that most companies are there to turn a profit at the expense of the consumer. They perpetuate poverty and profit off of getting people more and more in debt.
Naturally, consumers are wary, and that made it hard for us to get our message across. However, we’ve now reached a point where consumers trust us to provide them with helpful information and transparent services.
How do you manage your business finances? How did you fund your business?
The business has always been self-funded. In the beginning, we expected slow and steady growth but continued working hard, re-investing, and growing our assets. As long as the next year was better than the last, I knew we were on the right track. Eventually, we reached a point where we were generating $100k in daily revenue without any outside capital help. This means we’re not relying on outsiders, we don’t have to worry about appeasing investors and shareholders, and we maintain 100% control.
Tell us your future vision about the brand. What is the next level?
As things stand, we’re fixers. We help cure the problem, but we aren’t preventing it. Customers come to us when they’re paying too much for car insurance or life insurance or looking for help with mountains of consumer debt. In the future, our goal is to advance consumer knowledge with regards to interest, debit, credit, and loans.
A 21-year-old shouldn’t be taking out a new credit card just to get 15% off their purchase at a department store. An 18-year old shouldn’t be agreeing to a lifetime of student loan debt without even understanding how APR works. Don’t get me wrong, these products can be great if you need them and know how to use them, but most consumers don’t, and that’s what we want to change.
What message would you like to give to anybody who has a plan of creating something of their own and making a living through it?
Embrace negativity, look for criticism and don’t assume your idea is perfect just because you think it is or because your family or friends tell you it is. You need real-world feedback from prospective customers, not empty admiration from loved ones.
Think about Jeff Hawkins, the investor of the PalmPilot.
If a modern entrepreneur conceived such a revolutionary device as the PalmPilot, they would invest everything into production, raise funds, create multiple prototypes, and eventually arrive at a finished product, by which time the company reserves would be one disaster away from complete annihilation. Hawkins, however, simply carved a block of wood into a PalmPilot shape and carried paper sleeves to simulate user interfaces. Every time he wanted to take notes or schedule an appointment, he would whip the device out and pretend to use it.
The feedback he received from friends and acquaintances, and the real-world applications he experienced, allowed him to build the perfect prototype first time, thus saving endless capital expenses.
This weird idea of carrying an inanimate object attached to your hip is what we modern-day couldn’t dream of living without, our cell phones.
Company name. : Pocket Your Dollars
Website URL :Pocketyourdollars.com
Instagram URL. : www.instagram.com/anthonysarandrea
