Interview: Max Ciccotosto of Wishpot
I’ve know Max for quite sometime. In fact, we share offices together down in Pioneer Square. He’s a rare technical guy who has an amazing marketing mind. If you were to ask me what one could learn from Max? I’d tell you that he keeps a level head even in tough times. Here’s his interview:
Tell us a few words about yourself. How’d you come to run Wishpot and what is your work background?
I was born and raised in Italy. Came the first time to Seattle as a visiting graduate at UW and and ended up working on the Exchange Server learning lots of things about software and products After seven years it was about time for me to get back to my entrepreneurial roots. I had this idea about being able to capture all the stuff I wanted in one place from anywhere and make such space super smart about helping me getting those things and that became Wishpot. We have been around for more than two years now, raised a small Series A round, went through few ups and downs, but growing nicely now with some good stuff coming soon.
How do you describe Wishpot to friends in a noisy bar?
It’s a super smart online wish list where you add anything you want from anywhere.
You have an interesting connections with Italy to this day. Tell us about H-Farm.
H-Farm is a global venture incubator. There are three main things that H-Farm does for entrepreneurs (1) They provide the funds and operational support in super early stage, allowing the founders to really focus on what’s key early on – a great product and plan (2) they accelerate the company growth both locally supporting them with marketing, PR and bizdev and (3) allows companies to quickly expand internationally using their local “hubs”.
The company was started by a couple of great entrepreneurs (Riccardo Donadon and Maurizio Rossi). They are very supportive and engaged, especially when things get tough.
Myself and few other great entrepreneurs in Seattle and Bay Area are helping them to get their operations going in the US.
What areas of the site are the most popular?
The wedding area has been the fastest growing for us. It does make a lot of sense. Today’s couples have different needs when they get married compared to the past and Wishpot provides them the flexibility they need.
What aspect or feature of Wishpot do you think is most under-appreciated?
Mobile features. I think it’s totally cool that you can take a pix of stuff that you want, enter the ISBN or UPC and get price/rating information. We definitely need to do a better job there. There is some cool stuff coming.
What’s the hardest thing about your job?
Wearing a lot of different hats, some that you like more but cannot wear as much and some that you like less, but still need to be worn.
What’s your favorite thing about this whole experience?
The energy and interestingness. Every day I get to learn something new from our team, our partners and the many people in the startup scene. I feel I learn so much every day.
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Wishpot sounds really cool, I used myregistry.com for my baby registry and now I can stay up-to-date as my boy grows up on all the other stuff he needs on wishpot. It’s almost the same kind of service.