Built By: Max Faingezicht of ThriveHive
To Max Faingezicht, “entrepreneurship is a mindset.” This is not surprising, considering that his family has quite an entrepreneurial history. Max brought that history to mind in a search for entrepreneurial opportunities that spanned two continents and ultimately led to an acquisition in which the startup brand he helped build became the public-facing identity of the acquiring company.
After emigrating from Germany and Poland in the first half of the 20th century, his grandparents settled in Costa Rica and started businesses there. “The idea of starting a company, being your own boss and building something from the ground up was always a part of my upbringing,” he said.
Growing up in this environment inspired Max to forge his own path, and in his final year of college he found himself en route to Boston, to spend the last semester at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. “I landed on Jan. 19 and a few days into the program, I was just blown away by the education system”, he says. The thing that stood out the most was the close relationship between industry and academia — something less common in Costa Rica. “We were doing projects and working with all these companies, and it was amazing to realize that there’s such a rich ecosystem around universities. I was really intrigued by this world that I had never seen before”.
After the end of the program, Max returned to Costa Rica and worked in IT for a few years, before starting a construction company in 2006. However, he felt that this wasn’t his true calling. “Ever since I came back from Boston, I was devouring books and reading about the curricula of different business schools. I was becoming obsessed with the idea of coming back,” he shares. As his company grew and reached a steady stage, he decided to apply to MBA programs in the US, and returned to Boston in 2009 — this time, to attend MIT.
“I came here with the idea to start a company about USB money [money, stored on a USB drive, that enables online purchases without disclosing credit card information], and I didn’t want to share my idea with anyone, but quickly realized that without feedback I wouldn’t go far”, he recalls. “That idea iterated in a mobile payments idea, and that iterated into an idea for a mobile remittances company.” But as he did more research, Max realized that international regulations made such a startup incredibly hard to build. Ultimately, this was a learning experience, helping him understand the thought process behind building a startup.
The university ecosystem would provide him with the key to starting one. “MIT opened the doors to an ecosystem that I didn’t know existed,” he recounts. His MIT network connected Max to the founding team of Thrive Hive, a company that provides marketing technology for small business owners.
ThriveHive’s pivotal moment came in 2015 when the company participated in Techstars, which enabled them to connect with Propel Marketing, a Quincy, Mass. company providing marketing technology and services, also to small businesses. “We were pitching the company and our values, and wanted to be transparent and data-driven, but most importantly, we wanted to put our customers front and center,” Max remembers. “We saw the deck Propel Marketing had put together, and our values, mission and vision were so aligned.” The conversation soon turned towards joining forces, he said. Propel Marketing acquired ThriveHive for $11.75 million in March 2016. A year later, the merged company rebranded under the name of Max’s startup, as ThriveHive.
Max credits ThriveHive’s success partially to the great support system provided by the Boston startup community. “Something that really resonated with me when I came to Boston was the idea of giving back. […] One of the things that’s so amazing about the entrepreneurship scene here [is that] people are really willing to give first,” he said.
Grateful for the support he experienced, Max is now a mentor at Techstars and is not only active in the Boston startup ecosystem, but also wants to “bring some of the magic” to Costa Rica, and is advising entrepreneurs there. “It’s extremely fulfilling to be a role model for people that are thinking of starting companies. […] You’re always forged by your experiences,” he says, “I grew up in a different place and I don’t want to forget that because it’s an important part of who I am.”
Written by: Leia Ruseva of The Ellis Project
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