Jeff Durso: Generalist Serial Co-founder
After successfully building and selling a company, many people would choose to bask in the glow of their achievement, considering it the pinnacle of their entrepreneurial career.
Not Jeff.
After bidding adieu to his first endeavor, that familiar itch came back. The one that prompts him to find interesting problems to solve, smart people to collaborate with, and new hills to climb.
Naturally, when he heard about an opportunity to dive into a sector in which he had zero personal or professional experience, he thought ‘I can make this the market leader, let’s do it!’.
The niche that presented this intriguing opportunity was destination weddings.
At the time, he hadn’t heard of a destination wedding but was interested enough to do some research.
The fact base:
Destination weddings were gaining in popularity
There was no clear market leader. In fact, this group had tried and failed to launch previously
The company had assembled deep expertise in the travel space
Jeff wanted to ride this wave, so he signed on as CEO and immediately bought the market-defining domain name [destinationweddings.com] to get the team thinking like the industry leader.
He had no preconceived notions about what would drive success and started facilitating conversations across domains. His job was to harness the flow of ideas and bring clarity.
It quickly became clear that marketing was the missing link.
He had never perceived himself as a marketer; if anything, he was a technologist.
Eventually, he found a marketing coach that spoke his language. Jeff learned enough about the practice to build a framework that would move the business forward.
Along the way, he recognized his own limits and called in the specialists to hone and execute a winning strategy.
The rest is history.
Destinationweddings.com became the category leader within just 3 years and ranked on the Inc 500 within 5 years.
And Jeff went off in search of his next generalist hill to climb.
Meet Jeff Durso, generalist co-founder of more than 20 startups that cover everything from teaching math to kids, social networking, and measuring marketing efficiency.
He isn’t afraid to jump into new domains again and again and now uncovers breakthrough stories with other founders in his podcast.
Jeff has been in the generalist trenches for most of his career and offers these tips:
1) Recognize there are challenges that come with being a generalist, go into it with your eyes open
2) Push beyond the obstacles, don't let the conventional paths discourage you
3) Don’t be afraid to test your own limits, you might surprise yourself with what you are able to accomplish with your skillset
4) Look back and realize it’s all worth it
Join us in Breaking the Mold: Generalists Who Thrive in a Specialist's World as we explore real-life examples of generalists connecting dots, innovating, and solving problems.