Today we’d like to introduce you to Roderick Burke Jr.
Roderick, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Well the story of Evntures was born out of the frustration from traveling around the world. Everywhere I traveled, I had to deal with the tourist attractions, the safe space events, gimmicky and superficial attractions. The culture of the community was missing, the spice of what makes that place special was lost to capitalism.
So while traveling through Thailand in a cramped cab my fellow Co-Founder Roberto Jolliffe and I came up with the concept of Evntures. We wanted to know what the alternative events in each city were. We wanted the experience to be organic and free for everyone to experience. I have seen how much traveling and attending social gatherings can change people’s rigid stereotypes of each other. Being a Recruiter and a Police Officer I have seen first hand the effects of people feeling abandoned, mistreated, and economically abandoned.
I wanted this experience to be a free form listing of everything that goes on around them. Give everyone the ability to attend, explore, and interact with all walks of life. I want everyone to experience the ultimate human experience of gathering and interacting with one another. The process for creating the app was an adventure to say the least. Fellow Co-Founder Marshall Felder our CTO really helped with designing the code and the functionality of the App. Roberto Jolliffe our CEO experience with USAA in quality control and app development brought the project together. My Business and Marketing background as CMO allowed us to grow the project to what it is now. We had plenty of bumps along the way, from unforeseen expenses, no one knew building an app would cost us over 40k in cash. Shady attorneys attempting to charge us thousands of dollars to form our business and later finding the actual cost was way cheaper.
Through the journey, we found that education was key to saving money, so it drove us to learn everything about Business and technology. We also went through the young and black phase which affected people taking us serious. Those people being friends and family also. I fight with myself at times, trying to not become frustrated with other’s preconceived perceptions of my team and I. You can feel and hear the negative perceptions when after we pitch or Company and you hear “Your very articulate” or wow “You did this”. That was expected but getting that from friends and family was the most deflating experience. We all have to deal with negativity, how we handle it builds our character. We have also had amazing support throughout the experience, from other business owners reaching out to us such as Rackspace. Who gave us feedback and allowed us to use there facility. In all, this journey has been amazing. I feel so accomplished and equipped with the tools to help anyone succeed in the business world.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. Funding the entire business on our own took a lot out of us. Deciding on food or business can be a lot at times. The frustration of people not believing in us and our project. Shady Lawyers up charging for things that cost little to nothing.
Evntures Inc – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
At Evntures we specialize in integrating events worldwide into our simple to use and view format for anyone to experience. What makes me most proud about our company is that we funded it ourselves, which allowed us to make the app free for anyone to experience.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career so far was actually seeing the project come together. It’s one thing to dream about it, but once its tangible it feels amazing. The hard work, sleepless nights, worry, self-doubt all pay off once you see your creation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.evntures.com
- Phone: 915-861-2732
- Email: Info@evntures.com
- Instagram: https://www.instgram.com/evnturesapp/
- Facebook: Don Burk’e
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Evntures
Image Credit:
Roderick Burke Jr.
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