At first look, they could not glimpse like noticeable business enterprise companions. One particular is a 33-calendar year-aged from suburban Chicago and the other a 59-yr-old New Yorker based mostly in California. On the area, the two are generations and miles apart.
Having said that, that is exactly where the discrepancies end, as the two self-designed millionaires have much far more in frequent than their variances. With a popular goal of reworking business enterprise concepts into productive influence initiatives whilst upholding the best ethical integrity and getting a little bit of exciting together the way, John Shegerian and Brendan Egan have fashioned a decade-prolonged partnership that is just having begun.
From racing horses to recycling electronics
John Shegerian grew up in New York, having obtained the title, at just 15, of being the youngest harness horse driver to race skillfully. Winning trophies and competitions and location a earth history at 17 several years previous served get ready John for his shift to enter the planet of company.
He moved to California and started off a vocation in business authentic estate. Moved by the social unrest stemming from the Rodney King riots and searching for to help former inmates flip their lives all over, Shegerian co-established an group named ‘Homeboy Tortillas’ (now known as Homeboy Industries) which grew to become the standard design in helping gang impacted or previously incarcerated men and women attain meaningful work opportunities, reintegrating them into the neighborhood.
Prompted by the success of this initial endeavor, John afterwards established FinancialAid.com in the late 90s, democratizing better education and learning and creating the premier on the net college student financial loan corporation in the US. After almost a ten years, he offered the business enterprise and co-founded Addicted.com in 2005, just one of the premier website sources for folks trying to get enable for addictions on line. The web page features a database of over 20,000 habit centers throughout the United States.
Most likely a single of his finest successes as a social impact entrepreneur has been ERI, North America’s major fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition supplier and cybersecurity-centered components destruction business. Shegerian helped improve ERI from recycling just a handful of hundred lbs of electronics in its first year to its standing right now with the potential to system more than a billion pounds of digital waste per year at its eight qualified spots, serving each and every ZIP Code in the United States and supplying international expert services around the globe.
From witnessing the crash of 2008 to staying a Advertising Learn
At the age of 10, Brendan Egan observed some of his close friends earning money by raking leaves and shoveling snow. Rather than do the difficult operate himself, he went door to door creating and handling organization and recruited his buddies to do the handbook labor, all the although maintaining a cut of the money for himself. This flavor of entrepreneurship primed him for the start of his job.
Rapidly ahead a couple several years, and Brendan watched the financial crash of 2008 from his childhood household and felt he could do better than the hundreds of thousands of traders facing economic doom. He commenced day buying and selling stocks with first funds of just $25,000 that he elevated on his have – growing it to a 7-determine fund ahead of reaching the age of 18. The results he to begin with relished led him to de
velop LearnToTrade.com, which at the time became one of the most ordered inventory buying and selling courses on the internet. Encouraging him out had been close friends and acquaintances that were being remarkably knowledgeable traders at the Chicago Board of Trade.
Following providing his to start with business enterprise before even graduating from college or university, Egan had a taste of success that lots of never ever working experience in their life span. Egan went on to start the digital marketing and advertising agency Very simple Seo, which he has developed from a modest startup consultancy to whole-support electronic advertising agency, offering a vast array of solutions such as web page design and enhancement, mobile app enhancement, electronic advertising and marketing campaigns (such as Search engine optimization, PPC, email internet marketing, CRO, & social media administration), and consulting.
Brendan has labored with above 500 purchasers ranging from Fortune 100 providers to SMBs and startups, and has attained a popularity for offering final results-oriented, ROI-focused strategies for his shoppers.
An unlikely call that cast a possible partnership
Fueled by the good results of Simple Search engine marketing, Brendan obtained on John’s radar through an interview he did with Ideamensch, a preferred job interview system for business people. Impressed with the job interview, John reached out to Brendan.
Brendan provides a humorous take on how they fulfilled.
“It was a Friday afternoon and I was just about to head out to the beach with some good friends when I been given a simply call from Fresno, California. Answering the connect with, I listen to John introduce himself, communicate about his present-day organization pursuits, and convey his want to husband or wife up with me–all non-cease for five minutes. I was truly worried for him as I don’t think he took a single breath of air in that five-moment period of time.”
“I politely asked him to call me again on Monday as I was stepping out to satisfy some good friends at the seaside. Of study course, he got a very little miffed and questioned to talk to my supervisor. I informed him I was the business enterprise proprietor and he said ‘You’re Brendan?’ Let’s start off above once again. He reported he go through my interview and would like to satisfy me for lunch on Monday in Chicago.”
That one particular-hour lunch turned into a virtually 3-hour conference where each John and Brendan commenced to roll out their options for the foreseeable future. As a end result, Brendan started managing the marketing and advertising for ERI as properly as the law business of John’s brother – a business that the duo served immediately grow from just a pair of employees to over 50.
As time went on, Brendan and John produced numerous profitable firms alongside one another. The two are now companions and buyers in a very diversified portfolio of dozens of businesses.
The partnership prospers
These days, John continues as Chairman and CEO of business-top ERI, although Brendan maintains the flourishing Simple Website positioning while serving on ERI’s board of administrators and chair of ERI’s technology committee. In 2021, ERI responsibly recycled above 100,000,000 kilos of digital waste.
And the duo keep on being centered on productively launching other meaningful brands and enterprises.
Just last 7 days, the two introduced the effective conclusion of a seed funding spherical at a $30 million valuation for one more business they co-founded, Interact. Interact is a internet-based platform digitizing the system of scheduling very well-acknowledged athletes, and assumed leaders for particular appearances – anything from a speech to a once-in-a-life time working experience.
Shegerian clarifies, “Have interaction is like the AirBnB or Uber for situations, in which you can easily ebook expertise on the web for a presentation, or right interact with the expertise in a exceptional and a lot more personalised way.”
The expertise scheduling platform was co-conceptualized by Jake Olson, the 1st blind NCAA soccer athlete. Jake came to John and Brendan to talk to for help in digitizing the procedure of reserving his appearances and engagements. The notion afterwards grew into a successful small business notion, exactly where it now serves as the talent-reserving motor for manufacturers these types of as AIG, Bank of America, Coldwell Banker, Microsoft, Nike, SpaceX, and hundreds of some others.
“The technological innovation we’ve developed at Engage is next-to-none in the booking business. Coupled with our roster of in excess of 3,000 expertise and initially class advertising strategies, Interact is set to seriously disrupt this antiquated market,” added Egan.
Why the partnership functions
John attributes the toughness and accomplishment of his partnership with Brendan to sharing the exact organization philosophy despite becoming generationally distinctive.
“Technically, we are ages apart,” John states, “but our shared get the job done frame of mind of rolling up our sleeves and obtaining operate completed has assisted in the generation of organizations that are not only productive in their personal suitable but have still left a essential effect o
n the globe.”
Brendan adds that in the numerous a long time that they have now labored with each other, not a one argument or misunderstanding has come up. “We have often observed matters eye to eye–a winning system that has led to a very long record of achievements alongside one another, ranging from authoring two Amazon best-providing publications to profitable a great number of promoting awards, all the whilst building a optimistic effect in the environment.”
John and Brendan have expressed bullishness in continuing to invest and associate in more corporations and deliver critical assistance to effects firms wanting to make the earth a greater spot. Whilst they have been doing the job with each other for in excess of a decade now, the duo unsurprisingly agree that they are just obtaining began.