An Introduction

I gave Matt a couple extra assignments this week just so he would be too busy to work on the blog, and give me a chance to introduce myself.

Who am I? I am Rob Costello, co-founder and CEO of Social eMotion. I was the kid that instead of watching cartoons, wrote shareware BBS programs even before anyone knew what the Internet was. While my high school friends were bagging groceries, or flipping burgers, I was working as a technician at the local Computerland doing large PC installs for companies like Pfizers Pharmaceuticals. I did my undergraduate in Rochester, New York at Rochester Institute of Technology. Since then I have worked at both small and large companies and across wide variety of technology platforms. After a short stint working for a startup doing console work for EA Sports (bonus points if you can name the three EA Sports titles with my name in the credits), I settled into working in the financial industry where I was a technical leader responsible for developing large business critical applications.

I also have an entrepreneurial core, growing up in a very entrepreneurial family. My father owned a small chain of convenience stores. My mother and he did everything including running the register, cutting the meat, making the prepared foods for the deli, managing the inventory, and keeping the books. Growing up, it was the greatest thing to go to work with him for the day, at least for me. I’m not so sure it worked out well for him. But he never complained, and I have this image of him counting the money in the register drawers burned in my memory. It was like a blur of motion, and he was done. I remember always recounting everything convinced he couldn’t count money that fast, that I would prove him wrong. Never once did I find a mistake, and to this day, I think he could easily beat the automated machines that banks have nowadays.

Social eMotion is not my first startup. Along the path as a technologist and software developer/manager, my entrepreneurial core reared up multiple times. A friend and I started a game company that was going to focus on family fun multiplayer games ten years before Zynga even existed. It seems to be my bane that I’m too early to the market. But our first product was a decent hit, had strong staying power with those who did play it, and to this day has small groups of followers still looking for others to play against. The game was just too early to have mass appeal in the multiplayer Internet game arena. Later, I consulted with another startup to create a social networking site for bands. I had met a co-worker whose brother was the guitarist for a popular metal band, and they wanted to create a site where bands could find and audition other members. While the site hasn’t reached Facebook status, it’s alive and active today, and I continue to play an advisory role.

So now I am at it again. The story of how Social eMotion was born is a good story in itself. I love working for a small company that makes a product that is useful to other small companies. The team is focused, has great chemistry, and has a good vision of where we are headed. Like any small company, we are still navigating the bumps and trying to avoid the pot holes, but each week we get closer to our goals. We have a great tool for both merchants and consumers. We are working on getting the word out about these tools, and refining our offering as we learn more each day.

I probably can’t keep Matt away from the blog two weeks in a row, but from time to time I will find a window where I can share my thoughts on where mobile technology is going, or how technology is making a difference for some merchants.