"All hard work brings gain."
In today’s exclusive interview with ValiantCEO Magazine, we are excited to introduce David Castro, a serial entrepreneur with a passion for technology and connecting people. With a career that started in software development, David quickly pivoted to marketing and sales, ultimately working with big brands like IBM.
Drawing from his extensive experience in networking and recognizing the power of serendipitous connections, David founded IceBrekr, a cutting-edge utility designed to accelerate real-world connections for both personal and professional purposes.
IceBrekr is like the ultimate wingman, guiding users directly to the people they need to meet. It supports both in-person and virtual networking, allowing users to easily share their contact information and social media profiles with various privacy settings.
IceBrekr’s digital business card feature makes it an indispensable tool for everyday use, and its commitment to being a functional utility rather than a data collection platform sets it apart from other networking tools.
In this candid interview, David shares insights on company culture, character, business challenges, and his vision for success in 2023. Join us as we delve into the mind of the entrepreneur behind IceBrekr and discover what makes him tick.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
David Castro: I’ve been in technology for my whole career, and in fact, I originally thought I wanted to be a software developer. A Pascal coding class in college with an instructor who was indeed a developer, but could not teach or communicate well, changed my direction, and I decided to be a marketer.
My lucky break was a small startup that gave me the opportunity to get into software sales and eventually go on to larger and bigger brands like IBM.
As a serial entrepreneur and an avid networker throughout my career, I have enjoyed learning from peers and those with more experience. I find it fascinating how sometimes serendipitous meetings happen at just the times you need them. It is my conviction that the lives we dream of will be built through the connections we make. This is why I created IceBrekr.
IceBrekr is a first-of-its-kind utility intended to accelerate connections in the real world. We exist to help you make the connections that matter most.
Imagine your friend knows everyone in the room and can escort you directly to the perfect connections—whether personal or professional contacts. That friend and ideal wingman is IceBrekr. Provide a relevant keyword, and your phone may notify you that the person you want to meet is a couple of feet, and just one more conversation away.
IceBrekr also supports virtual networking. The challenges of networking while on a Zoom, Team meeting, or other such Live events can be replaced with easy and intuitive connecting. Quickly share your Telegram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, or other social media profiles and contact info with different levels of privacy.
Share about yourself, your business, your needs or resume, and your Venmo link. Filter on your ideal connection and reduce the time to achieve the ideal connection. No more missed opportunities due to lack of awareness, bad timing, fate, or inconvenience. IceBrekr also has a great QR Digital Business card that is free.
IceBrekr’s design concept is to be a Utility. This means that our goal is to be brought along to the context in which you will be connecting with others — whether in a virtual context or in-person venue.
The desire is to be a niche tool of functional empowerment, not of data collection. This also means that we are a great partner for hosts, event planners, event software platform providers, and virtually any other entities in the event or people connecting space.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
David Castro: I’ve shared a little about what IceBrekr is and does. I’d say what makes IceBrekr different is its approach. We are taking an approach that is zealously fundamental. There are so many ways we could go with the product, but instead are seeking to:
- First, be Prometheus and bring the fire to the people… the control, capability, and ROI of a connection utility to the individual, versus having them depend on event hosts, and the algorithms of online communities.
- Maintain a value every day to the individual apart from an event through a strong digital business card offering, and similar auxiliary features; and
- Enable event hosts to benefit from the combination of individual value accessed by their attendees through the app, and the value that is brought to the event via the sponsors’ ad capabilities, conference schedules, and attendee engagement activation in the app for events or membership organizations.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle keeping talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are adapting to the current shift we see?
David Castro: I happen to be a little bit negative about the current state of character in our society in the United States today. There is not much one does in life that is not affected in some way by a person’s character.
The common denominator between employers and employees is that they’re both human and character plays a part in their behavior. The answer to this is simple, but difficult if those needing to hear this do not have the interest, or the career runway, to work on their character.
The best way for employees to feel heard, valued, and happy would be for an employer to listen, authentically care, and provide an authentic display of character, kindness, fairness, generosity, and honor over a long period of time. In my experience, good people leave companies because of bad bosses.
I have also found that good people are like super magnets for other good people. If your employee believes in you and your product/company, and they feel like they have found a place they can enjoy and grow, they will bring other employees just like them into your business.
Here is a two fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
David Castro: There’s probably not one book that has influenced me so significantly more than another that I would set it alone on a pedestal, other than perhaps the Bible, and I’ve read that one through more times than any other book.
There is so much wisdom in it, along with things that are hard to understand or sometimes disturbing. However, some of the most valuable lessons that have set me up in life are from reading through it from an early age.
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The obviousness of this statement is embarrassing and yet I think our ego forgets at times, until the tables turn, and it is we ourselves who want to be shown grace and fairness. This has a bearing on everything from how you treat a client, to how you treat a partner, or how you treat an employee. This is a bedrock truth that doesn’t get repeated as often as it used to.
- Things are working together for those who are called for a higher purpose. When you are in line with your purpose, you cannot lose. Even if you lose, you learn something. So you haven’t really lost. Said in another way, you either win, or win big.
- All hard work brings gain. There is a promise in one of the proverbs that all hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. When I am feeling stuck, anxious, or irritable, I tend to check myself to see if I am working hard. Just like getting the blood pumping in the gym changes your mood, getting down to work on the items requiring attention can change your perspective. The other part of this is that you will not be wasting your effort or your life in doing sincere work. You will profit.
- See a man who is good at his work; he will serve before kings, and he will not work in obscurity. Basically, the great equalizer is the skills that are perfected in hard work, which eventually bring men before kings. Examples of this are countless, both historically and in current times.
As far as the book I’ve gifted the most… I haven’t really gifted books as much as I have recommended them. Partly because I have found when I am given a book, I don’t read it as committedly as when I’ve bought it myself. But the book I’ve recommended most is a recently written book by a friend of mine, Andrew Leedham. It is called “Unstoppable Self Confidence.”
The main theme is that control of your mind is your superpower and is rediscovered… not actually gained through a process of becoming someone different. Removing the bad programming and embracing intuition which was once natural but has been overridden by the ego.
Your ego is basically scripts replayed of authorities and well-meaning or not-so-well-meaning loved ones. This book is full of lots of strong arguments. No fluff. Really good applications on how to do these things are given as well. I have witnessed the content in the book change myself and others through the application of it.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
David Castro: My biggest challenge is probably getting awareness — which seems silly in this current social media age. So that is where we are now focused!
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
David Castro: I am a sales guy, so the sales part isn’t the hardest. Although I know some guys who are the “engineer” types, who love to do the administrative and all the other things and loathe the sales part.
The most underestimated part of running a company, in my limited experience, is all of the things you have to do that are boring, or dreadfully tedious, but must get done over, and over, and over again.
The things that companies don’t execute on are the things that eventually become leaking holes in the ship. Sometimes it is ensuring that employees have accountability for deadlines and tasks.
Sometimes it is something else. But in my observation, it is the embrace of the monotony and consistency across the key areas that are critical. And that challenge is underestimated.
What does “success” in the year to come mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
David Castro: Signs of success for me in 2023 would look like these things. I would love to be more often on stage, giving talks by the end of the year. I would love to have multiple organizations signed up for our upcoming white-label program with IceBrekr.
Also would love to see about a 10,000% increase in usage of the app and the digital business card!
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank David Castro for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with David Castro or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
